WALK WALK WALK…..

When you stop moving, you die!  That was what the surgeon told my dad when he was 80.  Exercise is the big industry, health and wellness is huge and expensive but when you boil it down to the basics and what benefits our bodies at this stage in life – its basic movement.

Most of us spend the majority of time indoors when at work then get into our cars or use public transport to go home and remain indoors.   Or…to cook our dinner, if we haven’t ordered it in online then to sit on the sofa and watch the TV for the remainder of the evening.  Unless we are a fanatic gardener where we bend and stretch, lift and carry, exercise at home is minimal. 

You may be a dedicated gym member which takes you out once or twice a week in your Lorna Jane fitness gear.  There is gym on every street corner selling memberships of every design.  The facilities are miserable – they are indoors with no natural light or air and many bodies of different shapes enter throughout the day breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide which is mechanically controlled.  The equipment is mostly metallic and serves all purposes, so nothing during your exercise period is natural.  The training for the modern gym ‘expert’ is minimal therefore you are not getting expert advise for your personal needs. 

And what are our needs – at our stage of life?

Just keep it moving…….

Our sixties is the time to focus on our health and fitness, so we can cope with aging.  Do we want to get up from the toilet using our body strength or rely on having to install a wall handle to assist us?  This is the big question.  Aging could be pleasurable, believe it or not, but we have to be well to do it well.  Assisted walking frames are the rage, many of us sixty year olds are already leaning on them and letting our bodies rely on them.   Ladies who remain fit in their nineties have kept moving, there are stories of women who can still move on the double bars in gymnastics, jive at salsa and still bend for bowls or swing a golf club.  This is the choice we have, but we must keep moving.

Lets get back to basics and understand why we need as much natural movement as possible.  Our lifestyle is stationary.  We spend so much time sitting down or standing still.  Run through your day and really ask yourself, what percentage of the day do you move – with purpose? Our kitchens are designed for minimal movement, everything is at hand.  When did you last get down on the floor and give it a good scrub? We hop into our car for most errands and park closest to the shops or supermarket. 

1.    We need to move to keep everything moving in our bodies.  From our head to our shoulders, to our arms, hands, waists and legs…..they have supported us for 60 years and we need to focus on them to keep going!  Then inside this outer casing are our vital organs – our heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, gut, kidneys…and more which if not cared for could give up working at any time.  The oxygen and blood moving around our body feed these vital organs and we need to keep moving in order to keep them going. It is all about exercising – Exercising can be a lot of fun if you choose something you actually enjoy doing. Explore different types of exercise to find the one that will make you feel as though you cannot wait to do it again. It will help you to take control over your blood pressure and lose that extra weight. Hypertension has been linked as a major risk factor for stroke, according to a recent study. And losing that extra body weight will automatically reduce the burden that you have put on your lungs, heart, brain, blood vessels, and bones.

So, Walk Walk Walk…….

There are many books, websites, magazines and groups which focus on walking.  It’s the most natural exercise and you have so many choices.  Plus its free!  Free in many aspects – free from cost, free to decide where to go , for how long, what to wear, how to walk, what time of day ie day or night, to walk with someone or alone?  The choices are endless.