Health and Fitness thread

[MightyGiants]

What does everyone do to stay healthy and in shape?

[Jolly Blue Giant]

What does everyone do to stay healthy and in shape?

I wish I could say I do something worth responding, but I don't do anything of significance. My biggest exercise is "I walk a lot" and of course, there's the bedroom with my girlfriend. I take vitamin D because I avoid the sun and B-12 along with a daily supplement in the morning and I drink protein drinks. I have lots of aches and pains and don't have a lot of energy. I go to my doctor regularly and get blood tests and a thorough checkup and my vitals come back better than most 20 year olds (BP 117/76, cholesterol absolutely perfect, all functioning organs in great shape, etc.) I ask the doctor how can that be? He just says it's in the genes. He does send me to get a CAT scan every year to check my lungs and each time it comes back "excellent"...go figure 

I will be 70 in March and highly doubt I'll make it to 80. I smoke, drink, and partake in risky behavior. I'm amazed I've lived this long...and I'm serious. I've cheated death several times

[Bill Brown]

In the summer I walk a few miles a day.
In the winter I do DDP YOGA.

Bill

[MightyGiants]

In the summer I walk a few miles a day.
In the winter I do DDP YOGA.

Bill

I had never heard of DDP Yoga before.  I just Googled it, it sounds very interesting.  How do you like it?

[Bill Brown]

I had never heard of DDP Yoga before.  I just Googled it, it sounds very interesting.  How do you like it?

I personally think it is a great fitness app. I have been doing it for about 5 years. Although I don't do it as often as I did the first four years because I bought a fitbit and started walking a lot  more. It helped me lose a bunch of weight and eliminated back pain that I had been dealing with for years.

But like any fitness plan it only works when you do it.

Bill

[MightyGiants]

I am a bit of a fitness buff.  I try to eat well, I don't smoke and drink in moderation (7 - 8 drinks a week)

I exercise quite a bit.   I do strength training 3 days a week (the recommendation is 3).  I walk 8 miles on Saturdays, and the other days I try to get my steps in, to the tune of 5 to 6+ miles.

I have been working out steadily for well over two decades.   My secret is don't stop (or if I need to for only very short times and only when impossible).  I set my mind to working out at least 3 times a week.  It doesn't matter if it's only for 5 or 10 minutes; my mindset is 3 times a week minimum.   I realized then when it comes to working out, it's easy to stop and hard to stop.  By not stopping but just reducing the time, I found it was far easier to ramp up (add more time) my workouts than it was to start from Completely stopped.

I have since learned what I stumbled on was that I turned working out from a task that required willpower (which every person has a finite amount of) into a habit that requires no willpower.

I am also big on stretching which I do every day (mostly for my really bad bone-on-bone knees).

[Jolly Blue Giant]

In my youth, I did nothing to stay fit and I never put on weight or muscled up. But something happened to me when I was about 42 yrs old. I had this girlfriend who I adored. She goaded me by constantly telling me I should work out and get in shape. To make a long story short, she broke up with me. So I joined a gym with a friend and worked out religiously for months. I bulked up considerably even though I lost 20 lbs. I was wearing a tight tee-shirt when I ran into her one day and she looked at me and said, "Wow" followed by "I hate guys who look like you...they're soooo vain looking" and walked away (bitch  ). So I said, "screw it" and went back to steak and potatoes and drinking beer with fries and potato chips and am at least 25 lbs overweight...also bald as an egg and I don't care. Too old anymore to care what I look like, and I'm not giving up steaks, cigars, and beer so I can spend an extra few years in a nursing home some day. I watched my father decline in his mid-90's and watching my mother now (also in her 90s) and I don't want to go through that stage of life

At 20:


Me when I used to work out (40 yrs old) on a beach in California and later in Tijuana. I also still had hair, LOL

[ozzie]

I was athletic growing up and was always involved in one sport or another. Never had to "Think about" getting / staying in shape. It just happened because of the activities I was involved in.
Now a days, I am much more conscience of trying to stay in shape. I try now to do something at least 4 days a week. Doesn't have to be much, just something to keep active. My "go to" workouts are hitting the heavy bag for about 10 one minute rounds, yoga, HITT/Tabata workouts and every Sunday my buddy and I go to a park and workout for a couple of hours, doing mostly body weight stuff and some light running. We also "compete" on Obstacle Course Races at least once a year.
Now don't misunderstand, I'm no stud athlete, just an old guy doing my best to keep Father Time at bay.

[LennG]

Does having sex 3 X a week count???????????????         

[LennG]

So, for most of my life, I was always active and always thin. I did a physical job as my career so it was always hard work. As most know I have been a baseball umpire for well over 50 years now and in my 'younger' days, I was a guy who was all over the field. In the system we used (2-man umpiring) you are always moving so I got plenty of exercise, (if you call that exercise, I did).
Nowadays I am about as lazy as one can be. I have projects to do and just no oomph to do them. I still umpire in the spring, but my plate days are over and even in the field, I don't move very well anymore, so it's more angles than being right on top of a play.
When we travel, I do, do a lot of walking, as we tour places, but at home, my wife always urges me to walk more and I would rather take the car. Maybe that's why I'm about 20 pounds overweight.
Every year I make that same New Year's resolution to exercise and walk more, but that usually lasts for a week or so.
I know the importance of regular exercise but I worked my ass off for 40 years, and now I just want to sit a bit, if you all understand that.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Once you reach 70, I've always been told the best thing you can do is walk every day...the more the better. Rigorous exercise can be detrimental if you're not in excellent health. Heck, it can be detrimental even if you're young and fit sometimes. The school superintendent in the village down the road from mine was found dead on the golf course where he jogged every morning and every night. He was 36 and in perfect health...or at least he thought he was. He was a health nut and ate only the healthiest foods and jogged many miles a day. Shocked the school and the whole town for that matter

Regardless, if you're old enough to be retired, you don't want to push your body to the limits every day. Light exercise, lots of walking, take real deep breaths outside and fill those lungs regularly, stretch, swim, golf, do some Yoga if you're into it, etc. That's what I understand anyway. Oh yeah, drink plenty of water, take vitamins, and get regular checkups to catch anything before it's too late. If you eat a steak and baked potato, have a salad beforehand and a crap load of broccoli or some green veggie. Keep the blood pressure down and cut back on salt and sugar, etc

[squibber]

I was skinny growing up and didn't have a lot of luck with the ladies because I was very shy around them and I was not handsome by any means. So in my twenties, I did a lot of weightlifting and bulked up pretty good but not to the level of a bodybuilder. My new psyique did help but I was still very shy so I didn't date much after my gains.

From my thirties to my sixties, I didn't do a lot of lifting. I did a few months here and a few months there.

15 months ago we moved and then joined the town rec center through Silver & Fit($25/year). I committed myself to going at least twice a week. I tried to get back at least most of the bulk I used to have. I did heavier weights than I should have but my body did change.

Last October I was at the airport and a baggage handler asked me if I used to be a body builder. That felt really good. As I said on another thread, a few heart issues were discovered shortly after including an aortic artery aneurism.  My heart doctor told me not to strain too hard and don't do a weight level I can't do 10 reps of. So I am going light and I do 15-20 reps of everything. I try to spend more time on the treadmill or bike but boy is it boring.

[DaveBrown74]

These days gym 4-5 days a week. I've been on a push since last fall and have been trying to stick with it. In the gym I generally do a half hour of cardio and 15 minutes of strength. Sometimes just the cardio. When it's warm out I do less gym and more outdoor stuff (usually 75-90 minutes of a combo of intermittent jogging and walking).

I really should devote more time specifically to strength training than I do. Everything reliable that I read about health and fitness emphasizes the importance of muscle.

[squibber]

I think I did pay the price for lifting too heavy at my age of 68. My shoulders aren't right and my hands hurt when I grip something. Trying to open a brand new jar of something causes a lot of pain. It doesn't seem to be healing.

[squibber]

Does having sex 3 X a week count???????????????         

That wouldn't work for me, Lenn. I can't afford 3 blue pills a week. 😆