Aging
29 JUL 2022 - Okay, this will sound sketchy, but I think
I've come up with that one weird trick that will build your abs. NOTE: This
doesn't reduce the waistline - that only happens with nutrition. What I'm
suggesting will build your abdominal muscles - hear me out:
Like many others, I wear a smart watch. One of the functions, a common
feature on any watch, is a repeating countdown timer. I've set mine for
30 minutes, so when I run this it will buzz and ring every 30 mins,
while automatically resetting to another 30 min countdown.
Now I don't do this all the time, but if I know I'll be sitting a long
time smoking a cigar or watching a movie, then I'll turn on the watch
timer. When it goes off, I get up and do a combination of ladders and
stretching.
Ladders are an exercise done while standing, basically it's lifting a
knee as high as it will go while reaching up with the opposite arm -
similar to an exaggeration of climbing a ladder. 10X each side... takes
maybe 30 seconds to do.
But here's the weird trick part - doing sets ladders involved raising
the legs, which works the abs. If you do sets of these every 30 mins
when you'd normally be sitting for a long time, your abs get a workout
and you don't even notice. I didn't realize how beneficial this
was until I started smoking my normal ab workouts. The muscles had
actually strengthened and I could push way past what I'd done before.
I finish the routine by doing minute of hamstring stretches. This is
just standing with legs shoulder distance apart and bending over at the
waist to stretch out the legs and back. I mention the yoga block because
I determined early on that stretching must be done in a balanced, steady
manner. The yoga block stabilizes this stretch as I reach down to the
ground. As my stretch loosens, I rotate the block from the long side to
the short side to get more reach. Out of curiosity I timed one of these
stretches and it took about 1 minute.
That's the whole routine, takes less than 2 mins to do every 30 mins.
Sweet!
24 OCT 2020 - I've wanted to create a page about aging for
quite a while... ever since I've become "old"... ha!
It has slowly come upon me, this business of getting old. As of this day
I'm 62 years old, and consider myself to be unusually fortunate. I have
reasonable health, not requiring any medications beyond the occasional
Advil. My body is certainly not what it used to be and there are days
when I wonder about my mind. But for the most part I'm capable of most
activities that I enjoyed in my youth except for running. I cannot, or
will not, expose my knees to that abuse - but even in that I count
myself fortunate to be able to walk with ease. This is truly a blessing.
But aging does bring with it acquired knowledge thru experience, and as
much as it would be great to be young again it would also be unfair to
trade the valuable wisdom that has been gained. I've learned a few
things.
- Exercise - do not neglect this, build the habit
when you're young and cling to it no matter how uncomfortable or
inconvenient. Here's the trick to exercise - it does not take much
to gain tremendous benefit. 10 minutes a day will do wonders for
both physical as well as mental health.
P90X has been my tool of choice, but what I found - again thru
experience - is doing a little has much greater benefit than over
extending yourself to the point of either injury or fatigue. And
fatigue comes mainly in the form of boredom or burnout. Avoid that
at all costs by doing less than you think you should, but doing
something just the same.
Again, the benefits are huge.
- Water - drink some water, then drink some more,
then drink some more water. The older I get the more convinced I am
that an aging body needs water more than ever before. This may sound
a little off putting, but I get the impression body fluids are more
concentrated as we age. This can result in more pungent body odors -
I know, kind of gross. But consuming regular quantities of water
seems to help this.
Of course consuming more liquids will require extra trips to relieve
yourself, but this isn't necessarily bad either - keeps you from
sitting too much.
- Stretching - it is very true that flexibility grows worse as you
age. I've noticed that I can spend 10 or 15 minutes stretching, feel
great, and a half hour later I'm beginning to feel stiff again. That
would seem to contradict the advice to stretch, but if I neglect
this for days or weeks the results are disastrous. You don't realize
how much good stretching is until it's neglected and then the fact
that you are older is obvious in every motion throughout the day.
Stretch... you'll feel far better than if you don't.
- Small portions - maybe it's because I never had to worry about
eating due to a high metabolism. But it has taken years of
approaching food as though I were still 18 years old before I
recognized that eating too much is simply a painful proposition.
Digesting food takes longer, I can go longer without feeling hungry,
and it's just good to avoid adding excess weight to my midsection.
We're fortunate to live at a time where food is abundant - there
will be more food later if hungry, so I find it worthwhile to cut
back on portions and take more control over how much I consume.
- Indigestion - eating after 8 or 9 at night is no longer advised.
It only took a few very uncomfortable heartburn sessions at night to
convince me of this discipline.
- Discipline - speaking of discipline, when I was younger a lack
of discipline was rampant in my life. Not sure why, but as I've
become older I have more control over my resolutions. I'm certainly
not perfect and still wrestle with bad habits, but I'm finding more
success than when younger. I like that.
- Patience - I've always been a patient person, but now I have
seen that waiting for something isn't as difficult. Maybe it's
because time seems to pass faster, but I can now postpone
fulfillment knowing that if I simply wait, or even distract myself,
then something desired eventually comes about if I don't focus on
it.
- Sleep - when I was younger I could and would abuse the lack of
sleep. 6 hours a night was not uncommon, while attempting to make up
for it on weekends. This is just a bad habit to fall into. I think
not going to bed earlier was due to knowing I would have to get up
and go to work in the morning, so I'd convince myself that if I
didn't go to bed then getting up in the morning could be delayed.
What foolishness.
Maybe it's not the best solution, but now if I'm working on 6 hours
sleep I'll try to squeeze a nap in before or even after dinner. But
without a doubt the ideal is to go to bed at a reasonable hour. It's
a testimony to my foolishness that I am only now realizing how much
better I am during the day if I have at least 7 hours or more sleep.
- Sitting - especially when surfing the internet can consume hours
of my time sitting in front of a computer, don't do this. Get up,
find something that needs to be done, find any excuse to alter
marathon sitting sessions and get up and move. Your back will
appreciate this.
- Reading - browsing the internet doesn't count. Reading books was a
skill that I lost in the middle of my life and only now resurrected.
Reading seems to keep my mind sharp, it does wonders for my writing
skills, and as shocking as this may be it actually causes me to
learn things.
- Faith - getting older brings the reality of death so much
closer, obviously. With this in mind there's another fatal risk
lurking in the background, and that is the mindset that nothing
matters because you're going to die anyway. This is disastrous. It
robs you of meaning and opens an avenue of depression and nihilism
that only gets worse as time passes.
The mortality of age is very real, grows with each passing day, and
can rob you of your remaining days if not countered. And that
counter, for me, is faith in God. He allows death as a relief -
dragging around an aging decrepit body is no way to live, and very
often death is a blessing. Learn to accept it and embrace it, while
appreciating your remaining days. God is good, very good - learn to
trust Him in this.