Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Movement

The other day I posted about my morning hike in the desert and it got me thinking about exercise in general.

My first experience with exercise was when I was in high school.  I saw an article in Redbook magazine titled “Six Week Exercise Program”.  I faithfully did it daily for 6 weeks…..after 6 weeks I quit instead of either continuing with that or going on to something else.  Ah the stupidity of youth!!  But it did start a lifelong habit of exercise.  Unfortunately  I have sometimes takes long breaks from exercise but have always come back to it.  I’ve done other magazine routines, videos when we had VCRs, then DVDs, used hand weights, used weight machines, done yoga, and gone to the gym.  I even tried exercise classes like jazzercise and zumba, but I am basically a loner and groups are not for me.  But I do have to say that walking has always been a constant.  There is a park in West Salem WI that I used to go to even though it was a drive of  12 miles from home because I loved the place…it is beautiful.  If I made 2 laps around the park my walk was 3.5 miles.

I commented the other day that exercise will make you strong but not skinny.  Having said that, I truly believe if exercise had not been a part of my life most of the time, I would be one of those 300# morbidly obese people we all feel so sad for.

This brings me back to movement.  I read an article online the other day about how sitting is killing us: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-2420/Sitting-Is-Killing-You-Infographic.html  reading this article is eye opening.  Another article I read said that there is a direct correlation between how fast a person walks and longevity.  My Mother is 92 and still living, she always walked too.

Have you ever walked into a nursing home and seen residents lined up looking like a row of wilted plants???  If you lose your ability to move you are at the mercy of other people, and are left or planted where ever they decide.  Does not sound like the future I want for me.

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