<\/p>\n

I blame it all on Robert Preston \u2014 my dislike of exercise and fitness, that is. Now that I\u2019m 65 and unretired and someone with Type 2 diabetes, I\u2019m trying to change my attitude and habits about exercising (with mixed success). If you\u2019re in your 60s or so, I\u2019m here to tell you how and why you might want to become more active, too.<\/p>\n

Back to Robert Preston. I loved him in \u201cThe Music Man,\u201d but if you\u2019re around my age, odds are that when you were a kid in gym class, you, too, were subjected to Preston\u2019s 1962 recording of the song \u201cChicken Fat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Composed for President Kennedy\u2019s Council on Physical Fitness by \u201cThe Music Man\u201d creator Meredith Willson, it played relentlessly while elementary, junior high and high school kids touched their toes, and did jumping jacks, push-ups and pull-ups to lines like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cPush up every morning. Ten times! Push up starting low.<\/p>\n

Once more on the rise, nuts to the flabby guys, go you chicken fat, go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turns out, I\u2019m not the only one whose fear and loathing of exercise has a link back to childhood.<\/p>\n

Bad memories from gym class<\/strong><\/p>\n

A 2018 Iowa State University study of phys ed memories found that embarrassment from being made to feel incompetent by the PE instructor or other classmates or lacking perceived competence in the activity or sport \u201cmay have powerful, long-lasting effects on attitudes and behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loretta DiPietro, 65, who chairs our current president\u2019s Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee\u2019s Aging Subcommittee, understands.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not the only one,\u201d she told me. \u201cWhen we ask older people, \u2018Why aren\u2019t you physically active?\u2019 they say, \u2018I\u2019m not good at it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one reason DiPietro, a professor in George Washington University\u2019s department of exercise and nutrition sciences, suggests we try to get more \u201cphysical activity,\u201d not \u201cfitness\u201d or \u201cexercise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fitness and exercise, she says, \u201care scary words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Think \u2018physical activity,\u2019 not \u2018exercise\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

But physical activity, notes DiPietro, is \u201cbasically everything you do that uses your muscles and results in some ambulatory activity.\u201d (That, I can do.) \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, walking across the room, lifting, carrying, raking leaves, doing laundry, it\u2019s all good,\u201d says DiPietro. And, she adds, \u201cone of the best pieces of evidence that came from doing the recent [federal physical activity] guidelines is that it doesn\u2019t have to be vigorous, physical activity to count.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard Ashworth, president and CEO of Tivity Health, which owns the nationwide SilverSneakers community fitness program for people 65+ with Medicare Advantage plans, says: \u201cThe number one most impactful way you can live a higher quality life is to be physically active. If you want to live the longest, the best thing you can do is have more friends. But if you want to live the highest quality life, what you want to do is be physically active.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current federal guidelines say that, for substantial health benefits, adults should do at least 2 \u00bd hours to 5 hours a week of moderate-intensity physical activity (it doesn\u2019t have to be all at once) or 1 hour and 15 minutes to 2 \u00bd hours a week of vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity or \u2014 and here\u2019s the important part \u2014 an equivalent combination of moderate-and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity.<\/p>\n

Plus, the guidelines advise, adults should also do muscle-strengthening activities of moderate or greater intensity on two or more days a week.<\/p>\n

New thinking about the right physical activities<\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, the U.S. government guidelines suggest what\u2019s known as \u201cmulticomponent physical activity\u201d to help reduce the risk of injury from falls or injury from falls. This means including more than one type of physical activity, such as aerobic, muscle strengthening and balance training.\u201d<\/p>\n

DiPietro says that in the past, experts \u201cthought the only thing that mattered for health was vigorous physical activity.\u201d But now, she notes, analysts have discovered that moderate-intensity activity, light-intensity activity and vigorous physical activity \u201call counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Think of daily physical activity as a glass of water, DiPietro says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you want to do is fill that glass of water. You could turn on the tap and get a real vigorous flow of water, which would fill it up quickly. Or you could do a little vigorous and then some moderate and then a weak stream that will fill it up over the course of the day. It doesn\u2019t matter how you fill your glass,\u2019 she notes. \u201cYou should just try and fill it every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any physical activity, DiPietro says, is better than sitting.<\/p>\n

The biggest gain in benefits, the government says, happen when you go from no physical activity to being active for just 60 minutes a week or roughly eight minutes a day.<\/p>\n

Troubling numbers for older Americans<\/strong><\/p>\n

Problem is, many of us \u2014 especially those of us around 65 \u2014 aren\u2019t doing anywhere close to what the government recommends.<\/p>\n

In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 Healthypeople.gov site, 31% of Americans 65 to 74 engage in no leisure-time physical activity. Overall, just 28% of men and 21% of women in the U.S. meet the government\u2019s aerobic and muscle-strengthening guidelines.<\/p>\n

You know, of course, all the bad things that can happen to you and your health if you\u2019re an older adult and don\u2019t exercise\u2026er, get physical activity: an increased risk of falls, injuries, stroke, heart- and other chronic conditions and depression.<\/p>\n

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also says people who do little or no physical activity are more likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 than those who are more physically active.<\/p>\n

But what exactly does the government mean by moderate intensity, vigorous intensity aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities and how can you do them?<\/p>\n

A guide to types of physical activities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me take them one at a time:<\/p>\n

Moderate intensity aerobic activities: <\/strong>These are ones that produce a noticeable increase in your breathing rate and heart rate. You can talk, but not sing, while you do them. Examples: walking briskly, riding a bike on level ground, pushing a lawn mower or playing doubles tennis or pickleball.<\/p>\n

Vigorous intensity aerobic activities: <\/strong>These are ones that produce large increases in your breathing and heart rate. When you do them, you can\u2019t say more than a few words without pausing for a breath. Examples: running, jogging, swimming laps, riding a bike on hills and playing singles tennis or basketball.<\/p>\n

Muscle-strengthening activities: <\/strong>These involve all the major muscle groups and include things like using exercise bands, weight machines, hand-held weights; doing push-ups, pull-ups, planks, squats and lunges (Robert Preston!); gardening chores such as digging, lifting and carrying things as well as some yoga postures and some forms of tai chi. According to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd Edition, these exercises \u201cshould be performed to the point at which it would be difficult to do another repetition.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been largely sedentary like me, the key is to increase the amount of physical activity gradually.<\/p>\n

According to the government\u2019s physical activity guidelines report, \u201cit can take months for those with low fitness to gradually meet their activity goals.\u201d It\u2019s best to start muscle-strengthening activities one day a week at a light or moderate intensity, for example, and then raise the level to two or more days a week, increasing the intensity slightly along the way.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m doing \u2014 or trying<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve started to take DiPietro\u2019s advice and am trying to get more physical activity into my life and build my stamina.<\/p>\n

Aside from walking my dog, I\u2019m now also trying to walk stairs rather than take escalators or elevators and park my car further away from my destination to force myself to get in more steps.<\/p>\n

The weekend volunteering I\u2019ve begun for the Furniture Assist nonprofit entails lifting and carrying pieces of furniture and heavy bags of clothes from owners\u2019 cars into the warehouse or from the warehouse to recipients\u2019 trucks.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ve just become a member of my local YMCA so I can start taking twice-a-week, 50-minute \u201cLite Total Body Fitness\u201d classes.<\/p>\n

My wife, Liz, and I recently rode bicycles on the Atlantic City boardwalk from, and to, the town of Ventnor \u2014 roughly 5 miles each way. (Biking against the wind was harder for me.)<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also just started taking up pickleball, which is a cross between tennis and Ping-Pong. I enjoyed getting my heart pumping, but confess I had to sit down a few times due to heat exhaustion (a problem that\u2019s not uncommon for people with diabetes).<\/p>\n

DiPietro\u2019s advice: hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Passionate for Pickleball<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPickleball is great for so many reasons,\u201d DiPietro says. \u201cIt\u2019s aerobic, it\u2019s impact because you\u2019re running on a court and it\u2019s strategic, so it helps keep those marbles upstairs rolling around perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n

A friend who\u2019s roughly my age, public relations manager Rebecca Theim of College Park, Md., began playing pickleball a year ago. Now, she\u2019s rabid about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is always to do at least a minimum of four to five days a week,\u201d she told me.<\/p>\n

Theim, who had a tennis scholarship while attending Northwestern University, now regularly enters pickleball tournaments. In fact, she and her partner were the second-best team from Maryland in the 2021 Maryland Senior Olympics.<\/p>\n

Pickleball, she says, \u201cis much more manageable than tennis \u2014 the court\u2019s 40% of the size and the net\u2019s about 6 inches lower.\u201d Plus, she adds, it\u2019s a lot less strenuous.<\/p>\n

But playing pickleball is one reason Theim will be having surgery to replace both her knees in coming months. \u201cI think it certainly accelerated it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She also has Achilles tendinitis, which according to the Therapeutics Associates Physical Therapy website, \u201cis often caused by a sudden increase in the amount or type of repetitive activity, such as going from never playing pickleball to playing it 4 times a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to get started becoming more active<\/strong><\/p>\n

I asked SilverSneakers\u2019 Ashworth what retirees can do to become more physically active. His response: \u201cIf their doctor clears them to get started [with physical activity], walking is amazing,\u201d Ashworth said. \u201cWalking is a full-body activity \u2014 your arms, your core is engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

DiPietro\u2019s walking advice for older adults with diabetes: \u201cDo that walking after each meal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashworth has three other suggestions to begin getting physical activity into your life in retirement: hiking, cycling and gardening.\u00a0But, Ashworth says, \u201cWe all have different limits and capacities; knowing your own limitations is an important concept.\u201d<\/p>\n

DiPietro also recommends launching a walking plan, building up to a half-hour a day every day, especially if you don\u2019t want a performance-based activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, go to something fun like pickleball or a dance class or complementary exercises like tai chi,\u201d she suggests.<\/p>\n

Fitness and your finances<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ashworth mentioned a hidden benefit to getting regular physical activity: you can save money. By becoming healthier, you may be able to eliminate or reduce some of your prescriptions for ailments.<\/p>\n

DiPietro says that for some people, physical activity means \u201cI don\u2019t have Type 2 diabetes anymore or I can go off my medication for hypertension.\u201d<\/p>\n

One CDC study found that people who attended a SilverSneakers gym or fitness class at least twice a week spent $1,250 less on healthcare in their second year of the program than those attending just once a week.\u00a0The American Diabetes Association research showed that people with diabetes in SilverSneakers activities saved more than $1,600 in medical expenses their first year compared with others; they also had fewer hospitalizations.<\/p>\n

Junking the old definition of retirement<\/strong><\/p>\n

DiPietro says trashing the traditional definition of retirement could help people in their 60s and older get more physical activity in their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in an era where older people were told, especially upon retirement, to relax and take it easy. And that is probably the worst advice we could have given,\u201d she says. \u201cThe advice I have to give is: Use it or lose it. And that becomes especially so in older age.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Institute on Aging has three free, helpful online tools to help you get started and keep going. There\u2019s the Find Your Starting Point Activity Log; its guide to the four types of exercise (endurance, balance, flexibility and strength) and the Monthly Progress Test.<\/p>\n

Remember, as the Chinese proverb says: a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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