Morning exercises – don’t you love the chap in the background, watching?The peerless Bryan Appleyard has done it again. He’s come up with one hell of a topic:
I see calorie restriction is becoming fashionable. I looked into this phenomenon while researching my new book. The idea is that you restrict your calorie-intake to about 30 per cent of normal levels. Since the thirties, animal research has shown that this prolongs life.
No, no, no, no, no, no – that’s not the way to go. Quite the opposite. What is not mentioned once with the animal research is that in their natural habitat [as distinct from in a cage in a laboratory] they would exercise – naturally. Here’s the list for homo sapiens, in no particular order:
# Exercise
# Love - to and from
# Conversation
# Intellectual stimulation
# Eating a balanced diet heartily
# Sleeping big time
# Keeping in touch with your spirituality
# Relaxing with a diversion of some kind e.g. sex or a book
Forget the pills, forget the calorie restriction, forget all of that. Exercise! Go to the gym, as so many other boomers do and after the initial shock, if you stick at it, everything improves on the list above. Appetite, heartiness, optimism and so on all improve and there’s one huge bonus if you combine aerobic and anaerobic exercise, [i.e. heart routines and lifting weights], quite apart from the social interaction.
Exercise becomes a drug – hence all the gym rats who can’t do without their daily fix. It’s a narcotic and the buzz afterwards lasts a boomer a good hour and a half, during which time he’s in grave danger from the female of the species. He’s … er … desirable again. Plus … and this is the biggy … he feels so proud of himself and the buzz rubs off on those around him.
If you’ve done none for years, if you think you’d look ludicrous – seriously, no one’s going to think that. They’re going to admire your spirit. Aside from watching the heart carefully, [and there are so many ways to monitor that], there is no known downside to exercise. You just have to make that massive move to get up off the posterior and start it.
I hardly get to the gym since starting to blog and was toying with the idea of hiring a personal trainer for a month. That will make a great Christmas present for me.
ReplyDeleteEllee, if you have that sort of money, good but be warned about personal trainers. Any good gym must provide you with a programme and initial testing and that's free. They'll try to make out you'd be much better with one but that's a huge slug on top of your already steep gym fee. They put you on a piece of equipment, explain it and then sit back or go to someone else. If it's that you need the attention of a muscly young man, fine but the ones I know aren't worth the money you pay. Also, check out any discounts going on different gyms - you can save a lot with special deals. finally, make sure the people are nice and also interewted in your welfare. I've been lucky enough to finally find such place.
ReplyDeleteOK.
ReplyDelete# Exercise
er....
# Love - to and from
check, but not really "making"
# Conversation
does blogging count? otherwise it's an...um...
# Intellectual stimulation
see above
# Eating a balanced diet heartily
yes, my diet is balanced. For each pint of Stella I tend to have a packet of crisps.
# Sleeping big time
check
# Keeping in touch with your spirituality
er...does going to Mass count?
# Relaxing with a diversion of some kind e.g. sex or a book
well, books about the Third Reich are interesting but not really diverting, and as for sex, well, see above.
..and of course, getting off my posterior is a particularly massive move...
ReplyDelete