Ageing body
The way I look at it is that your body is the 'sum of all its parts', all relating to each other in the sense that the 'whole body' is connected. So if you look after one part, it benefits other parts (in some way). It's just a way of thinking if you hope to stay reasonably fit and healthy in old age. It includes the brain, because the brain and thinking is physical.
It is not so much a matter of trying to live longer as much as quality of life later on. The brain will benefit along with ther body. You have to keep this thought in your head – quality of life.
Of course there are lots of non-physical things that can be done that are good for the brain by themselves. This here is about pure phyical maintenance.
Muscles decline in volume and strength when you age. So the aim is to use them to (i) remind the brain that they exist and (ii) prevent the shrink as much as possible, i.e. 'use it or lose it'. You want to remain properly vertical and not let gravity bend you forward or reduce your height. It's a combination of active posture (thinking about it) and maintaining enough muscle. A big part of it is preventing your head slipping down towards the chest by holding it back and up and stretching yourself upwards. When you do this properly it can feel as if you're leaning back, but you aren't. You are straight. So it involves getting used to feeling that you are deliberately leaning back and pushing your head upwards.
Being straight doesn't just make you feel younger and better but it must be good for the organs to have their naturally alloted space inside the body.
Four main exercises
1. Pulling yourself up on a bar above your head. Try to be able to do ten per day.
2. Doing press-ups and the 'plank'.
3. Kettlebell swings.
4. Barbell lifts from barbell stand up to shoulder level.
A key point is that none of these exercises are 'free weights'. They are all rooted to something physical, i.e. overhead bar, fixed position on floor, pendulum with feet fixed, and up and down from fixed barbell stand. I don't know why but it seems much easier to contemplate than free weights with no fixed reference point. It makes all the difference for me anyway.
This assumes you are also walking daily. Stiff walking sufficient to be out of breath. None of the above is 'leg' or aerobic (except kettlebell).
Category: Opinion
