Is The Gym Really Doing You Good? ( As We Get Older)

[sonjack2847]

provided it is a half hour walk away and we walk to it.

Are you sure Dave haha

[Jack Peterson]

So if all this healthy eating, Drinking & Exercise is good for us, Some one please explain this.

  :hystery:

 

JP :mocking:

[Jack Peterson]

Wan't quite sure where to put this but as it is all related I guess here it may serve a purpose.  My Elder Brother Died on Thursday night,

Just died in his sleep. He was 68. Ex Merchant Sea Skipper who retired last year from his river Pilots Post. my Younger Brother has sent a message that they have now issued the DC and basically put it own to "Adult Cot Death" of course it says Heart failure but no Secondary issue. Now this Guy has worked himself up from a Deck Hand on Coasters to  ESSO tankers as Bosun, 1 st mate and to Captain. Fit as a Fiddle!

Ardent Swimmer, Cyclist, Gym 4 times a week then Just goes to bed on Thursday Night and that is it. 

Does this look like a Guy ready for the Knackers Yard.

 

18  months  ago at my Nieces wedding 

 

Looking like actor  John Thaw (Inspector Morse,) Who apparently went the same way 

 

We were not too close of late but he was my Brother for nigh on 70 years now and he was a good friend.

I will miss him.

 

JP :unsure:

 

Moral is, Guys you just never know.

[canadamale]

My condolences Jack

[chris49]

Sorry to hear it Jack.

 

We have just seen a nasty solo motorcycle accident on the highway. Young guy, no helmet. Did not lose conciousness but some nasty facial injuries.

 

You never never know what will happen. 69 is not bad, but for some it's still the prime of life.

[Jack Peterson]

You never never know what will happen. 69 is not bad, but for some it's still the prime of life.

 

 

Yep hopefully but Yesterday when I received the news it put the fear of Woss is name up me and I am only 67 yet but intend to hang in there.

 

JP :tiphat:

[Dave Hounddriver]

 My Elder Brother Died on Thursday night,

 

My thoughts are with you.  I have younger brothers and I dread the day when I get that news about one of them.  Like you, I am no longer extremely close to my brothers.  As you said though, we share a lifetime of history.  Keep the faith!

[manofthecoldland]

   Q:  Is the gym doing you good?

   A:   An unqualified and emphatic.... Yes.

    Deepest sympathies re your brother's recent passing.I lost the youngest of my much older bro-laws 10 days ago. Died in his sleep while napping beside my sister after returning from an afternoon of Xmas shopping. In the nearly 60 years I knew him, he smoked heavily and NEVER exercised. He wasn't ever really overweight, but had a sedentary profession. I figure that he just inherited good genes and had good luck to last as long as he did. He was in his later mid-70's.

    I am of the opinion that we all carry several, temporal based potential fatal genetic flaws in our biology. If a lethal accident, pestilence, (hard to die of famine these days for most of us), etc., doesn't do us in, one of those bio-parts just eventually times-out and fails. 'Take-down'. If you can escape, you're weakened and chastised. If you're pinned and the big hand comes down.... match over... and you never rise again.

    I think it probable that your brother's vigorous, athletic lifestyle gave him maximum life potential. Can't ever prove that it extended his life, but it seems common sense that without exercise his biological status would have been much more susceptible to early failure.

    I personally think that the older you get, the more important regular exercise becomes. If you are fortunate enough not to have ruined joints and organs, anything is better than nothing when it comes to promoting good health and mobility through physical activity beyond mundane life tasks and activities.

   Some late 60's and early 70's friends here walk  or bike-ride daily on safe, low traffic streets. Some swim at local pools. I can tell the difference between them and the others that don't by the way they move, walk and carry themselves. They seem biologically much younger.

   Maintaining muscle tone, skeletal strength, heart-lung and digestive health levels seems like a no-brainer to me, if you can find the will-power to make it past the difficult start up phase of habit formation. After that is almost self-maintains (as another has written) and your body signals you that you need it to feel good. It also seems to limit your use of alcohol to moderate and safe levels if you want to enjoy many an old man's traditional pastime.

[manofthecoldland]

90% get along without the gym and the very heavy unbreakable 2 year contracts. 10% if you like that kind of thing, and presumably you are not 71, I can agree to join. 71 is a bit old to get an intro to exercise, it might kill the poor guy. I found a lot of older women in there who did a lot of socializing, eating and very little exercise. And sometimes we can be like that also. Especially if it's in a mall and you have the habit to eat lunch there. That can be expensive, add that on top of Starbucks coffee and you are spending a lot. You know my story. I go for the outdoors. If I could I might go to a gym once a week, but on those membership rates I can't justify that. Get set up at home, save time and money. Gym is also an outlet for lonely people who might link up with other lonely people. so can't argue with that, but personally I don't need that. Gym might do you some good, but I'm still voting no on the membership. How about a smaller cheaper gym with less fancy equipment? Avoid like the plague, 50 pesos a day and no shower and some of that equipment is faulty.

    Sorry for the tardy injection of opinion on the matter. Tis because I only have the... 'way-too-much' idle time, boredom-induced inclination and incredible ease of home computer access to write this while I am living here.  

   For the half year that I'm side-stepping the extreme cold, darkness and high costs of the Far North's hard winter in this Tropical haven, I enjoy reading through older postings. When I find topics that pique my interest and postings that trigger the desire to write a contribution... I often do, but usually only if I can add to the already well-covered topic.

    This wonderful web-site is an ex-pat sanity saver for some of us (ME), as well as serving 101 other worthy needs and purposes. "Thank you" to the men that set it up and run it.

 

    Re: Gyms, both here in the PI and elsewhere for older .... err, .. us guys. Yes, the way they market and try to lock members in is a rather deplorable but common business strategy. Only a small percentage of members ever get good value for their money for the simple reason that their intent of regular use vastly exceeds their actual use. The gyms are counting on this to happen to avoid overcrowding the facility despite probable over-capacity membership roll numbers.

    If you can form a regular attendance pattern, you don't lose financially in terms of received value. The facility is making profit and staying in business, and the large numbers of under-users are in effect, subsidizing your disciplined use. 

   If you keep a small notebook training log, you can quickly figure out what your cost-per-visit comes out to per month or year. It also motivates you to become habitual in your attendance.

   The capitol investment in and maintenance of high quality, specialty gym equipment, not to mention the operating expenses (building rent, utilities, employees, janitorial, liquid soap, tissue, paper towels... blah blah).... is major and considerable.

   You can devise ways to match most muscle-joint actions in a home gym, which I have done while living in places w/o low-cost gym access most of my life, but you spend a lot of time transitioning your limited equipment. Two 50# variable plate weight dumbbells, a step box and a flat bench for flies and leg curls can hit all the major muscle-joint groups. A couple of pulleys and ropes adds other possibilities, but there are a few things that are really useful in a large, professional gym. E.G. smith machines (modern safety racks), inverted leg presses which save time and are much safer.

   Now that I'm older and past the mid-60's mark, I find that I perform better in a public gym than while alone since it forces me to perform to standards and not appear an old slacker. You're putting what ever self-pride you have left out in the open and often perform better.

   In the cold land I go to the gym alone after having coffee with my other old geezer friends. McD's close as 11pm and I head to the gym. Out the door by 1:30am. Usually only 1 or 2 souls left at the time in my local 24 hour Planet Fitness. 3x/wk for the last 7 years running. 20-40 min. treadmill to warm up and then 1 hour to get through my lifting routines. Sometimes heavy, sometimes light w/high reps. Vary both sequence and weight levels depending upon my energy level and recovery level. 1 set of very light warm-up to stretch the tendons and warm up the muscle, and then one set (heavy or light) to failure.  In a modern gym, it doesn't take long to run through 16-17 exercises since its pin-set.     I quit doing dead-lifts and clean&jerks on the Smith machine last year because I figure that the last thing I want or need at my age is to injure myself due to stupidity or mis-placed pride. Rule No. 1... do no harm. No. 2... if anything aches... back off for 2 weeks, and then baby it until feeling complete recovery. 

    This year I decided to quit smith machine squats as well after hitting the 120kilo mark with plates, since I am wary and have no interest in risking my spine anymore. However..... since the inverted leg press only works the hipbone to the foot.... I pushed it to 240 kilos for 9 reps two months ago and will continue here with that apparatus in the PI. 

   A very long time ago I read that 'A man is only as good as his legs.' It was in reference to men who packed. Possibly voyageurs on portage, or mountain trail packers. I never forgot that and later, when learning that the largest muscle is your thigh-buttock combo, realized what they were saying.

   Here in the PI, I saw a slick Gold's Gym open and close between visits. I checked it out, but it was too costly and geared to the aerobic-cardio crowd. Another was equipment poor, dirty and dangerous. Got my hand greased while using the lat-pulldown machine. Never went back. The third was geared to women. The fourth at the stadium was of such poor repute, that I didn't even look at it. Finally found a 3rd story walk-up above a 2nd story gentlemen's club of all places. A young Pinoy friend who likes to lift owns it, since he inherited from his sister... a New York Pinay who started it since she was into fitness and their father owned the building. Its crude, but complete. Old equipment, but maintained... mostly. The third story outside balcony I use for a 20 min. calisthenic and isotonic warm-up before I hit the weights. I watch the traffic and people below and see funerals go by since the plaza and cathedral are near and the street runs to the cemetery. Much more interesting than watching the 25 overhead TV screens at Planet Fitness.

   I like the place and the young guys who work out there. I've sponsored two of the different managers to Philippine body building contests in MNL and Boracay. (Plane tickets and entry fees are extremely cheap here.)

   Only one fan, but the breeze rips through the place. I'm the only one to wear a long sleeved sweat-shirt and long pants, but after you break a sweat, for some reason it keeps me body temp-tolerable despite the high humidity level and poor evaporative cooling effect. Two swigs of water every 5-10 min. Shower is a 35 gal. plastic garbage tub of cold water and a dipper.... P20.  Gym dues: P400/month - no limit, or P50/visit. Used to shower there before going for a cold beer and fried chicken, but the last 2 years.... I just get picked up by my wife in her service trike and we head home to our own CR and her superior meals.

   Exercise and regular physical training  has always been and will be an important part of my life. It allowed me to become a gymnast and competitive wrestler in my teens, work as a longshoreman and laborer in my twenties, help build the Trans-Alaskan oil pipeline and then commercial fish for 20 seasons.  'Mens sana en corpore sano' (a healthy mind in a healthy body). c. 300 BC

   One piece of advice for senior men...... especially if your muscles, tendons and joints are not tempered and hardened from regular use over a bit of time.... move slow, move steady, let your breath and heart rates drop between sets, exercise all your muscle groups very lightly with embarrassingly low weights for several sessions, NEVER sit on your can, but pace slowly like a shark that has to move to keep oxygenated, sip your water frequently in small doses and when you are done.... rest for 3-4 days to recover fully and allow your body to rebuild and adapt to the new stresses you placed on it. It WILL respond. It has been genetically programed to do so, courtesy of evolution and the thousands of generations of hunter-gatherers  that survived to produce the body you inherited.  

[chris49]

I cut 2 tree trunks one heavy and one lighter. Father in law smoothed the hand holds.

 

As the guys here know I still train and race MTB....5 days a week riding.

 

I lift doing reps for 10 mins once or twice a day.

 

On occasional visits to QC I might visit a sauna/steam room. 800 pesos x 2 hours with a massage for about 90 minutes. That does me fine.

 

I belonged to Fitness First for 3 years, but I no longer live in Manila, so it's out of the question.

I cut 2 tree trunks one heavy and one lighter. Father in law smoothed the hand holds.

 

As the guys here know I still train and race MTB....5 days a week riding.

 

I lift doing reps for 10 mins once or twice a day.

 

On occasional visits to QC I might visit a sauna/steam room. 800 pesos x 2 hours with a massage for about 90 minutes. That does me fine.

 

I belonged to Fitness First for 3 years, but I no longer live in Manila, so it's out of the question.