Keeping Active

I was (and am!) an active person all my life, but as long as I grew older I could not keep up with the activities I was doing. For example, I played tennis for long years, but my knees and elbows started to give in and I needed to change to padel, a sport not as demanding. Anyone still doing sports? How do you keep active?

 

I, too, try to stay active. I've never been much into sports, but I do love to do things like walking, hiking through the state parks, biking around the neighborhood. My husband and I attempt to play tennis - in our version the idea is to make it easy for the other to return the ball. We keep track of how many times we can get it over the net in a row - I think our record is about 11 times! We also enjoy b-ball, and play horse quite a bit.

I also enjoy exercising - I love step aerobics and I have an elliptical machine that I enjoy using.

However, with all this cold, wet, icy weather we've been having, I haven't been able to get out much and once I become stationary for a few days, it's always hard to get back on track. Hopefully, spring will come soon and I can get myself motivated to start moving again.

 

Haha, so that is another version of the sport! I used to do competition, so basically I ruined my body a little with so much tennis.

The important is that we keep moving. I look at my sister for example, a young woman in her mid sixties, just out of retirement and she is totally sedentary, will she do nothing for the rest of her life?

 

The human body is amazing. A few years ago, one of my neighbor's mother died, and he was concerned about his father, who was in his 80s at the time. His father lived 1,000 miles away, so he talked him into moving in with him. When he first moved in, he had been sedentary for about 6 months and literally, he could hardly move. Just walking the dozen or so steps from the car to the house were difficult. But the son got his father out every day, and they walked up and down the street. It wasn't long before he had a spring in his step and he was able to walk at least a mile or so at a time. Then one day, about 6 months later, we heard this noise - our neighbor's grandchildren were visiting and they were playing with paintball guns - and one of them was an automatic, it make the most interesting noise. So we came out, and saw our neighbor's father running around, hiding behind trees and shooting at his great-grandkids - he was the one with the automatic gun. In 6 months time, he had gone from being on death's door to running around with the kids!

I've always loved the old saying, "We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing!"

 

I walk for miles every day, well most days anyway. I've always loved hiking and rambling and even walking round town. I walk fast and never take a bus.

I have done other forms of exercise, and still do a little, but I think it's the amount of walking that keeps me fit. I have no aches or pains in my body and I leap up from bed every morning without a creak or a groan.

It is my intention to do more walking when I retire, when I can be more active than I have time for at present.

 

@Ruth Belena - I wish I could be that active, but around here most people don't feel safe walking around the suburban streets. I know someone who never even allowed her children to walk to her brother's house and he lived half a block away. I use my car everywhere I go and wouldn't feel safe on a bus either. As a result most of my walking is done in malls, though I do occasionally visit a park. I'm not sure that's so safe either and would be reluctant to go on my own.

I have an exercise bicycle that's been standing around unused for a long time. For the last few weeks I've been trying to get back into using it, but it's not a habit yet and I often forget to get my few minutes of exercise. I know I need to do it though, so I'm sure that in time I'll be able to make it part of my daily life.

 

@Michelle Stevens It's a shame that so many people feel unsafe. When I was younger I didn't walk alone much, usually I was in a group, with my family, friends, a partner or my dog.

Now I am confident enough to walk on my own.I always walk briskly, with full awareness of who and what is around me. I often exchange smiles and greetings with other people I pass on the way.

In my area there are plenty of group walks arranged for anyone who wants to join in. I prefer solitary walking because I see more wildlife and have a better experience that way.

 

Walking is my favorite form of excerise. It has finally warmed up some and the first thing I did was take a nice long walk. I had hoped to walk to today but it has started to rain. It is so true you need to keep active to keep your body in tip top shape. I happend upon a public tv show that was very informative and interesting about aging and one of the main things is to say active, stand up at least once every hour, siting down is dangerous to our health.

 

When I was younger, I used to do Tae Bo ( really good exercise, would recommend it to everyone) with my son for at least 30 minutes a day, but now that I'm a bit older, I have to settle with just walking in the park with my wife. I also do some exercises for my back, as I have started having some back problems recently, but it's mostly walking in the park with my wife and feeding the pigeons while we're at it.

 

Walking is a good exercise when you have limitations on your ability to move around. I use my walks to think and speak to God.

 

About the only exercise I get is walking. Usually I will walk a minimum of an hour each morning but some days I will walk for hours on end. The one advantage of living in a safe foreign country is that even after being here seven years, there is always something new for me to see.

 

Giving another good thread a "bump."

We've had a pretty good discussion about mini-tramping on another thread, and it seems that a lot of seniors enjoy walking for exercise. The older I get, the less interested I am in walking outdoors because of the humidity, stray dogs, mosquitoes, etc. For several years I have used the Leslie Sansone walking videos with great success though they can get quite repetitive and boring.

My latest foray into hare-brained exercise ideas was to order an adjustable "step" platform from Amazon and I received it a couple of days ago.



I've been studying Youtube videos on step aerobics for seniors, for beginners, etc. Guess I'll give this a go and add it to my routine. Maybe I should get one of those "life alert" things to wear as an accessory.

Does anyone do step aerobics? Any videos you might recommend?

 

Does stepping up and down multiple times off of the hearth of my fireplace count? I use it as a step platform.