Survived my first gym workout.I like the high tech treadmills.The weight machines made me feel like a 98 pound weakling.I figure in about thirty or forty years of four workouts per week i'll be in decent shape.
Survived my first gym workout.I like the high tech treadmills.The weight machines made me feel like a 98 pound weakling.I figure in about thirty or forty years of four workouts per week i'll be in decent shape.
"please do not understand me too quickly"-andre gide
Another thing I did this year that may or may not help me cope with geezerhood, is grow my hair out for the first time since the 1970s. I wanted to do something different, and since Hipsters have the beard market cornered, I let my hair grow on my head instead of my face. It's already long enough to be a pain to take care of, and I remember why I cut it several decades ago. But it may remain until I get my next job interview. I remember where the barber shop is.
Long hair isn't a fountain of youth, and there is no Samson effect. I knew my hair was turning white (blonds get to skip gray and go directly to white), now there is just more of it. Still, better than the beard. People would mistake me for Santa Claus.
I had that in my knee once. Painful. I went to the doctor. He stuck a needle in my knee and extracted some fluid. Looked at it and told me it was gout. I knew that. I told him when I arrived. DoctorsOriginally Posted by Lopez
Good luck with it.
Dammit, I want to be you when I reach 57.
Oh, wait - I'm 59
Regards,
Duncan
How do you strap the birds to your feet?
Dropping everything and going away for full time college in my late 20s/early 30s (total blast) and participating in many musical endeavors throughout my life have certainly kept me young in spirit. Oh, and I went out and got myself a young girlfriend. She and her friends keep me on my toes. I'm waaaay too immature to hang with women my own age. Believe me, I've tried.
"That gum you like is going to come back in style."
You make me chuckle with this but it is a legitimate way to stay young: be around young, vivacious people.
Your Twin Peaks related signature reminds me of another classic line from the show. It speaks to another way to stay vital; having an active balance of responsible behavior and splurging/living for the day. It is encapsulated by:
"Harry, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just...let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee."
You and me both.
We want to get old, but we don't want to be old.
I'm 57 and still feel relatively young. Not that it is helping me to get a job. I'm glad we have social security, though being dependant from it, still sucks.
I still do almost everything by bike and still go faster than youngsters going to school. I hate it if old geezers go faster than me, because they ride an electric bike.
Ha ha!Dammit, I want to be you when I reach 57.
Oh, wait - I'm 59
There is strength in Naps! Who else takes one each afternoon? I find a 1/2 hour in the afternoon revives me. In most cases I feel weak if I don't get one in.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
Whenever I feel old I just have to come to PE where there are twice as many people older than me than younger than me...
I just turned 50 and I am just now starting to get to the point where I need regular medical check ups. I have a few minor ailments but so far I am able to stay off meds by diet and exercise... I made certain lifestyle choices a decade ago so I don't have any radical adjustments to make to maintain a good health. I do find it hard curbing my beer consumption though. This is the golden age of microbrews and I cannot indulge as much as I'd like to....
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
Geez, I'm only 50 and don't feel like a geezer yet, but have definitely started to feel old somehow. For the last month I've had some back issues flaring up that don't seem to be going away. Well, it's significantly worse now, but I had already been pulling back from playing gigs for months because of back problems. This is the first year I'm wondering whether I should just not even bother cutting my own firewood since it's sure to aggravate the back situation, but then I think about how my father (about to turn 80) only just got a woodsplitter two years ago....I can't let him outdo me!
Just joined the gym a week and a half ago and have only missed two days since. Nothing super strenuous, but wow do I need some muscle tone.
<sig out of order>
Same in Denmark - age discrimination is widespread, and nobody cares.
Using electric bikes is cheating - I totally agree !
Great Thread, Jerjo!
The honesty and good thoughts here are refreshing. Thank you to all of you that chimed in!
How could I have ever been a young person? Their taste in hairstyles, clothes and music is terrible.
Member since Wednesday 09.09.09
When I was 55, I had recovered from my first round of heart problems and shed most of the excess weight. I was riding 150 miles a week (commuting 15 miles each way to work) and doing metric centuries on the weekends. I looked as good as I ever would, and had the stamina of a much younger man. I could do things like travel to Patagonia with 100 pounds of video gear to shoot a dinosaur dig, all by myself.
That was only 10 years ago. I feel like I've aged 25 years since then. Now walking two miles is a challenge. Sometimes I think there's a timer, and somebody else was in charge of setting it.
Careful. Your recovery days are (oddly) more important than your workout days.
Regards,
Duncan
After working out HARD etc. for a few years, I've come to a conclusion (which is true in my cycling world, anyway):
Old guys can be (damned nearly) AS fit / strong fast as younger guys.
Our speed is close to theirs, but our endurance is much better.
The big difference: If we take a 2 to 3 week break, it can take months to get back to top condition. If the younger guys take a 2 to 3 week break, they can get back to top form in a matter of days.
Regards,
Duncan
I've always felt the same way, but I've changed my mind. On my last day of work, a co-worker showed me his new electric bike that he had started commuting to work on, hoping to lose weight, gain fitness, and save money.
He would never be able to climb his neighborhood hills (Manayunk, in Philadelphia) without assistance. The electric bike is what he needs to get him started. Without it he'd still be driving. So no, "cheating" depends on what's being tested.
I look to my father for health wisdom.
He's 87 now, had his 4th heart attack, on dialysis, way overweight, so out of shape from watching TV day and nite he can't even walk to the mailbox anymore, bladder cancer (cured), etc. etc. etc. Can't tell him a thing. His hearing is shot - won't get a hearing aid. ("It would make me look too old".) TV blasting day and nite. Classic fu%#@ing dumbass. He says he's ready to go, but I tell him he's going to live till he's 96. He doesn't like hearing that, because he knows it's probably true.
I now embrace the opposite of his lifestyle.
This is all absolutely true.
I nap for about 90 minutes to 2 hours from about 1:00-3:00pm about 2-3 times a week, depending on my waking activity level or evening plans on any given day. That seems to work for me since I started realizing that naps were now part of my universe a couple of yeaers ago.
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
I don't have a scheduled nap, but I get one every time I sit down in front of the television. Isn't that what it is for?
I love a good nap. Heck, even just a 20-minute shut-eye session helps me out.
20 minutes or so recharges me but anything longer than half an hour leaves me groggy.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Good point. I absolutely love beer. Southwest Michigan, where I live, has become micro brew heaven and of course the beers I have come to love the most tend to have the ones with highest alcohol content. It has become more of a balancing act for sure when it comes to drinking as I get older. Downing micro-brews is definitely different on the body then downing a bunch of Bud Light’s. I can still drink like I did when I was younger, but the hangover, and especially recovery, are much more difficult.
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