PE Fitness Thread

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

After several weeks of training, I competed in my first kayak race today.

Results

Attachment 16870
(Click to enlarge)

6 miles, at 6.3mph. https://www.strava.com/activities/8980033428

Now - it's time to get back on the bike. I'd like to get back into racing late this year or early next year.

Impressive.

[Lou]

After several weeks of training, I competed in my first kayak race today.

Results

Attachment 16870
(Click to enlarge)

6 miles, at 6.3mph. https://www.strava.com/activities/8980033428

Now - it's time to get back on the bike. I'd like to get back into racing late this year or early next year.

Well done sir!

[Quantum Cat]

WTG Duncan!

[mozo-pg]

Awesome Duncan. Happy for you.

[beano]

My home "studio" currently...PXL_20230409_192914082.jpg

[Duncan Glenday]

My home "studio" currently...PXL_20230409_192914082.jpg

Impressive!

Mine is far less impressive :

134100490_10159027319933064_9129318674882950335_n.jpg
(Click to enlarge)

[beano]

Impressive!

Mine is far less impressive :

134100490_10159027319933064_9129318674882950335_n.jpg
(Click to enlarge)

Not too shabby!!

[thedunno]

I think I am reasonably fit for a 56 year old although I never see the inside of a gym. I find gyms to be depressing. I need to be OUTSIDE.

The only real exercise I do is running 3 times a week. For the rest I try to maintain an active lifestyle. I cycle everywhere as much as I can and use the car as little as possible. It helps that the Netherlands probably has the best cycling infrastructure in the world. I also work a couple of hours a week in my vegetable garden. My vegan diet helps a lot too.

Main objective is to stay fit enough so that I can hike up large mountains with a sizable backpack when on vacation.

[Firth]

I think I am reasonably fit for a 56 year old although I never see the inside of a gym. I find gyms to be depressing. I need to be OUTSIDE.

The only real exercise I do is running 3 times a week. For the rest I try to maintain an active lifestyle. I cycle everywhere as much as I can and use the car as little as possible. It helps that the Netherlands probably has the best cycling infrastructure in the world. I also work a couple of hours a week in my vegetable garden. My vegan diet helps a lot too.

Main objective is to stay fit enough so that I can hike up large mountains with a sizable backpack when on vacation.

Sounds good. But what do you do in the winter? It is very important to get outside in the near infrared radiation (NIR) from the sun on a sunny day. Even better for consistency, a NIR sauna could be used year round.

I’m all about vegetables, but I don’t believe eating meat is unhealthy. In fact, it’s clear now that the fear of cholesterol resulted from research where sugar was not controlled. Sugar turns the liver off from converting LDL to HDL cholesterol, and it’s not LDL cholesterol that clogs arteries, it’s oxidized cholesterol or oxidized fats, even omega 3 fatty acids which are oxidized. What prevents oxidation of fats; antioxidants which vegetables contain, cooking with lower heat, and not smoking. Olive oil is packed with antioxidants which actually make it healthier to fry in. Consumption of cholesterol which is not oxidized, stops the liver from producing its own cholesterol, and this is why studies found that eating eggs for example doesn’t raise serum cholesterol. Even though wild fish are the best source of vitamin D, other than the sun when the UV index is high enough, vegetables will never provide enough vitamin d to support immunity.

[thedunno]

Sounds good. But what do you do in the winter?

Winters are generally pretty mild here in the Netherlands. No reason not to go outside. And if there's a cold winter spel; the country goes nuts and goes iceskating, me included.
I actually LIKE the cold. I wish we had more sever winters here in the Netherlands.

And I do not think that eating meat in itself is unhealthy but the amount of meat (and dairy) that the majority of people is consuming is. I haven't eaten meat in 20 years so I no longer miss it or long for it. Went full vegan 3 years ago. Definitely improved my health; blood pressure and cholesterol dropped and also my recovery after heavy exercise improved dramatically.

[mozo-pg]

Winters are generally pretty mild here in the Netherlands. No reason not to go outside. And if there's a cold winterspel; the country goes nuts and goes iceskating, me included.
I actually LIKE the cold. I wish we had more sever winters here in the Netherlands

s

You're welcome to the minus 20 Celsius we get Ottawa in January and February. I'd trade your weather in a flash. When I retire in 4 years, I'll be out of Canada during these two months.

[Duncan Glenday]

I think I am reasonably fit for a 56 year old although I never see the inside of a gym. I find gyms to be depressing. I need to be OUTSIDE.

The only real exercise I do is running 3 times a week. For the rest I try to maintain an active lifestyle. I cycle everywhere as much as I can and use the car as little as possible. It helps that the Netherlands probably has the best cycling infrastructure in the world. I also work a couple of hours a week in my vegetable garden. My vegan diet helps a lot too.

Main objective is to stay fit enough so that I can hike up large mountains with a sizable backpack when on vacation.

Sounds good. But what do you do in the winter? It is very important to get outside in the near infrared radiation (NIR) from the sun on a sunny day. Even better for consistency, a NIR sauna could be used year round.
...

I'm with Chris on this.

I have asthma that plays up very badly in cold, dry weather. So as much as I hate it, winters force me indoors. I still hike up tough hills in the snow (mountaineering training) - but beyond that, I'm in the gym or on my trainer

[SteveSly]

I'm with Chris on this.

I have asthma that plays up very badly in cold, dry weather. So as much as I hate it, winters force me indoors. I still hike up tough hills in the snow (mountaineering training) - but beyond that, I'm in the gym or on my trainer

When I was a kid I had very bad exercise induced asthma and also reacted to cold the same way you do. Fortunately, that is something that I have mostly grown out of as I got older.

I still walk in the winter when it is not too icy. My rule is generally as long as it is 20 degrees or warmer (F) and not too much ice / snow, I walk. That being said, back in February I fell and cracked a rib, so maybe I should be more careful.

[Duncan Glenday]

When I was a kid I had very bad exercise induced asthma and also reacted to cold the same way you do. Fortunately, that is something that I have mostly grown out of as I got older.
.

Sadly, I've grown into it as I got older

[moecurlythanu]

I used to have hayfever terribly when I was younger, and had to get a shot every summer, and even augment with pills at times. Around 15 or 20 years ago, it just fell off me. Now, I don't need a shot or medications, and only occasionally get bothered by the mildest of symptoms a couple days a year, if at all.

[SteveSly]

Sadly, I've grown into it as I got older

Unfortunately, that can happen. I was a very severe asthmatic through my teenage years. I used to do drug clinical trials for the Upjohn Company when I was a teenager to make money because it was so easy to provoke exercise induced asthma with me. They used to give me a drug (or placebo) then have me run on a treadmill for 20 minutes. I would get asthma every time. They would then have me sit in a booth hooked up to a breathing device and do all kinds of tests to see how effective the drug (or placebo) was.

I was hospitalized with asthma related issues more than a dozen times up to 15 years old. Then, miraculously when I hit around 20-ish my body started to change. I still had major allergy issues, but the asthma changed from getting “attacks” to just having mostly minor chest tightness. Today, at 61 I have not had an asthma attack in years. I have no exercise induced asthma at all and no reaction to wintry weather. I still get chest tightness often, but it is never super severe. I still carry a rescue inhaler when I travel and at home, but don’t use it at all anymore.

Sorry to hear that yours has gotten worse as you got older. Unfortunately, that happens. People often develop allergies as they get older too, which sucks. I still have allergies, but they are much much better than when I was young.

[SteveSly]

I used to have hayfever terribly when I was younger, and had to get a shot every summer, and even augment with pills at times. Around 15 or 20 years ago, it just fell off me. Now, I don't need a shot or medications, and only occasionally get bothered by the mildest of symptoms a couple days a year, if at all.

I had to have allergy shots for years. Two shots once per week. But, over time they eventually worked. My body built up a resistance to the point where I was able to go off the shots around 15 years ago and my allergy problems are much less severe than they used to be.

[Firth]

Allergic diseases of nearly all types, including asthma, allergic rhinitis, food allergies, eczema, and even anaphylaxis have become much more common over the past few decades.2 This could be partially explained by the hygiene hypothesis, but some experts think that this is also related to vitamin D deficiency.

https://www.verywellhealth.com/vitam...llergies-83031

Vitamin D isn’t just about bones, it’s a hormone tha regulates immune response, and allergies mostly are an over response of the immune system. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with COVID infections that are 28 times more severe.

[Shadow]

Walk, don't run. Heart only has so many beats.

[Firth]

Walk, don't run. Heart only has so many beats.

I have an athlete’s heart from jogging when I was younger. Resting heart rate of 50 and has been 46 at times.

[Shadow]

I have an athlete’s heart from jogging when I was younger. Resting heart rate of 50 and has been 46 at times.

Back in the early 80's my wife worked with a guy around 50 who ran marathons, one day he had a cardiac arrest now he is running admissions at the pearly gates.

[Duncan Glenday]

...
Sorry to hear that yours has gotten worse as you got older. Unfortunately, that happens. People often develop allergies as they get older too, which sucks. I still have allergies, but they are much much better than when I was young.

Thanks, Steve. My exercise-induced (cough-variant) asthma is definitely an issue, but not severe. I get around it quite successfully by taking most of my training indoors in winter.

I have rescue inhalers (they don't help much) and take a steroid inhaler if I'm likely to be doing anything strenuous outdoors in the cold.

As long as I manage it carefully, it's not much more than an annoying inconvenience.

[Firth]

Back in the early 80's my wife worked with a guy around 50 who ran marathons, one day he had a cardiac arrest now he is running admissions at the pearly gates.

Some months after Jim Fixx’s passing, the family received the full autopsy report from Vermont’s chief medical examiner, Eleanor McQuillen.

In it, McQuillen mentions five other running deaths over the previous seven years in Vermont. “It becomes apparent in the light of these reports that, while exercise, including running, is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, it does not prevent, halt, or ‘wash out’ coronary arteriosclerosis to a significant degree.” Neither, McQuillen wrote, did the opposite hold: “Finally, running did not cause the death of Jim Fixx . . . severe and silent coronary arteriosclerosis did.”

Jim Fix’s Dad had his first heart attack at 35, and the one that killed him at 43. The great majority of people who are even sedentary and without genetic predisposition, don’t die from heart attacks as young as Jim or his father.

[SteveSly]

Thanks, Steve. My exercise-induced (cough-variant) asthma is definitely an issue, but not severe. I get around it quite successfully by taking most of my training indoors in winter.

I have rescue inhalers (they don't help much) and take a steroid inhaler if I'm likely to be doing anything strenuous outdoors in the cold.

As long as I manage it carefully, it's not much more than an annoying inconvenience.

Regarding rescue inhalers. Back when I was young the main rescue inhaler was a drug called Isuprel. The stuff worked great. If you had an asthma attack it would clear your lungs in less than a minute to where you were breathing totally back to normal. But……..if overused it would diminish in effectiveness to the point where it would not work at all if you used it too often in a short period of time. I don’t remember the exact sequence of events, but at some point there were several of cases of people over using the inhalers who died from asthma attacks. There was a backlash in the media blaming the drug for the deaths. The inhaler version of Isuprel was eventually taken off the market by the FDA and is no longer available (I believe there is still an injectable version though). Compared to the rescue inhalers on the market today, which I think are pretty useless, Isuprel totally worked. It sucks that it is no longer available.

I was also on steroid inhalers for years, but no longer need them. As I mentioned earlier, I was one of the clinical trial Guinea pigs for the development of some of those drugs back in the 70’s.

[Firth]