Posted on 05/03/2008 1:25:37 PM PDT by neverdem
Randi considers the Y.M.C.A. her lifeline, especially the pool. Randi weighs more than 300 pounds and has borderline diabetes, but she controls her blood sugar and keeps her bright outlook on life by swimming every day for about 45 minutes.
Randi overcame any self-consciousness about her weight for the sake of her health, and those who swim with her and share the open locker room are proud of her. If only the millions of others beset with chronic health problems recognized the inestimable value to their physical and emotional well-being of regular physical exercise.
“The single thing that comes close to a magic bullet, in terms of its strong and universal benefits, is exercise,” Frank Hu, epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, said in the Harvard Magazine.
I have written often about the protective roles of exercise. It can lower the risk of heart attack, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, dementia, osteoporosis, gallstones, diverticulitis, falls, erectile dysfunction, peripheral vascular disease and 12 kinds of cancer.
But what if you already have one of these conditions? Or an ailment like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, congestive heart failure or osteoarthritis? How can you exercise if you’re always tired or in pain or have trouble breathing? Can exercise really help?
You bet it can. Marilyn Moffat, a professor of physical therapy at New York University and co-author with Carole B. Lewis of “Age-Defying Fitness” (Peachtree, 2006), conducts workshops for physical therapists around the country and abroad, demonstrating how people with chronic health problems can improve their health and quality of life by learning how to exercise safely.
Up and Moving
“The data show that regular moderate exercise increases your ability to battle the effects of disease,” Dr. Moffat said in an interview...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Does housework count? I could certainly do more of that!
Yes, housework counts....why do you think women live longer than men? /sorta sarc
Uhh...I dunno, I thought it was the testosterone infusions, the phone calls to Mother, and the chocolates.
This proves that exercise reduces health care costs. Since Gubmint is paying for your healthcare, coercing you to exercise and eat right is a legitimate Gumbint function to save taxpayers money.
Congratulations Sheeple! Welcome to a Hell of your own creation. Now shut up, drop the Chalupa and get on the treadmill Bitch. :-)
Exercise kooks are as annoying as true believers of any stripe.
The truth is that there is a minority of people whose basic design lends itself to a physically oriented life. For them, exercise is the stuff of life. It keeps them healthy and happy and invigorated, etc. And this is so obvious to them that they cannot imagine (not that imagination is their strong point), that not everybody is this way.
The majority of people get some advantages from some exercise, as long as it is neither vigorous, extended in itself, or practiced too many days without recline and rest for many days as well. They would not enjoy, not benefit, and most likely would injure themselves when they overdo it with exercise. It is not particularly invigorating, and not particularly draining, either.
And on the opposite extreme are those for whom exercise is nothing but destructive, unpleasant, and debilitating. While they might get improved muscle tone for a while, they must pay for it handsomely with their vitality. A few weeks of exercise might need six months or more of recovery for them. A slow walk over a few blocks is the most benefit they will ever get from exercise. Exercise does not make them healthy, it sickens them.
Now if you accept even the possibility that exercise is not for everyone, you start to notice other differences in these three groups. For example, the physical people are better at exercise then they are at emotional depth or intellectualism. While they might think they do these as well, others can see that their forte is physicality, not other things.
Because this is where the modest exercise and non-exercising people excel. Their energy has other directions, other specialization and expression, instead of physicality.
Importantly, it is not this way out of choice. It is part of people’s inherent design as individuals. You cannot be made into a physical person if you are not inherently a physical person. Nor can you be trained to be emotionally or intellectually deep, unless you are basically that way already.
And while everybody has to do all three to have a normal life, people tend to specialize and have a primary mode of being.
So don’t think that physicality as a way of being is all a bed of roses, it isn’t. The physically fit who become and remain that way have that fitness as their focus in life, and they should enjoy it. But it’s not for everybody.
I agree with both you and the exercise kooks.
I love my intense martial arts workouts. But (I just started a sentence with a preposition, my 5th grade teacher can kiss my ass, heck she was pretty hot and would get arrested for it)...but I digress...I wouldn’t force all of my fellow Americans to do it.
OK. How about NYT subscription numbers?
Oh give it a rest! Exercise IS good for everyone, and I'm proud of Randi for just getting out and doing it. There are a lot of fat women, and not so fat women in this country who are so self-conscious of their weight, that they don't want to go to classes for fear that folks are snickering about their weight. Yes, they created the situation, but why should they be derided by other folks when they're trying to correct it? My thought, with a nod to Richard Feynman is "What do I care what those people think?"
I'm WAY too overweight, but I got myself into a bathing suit and joined the water aerobics class at the Y. Even at 50, I was the youngest in the class, and except for one other woman, was the heaviest. We had a blast, and it was a real workout, I can tell you! I lost 15 pounds during the time I was doing the class, but I quit going when my schedule no longer allowed it, and unfortunately gained back that 15 lbs. I'm walking now, instead, and have lost 30 pounds since Christmas!
Regardless of what the government might, or might not say about exercise, it is a good thing for everyone, even those who don't need to lose any weight. It keeps you much more mentally fit as you age, and that's just as important as being physically fit!
What you say is the truth. I love the outdoors, fishing, hunting, and exploring, but the only exercise I get is when I’m out on a dirt trail in my 4X4 and decide to stop and take a look at something interesting or to walk to a good fishing spot.
Years ago I used to hike and backpack in the wilderness, the destination (i.e. camping spot, fishing hole, etc.) was the goal, not the exercise itself. When I was in my 20s and in tip top shape, I was once “forced” by my nutty exercising friends to join them in a 10K race. I hated every minute of it
SuziQ, you are missing the point by such a wide margin, I don’t even know where to begin....
Let me try to explain it this way:
Women/Men losing weight, going to the gym and looking hot in a bikini/speedo for health or to attract a mate = GOOD.
I will be the first to ogle you (women in bikinis, the men in speedos with the crap coming out of the side like a chia-pet can forget it) and congratulate you.
Women/Men losing weight because the Gubmint told you to because of a state sponsored social engineering experiment to save taxpayers the cost of your diabetes meds = BAD.
Any questions?
About the authors: Sandra Aamodt is the editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience. Sam Wang is an associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton. They are the authors of the forthcoming “Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life.”
Mmmmmmm.....don’t think it’ll help. LOL.
I agree with you, but I took something else as the point of the article. Mainly that many can become a little healthier and more comfortable by doing a little regular exercise.
A 300-lbs. woman swimming (probably more like just moving around in the water) 45 minutes a day hardly qualifies as an exercise kook or a physically oriented person, as you describe them.
I do know people who actually get sick when they exercise, but they are few and far between.
Good for you!
I also enjoyed martial arts, but for its inner workings, not for either its physicality or its conflict. I was far more interested in its specialized use of energy, and continued with this study long after I had left martial arts.
Qi energy, while very useful for martial artists, is just a beginning to energy studies.
It's not news to most people, that we need to exercise. We KNOW this, but sometimes it takes some life changing event, like, for example, my spending Christmas Day in the ER, then the following week in the hospital, that kicks me in the butt to force me to take a long hard look at my health. The government had nothing to do with it.
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