I know a lot of really sedentary people, but my dad sets the bar. As a young man, he thought nothing of walking miles up and down the hills of Pittsburgh on errands. He even told the story of walking nearly 20 miles to get to the dance. His father tended to exaggerate his story, but he claimed that his car broke down and he didn’t want to disappoint his mother by going to see her at the dance. I doubt his 20 miles, but he accepts a range of 5-8 miles, which is still plenty.
Throughout his life, my father maintained a weight of 180 pounds and a height of 6 feet 2 inches. And he had no health problems, no medications, no hospitalization. He then retired from Westinghouse at the age of 65, declaring he needed rest, and from that point on his life revolved around a recliner and a TV clicker. This sedentary lifestyle soon started to take its toll and a big potbelly emerged. As a child, I remember how fast he walked and how hard I had to try to keep up. But now his gait had no spring, instead he walked slowly and then he began to limp.
My pleas and arguments to persuade him to get up and move fell on deaf ears. Every few months I would return from Louisville to my home in Pittsburgh to visit, and each time his deterioration was more evident. Her mother assumed the role of her caretaker as his physical abilities waned and gradually more demands fell on her shoulders.
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Then the inevitable happened. She will never forget the call in which her mother told her that she could no longer care for him and that she needed help. It meant an old people’s home. However, it never came to pass as his father died a few weeks later. The only good news related to this story is that my dad was a great fitness program for her mom. She did everything and then some. Thanks to taking care of her father’s every need, she was physically fit until his father died, but then she began to decline too, falling into a vicious circle.
Why it’s important to keep moving for older people
My father was an early victim of a vicious circle of vicious circles that too often afflict the elderly. This begins when physical abilities begin to decline and daily household chores and activities become more difficult. This is a natural part of aging unless steps are taken to combat it. how? The key is to go against common sense and do the opposite of what humans naturally dictate. teeth?
When something that was previously easy and physically painless becomes difficult, human nature tells us to reduce it. With this resourcefulness, you will eventually be able to avoid all challenges altogether. Climb up the stairs. This is an exercise that requires physical strength, and when it becomes difficult, it feels natural to reduce the amount of exercise. If you live in a two-story home, instead of going up and down stairs several times a day, start planning ways to reduce your movement. Put things that need to be moved upstairs on the first step and let them accumulate so you can only move once instead of three or four. Or move into a ranch-style home and stop climbing stairs as part of your daily routine.
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Climbing stairs less often weakens the muscles and increases the challenge. As the challenge increases, you can do even less, falling into a downward spiral and eventually avoiding the stairs altogether. As a result, you will not be able to climb stairs without much effort, and eventually you will not be able to climb stairs at all. To overcome this vicious circle, we must defy human nature. When climbing stairs starts to challenge you in ways it never has before, it’s a hint that you need to do more, not less.
Eventually, with my father gone, a vicious negative spiral began to hit my mother, especially when climbing stairs. In response, I let her climb her stairs when she came to visit me from Pittsburgh. As bad as it may sound, it was all payback for her making it rain on me and telling me, “This is for yourself.”
Just kidding, I’m not talking about climbing stairs. I climbed behind her to make sure she was safe and went in front of her putting her hand on my shoulder on her way down. Up and down, up and down, the whole time she was cursing me like a drunken sailor, but we didn’t stop. It took time, but I convinced my sisters in Pittsburgh to let her mother go in this direction. She credits it to her life to her mother’s 92 years of life.
Does Walking Improve Cardiovascular Health?
The good news in this story is that it doesn’t take much effort to counteract this downward spiral. Forget about his need to walk 10,000 steps a day. That’s great, but for most people it’s unrealistic and still far less useful. for example, American Heart Association At the March 2023 meeting, they reported that taking just 500 extra steps each day could reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke in people over the age of 70 by 14%. Of course, the more steps you take, the better, but when an older adult walked 4,500 steps daily, he reduced his risk of cardiovascular events by a whopping 77%.
In conclusion, it’s never too late to start. If you think you’re in a downward spiral, work on reversing it today. Start small and increase gradually. Your body will thank you for keeping your quality of life as long as possible.
