29. EXERCISE AND MOVE YOUR BODY
“Exercise not only changes your body, it changes your mind, your attitude, and your mood.” -- Anonymous
Let’s face it. We sit too long in a day – be it in office or at home. For most retirees, they sit even longer in a day.
In office, we sit at our work desk. We go for meetings in meeting rooms and we sit down again. When we go to meet clients for meetings, again we sit down to discuss.
At home, from watching televisions to reading newspaper or book, to working on computer or having meals at dining table, we all tend to sit down too long in a day as well.
If you want to have good health during your retirement years, you need to focus on both nutrition and exercise. Even though exercise contributes only 20% of your ideal body weight, it's very crucial for your overall physical wellness.
When we talk about exercise, it doesn't mean you need to go to the fitness centre every day. If it's something too troublesome or too difficult, you will find excuses not to go after a while. It becomes unsustainable.
I have seen way too many people signing up for gym membership especially in the beginning of each year. They come from all walks of life: working professionals, students, entrepreneurs, housewives, and retires. Every year they all have a new year's resolution to keep fit and lose that extra fat. They will write down their new year's resolution, sign up gym membership, and even to the extent of engaging the services of personal fitness trainers.
Initially they will all get so pumped up and excited. But then there comes the Chinese New Year and public holidays in February. It’s festive and feasting season. They then find excuses to put their whatsoever diet on hold.
When they come back from their hometowns or overseas travel, they find out that they haven't lost any weight yet after two months. In fact, some put on even more weight before the start of new year.
It's always harder to start off again once you stop for a while. Slowly, they get demotivated and discouraged. Slowly, they go to gym or fitness centre even less frequent.
Once they feel demotivated and depressed, they may resort to eating more to reduce their stress. Without them knowing it, it's another year and their weight remains the same and health still rings an alarm bell.
If this sounds familiar to you, it's good if you can have a support group, or some friends who can encourage you. Ultimately, you still need to slowly build up your own motivation and determination.
Yet, if you still fail to go back to fitness centre to exercise regularly, it can be due to its inconvenience as well. Afterall, you need to drive from home to fitness centre, do exercise, then shower, then rush to office to work. If you go to fitness centre in the evening, you will usually go after long days in office. By then you don’t have the strength to drive to the fitness centre for exercise. What you may be thinking of is to go straight home to have your dinner and relax.
If this happens to you, perhaps it’s easier to find a form of exercise that’s the most convenient for you. A form of exercise that you have no excuses not to do. A form of exercises that you enjoy.
2 types of exercises
There are two types of exercises, namely cardiovascular exercise (aerobic exercise) and strength training (weight training/resistance training). Both are good for your overall health in different ways, even more so during your retirement.
1. Cardiovascular exercise (aerobic exercise)
The word “cardiovascular” or “cardio” also means “aerobic”, which is “with oxygen.”. In order to prevent any cardiovascular-related diseases, you need to maximise the amount of oxygen in your blood and ultimately help you use oxygen more efficiently. When your aerobic capacity is high, your heart, lungs, and blood vessels efficiently deliver large amounts of oxygen throughout your body. As a result, you feel more energized and don’t tire as quickly.
Cardio exercise can also strengthen your heart and muscles, burn calories, help control your appetite, boost your mood through the release of endorphins, help you sleep better at night, reduce arthritis pain and stiffness through joint movement, and help prevent or manage high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.
We have heard of many cardiovascular-related diseases and illnesses cutting short some people’s lives and affecting the quality of life of many. Hence, it’s even more crucial to incorporate aerobic activity or cardio exercise into your life once you get older. It probably also means less frequent visitations to hospitals or clinic too.
Some of the cardio activities include walking, hiking, cycling, jogging, running, and swimming. These cardio activities are suitable for old folks or retirees too. They can be done as in individual. They are all good for your heart. Besides, these are all outdoor activities, forcing you to leave your house. While exercising, you can breathe in fresh air, sweat it out, and connect yourself to the world outside instead of always doing everything at home.
Based on a U.S. study by the University of Miami and Columbia University, older people who do moderate to intense exercise are 10 years younger than those who do only light or no exercise. Hence, if you want to look 10 years younger, you should do a cardio exercise more vigorous than walking.
As for me, I love outdoor activities.
When running started to boom in Malaysia and all over the world back in 2010, I was dragged by my co-workers to join them to run. Slowly I was hooked onto running myself. I enjoyed what running brings me. I run almost 5-6 days a week now, with either Saturday or Sunday covering longer distance up to 20-30 km. I find running quite meditative. It helps to clear my mind. It also strengthens my lungs and heart with more oxygen. Running has become an essential part of my life.
From joining a 10 km race in 2020, to half marathon 21 km race a year later, followed by full marathon (42 km) in 2012, and then an ultra-marathon (50 km) in 2017, I have been finding so much great joy and happiness in running testing my physical limits as I grow older. I find joining races serves as great motivation for me! I don't compete with others but rather, I compete with my old self. I want to be a better version of me. I don't want to sit still to wait for my last day. I want to live a life full of energy and excitement.
Up to date, I have run 32 full marathons, 1 ultra- marathon (50 km), 8 half marathons, and several other shorter distance races. As I run, I also get to discover many interesting places that I step foot in. I have run full marathons not only in Malaysia, but also in Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia and Myanmar. Isn't life wonderful - combining running with travel? In runners’ world, we call it “run cation”, short form for running vacation.
I also have a personal quest to run 100 full marathons before I reach 75. That will be running 2-3 full marathons every year from now onwards. I set a challenging long-term goal so that I have something meaningful to look forward to. Meanwhile I still listen to my body without putting too much pressure on myself to perform. The key is to enjoy the journey and keep healthy.
I have also picked up swimming and cycling to become a triathlete. Both swimming and cycling both fall into cardio exercise category as well.
I have joined three triathlons (swimming, cycling and running) and one biathlon (swimming, running) so far since 2011. The longest distance triathlon I have joined was 1.2 km swim, 40 km cycling and 21 km running. It was challenging indeed but the great satisfaction after completion was simply indescribable.
But now I choose to cycle and swim leisurely, and not competitively. I find it a bit dangerous to ride fast in races, especially as I get older. A few cyclist friends I know of have had their bad falls from cycling before. Anyway, I will continue to focus on running full marathon more as I have a lifetime quest to fulfil.
Anyhow, no matter what your age, cardio exercise will still help you in your daily activities and increase your stamina and endurance.
2. Strength training (weight training / resistance training)
While cardio exercise focuses on making your heart stronger and help your body use oxygen better, strength training builds your muscles and helps them work the way they should.
As you get older, your bones get weaker and may one day develop into osteoporosis. Strength training can help prevent it keep it from getting worse.
As you get older, you lose strength in your legs. You lose your body balance easily. That can lead to falls and fractures. There is a cliché saying, “The worst fear is when old people fall.”. It’s very true! I have seen many old people who can’t keep their balances and fall. Some have bad consequences – broken hips or bones. Some end up on wheel chair for the rest of their lives because it’s too risky to operate at their old age. Some lose their lives due to lethal falls, especially in toilet at home. My mom passed away at 74 a healthy person due to a fatal fall in toilet. My Indonesian friend's mom also had a fatal fall in toilet many years back. And the husband of an aunty, one of the traders at wet market that I frequent, passed away from a fall too near few steps away from reaching home. Strength exercises for the legs can make your lower half stronger. And that can help to improve your balance and prevent any fall.
As you get older, you lose your muscle mass. Once you lose your muscle mass, you lose your strength. Hence, strength training helps to put your muscles to work and make your muscles healthier. If you have lower back pain, you can build up core areas (lower back and abdominals) to make you feel better. It also can help keep your muscles in good shape as you age so that you can enjoy all activities in your retirement life.
As you get older, your joints become less flexible. Strength training can help to build up the muscles around your bones, lubricate your joints, ease your pain, and slow bone loss. Hence, resistance training is especially helpful to keep your joints flexible, moving the way they should.
As you get older, your chances of heart disease and heart attack are higher. A study shows that one hour a week of weight lifting can cut your chances of having a heart attack by up to 70%. Through weight lifting, your chances of heart attack will go down.
Strength training can also help to fend off diabetes by helping your body to process glucose. It definitely can help you to lose weight as well by increasing your metabolism.
You can use your body weight, gym equipment or machines for your strength training. You can even use a resistance band at home.
Personally I enjoy strength training as much as cardio exercise.
Being a lifetime member of Celebrity Fitness Centre, I prefer to train with weights using various weight equipment and dumbbells in the gym. Training with weights allows me to increase the resistance as my muscles become stronger. Weight training in gym also allows me to target certain muscle groups with the specific weight equipment and machines.
During movement control order period, all fitness centres were closed for a few months. I resorted to running and doing resistance training outdoor at KL Sports City. That’s how I discovered my new passion in calisthenics, which are resistance exercises that rely on a person’s own body weight. Some of the body-weight Calisthenics exercises that I do are muscle up, burpees, dips, leg raises, push-ups, squats, etc.
Now I alternate both weight lifting in the gym and calisthenics workouts at the park as my strength training.
I see many retirees or old people focus on cardio exercise only as they get older. They mainly walk, which is good. But strength training is equally important. Hence, when you get older, try not to neglect strength training as well.
Find cardio exercise and strength training exercise that you enjoy
For your health and longevity, you should pick up one or two sports as your hobbies even as you grow older. If possible, focus on both cardio exercise and strength training.
One of the most convenient and easiest exercises is to just walk, slow jog, or run around your neighbourhood or nearby park. What you need is just a pair of good walking show or running shoe. You don’t need any specific skills. You just need to move your feet forward one after another. Early morning walk is the best. My parents used to do their early morning walk at 4.00 am. And if they had time, they would also go for their evening walks again in the late afternoon.
Besides that, you can also join some exercise groups that you see in the park or community centres near your home. Some of these exercise groups incorporate resistance training into their exercises as well.
If you can join a fitness centre, that will be even more awesome. Fitness centres have a great variety of cardio group fitness classes covering both cardio and resistance exercises for you to join.
From ballroom dancing, body balance, body combat, body pump, core strength training, energy aerobics, RPM cycling, Zumba, Tai Chi, TRX, to yoga and Pilates, you can name it and it’s highly likely that you can find a class there.
The fast-beat music in the fitness centre will also excite your senses, making you feel young.
You will also get to hang out with like-minded people who enjoy the same fitness activities as you do. You can draw more motivation and encouragement from them.
Fitness centre is also an alternative should the weather outside is not too good for outdoor exercises. If it rains, you can't swim or run or walk outside. You will tend to find excuses to stay at home. With a fitness centre membership, you will have no excuses to exercise at all, rain or shine.
Whatever you do, the most important thing is to find a sports that you enjoy. No matter what exercise it is, be it, as long as you enjoy it, you will find happiness in doing it. Once you enjoy it and find happiness in it, you tend to keep on doing it. It’s no longer a burden or a chore to move your body. It becomes a part of your active heathy lifestyle.
Move your body
Besides the daily 1-2 hours of cardio exercise and strength training, it's good if you can keep moving your body as much as possible too during your everyday activities.
Think of such hobbies that you can develop to move your body. For instance, you can choose to stand while talking on the phone or watching television. Or you can go for window shopping or visit bookstores at shopping malls which involves walking and standing. Just be mindful that you need to control your spending if you decide to walk in shopping malls. Or you can choose to park your car a bit further and walk to your destination when you run your errands, etc.
Another idea is that you can pick up some leisure hobbies which involve some sort of walking or standing.
If you love baking or cooking at home, that surely requires you to stand a great deal. You can also help out in gardening or house cleaning. That blends plenty of standing and walking in the comfort of your home.
If you love birds bird and plants, you can follow some community groups to go into jungle to look at different species of birds and plants.
If you love photography, you can have a smartphone camera or a mirrorless camera in your hand, walk around the city or nature to take beautiful nature or urban photography. A friend who retired at age 60 brings his Olympus mirrorless camera with him every day, walking the streets of Kuala Lumpur and parks, taking beautiful photos. I believe on some days, he can easily walk more than 10,000 steps a day.
Similar to my friend, I have started to develop a keen interest in photography, especially after retirement. I start to appreciate every small little things in life. I have more time to see things around me without passing by.
For the last three years, I have been taking quite a lot of photos during my travel and in Kuala Lumpur city. It helps me to move my body. I love to walk, stop, shoot, and walk again. I find that I can discover more by walking. A turn into a wrong alley can lead to a totally new beautiful experience and view.
I think you get the idea! Don’t just sit at your couch. Keep your body moving as much as you can in your daily activity. Choose something you enjoy and you shall never feel tired.
To your great health and longevity!
SECTION 5
Life after Retirement:
Health, Happiness, Gratitude, Being Significant
“If you have health, you probably will be happy. And if you have health and happiness, you have all the wealth you need, even if it’s not all you want." -- Elbert Hubbard
F I L L
Financial Independence, Live Life
achieving financial independence from 9-to-5 job before 50
Book manuscript written in 2020 & blog articles published in 2021 by Vincent Khor
Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash
