Dr. George L. Dixon - "Talking Fitness"

THE SPIRIT IS WILLING BUT THE FLESH IS WEAK

An increase in activity any time during your life will yield great benefits for the whole rest of it. Exercise probably does increase your life expectancy, at least a little, and it certainly will help to crowd all the worst of life into the very last of it! A recent study of 90-year-old folks showed that simple thigh exercises could increase strength by 200 percent in just a few weeks. This meant they were less likely to fall and break a hip. What a payoff!

Pick something active you like to do and do it for 10 minutes three times every day. You may get a little tired at first, but stay with it unless you are exhausted for an hour or so, or if your muscles and joints stay sore for more than two hours afterward. If so, cut back--you are doing too much.

A good time to reward yourself, is at six weeks. Find a friend to join you. Variability pays off in renewed physical and mental resolve. Award yourself a bright new shirt or shorts for every one inch or five pounds lost. Concert tickets for 20 pounds.

"Staying the course" is an old expression--the course is your lifetime! You may provide your body and mind with rich and varied activity or with a set daily measure of fuel burned in activities. Exercise a la Carte!

Men's Health magazine suggests that you "put your money where your mouth is" and bet your partner, say, $40 that you will complete a two month program (for example). Odds are high that both of you will.

Speaking of numbers, count backward when doing repetitions. Makes them seem like less and less instead of more and more! Make an appointment with yourself. Treat each activity appointment as importantly as you would a business meeting or a critical luncheon date. Avoid staleness by cross-training and alternating days. Try seasonal switching of programs.

You get full activity credit for an enthusiastic afternoon or evening spent line dancing at the Sundance Saloon, ballroom dancing at the Blue Moon, or rocking at JJ's. Your companion will love you for it.

That down feeling about three o'clock in the afternoon can be quickly reversed by a brisk ten minute walk, especially with a friend. Perhaps that friend will be your "activity partner," and you can encourage each other from day to day to keep each other active. A jogging stroller can be used for walking too. Great for child or grandchild care, too.

Arrange frequent changes of music. You will use different muscles! There is music available with a variety of beats per minute in almost any style you can wish. Try classical music sometimes, especially in stereo, with headphones. Clean and garden or rake and hoe to music. Exercise to MTV.

Pedal your stationary bike backward, or sit backward on it while pedaling. Walking backward down an ordinary staircase uses entirely different muscles than walking forward. It does require new balancing acts. Using your stepper backward increases thigh muscle use.

Videotapes, either travel or scenic, will bring more realism to your exercise machines. Point-of-view videos can be your companions on your exercise bicycle, stepper, stair climber, indoor ski machine, or treadmill. If the narration is tiresome, turn down the sound and turn up your own kind of music--then "Exercise a la Carte"!

You have l68 hours available in each week.56 hours will be spent sleeping. 40 will be spent at work. 14 will be spent in the car. 10 hours will be spent eating.In front of the TV? 14 . That leaves 34 hours.

How about investing 30 minutes each day in ACTIVITY?!

More help is available in "Exercise a la Carte", here, at your bookstore or call 800-624-4952.