3 months ago I started counting my steps each day with pedometer. Over these past months I started to notice other things that I could do to make my life healthier.
I didn't drink enough water each day so I added a new goal of 48oz a day, something that I could reasonably do. Then I noticed too much salt in my food. I didn't completely cut salt out of my life because I knew I couldn't do it so I cut my salt in half. That was a reachable goal I could stick to.
I began to realize that if I broke my goals down into smaller amounts I could reasonably do each day it was a big motivator. By starting with little steps has really worked for me. I know I can stick to these new changes because my goals are one little step at a time.
1
I use a smart watch that measures my heart rate and graphs the results if I want to look at them. It also has a GPS and my real target each day is elevation gain. It does count steps but that is the least important part as it is measuring other metrics too. The programme behind the watch calculates the intensity of the walk / workout and all of that data is more useful than the headline.
I'd guess that others have access full data sets so that would seem like a batter way to understand some of this rather than "interviewing ones keyboard."
The data is out there. The are also plenty of other benefits from walking for example see https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jul/28/its-a-superpower-how-walking-makes-us-healthier-happier-and-brainier
1
Gave myself a gift of a Fitbit last Christmas, 2018. It has more than paid for itself. I like the challenge of "making" my steps every day, usually within a range of 7-8,000 steps a day.
Most days I can do 7-8,000 steps. Just walking around my apartment and cleaning is 3,000 steps. Some days I try to challenge myself to do more but my knees wont let me. I use the grocery or retail stores, for example, and take extra laps around the aisles. Or I park my car at the end of the lot and take extra steps that way. And I like go to the park and walk to get the extra benefit of peace and green beauty. In other words I use my daily chores and errands to find a way to add to my steps.
.
Since I've had my Fitbit I think about my steps more as a kind of bank account except it's my health bank account. At the end of the day, I like to tally all the things I have done good for myself, no matter how small, that added to my health and wellness accounts. For me, this wonderful tool has more than paid for itself.
So, Keep on Truckin !
7
One step counts more than any: that step away from the processed foods aisle. Eating Low Fiber/High Sugar foods will kill you no matter how active you are.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
12
@Joe Pearce: Thank for the reply. It is, alas, a common delusion of nearly all obese people that they are healthy.
Look at something that politician Chris Christie told David Letterman on national television in February 2013 (with a straight face, no less): “I’m like basically the healthiest fat guy you’ve ever seen in your life.” Yet just days later Christie, with a 59 BMI (Obese, Class III – Morbidly Obese), underwent bariatric surgery. If Christie believed what he told Letterman, why would he have that surgery?
Longevity is not the sole basis for determining health.
The palpable aura of defensiveness in your reply shows that you are more concerned about your health than you want to let on.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
4
@Rev. E. M. Camarena, PhD there is no one food that will save you. I love it when I get castigated for drinking my Diet Coke from someone who is a smoker or is a heavy drinker or obese!
I just laugh and carry on with engaging in my healthy behaviors.
2
@Mary: What on earth gave you the idea that I was writing about some kind of comestible panacea? I simply noted what medical science knows: that processed foods are poison. Whether you like that or not, this remains a reliable Causal Medical Inference which is the highest degree of proof available.
Listen to endocrinologist Robert Lustig on the subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
Dr. Lustig presents the most concise rundown of the damage caused processed foods available.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
5
The point about the context of the steps is fascinating. A few years ago, I came across a study examining hotel maids and weight loss. The maids all worked long hours and had ardous duties but many were overweight or obese, even beyond taking their diets into account. Half the maids were told their work duties should reduce their weight and result in better fitness while the other half were not. Surprisingly, the first group managed to lose significantly more weight than the 2nd.
That study has always intrigued me along with the one showing restorative yoga resulted in more weight loss than more vigorous forms of yoga. In both cases the cause hypothesized by the researchers were the power of placebo in the first case and decreased stress in the second.
I think most people know women who are active doing housework, taking care of their families, and working a job yet have difficult losing weight.
6
Several years back, I determined that on average I took 2,347 steps to make a mile. I'm short; many longer-legged individuals might make it in less than 2,000 steps. The distance really didn't matter, though, only the number of steps did. I walk fairly quickly and, even with the extra steps needed, cover about 3 miles an hour. Absent time considerations I walk almost everywhere I go, and have done so since I was a child. Many of my walks today, when I have the time to spare, are usually between 4 or 5 to 10 or 12 miles in length (but I've occasionally done 20 or so), and include the Williamsburg, Brooklyn and 59th Street Bridges (as kids, we used to walk over the 59th Street Bridge just to save carfare). Despite the fact that I eat a lot and am about 40 pounds overweight, I have no physical problems much beyond a somewhat elevated cholesterol level, and I am closing in on 81. Since I am still very active, but do little of a purely physical nature beyond a lot of walking, I can't help but believe that it is the walking that has been the main - maybe the only real - contributing factor to this outcome. Conclusion: if I (or you) have to run for a train or a bus at 80, so be it. But it's better if you don't take trains and buses at all, ditto escalators and elevators (within reason, of course; John Carradine died at 83 just after climbing the more than 300 steps in Milan's Duomo, so we don't have to get silly about such things).
7
@Joe Pearce
N=1 is the world's most dangerous sample size.
12
@rebadaily
This is good to know and I thank you for sharing it with me. However, if you'd be so kind as to explain what it is I now know, I'd be ever so grateful!
3
Exercise kept me alive. I had a rare tumor type in my sinuses. Because it was rare and in an odd location, it was usually fatal. Googling my cancer with all qualifiers yielded no results, which was terrifying. I had one surgery, a second “clean-up” surgery to remove my sinuses and then 60 grays of radiation. This is equivalent to 12 minutes next to the central pile at Chernobyl. During radiation and while on 2.7 grams/day of gabapentin (nerve blocker from radiation burns in my head), I cycled 75 miles/week at about 18 mph (nearly 800 calories/hour). Riding and Neti pot kept the crud from choking me. Now 6.5 years out, still clean, but the cumulative damage makes exercise tough, especially at age 66. Surgeon said, “Quit cycling.” Nope, not quitting something that kept me alive.
9
Wow. So many words with so little information. I love diet and exercise articles. They really put the "treadmill" in "treadmill" of useless effort! :-)
10
@Jason McDonald. You probably would have found the “words” more of a “wow” factor if the study that was reported had been done with 16,000 men instead of women.
3
Motivation? I have OCD. I like to move. It comforts me. In the gym 6 days per week I stretch, lift, power walk and bike. The lifting is three days per week. At 74 to preserve my flat feet with arthritic "big" toes or bunions I use a recumbent bike and an elliptical. Motivation also comes from the knowledge I am pre-diabetic and that both my parents died with Alzheimer's. I maintain a Mediterannean diet. I don't want to lose my sight, body parts, any kidney function, my cognitive function or any cardiac function. I am more concerned with the quality as opposed to the quantity of life I have left.
Motivation? Given the above it is not an issue. I intend to be a gym rat for the remainder of my days on planet earth. So far it has been s meaningful and precious ride.
19
New Yorkers walk a lot more than most; it's our principal mode of transportation. That walking often involves lugging groceries and dry cleaning home too, which I suppose (hope) increases the value.
9
I literally “run” my pediatric office. As a solo doctor, I easily stand at least 10 hours a day and take more than 9k Steps a day. It is the pediatrician’s fountain of youth, for sure. I’m 52yo, and only my gray hair gives it away.
6
I am a journalist but always take part time jobs as a cook or deli worker, because if you don't snack on the goods, you get a lot of exercise,slamming 30-50 pound packages, hams, etc. And get paid for it! A lot more fun than sitting on your butt all day.
1
I’ve been fortunate enough to have walked between 10 and 15 miles a day (or night), whatever the weather, wherever I go (down the aisle of a plane, up a mountain trail or around a parking lot), whenever I want to for at least the past four decades.
Regardless of the distance walked, I’ve always felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment and well-being of mind and body as a result. The quantity of steps should be measured by the quality of those steps. That’s the secret of a great walk.
Enjoy!
7
I am currently embarked on a personal quest of walking the equivalent of the Appalachian Trail at a YMCA near where I live.
The Appalachian Trail is 2200 miles long.
I try to walk 2 miles every day, with an occasional break of a few days to gather the bits and pieces of myself back together again.
No speed demon am I.
I walk with the help of a cane.
It takes me about 50 minutes each day to accomplish, so Roger Bannister’s record is quite safe from eclipse by me.
Assuming I don’t break down somewhere along the way, I figure I can get the job done in about 3 years.
I can already visualize the Page 1 article in the Times about me.
“83 year old man finishes fake Appalachian Trail walk. Is not attacked by a bear or awarded a trophy. Says he will now try to climb Mt. Everest.”
36
I used step counters in the 1980s and everyone thought I was nuts. Well, tempora mutantur...
P.S. I don’t own a Fitbit or equivalent although I use my iPhone to count the steps when working out.
4
It's interesting that doctors in the 1950s were concerned about an increase in heart attacks. They were probably occurring in men (since male physiology was considered the norm), and the majority of the men were probably WWII veterans. British veterans of the Second Boer War were often diagnosed with "Disordered Action of the Heart," an early observance of what we now call shell shock. WWII veterans were urged to repress symptoms of shell shock and to "tough it out" after returning home. I wonder how many of those 1950s heart attacks were caused in part by repressing the horrors of the war.
17
"man" — literally 10,000 — in Japanese is often used to mean "many".
A better translation of "manpo-kei" is "many step meter".
7
"...were 41 percent less likely to die of any cause."
Those lines in health articles always drive me nuts.
So, what, these 41 percent are less likely to ever die?? Or when they do, it will be be to due to no cause whatsoever??
Last I check, being alive is eventually 100% fatal and there always seems to be an identifiable cause. Call me old-fashioned.
21
@Matthew
It said the study compared participants after four years. So 41% less likely to die after four years.
1
So I am still waiting to learn how many steps I should be doing per day.
10
@Patrick
Just depends upon the mood of your wife; some days you need at least 10,000, other timesl half that many will do just fine, some days though, well, running long and hard might be a necessary antidote.
1
Being a runner I always thought of walking as boring and a waste of time. When my doctor told me to make sure to get 30 minutes of exercise every day, I decided to try walking. Now I run 3 or 4 times a week and walk on the other days. I'm starting to enjoy walking and am seeing the benefits that I never knew about. I certainly feel better when I move my body everyday.
16
All I know, is when I started to volunteer at animal shelter walking dogs, for an hour to an hour and a half, five days a week, plus I now have three dogs that I walk constantly during the day at a brisk pace, it made me feel better, cleared my brain of stress, helped me find new friends to socialize with, and made me a much smaller size at this body weight than I’ve been since middle school and I’m 66 years old. That, being retired, and going to weight watcher meetings and following the program, finally worked for me after 30 years of “trying”, got me to my goal weight, and helped me lose 87 lbs. I don’t care what any studies say: getting up and walking rather than sitting on your tuckus and reading all the time and watching TV or playing video games or knitting, has to be healthier. All the other activities are great, but if you never move, how do you get your metabolism to work properly? I’m not a scientist or a medical person, I can only say what works for me.
18
"There’s no evidence that steps are better for health than other kinds of light-intensity activity; they just happen to be a movement people make often that is also detectable." -- Walking also happens to be a movement that uses the biggest muscles in human body: the quads and gluteal.
Lee may have found that the total steps, not the speed, mattered because most people walk at a more or less constant speed -- their natural speed. If he forced the subjects to walk at a set speed, he would've found that just 5% difference in speed makes a huge difference. How do I know? I have CFS, a condition that makes you hypersensitive to exertion, and I've been experimenting with the effect of walking speed on my CFS. I found that just taking 2 more steps above my 90/min pace for a mile would make me sick the next day. The sustained speed/intensity has an exponential effect on the damage and inflammation. This is why the runners/swimmers/skaters drops the speed by 5% when the distance increases two told.
7
My impression is that walking speed is more important than total steps (walking distance). The blood vessels need to go through a fast contraction/ expansion routine numerous times as circulation dispels toxins from sleepy cells, lungs a complete clear out of left-overs, the digestive system a good shake-out to send things on their way, and all the nerves another thorough good brain-reconnect with mobility muscles. All the senses including balance get thoroughly woken up particularly in the natural world so the brain may have the opportunity to temporarily escape from worldly/ intellectual preoccupation. Walking slow is better than sitting but walking fast feels three times more beneficial to my whole system to me if my knee permits.
8
This made me chuckle: "the higher a person’s fitness level, the lower their risk of mortality" - I'm pretty sure my risk of mortality is 100%, regardless of my fitness level.
54
@Macchiato Haha, nice catch
3
I use an Omron HJ320 pedometer. Its Instruction Manual makes the following claims:
"This Pedometer features advanced 3D Smart Sensor technology - so it knows exactly
when you’re taking a step. It’s more accurate than other pedometers which use a simple
pendulum design. Use this in your pocket, bag or on your hip for added convenience.
The seven day memory helps you keep track of your daily activity to help you reach
your fitness goals. Use this unit everyday to monitor your fitness achievements!"
No evidence is offered to support these claims. It *does* contain elaborate technology to distinguish between long steps and short steps. The manual includes elaborate stride-length measuring instructions to convert the step count into "miles."
I just use it as a step counter. It's accurate enough, and well-built. I just ignore the elaborate claims.
Most days, I make about 1,500 to 2,000 steps. On rare days, I have exceeded 10,000 steps. My step length is not constant throughout the day, so the "miles" are inaccurate, and irrelevant.
I don't compete against myself or strive for "fitness goals." Mostly I just walk to get somewhere. I have access to an elliptical trainer. On days when I use it, my step count goes up significantly. But it's boring.
6
I would like to see companies whose employees have sedentary jobs create different work models that could involve regular walking or moving breaks - and have them be required, or at least approved of and noted favorably in employee reviews. If a person doesn’t move during the day, by the time they get home at night, they’re really not interested in doing so, as a general rule.
9
@Barbara Snider Please don't rate my job performance based on whether I walk or not. However, allowing me time to move is valuable.
5
@Barbara Snider They (employers) tell us what to do all day. Now they should tell us we have to get up and walk? No thanks.
8
@Barbara Snider That's hardly fair to people with chronic illnesses that can't move or walk as much yet still have to work. They would be easily identifiable by their workplace and fellow employees, a violation of medical privacy.
Allowing the time is fine but not enforcing what people do is important. As it stands, some workplaces already require 15 minute breaks twice a day -- like where my brother works -- either due to specific union rules or the recognition that cognitive breaks improve work productivity.
Some workplaces do incentivize different types of healthy behaviors or support them (e.g. provide a standing desk) but even this is somewhat controversial as it allows the border between patient and employer privacy to be breached. People sign up for these programs thinking there is not harm and there might not be but the data can also be use for reasons they might not agree with.
2
Nowadays, people are less active than ever, and it is harder than ever for people to try and meet the federal governments recommendations for what kind and how much exercise a person should get. With everyone using Fitbits and tracking their steps, it is great to see that they are motivating people to increase their activity. This is great for very inactive people or people with heart conditions. What interests me is that although these trackers can track how many steps you've taken they cant track how much cumulative muscle you have given in a day. So researchers don't know for a fact how much exercise people are getting.
1
I am in my 50's and just started using a Fitbit to track my steps and exercises. I find it is a great tool to get me move. The problem I have is that I get competitive with myself in reaching a new personal best each day. Unfortunately, I now find myself more injury prone as a result. Having a goal with a plan is a good thing to have instead of just winging it.
19
The average female step is estimated to be 26".
Therefore, 1,700 steps ~ 2/3 mile.
5
@turbot sounds good like the old "short Romans" Roman mile of 2000 steps which works for me
1
The Exercise Paradox, in the February, 2017 issue of Scientific American provides the answer to "How Many Steps should you take a day"
The calorie use by the scientists was very carefully measured in an African Tribe that still follows primitive hunter gather strategies to survive:
"We enlisted a couple of dozen Hadza
women and men to drink
small, incredibly expensive bottles of water enriched in two rare isotopes, deuterium and oxygen 18. Analyzing the concentration of those isotopes in urine samples from each participant would allow us to calculate their body’s daily rate of carbon dioxide production and thus
their daily energy expenditure. This approach, known as the doubly labeled water method, is the gold standard"
The result was that no matter how many miles these hunter gatherers traveled in their hunt, they basically did not expend more than about 300 extra calories a day.
12
Several commenters seem to believe that separating cause and effect in humans is impossible. Wrong. The gold standard for medical studies are randomized trials, where one group does something, and the other, a control group, does not. Believe it or not, these types of studies have been applied to exercise vs no exercise. Guess what. There is lots of data that exercise creates biochemical changes in humans very quickly that promote health. Here is one example. There is mounting evidence that exercise stimulates neurogenesis, the formation of more nerve cells, in the brain. This will likely help with cognition, especially in the elderly, and may help slow down dementia, such as Alzheimer’s Disease. We evolved with exercise as part of our day. Why believe it is now unimportant for health?
28
After retiring 9 years ago my wife and I started walking. We average 22,000 steps irregardless of the weather. We are now 66 years of age and will continue walking until our health prohibits us. I also cycle and find this exercise easier on my body.
29
@John Bowie you retired at 57? Why? I would hope your 22k steps have meaning for you and not just an end in itself.
1
@Weber. A meaningful life can definitely be had after retirement. One should not be defined by his work. If joy is found in exercise or play what is wrong with that
17
Hey there, what’s wrong with retiring at 57 and walking 22,000 steps a day, with cycling on the side? The same shoe doesn’t fit us all (judge not, lest ye be judged).
11
Almost three years ago, my 71-year-old sedentary husband received a step-tracker as a gift following brain surgery. The man loves numbers, graphs, data. Since then? He walks daily - usually for 1-2 hours. Outside. Rain, snow, heat. At least 10,000n steps each day. He used to hate cold weather. Now he isn't fond of humid, hot summery weather.
A longtime jogger myself (3 -4 times per week), I join him on his walks on days that I don't run.
Even if this movement does not lengthen our lives, it has certainly increased our enjoyment of life.
174
@Kate
Cute story!
6
As a person who has "fought the battle of the bulge" for several decades, I have a note or two on the article. the ending comment about how "people like to know how much " [exercise] oversimplifies what one needs to do. Considering some of the multiple exercize recommendations I've heard and seen confusion abounds. First,"Spend 30 minutes a day, six days a week." OK, that needs at least another 30 - 45 minutes of getting dressed before / after exercise. Second, "10,000 steps a day" Thats 4 - 5 miles and takes more than an hour. Third, When do you exercise?
At 0-dark-thirty in the morning, during your lunch break, or when? (Every place I've worked doesn't allow a couple of hours for a workout and eating lunch). To finish, the "adding just a little bit more" advice. Nobody can tell you how much more. Perhaps the solution is to go back to about 1950...no power steering, power brakes or automatic transmission in the car, walking a few blocks to the transit stop, no dishwasher in the kitchen, no yard service (or gas-powered lawn mowers) only eat more fruit and salads.
22
@Gregory Throne
Or the 1950s when people didn't change their clothes to go for a walk. Just go for a walk! It doesn't have to be a power walk! Just make it a normal part of your day, like the rest of the steps (not 10,000 but anything over 1700)) .
9
@Gregory Throne: I find hackneyed puns about fighting “The Battle of the Bulge” revolting. Cracking lame jokes about the second deadliest battle in American history is not just trite, it is cold-blooded and disrespectful.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com/
3
I find it fascinating the modern ability to be offended
7
As a freelance writer on natural health strategies, I recently wrote a 5000 word two-part series on aging naturally. I reviewed over 25 recent research results and 3 meta-analyses on common conditions and diseases associated with aging. (I did not include chronic diseases as those are for the most part controllable.) The two most important factors were 1) diet and 2) exercise. While diet expectations were mostly clear because of the ability to measure the benefits of nutrient and plant compounds to our body's specific systems and organs, exercise was much less defined. This is where common sense must lean in: instead of exercise, let's call it movement. How much do you move each day? How much weight bearing movement is part of your daily routine?
27
The article indicates that the medical community can change its collective mind as often as Trump changes his. What’s next? Maybe arthritis, high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s, and many cancers are caused by gut bacteria. Maybe salt is not always bad for you.
9
@Richard Wright
Correct: salt is "not always bad for you." Most people who have relatively normal blood pressure do not need to worry about salt. That is, our systems are good at maintaining electrolytic homeostasis, if we're drinking reasonable amounts of water, eating foods containing potassium, and are not eating gagging amounts of salt.
It's different for people with high blood pressure, of course.
3
I'm cursed with the need to get right to the point. I read through this article, but to but, and found no conclusion other than maybe couch potatoes don't do well. But maybe they don't do well and that makes them couch potatoes. But another study found...
44
@tony barone
I'm with you. How do we know that more steps improve health rather than that healthier people feel well enough to take more steps?
6
It is very American to think that your mortality is something you can control through self-discipline, temperance and moral rectitude. There may be some small benefits but your life span, like everything else, is carried in your genes. Sorry.
One thing that I have noticed is that people my age who jog and exercise the most, are the ones getting most of the knee and hip replacements. I'm not knocking exercise but people should know that there is a cost to overdoing it especially after fifty.
37
Actually all the evidence is that environmental factors—not genetic ones—largely determine mortality. That is not to say genes don't play a role it's just that their effects are generally swamped by the effects of risky behaviours, diet, and physical activity.
8
The date of your death may already be biologically or perhaps spiritually set in stone but the quality of your life is in your hands (and all the other moving parts). I’d much rather do my best to prevent the long list of horrendous, debilitating diseases known to occur in sedentary individuals with a poor diet and die on my due date knowing that I’ve made the most of my body while I still could.
5
@Asher
I'm with you, Asher, rather than with the healthy eat/exercise and all will be fine group. My healthy-eating, non-drinking, non-smoking, walking every day father died at 73 from pancreatic cancer. My morbidly obese and sedentary ex-smoker mother lived to 89, with as sharp a brain as one could want at any age. She would have lived longer if she hadn't decided that she'd had enough, declined treatment for a recurrent infection, elected palliative care, and died peacefully at home. So go figure. I exercise because I enjoy it, but I don't for a moment think it will override my genes, whatever they are.
4
150 minutes of exercise a week — that’s like more than two hours - 30 minutes more, of something I’d feel pretty stupid for, standing in one area or mechanism — committing that aerobic act. I’d rather be working on my tractor, trying to hook up the improvised box-scraper, constructed from was a former ‘clamshell’ barbecue (Made from a 24 inch 5/16” thickness oil pipe, sliced down the length and capped on both ends), Then be “chained”to one exercise or aerobic activity.... that’s like a marriage commitment!
7
Most of my 278 steps per day are taken around the corner to the pizza place. And I'm fit as a fattle.
20
@Jay Why LOL. I hope you are getting extra cheese and double pepperoni on that pizza! And hey if you use one of those delivery apps all you have to do is walk to your front door and somebody will bring the pizza to you.
2
Eat, move, sleep, and keep breathing until you die.
20
My brother, a college professor considered to be a bit eccentric by some, walked briskly around his small town for 45 minutes THREE times a day for over 30 years. In the middle of a conversation he would excuse himself when it was time for one of the walks. He never smoked or drank booze in his entire life. He ate a large plate of eggs and bacon every morning and drank dozens of cans of diet coke a week. When he was 69 he went to bed one night and died in his sleep.
I got drunk almost every night for 20 years until quitting in 1974 and smoked for 42 years until quitting in 1992 and never did much exercise. I have blueberries, walnuts, and almonds for breakfast every morning and drink dozens of glasses of water a week. Now at 84 I have outlived all my relatives and am still going strong. Knock, knock.
81
@Richard W. King A healthy mental attitude may have as great an affect on our longevity as exercise.
3
@Richard W. King
"blueberries, walnuts, and almonds", that's the secret. Only add strawberries, cherries, pecans and pistachio nuts.
3
I think that just proves the old adage you can't outwalk a bad diet.
5
I was a long distance runner for 40 years then -- in my early 70s, I had a serious fall during an early morning run. I stepped on a sweet gum ball. After the accident, I could no longer run so I started walking. Now my FitBit goal is 10 mi a day and most days I exceed that distance. My resting heart rate is in the low 50s and I feel great. I compete with my children in their 40s. I love being outside in all weather -- I walk in my ski clothing in the really cold weather. My FtBit clearly challenges me to make or exceed my goal and it's really fun to embarrass my children when I out perform them.
64
How did you know the gum ball was sweet?
14
I’m pretty sure you can outperform me on any given day any given week any day any given month any given year. My resting heart beat is around 50 also. The problem is you really can’t make a claim for cause-and-effect. If somehow you could live your Life again and not do all that exercise and find out that your resting heartbeat is still 50, would you be happy or sad?
2
He meant one of the ‘balls’ that falls from a Sweetgum Tree. They are about an inch in diameter. But under one of those trees, there are hundreds of them. It’s essentially ‘ball’ of seeds.
4
Writers reciting history from 50 or 100 years ago often err on the side of stating that some social or cultural phenomena are recent. Such is the statement that in the 1950s doctors considered exercise dangerous for people over 40. What doctors? What study of doctors was reviewed for this statement? I'm in my 70s and I recall telling my father in 1959 to get up off the lawn chair, stop drinking beer and get some exercise based on his doctor's recommendation. My exercise hero in the 1950s was the "Flying Finn" Paavo Nurmi. I wasn't a fast runner, but I could run a long time. In 1956 President Eisenhower established the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. And in 1963 we had the Kennedy 50 Mile March fad inspired by President Kennedy's fitness suggestion to the Commandant of Marines based on an executive order he found from Teddy Roosevelt challenging the Marines to march 50 miles in 20 hours. That would be over a hundred years ago. All of this preceded Dr. Cooper's jogging fad by many years.
30
@Condelucanor - Let's not forget one of my favorites, Jack Lalane.
9
t@tom harrison
It's Jack LaLanne (1914-2011). He came from a Basque family, sheep herders who moved to the American West. They brought along their habits of moving, being active all the time, and exercising as much as possible, LaLanne amplified the message, including a clearer focus on the need to select healthy nutrition over the appeal of commercial junk food. He brought his twofold passions to the attention of the general American public through his TV programs. He was not alone in being fully convinced of the benefits of natural exercise, far from it. But he certainly had a major impact on the public's consciousness. He was one of the heroes of the awakening of the exercising movement in the mid 20th century, the dawn of a new era.
7
@Condelucanor In Jane Austen's 1814 novel Mansfield Park, poor wan little Fanny gets even wanner and littler when she can't ride her pony for exercise. So yes, I think that even in the olden days people knew exercise wasn't deadly poison.
Draughts on the other hand. Now those *would* kill you.
I think it is without debate now days that movement exercise is a good thing for human beings. The human body is after all designed to be mobile, not simply parking somewhere all day long.
As for what is the right answer in terms of "steps" in exercise.... I think this is the wrong focus. Just like there is no magic pill for weight loss, there is no magic answer for how many steps per day is the right number for any given person.
We are all different and as such.. we need to set up a regular program of light to moderate exercise that is tuned for our lifestyle, diet, genetics, and any pre-existing conditions. What should be avoided is extremes one way or the other... because no exercise is generally accepted as non-optimal for health these days... but at the same time... extreme exercise can cause as many issues as it mediates. The object of focus should be on good general health and well being... not how many pounds you can bench press, how many reps you can do, how great your muscles and body look in the mirror, how far and fast you can run, etc. etc.
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About ten years ago my physician said I had elevated high blood pressure and my girlfriend who was vegan introduced me to her diet and coupled with routine of gym 3.5 times per week and use of bicycle on part of my work commute eliminated elevated blood pressure. Not taking any meds and bench pressing more weight at age 59 than I have my entire adult life.
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Humans are not lab rats. Researchers may never be able to perfectly control for this or that factor, to precisely separate correlation from causality.
There is a reliable fallback to offset the inconclusiveness : common sense and intuition.
Move.
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My mom in law died at age 101 in her sleep with a recent COPD Dx and was sedentary for her last 15 years, go figure!
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My mother was sedentary for my entire life- I never saw her exercise. She lived to be 102. I believe it's genes and all the exercise and good eating isn't going to change the outcome. None of us get out of this life alive.
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@Dorothy
None of us get out of this life alive? Is the fact that no one has up until now scientific proof that no one ever will? I cling to the hope that I will be the first exception.
@Richard W. King
And I hope that when Mr. King gets our of this life alive, I will be the person still standing there, waving goodbye to him. Go for it, baby!
My cardiologist recommends walking an hour/day. It’s a bit hard to reach that, as life, and weather, gets in the way. But I’m trying. Somehow, in high school, I ran 10 miles each day. But that was a very long time ago.
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I use the parking lot exercise regimen. I park my car far from the store, walk several hundred feet, and walk between stores in the same shopping center. As a bonus, my cat doesn’t get dents from other drivers.
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@Anonymous Its only too late when you say so.
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@Anonymous
15 mins is better than nothing and 30 mins is better than 15 mins.
The worst response is I can't do 60 mins so I'll do nothing at all - I am surrounded by folks like that.
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Those who moved less may have been suffering from aches, illness, lack of mobility. So which came first? Cause and effect is hard to conclude here.
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As a 73 year old former marathon runner who now runs 3.5 miles about 4 times a week and walks many additional miles, I like the think that such exercise will contribute to my longevity, but I fear that studies like the one reported do not control for other factors in the women's lives that may have more to do with their longevity than the exercise itself. For example, people who are inclined to take many steps each day may have a matching commitment to healthy eating, reducing sodium intake, for example, and sugar and caffeine, all of which might increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, etc. People who step out less often at that age might already be suffering from obesity and disease, so we would want to know about these other factors before crediting the steps themselves. One might predict that stepping out frequently while increasing high risk eating behaviors is unlikely to prolong life. Sadly, the medical profession is quick to prescribe pills for high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol rather than urging changes in lifestyle. I'm a big fan of steps, but they are only a part of what each of us must do.
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@Jamie McKenzie, Ed.D. Western medicine is quick to use to the quickest tools at its disposal. But lifestyle changes are, far and away, the best route for ones personal health (assuming theyre a path to healthy remediation).
Can't deny its the easiest choice, but thats more a barrier to overcome than it is a reason not to make those changes.
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