2nd week of 150 minutes

Mostly indoor biking High intensity workouts.

Finished week 2 reaching 150 min of exercise aerobic, strength activities.
Besides 4 days of aerobic biking I included two sessions of indoor walking and two stair walking as well. I did two minute rounds of shadow boxing, all of the activities push into aerobic fitness. Shadow boxing I wild a little more and this week I will do at least two strength training workouts. 

I'm cool, ready to go

With different activities my minutes will go up with biking 4-6 times pushing my aerobic fitness. Walking and stairs don't look like much but with a life time of falls and injuries I am trying.

I side benefit is better flexibility. I have more challenging balance issues than in the past. Indoor walking helps. 

How to make indoor walking work? Try a recumbent stationary bike. Very easy to get on the bike and very stable. The support on back and comfort is a plus. One can listen to an audio book or follow a fitness program on TV, smartphone, tablet or computer. Listen to music or TV to help time past. Every couple of minutes change resistance up or down to stay in your heart range for an aerobic workout. Listen to your body if breathing or heart rate gets to high lower your level and intensity until heart rate goes down. Make sure your doctor has given you some guidelines that fit you.

Having distractions makes the time fly and before you know it you reached your goal.

If you walking outdoors walk early or later and stay hydrated. This year we are not used to the heat. Walk trails with plenty of shade. Use sunscreen and a big hat. If you have not been walking go for short walks. There are days when it is just too hot to be outdoors. Keep moving. 

Improving fitness

This is what I did aerobically this
week. Goal will be to increase
aerobic walking.

Guidelines for adults our goal is to strive for 30 minutes a day of exercise. Walking, running, swimming, biking all good ways to get us moving. The guideline of 150 minutes a week is reached with 5 days of walking. The benefits of exercise this way are one of the best ways we dealt with the stuff that means us harm. Exercise helps, the heart, the brain, the immune system, weight control, balance, blood sugar, memory. What ever is part of our aging story.
Guidelines are goals which may mean we are starting somewhere below those goals and hope to build ourselves up to reaching those goals. There are many reasons why we find ourselves unable to reach them. It is also possible we may have to change how we exercise, from running to walking, from swimming to water aerobics, from walking to biking, from biking on a two wheeler to a trike. There may be other changes as well.
Your goals may have to be defined between you and your doctor. Shorter walks in your 80's and 90's have been reported to be of tremendous value. When I started this blog I worked with the foundation of aerobic, strength, and flexibility. In aging balance becomes part of fitness equation.
The more time I am up and moving the better my balance is.
So here is the biggest thing of all - do it! Keep walking

Suicide, who would of thought

Anthony Bourdain’s apparent suicide surprise us like a seldom used change up when we are sitting on a fastball. We are totally taken back. I remember being a kid hearing Superman, actor George Reeves committed suicide. Bourdain a man of the world, a man of words frames a travel script that makes Rick Steves look like he is in kindergarten. His death occurs while he is working an episode in France center zero for everything Bourdain loves, food, wine, and lots of talk. The French investigation has ruled suicide. Nobody has suggested otherwise. I hold out 5% if there is a possibility of foul play because Bourdain was often political in his programing had to have made enemies along the way. 

Suicide, hard to believe but that is how we often look at it when it happens. The following is a response I wrote in the NYT to an article How Suicide Quietly Morphed Into a Public Health Crisis

“Since depression can hit any of us I think it is time to attack it like we do cardiovascular, cancer, and diabetes. Suicide has hit the top ten of causes of death. By 63, 25% may be clinically depressed. A depressed person needs the intervention would give a cardiac event.

Yet it is too hard to get entrance into a hospital for evaluation and treatment. If one does get admittance one will lose personal rights. Units are locked and treatment is more like being in prison than a voluntary admission should be.

People trying to deal with their illness should be on parr with those treating other deadly conditions.

The brain how complex, when something goes wrong it often impairs our ability to seek help. Depression creates a depressed hopeless world. That is why we should plan ahead with support we need to deal with depression better.

Trading a gun or noose with a sympathetic needle is no solution.”

If you know me, you know I sought out help and went through hospitalization and treatment. I have been on both sides of a locked door. I did lose rights. I appreciated the care and intelligence behind my treatment and therapy. But getting admitted and how we look at these things needs to be more friendlier. 

Follow the NYT articles there are trends happening with suicide that are alarming. 

• Despite all the research and resolve to treat depression and suicide it has risen 25% measured from 1999 to 2016. NYT Benedict Carey June 7 2018
• Guns usually are involved in 50% of Suicides
• Alcohol and drugs are often involved in suicides. The increase of opiates has to factor in this increase. It isn’t always mental illness that sparks suicide. Acute conditions can cause suicide. 
• Downfall of economy will bring a rise in suicides. 

Make it easier for people to get the intervention they need to battle suicide. For people who are willingly seeking help take the locks off hospitals treating depression. Locked units should only be for the process of law. There are millions of people who voluntarily seek treatment. 

Every person reaching there 50’s and 60’s should have a mental check up like they do for their hearts, cancer and diabetes. Life stresses and losses mean something. 

Bourdain’s travels gave him some hard trials that broke down his health. On some of his shows he was seriously sick for weeks.

He was a drinker and had used drugs and maybe that was a strong factor. 

He looked at the dark side of things and if you are there for too long who knows. 

I liked the guy. I am sorry he had thoughts of suicide and actually acted out suicide. How would CNN and the NYT had covered Bourdain if he did an intervention to prevent suicide. Would he still have been a man of the world? Would he still have kept his show? Would we have looked at him differently had he had a heart problem or cancer? My questions are leading but I think we have to make it easier to take on a blue world. Keep walking 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/health/suicide-spade-bordain-cdc.html?WT.nav=top-news&action=click&clickSource=story-heading&hp&module=second-column-region&pgtype=Homepage&region=top-news

OK I am sitting working, how can I use sitting cardio training?

I am working at my computer this afternoon and I want to add some exercise. I came across a workout for seniors that worked on strength training, flexibility, and balance. That got me thinking are there workouts to do boxing or kickboxing from a chair. On my browser was several options. For example if you learn the moves you can create your own program to box a few minutes To 30 minutes. I saw worked out from Paula

Paula Bowers demo of
Kickboxing

Bowers that have a kick boxing work out for 13 minutes. I tried it and it was aerobic. The movements really give the abs a workout. There were other exercise programs that would be good for people who were disabled or injured in still wanting to work out. The workout that Pahla did can be found at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE_Eh_mXPNI
You can modify this workout by slowing down the punches and kicks. Moving your body at your pace give you motion, flexibility and easy on your joints. At the pace Pahla works out is more cardio and strength training and a good goal as you get used to the workout. I always think it is a good idea to watch the program first and see how of the movements work, then adapt them as you need to.
It is a known fact that many people sit. Yes it's a good idea to move around through out the day. I like the idea turning my workstation into part of my fitness program. I asked a question, "How can we use sitting to exercise?" At some point in our life we may have to. Boxing workouts can actually help sitting to become a healthy exercise. Keep walking.

7 Strength, Balance, and Flexibility Exercises for Older Adults from Go4...

Along with the Fatman exercises that I've developed that helps us to maintain our strength and flexibility, here are some good ideas that are very practical. As we get older we have to find a way to keep ourselves moving as strong. Keep walking

Do you know what your targeted heart rate should be in exercise?

When I exercise, how do I know what my heart rate should be? Our targeted heart rate changes as we get older. One of the best answers to that question comes from your personal physician and in my case, information comes from my cardiac specialist. In my case the doctor wants me to exercise to improve my aerobic health. For my age and fitness level in exercise I should not go above 117 heart rate. 

The share care article, “Ask the Expert: What Should My Heart Rate Be During Exercise?” gives a formula that gives you a target you should shoot for. 

One of the things that we realize is that we can't train the same way as we did when we were younger. Now I think it's possible that an older person has kept their fitness level high. If so then they should be thinking fitness goals given by a doctor who knows them. There has been changes because I know of no athlete who competed a high level in their 20’s and 30’s can do the same in their 40’s, 50’s and beyond. We do age and we have to factor that in.

Now myself, my fitness is below par. So I have to start where I am at. Progress is slower. When I am exercising I aiming for reaching 75% heart rate to have aerobic exercise. How do I know I am there? 

To get a handle on your heart rate start with the number 220. Then subtract your age and you will get your heart rate. What trumps this is your health. If you are in poor physical condition then you will need a doctor’s advice. 

Generally most people the formula works, but people find away to be unique. For example in the last 40 years we are generally heavier then earlier generations. Our obesity changes our fitness.

So I start at the number 220 and I subtract my age of 66 and I reached 154. (220 - 66 = 154) This optimal number.  I next want to know, "What is 75% of that number?" (154 X .75 = 115.5.)  Round off the number and I am at 116. My target heart rate has moved from 117 to 116. Well, it has been about a year since my cardiologist gave me my goal. 

We don't want to get too intense!

How do I know where I am at? Fitness monitors and how do I feel? I want to be breathing harder but able to talk. I want to sweat but not two heavily. If my monitor or body tells me to reduce my exertion then I will do it. With practice I have gotten pretty good at reading my body. It is real easy to over exert, but now the risk is too high. A heart attack is not the goal. 

        HIIT High Intensity Interval Training really helps me here. Brief increased levels of activity my heart rate goes up then I go back to my control speed which still raises my heart rate but that heart rate goes down to safe levels for me. For example in intense biking where I either increase my resistance or speed that I'm peddling my heart rate reaches a 110-115. I maintain that for a couple minutes then I either lower my resistance or speed and sometimes both and my heart rate goes down to a 100 or below. 

I know from other studies that if I push my blood through the arteries 15% I am helping clean my arteries to keep the blood flowing. As my fitness improves and breathing becomes easier I should be able to spend more time in my exercise at that 75% heart rate. 

The bottom line is we have to learn to read our bodies as we get older and be aware of her own personal fitness goals. Check out the link below Keep walking

https://www.sharecare.com/health/heart-health/article/ask-the-expert-what-should-my-heart-rate-be-during-exercise?partnerid=HCA-CONT-WICH&cmpid=sc-et-em-00-up-050418&eid=1100069048&secureID=xGMyIl3IGPrasYnUgKpSEoMJqJ3NyrvSF2yKqwpL_m8nQWH8pRcCfP-Hlb30jwI9SkXWmn_bDh7i8fdmmG8-qA

Looking for guest bloggers on this topic, "Are seniors discriminated against in healthcare?" Do bald lives matter?

In a recent hospitalization that I had for a lower leg infection I encountered an unexpected problem. Due to my age and handicap I was restricted to bed and I could not get out of bed unless I was supervised. An alarm in my bed would activate if I got up on my own. I could not use the restroom or get up and sit in a chair unless I was supervised.

I did not know that I had an alarm on my bed until I was sitting on the side of the bed and used my arms to raise my lower body to adjust for comfort. A loud alarm sounded and all the staff rushed into my room with determined looks for war to put me back in bed. I was actually was obeying the bed rest order. The alarm was too much. 

Historically, I have a good track record for being appreciative, compliant, and cooperative when I am in the hospital. Rarely will I complain, all though I do whine too much to Barb, but with the staff I am patient, sweet and in best humor. (Being this way is best for manipulation.) When I went through a hospitalization after having serious surgery the first few days I was out of it. I was told I was a good boy but at times said silly things.  I was unable to get up until the third day but was then encouraged to do so. 

Now with age and disability I was getting the strong feedback of a loss of rights. My whole life I have  pushed against my disability and did everything possible to stay independent and self-reliant. I was in the hospital for an infection, not for fall prevention. Behaviors in the hospital like going to the bathroom or getting up from bed and moving over to the chair were all activities I could do without ever falling. There may become a time when, due to aging, this may become an issue. 

I talked to a couple of my doctor friends about it and they told me they would put me on bed rest.  I argued that it is still conjecture and that it is my continued right to walk on my own. Since I was compliant the alarm was removed. I told them I would set off the alarm continually until they removed the alarm. I worked out a schedule where the aide could walk with me as I walked the unit. I put in a protest to the administration that I believed my rights were violated. I had the opportunity to speak my mind and then I let it go because I was there to heal from an infection not some gray life matters protest. In my case I may have to say, “Bald lives matter.” 

I know there is a balance between rights and disability issues as we age. How we are devalued as we age is of real concern. 

If you'd like to Post a comment about older people rights or like to write a guest blog on the issue of senior rights let me know. You may have an opposing point of view.

I have a hypothesis. If people's values are diminished then I think it's quite possible their healthcare will be compromised and diminished as well. What do you think? Keep walking