65. Keeping Fit - Is It Worth the Trouble?

Topic 65 8 February 2019 Keeping Fit - Is It Worth the Trouble?

1. Do you believe that you are physically fit? What is your reason for being fit or not fit?

2. Is being fit the same as being healthy? Explain your idea.

3. Some men and women think it is sexy for women to be physically weak. What is your opinion?

4. Here are a few common measures of fitness: a) Your resting heart rate; b) Your high (systolic) and low (diastolic) blood pressure at rest; c) Your maximum heart rate; d) Your heart & blood pressure recovery rate (how quickly do they drop to normal after exercise?); e) Your VO2 Max (the maximum amount of oxygen your lungs can take in during exercise - see https://www.brianmac.co.uk/vo2mile.htm ); f) Your HRV (heart rate variation at rest: wider variation is good); g) Your balance (how long can you stand on one leg?); h) Your endurance (e.g. how far can you run?); i) Your strength in different parts of your body (e.g. how much weight can you lift?); j) Your body fat score (see https://www.accumeasurefitness.com/body-fat-measurement-charts-for-men-and-women.html ); k) Your 'fitness age". This is different from your birthday age. (Fitness age can be calculated from VO2 Max).

=> How many of these measures do you know about your own body? Do you want to find out? [ Keeping a measure of changes is sometimes a good way to see if you are getting some long term medical problem]

5. How many steps do you do a day? (A common minimum for good health is 10,000 steps per day).

6. What exercise do you do, if any? Why did you make that choice?

7. Most people like to exercise in a group, or club, or a gym. Some prefer to do it alone. What is your choice? Why? [Comment by Thor: I have been distance running for 56 years, and prefer to exercise alone while I listen to language courses etc. I find that in groups or with a friend, when one person drops out, others stop too. But that's just me].

8. Do you have a wrist exercise tracker? Some of these are very cheap, and some are quite expensive. The online statistics program which comes with them is very important (check this before you buy). After using exercise trackers for several years, I find they are not very accurate. However, they are useful to show how your body changes over time, and they motivate you.

9. Do you think that doctors can give you useful advice about exercise? [Comment by Thor: My own 73 year score card with doctors has been that most are really ignorant about exercise detail, and have been almost 100% useless with my occasional running injuries. Do your own careful research and experiment].

10. In earlier generations very few people did deliberate exercise. Why do you think they usually didn't do exercise?

11. After age 30 people normally lose 5% of muscle a year. It is replaced with fat. Then they become old and weak. Do you think it has to be that way? [Comment: most doctors will tell you that you can't avoid this process. Most people surrender. Yet at 73 I still have most muscle, and still run. That's not luck. It is consistent exercise. In my opinion, laziness is the world's number one killer. Do you agree? ]