An inspiration, a challenge, a goal

I’m taking my inspiration this morning from a guy I “met” at the gym back in 2013 and I hope you will too. He was such an inspiration that I documented it. So here’s what I saw and documented. After I tell you what I saw I’ll tell you why I’m writing about it this morning.

Hilton Head Island, 2013: I “met” a new guy I’d never seen at the gym before. He was probably in his mid-seventies (I didn’t have the heart to ask) but the inspiring part was that he had his walker with him, complete with two wheels and two legs with the requisite tennis balls to keep him from slipping and falling. And taped to his walker was his workout routine covered in plastic to keep it from getting frazzled from too much use.

True confession here: When we lived on Hilton Head Island I was quite regular at the gym partly because it was so convenient. In fact, the second from last gym that I used, and perhaps my favorite too, was one that I could ride to quite conveniently on my bicycle. It was perfect in that I got a workout going to and from the gym as well as at the gym, all while riding through the beautiful landscaping of the Island. The only reason I left that gym was because they no longer accepted the free membership (Silver Sneakers) that was provided though my Medicare Advantage plan. The confession part is that I got off track when we moved to the farm for two reasons. Number one is that it was a twenty mile round trip to the gym from the farm and number two is that I rationalized that all the hard work I was doing outdoors at the farm was an OK substitute for the gym. It wasn’t!

Why is the gym so important for seniors? There are four main types of exercise that seniors need:

• Endurance activities – like walking, swimming, or riding a bike – which build “staying power” and improve the health of the heart and circulatory system 
• Strengthening exercises which build muscle tissue and reduce age-related muscle loss 
• Stretching exercises to keep the body limber and flexible 
• Balance exercises to reduce the chances of a fall 

Here is my challenge question to you this morning: if my friend from Hilton Head can go to the gym having to lug around a walker, why can’t you? If you had asked me that 23 years ago (before I had to have quadruple heart bypass surgery) I probably would have said “because I already have more on my plate than I can handle”  or something akin to it. But the real truth is that if I had made time for the gym, I might not have needed to make time for the bypass surgery. That was a real wakeup call for me. Ever since, I have tried to take better care of this aging body of mine.

The reason I’m writing about this today is that it’s time for us to consider New Year’s resolutions (I like to call them goals) and this will give you time to ponder our inspirational example from Hilton Head for a week or so until the calendar flips to 2025; my, how these years fly by for us seniors!  

For those seniors reading this who think you’re too old or too feeble or too something else, to go to a gym, you really should just visit sometime and see how many other people just like yourself are there: young, old and in between; skinny, fat and in between; and any other way you want to size them up. But they all have this one thing in common… they got over the hardest part and went the first time. That was the hardest part for me too: going back to the gym at 80 after having gotten out of the habit while we were living at the farm… and it still feels great!  

So, here’s the challenge: after all the cakes and cookies during the Christmas season, go buy a set of gym shorts (that will probably be on sale after Christmas) and take yourself to a gym that accepts your Medicare Advantage membership and find new health and life staring right off the bat in 2025. You’ll be very glad you did!

Thanks for reading All About Seniors… See you next week!

Bill Milby is a Director of Visiting Angels® of Central Georgia, a non-medical, living assistance service for seniors. If you have questions or comments about this column you can reach him at william.mercylink@gmail.com or search for us at  https://www.facebook.com/VisitingAngelsofCentralGA