Running into middle age

Like most people, I find that I am getting older every day. And like most people, I’m not too thrilled about it. Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of say in the matter, so I am learning to cope.

I think when I passed 40 the reality of aging really began to set in. I don’t consider myself to be “old” just yet, but I can now see senior citizenship on the horizon. There’s no changing reality of course, but I decided that it was time that I put more focus on my health so that I can increase the odds that I will age gracefully.

The most significant thing I have done along those lines is to start exercising regularly again. It had been at least 10 years since I had a regular exercise routine when I made that resolution, but when I started a new job this year that included free membership at a gym I decided that it was time to get back into it.

Back in the 70s and 80s I was caught up in the jogging craze that swept the country. If you’re my age or older I’m sure you remember how popular it was back then. A lot of us could be seen wearing warm-up suits and headbands as we trotted alongside the shoulder of the roads in our neighborhood. I was running up to five miles 3 or 4 times a week at the time and I actually enjoyed it.

So naturally when I thought about exercising again I wanted to include running as part of my routine, but I wondered if I might be too old now for that sort of thing. Would I have a heart attack after the first half-mile? Would my knees give out within the first month? Would water aerobics be a more realistic regimen for a man my age?

I decided that the best way to find out would be to give it a try, so I went out and bought a new pair of running shoes and hit the indoor track. After about two months of running three times a week I’m happy to report that both my heart and my knees are holding up just fine.

And this week I came across a news item that made me feel very good about my decision to get back into running. A study from Stanford University School of Medicine seems to indicate that people who run regularly in their middle years are more active and have fewer disabilities than non-runners when they reach their 70s and 80s and are they are also 50% less likely to suffer an early death. Even knee-related problems were more common for relatively inactive test subjects than for people who ran for exercise on a regular basis.

This study is just latest in a long string of them that suggests that regular vigorous physical activity is the closest thing there is to a fountain of youth. The most significant cause of disability as we get older is not the passing of time, but inactivity. People who exercise regularly do feel the effects of age, of course, but the declines are far more gradual than they are for sedentary people.

I realize that it gets harder to do just about everything as you get older, and exercise is certainly no exception. But as we need to keep in mind that if we don’t push ourselves to get off the couch and move around we will be spending more and more time confined to that couch and eventually we won’t be able to get up from it without assistance.

None of us can cheat the aging process, but our actions have a significant effect on how we look and feel as we travel down the road of time. I for one plan to keep on running as long as my body cooperates. And maybe in 30 years or so I’ll be ready for that water aerobics class.