In his case, Peters goes to the Gwinnett Place Mall in Lawrenceville, Ga.–not to shop but to keep his heart from stopping.
The 77-year-old suburban Atlanta resident walks three or four miles, an exercise routine he says keeps his blood pressure down, his cholesterol in check and most important, his ticker ticking.
“I’ve seen a lot of changes since I’ve been walking. I’ve got a lot more wind, you might say,” said Peters, who has survived three heart attacks and a triple bypass. “I feel better for the rest of the day.”
Peters, a retired carpenter, started walking after his November 1995 heart surgery. Like many seniors in their 70s, he did not include working out as part of his workaday life. “I don’t want any more heart surgery. My cardiologist tells me, `Don’t quit walking, just keep up regular exercise.’ He says my heart is like that of a 20-year-old, but I don’t believe him.”
As America ages, exercise–or a lack of it–may dramatically affect the health of the nation in the 21st Century. With 75 million Baby Boomers strolling toward their 70s and 80s, America could become polarized: A country not only of rich and poor but of healthy and fit seniors versus those who are ailing and immobile.
The emergence of strength training as an elixir for an aging generation may be one of the most important health discoveries of the 1990s. It can reverse the age-related loss of muscle, slow or even reverse osteoporosis and even help diminish depression — conditions that affect older people disproportionately.
For many people, strength training coupled with cardiovascular exercise could mean the difference between enjoying their golden years and suffering through them.
Dr. Kenneth Cooper, a physician known as the father of the aerobics movement, calls it “squaring off the curve” of life.
For most people, Cooper said, physical functioning steadily declines, a sort of downward curve, as they go from midlife to old age. The descent, in effect, leads to a slow death over the last 12 years of life. “These people are just existing. They are not living.”
But those who enter their golden years in a healthy, fit state can condense those years of deterioration, disability and limited capacity into a much shorter period. “If we don’t do something to square off the curve, we are going to have one big problem trying to care of a bunch of disabled, hospital-bound people,” Cooper said.
In the Atlanta area, many programs cater to the older crowd, ranging from strenuous Senior Olympic contests to more sedate “chair-cises.”
“Increasing quality of life is probably the No. 1 goal of these participants,” said Kristin Schulz, senior adult exercise specialist of the numerous New Kids on the Block classes at Promina Health Place in Marietta, Ga. Open to the community, the center offers low-impact aerobics, water aerobics and strength training for people age 50 or older. About 120 are enrolled, ages 50 to 90.
“Exercise wasn’t a part of their life so getting over the initial intimidation is a part of it,” Schulz said. “Then they get into the camaraderie of the class, and how it makes them feel is really rewarding for them.”
Dr. Spencer Rozin, an internist at Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, recommended that seniors exercise three to five times per week, 20 minutes per day. He said he has seen improvements in his patients’ cardiovascular fitness, weight reduction, blood pressure and diabetes.
“I also always recommend a stretching program to avoid injuries and stretching tends to keep them limber,” Rozin said. “I’ve seen improvements in patients with arthritis by keeping their joints more limber. They returning to being much more stiff if they stop the stretching exercises.”
Exercise also can lessen another common ailment of aging: depression. “I recommend exercise for folks who are depressed because it gets them out of the house and it triggers chemical reactions that makes them feel better,” Rozin said.
Even people in their 8th, 9th and 10th decade of life who lack the mobility and strength for aerobic routines can benefit from stretching and limbering exercises done in a chair.
At Budd Terrace Wesley Woods Center on Aging in the Atlanta area, about 20 residents of the intermediate-care nursing home attend the daily 30 minutes of chair exercises set to music in the auditorium. The average age is 85; some are over 100.
“We try to work as many areas of the body from the toes to their neck while they’re sitting down,” said activities director Elizabeth Eakes.
“It’s geared for functional use of their muscles and joints. It allows them to maintain their independence and that’s very important. It helps them be able to comb their hair, assist in their own bathing, when they’re getting dressed.”
