mdadams1

Now that we are all at least 50 yrs old or older, has anyone exercised all of their lives...lets say from since they were a teenager. I don't mean you played sports in school/college...but literally had an exercise routine. If you did, what motivated you? The reason I ask is if we want to encourage kids/teens to exercise what can we say to motivate them if we never did it....We see the benefit now but, foresight is so much harder than hindsight...I work with a lot of teens by the way.

Mike A.

Machka 

I've been exercising since I could move as a baby.

I grew up in an active family ... grandparents and parents who walked everywhere, parents who cycled. My grandfather was a mountain climber in his earlier years, and then a long walker later in life. Therefore, both my grandmother and mother got into hiking too ... and the love of hiking passed on to me. Both my parents had cycled to get places from the time they were kids, and then got into hub-and-spoke tours and other recreational and fitness cycling. So I grew up in a house filled with bicycles and bicycle stuff. It was something we enjoyed as a family. When I was in my teens, my mother and I got into cross-country skiing as well.

I don't think I've ever been inactive, unless I was ill or injured!!

I've walked or cycled to commute to school or work and other places most of my life, right from Grade 1. I wasn't really into sports in school, although I had to take 30-60 minutes a day of physical education every year right up to Grade 11. But starting in Grade 7, I joined the track-and-field team and did that for several years. When I stopped doing that, I started running longer distances after school and then, once I graduated from high school, after uni. In about Grade 10 or so, I joined the badminton team as well. Plus I've spent a great deal of time walking, hiking, cross-country skiing or cycling.

In my early 20s I started training with a bodybuilder and got into body building for a couple years. And then in 1990, when I was 23, I started cycling "seriously" and have been doing that ever since ... but I've dabbled in many other things as well.

Did I have an "exercise routine"? Just looking at those two words, I'd have to say no. I don't like the idea of "routine" when it comes to exercise. I have general guidelines and kind of go with what I feel like doing ... and often what I think might help me attain my goals.

So of course, when I was training in track and field and when I spent about 3 years racing bicycles in my early 30s, I had a training plan. And for my long distance cycling, I've got a rough pencilled in plan. And if we've got a hike coming up, we'll do a bit more walking and stair climbing. Things like that. Otherwise, I just try to be active every day. In fact, a day doesn't feel complete unless I have been active.

work4bike

No, I was not an active kid, but as I got older I did see the need to exercise, but just never did it. However, I'm lucky in that I started riding a bike (commuting to work) at a relatively young age (~23), then came the weightlifting...

I wish I could go back to that time and slap myself upside the head and put myself on a different course.

mdadams1

I guess for kids who come from inactive families it makes it much more difficult...even though they have so much access to information and exercise equipment. I know they love to hear the phrase...When I was your age...

donheff

I didn't follow an exercise routine from college until I was about 33. Then I joined a gym near work and have consistently exercised since (36 years). But my formal exercise routine is limited - short high intensity weights twice a week and brief cardio sprints twice a week. Since I took up cycling about 10 years ago I skip the formal sprints during riding weather since I get all I need on the bike.

rydabent

If you set, you rust. This is especially true after you are 60 or so, or after you retire.

Maelochs

I biked, walked, ran around ... but didn't "exercise" until I was about 15, when I took up weightlifting (motivation--some weird relationship between skinny arms and no dates) and walking (as exercise and meditation and something to do besides sitting at home because I couldn't get dates.)

I had asthma which limited me both mentally and physically, but I found that I could overcome most of the mental and most of the physical by exercising and proper thinking. I was prone to lung infections, had severe allergies which caused asthmatic reactions ... basically someone should have shot me as unfit to proceed and possibly procreate.

Later I took up martial arts and got back into cycling because I liked to be kind of fit and able (having felt un-able for so long due to the asthma and general ill health.)

I kept doing it more and more because I felt better and better, and didn't quit until I got married (which is a horrible thing to do. it nearly killed me.) After gaining 80 pounds, becoming completely sedentary, and having heart surgery, I decided I liked being fit and able better ... so I have been crawling up out of the slime ... or at least closer to the surface ... and expect that some day I will actually not be very unhealthy.

So ... what I learn from all this .. is keep your kids sickly and don't let them near the opposite sex and they will be driven to stay healthy all their lives.

peterws

I was forced into PE at school along with everybody else, where we were trained and indoctrinated thoroughly into the glories of dying for one's country (at the political whim of the ruling party).
Loved the bike ever since I got an old wrecked Hercules which had to be pushed home. Come 17 I was after a motorbike. Several of those came my way. I fell off all of 'em.
Came back to the bike as work transport followed by a mid distance running spell and when mountain bikes happened along, I had to have one. All those gears!
I remember with not so fond affection setting off on a 5 hour trip forgetting about the need for either water, sustenance or money!
Biking is now mainly in the gym along with other stuff where I can sweat buckets and impress all the ladies greatly (not). But come summer . . . .

Its worth noting that my major leg joints are all arthritis free
So it's weight lifting time for me . . . .

Gerryattrick

From the age of 15 to 58 I played for a lot of league sports teams in tennis, squash, badminton, football, rugby, basketball and table tennis, at one time playing for teams in four sports at the same period.

I loved every minute of it, was fit as a flea, and made most of my closest and long-lasting friends from these teams. What with marriage, kids, work and these sports I had no time for an exercise routine, other than a bit of running, and certainly no time for cycling.

Unfortunately these sports took their toll on my knees, elbow and back so just before I retired I gave the last of them up and returned to my childhood and teenage love of cycling. Luckily the fitness I had banked throughout my life made the transition quite easy.

Exercise should be compulsory, and attract tax refunds for the benefits it gives the individual and the country in the long term (I'm only half-joking on this point).

Maelochs

Nothing much should be compulsory except civility and decency.

You die on the couch ... okay. Enjoy it. I die on my bike ... okay. I was probably enjoying it.

Freedom is more expensive in a lot of ways, but what the lack of freedom costs are the most important things.

Steve B.

Always active.

Competitive swimming from age 6 to 17. Runner till my late 20’s (injuries), hiker and backpacker all those years. Cycling since I was 33, so 29 years on a bike.

I go nuts if I don’t get exercise. I told my high school buddies, while we were all on a canoe trip in the Adirondacks this past summer, that canoeing was boring and I’d rather be cycling. Then the dog dumped us in the lake and I got to use my swimming skills, yuk, yuk.

TGT1

Always active, never a routine.

As a kid I had a paper route and then a lawn mowing enterprise.

Ran Cross country and wrestled in high school but was never really good at either. Had an after school job with a 10 mile bike commute.

Got into Rock climbing in the 70's and did do some targeted weight work then.

Started a business and didn't have the time to devote to the climbing, but I did make a project out of standing on top of every named peak in the San Gabriels I could see from the house, (about 50 of them) Lots' of nice long hikes.

Got back into climbing in my 40's again, not that good at it, but could onsite about any 5.9 or 10a. Cycle commuting was aerobic preparation. Also did a lot of back country Nordic skiing then and by 60 had bagged all 15 California 14'ers and done over a 1000 routes at Joshua tree. Any weight work etc. was really PT oriented to work on balancing out the opposing muscle groups.

Since the toes and hands have started to get arthritic, cycling is now the primary avocation, although the last few weeks I've been cross training redoing the front yard with a retaining wall and moving a few yards of dirt. Today's workout was stump removal. Probably will go on a "recovery " ride tomorrow.

fietsbob

answer : So Far..

takenreasy

As a kid I always played organized or sand lot sports and road my bike everywhere. In addition to that I took up running at 18. At now 58 I still run, ride (fixed gear mostly) and play ice hockey. As I get older, I'm sure one of these activities will probably do me in.

OldsCOOL

Since high school days I have stayed in shape lifting weights, powerlifting and bodybuilding. On and off through the decades I have cycled, though not as dedicated to riding as I was with lifting. Then, something happened in 2011 that put me back on the road with my ‘85 Trek 460 that absolutely hooked me good. I am very thankful for the Grace that has allowed me to stay in shape my adult years.

John E

I didn't start exercising until I took up bicycling in middle school, and I didn't get serious about walking, jogging, and bicycling until college. I didn't get serious about upper body exercises until about age 30. Ever since I have maintained a good mixed routine of cycling, walking, and weight lifting. My wife took up ballet during our freshman year at UCLA and, almost a half-century later, still takes ballet lessons 3 or 4 times per week and walks a fair amount. I am encouraging her to add a bit of weight lifting to maintain upper body bone strength.

caloso

Played sports year round as a kid: baseball, football, and basketball. Oh yeah, and my HS was so small that the track team couldn’t field enough athletes for all the events so for the league meet they would ask the baseball and tennis players to fill in. The coach was trying to teach me to triple jump ten minutes before the start.

In college I tried walking on the baseball team but got cut so I played lots of intramural. Oh and I tookup triathlon to impress a girl.

Got more into running after law school. Did a couple of marathons a year for awhile. I always kept running and going to the gym. Then I got serious about riding.

It has its benefits. I’m still the same weight I was the day I graduated from high school.

woodcraft

I've worked in construction for over 40 years.

Shoveled 5,000 lbs of gravel two days ago, & yesterday included work on a roof, & climbing over a fence.

Over the years there's been backpacking, skiing, volleyball, tennis, & rock climbing as well as cycling.

Not much time for gym workouts, but some.

I think walking lots of miles as a kid was an important foundation.

wphamilton

In HS: football, track, tennis, golf, and one year even basketball. It was for the sport though not exercise, nothing else until a year of weights in my mid-20's, some martial arts in mid-30's, then cycling in late 40's. Running for a year now, late 50's. But I probably walked or hiked at least 5-8 miles in a week throughout all that, if that counts.

I'd say the only exercise I've been consistent with just for exercise is the running.

gobicycling

As to your question, we have a wonderful recreation program in our town in which children as young as one and two years old are involved. Not sports, but movement of all kinds, balance, water, much of it with parents. These groups and classes are highly attended, hopefully lead to active teen and adult years into senior years.


Parker Recreation - Fall 2017 digital edition

Biker395 

Surfing/Skiing and picked up cycling in my late 20s. I've been at it more or less daily since there.

IMHO, use it or lose it. And a little consistent exercise is better than a lot of inconsistent exercise.

B. Carfree

I was likely primed for it by competitive swimming at a very early age; if you can go back and forth for hours at a time, you can find joy in any physical activity. I soon found other sports and then discovered that my fitness from swimming gave me a competitive advantage. My father also encouraged physical fitness and, to the best of his ability with his 60-80 hour work-weeks, modeled it. I fondly remember him going out for evening runs.

As if all that wasn't enough, I blundered into becoming a biochemist in college. After that, I couldn't become sedentary because I knew what that meant from a molecular level on up.

canklecat

Always active, with the exception of a few years after my back and neck were broken in a car wreck in 2001. I began walking again, first short distances with a cane, then longer distances, eventually working my way back to bicycling.

No routines. Just whatever interested me at the time. I played all kinds of sports casually for fun. Was a pretty serious amateur boxer for several years. Lots of racquetball during the 1970s-'80s. Never liked running but did it anyway. Lots of bicycling.

The past couple of years, mostly bicycling and some moderate strengthening and stretching exercises. It's been slow going, coming back from the car wreck. I've tried jogging short distances a few times, maybe 100-400 yards, but the jolting still hurts my neck due to permanent C2 damage. So I'll stick with bicycling and walking. I can manage fairly fast walking, as long as I'm rolling my feet to avoid impact.

Regarding encouraging kids, I don't know the answer. We have fewer distractions as kids. Sure, there was TV, but it was mostly awful.

Kids have far more choices of distractions now. Many more TV channels. Social media. Video games. On demand music, TV and movies. Millions of short videos that are mostly junk food for the mind, a few moments of distraction that all add up.

Kids also bear the burden of peer pressure for more waking hours. When I was a kid we could get away from peer pressure between school hours, etc. There was more time for self reflection, reading, doing things that didn't involve some form of socializing. But social media has all but eliminated that. They're constantly exposed to pressure to conform, to the extent that they can be pressured and bullied by strangers, people they don't even know and will never meet. That kind of pressure simply didn't exist for most of us who are over age 50.

And the American diet has changed for the worse. Kids snack a lot more on junk. Even schools carry junk vending machines to help pay for special programs, which should be eliminated. I see far more obesity in kids that I did growing up in the 1960s. Back then kids were usually thin, healthy but with low body fat. Nowadays most kids have around 5 lbs of unnecessary body fat -- not obese, but flabby and puffy looking.

John E

The amount of time kids spend on social media does have one evident positive effect -- the juvenile crime rate in the U.S. has plummeted.

You are 100% spot on regarding the obesity pandemic, the roots of which are set during elementary school. I have told my life story in BF a couple of times -- I was a nerdy, bookish, overweight, myopic, un-coordinated kid with no athletic ability whatsoever. By behaving properly, I was able to earn Physical Education "gentlemen's Cs," which fortunately were not included against my 4.0 GPA, in high school. (I did actually get a B in P.E. the one semester I dislocated my kneecap while doing calisthenics. Maybe I would have gotten an A if I had broken something. )

The one thing that saved me from a fate of high blood pressure (runs in my maternal grandmother's family) and obesity/diabetes (runs in my paternal grandfather's family) was my love of bicycling, which started slowly at age 12, when I could finally figure out how to keep one upright, and rose to a crescendo during my college years.

Gerryattrick

Reading all these responses is very positive, but it does make me realise that I should make more effort to put a bit of weight resistance exercise into my life. Just relying on cycling and walking to keep fit is fine, but it does nothing for my upper body strength.