Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
I think you and others touch on something that I see in my work with the elderly. Almost all older people of the war/post war generation did not go to a gym or even perform athletics but those that "age" well physically seem to have had active lives in the form of moderate workload like farming and/or lots of walking. The worst are those that worked and then do nothing upon retirement, having earned a long desired rest. The mind that accepts regular exertion as normal seems to be more fit long term. I would say fitness is far easier to achieve (and more beneficial long term) if it is the result of overall active lifestyles rather than sedentary lives interposed with activity on a gym.
I'm fairy lucky ATM to be able to bike commute once again to work (after a few years of car commuting 2 hours each day) and walk a lot as part of my job. This helps a great deal as far as basic training goes so that I can jump into activities at a more advanced level rather than having to work up from an entry level of fitness. The more I can jump into activities, the more activities I do. It's a self fulfilling cycle of fitness that is a pleasure to experience once it happens. The world of physical experiences opens up because I am basically capable of doing them moderately. From there I choose which I really enjoy and work further on.
During Rowan's recovery, his physiotherapists generally seem to work on specific tasks to increase his range of motion in his right arm, for example, and others.
Meanwhile, with or without their knowledge, I've been encouraging a more general approach from getting him up and walking back in the hospital, to the gardening, and of course cycling.
He is still within 1 year of his accident, but is probably fitter than a lot of people I see around. And the neurosurgeon he saw for his back just about fell off his chair when Rowan told him that the longest ride he had been on to that point was 27 km (he did 40 km yesterday, so we're still progressing!). The neurosurgeon said that it was extremely unusual for someone to cycle at all, let alone 27 km within the first year of a brain injury of the severity of Rowan's. But I wonder if maybe most people don't have someone encouraging them to do that ... and don't have the background and motivation to do that.
Anyway, we're probably both not as fit as we were, but we do have a reasonable sort of fitness which we can build on.
