I agree that quality of life is more important than quantity. I intend to go out riding and hiking, dancing around and whooping it up and living life, not sitting on a couch or nursing my latest aches and pains.

I'm 59, and most days I have some aches and pains. Sometimes my wife says "... since that's bothering you, maybe we should not go (cycling, hiking, etc)". But if I sit out every time I "don't feel like it", it's going to be a downward spiral. The more I sit out, the worse I'd feel. Exercise keeps me going. I understand the need to rest and recover, and that some injuries or illnesses may put me out of commission at times - but as soon as I can I will be back in the saddle and living life to the fullest extent I can, until they plant me and cover me over.

Sounds like, going to bed with all the intention in the world about going for a ride but the next day, waking up having a different attitude... if so, something so simple may be so effective it'll become a new daily routine...

… conclude the usual shower activities with a cool-down-- there's a lot of research about how effective it is to health and wellbeing (written about here) and, it's easy because, it's not the cold so much as it is the change from hot to cold. So, it doesn't have to be an icy-cold shower to effect a positive new outlook on the day.

If interested, I'll fetch the link.

8 months later, I haven't seen the point of medical stress tests without some symptom presenting itself. I also see no reason to moderate intensity, as long as you ramp up in order to prevent injury, and monitor yourself during and after these efforts.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

We don't do things like stress tests in asymptomatic people because we don't know what to do about positive results. Everything we know about how to interpret and act on the results of these tests assumes that those results come from people in whom there is a good reason to suspect cardiac ischemia. The same findings coming from a healthy person are much more likely to be false positives and the problem is no one knows how much more likely because the tests were developed and validated in patients. Medical data are full of borderline values, ambiguous squiggles, and funky images that come and go depending on the mindset of the examiner. These things are bad enough when the clinical situation is unambiguous. They are downright dangerous when it isn't.

As an example of what happens when you start messing around with stress tests, I had a crazy training partner when we were both in our 40s, an elite triathlete, who was a raving hypochondriac. He just freakin' had to tell someone he had chest pain one day, so he gets a stress thallium, they see "something," and he ends up on his back in the cath lab, at risk for a huge list of complications. Of course, he has a completely clean cath and has been fine ever since.

Is this as simple as taking a hot shower - and ending with cold water? If it's more complicated than that, yes, i'm interested in reading more about it.

The latest research suggests we benefit by simply ending a hot shower with cold for 2-3 minutes. For me it's simply dialing it down over a count of 60 and finishing up with washing the conditioner out of my hair. And, it doesn't have to be polar cold– a temperature of 68°F (likened to jumping into the ocean in southern California) is enough change to jump start the system., especially if you ordinarily take a really hot shower to begin with.

How to Shower for a Ride (work, etc.)

I took a stress test because it made my doctor happy. Would have been really surprised if I had seen anything out of the ordinary

The Finns and others have known this for centuries. The hot-cold treatment make me feel great, but also hungry, horny, and, ultimately, sleepy, viz. hyper-normal.

Thanks! I'll give it a go, starting tomorrow morning.

I got it from some book about Yoga, back in the 70's. The book could have been bogus New Age nonsense for all I know, but the idea's been around for a long time.

I'm fairly skeptical of fads and most claims by others of any sort that seem too good or too easy or too self-serving to be believed. I've been ready, going on a year now, to concede that my estimation of the benefits may have been skewed by simple wishful thinking. No, the cool-down does not lead to increased hair growth but, every time I step into the shower feeling like a used rag and ready to succumb to a bone-deep, will-sapping lassitude, despite the previous evening's big plans for a bike ride, feeling as never before like I will discover it's was all just a big, self-deluding illusion, I remain amazed every time how I step out of the shower with an attitude of such great expectations and ready to undertake any challenge-- big winds, hot, humid, cold, looking like rain... bring on the hot coffee!