Without our good health we have very little to look forward to in life. The basis of a healthy active lifestyle is a good diet and plently of exercise both of which we believe we can achieve in our chosen lifestyle.
Exercise
Hand in hand with a good menu is the need for some exercise. We have been delighted to find that our old bodies can still respond positively to a work out and some stretching afterwards.
The benefits are very noticable in the form of lower pulse rate and therefore lower blood pressure, more body flexibility, greater endurance and an overall sense of well being.
I can hear you all saying you haven’t got the time to exercise. If our modern lifestyles are not conducive to getting the exercise we need then how is it that the average person spends three to four hours a day watching television?
All the exercise we are talking about needing is 30 to 40 minutes per session three to four times a week with perhaps a 90 minute session included at the weekend. That’s less than 4 hours exercise a week total, about one night’s worth of T.V.
This exercise need be nothing too vigorous, but it should at least lift your heart rate and get you breathing a little harder. As your level of fitness improves, then keep increasing the rigor (but not the time) so as to load your body a little more. For example, if a brisk walk along the beach is not lifting your pulse rate any more then try walking through the dunes or up a slight hill. Then try carrying a light back pack, then a progressively heavier one.
Any form of exercise will do; power walking, rowing or paddling, swimming or bike riding, playing golf or tennis to name just a few.
It’s also important to add a few stretching exercises to our daily routine. We find stretching down after vigorous exercise is an excellent way to keep the body supple but we also do it on the nonexercising days.
We have no need to join a health club or gym, no need to buy fancy clothing or gadgets to tell us how many paces we’ve taken. We just get out in the fresh air, breath hard, sweat a little and enjoy. And in exercising together we encourage one another.
When I was training for my successful climb of Mt Aspiring, this was all the time in training I needed. Three sessions a week of 40 minutes durations plus one of 90 minutes. As I got fitter I increased the load and in the end I was carrying a pack with 20 liters of water (that’s 20 kilograms or 45 lbs) both up and down a 450 meter (1,500 ft) climb in 90 minutes. And I was as fit as the guide who was 20 years my junior and had climbed Mt Cook and Mt Aspiring several times that season. He went on to guide on Mt Everest.
Our RV lifestyle allows us plenty of time for exercising but we also make it a priority. We bike ride and hike as our main forms of exercising with swimming or scuba diving when available. We believe if we don’t have good health we deny ourselves a good lifestyle.
At our age we work on the concept of use it or loose it.
