The human body is, believe it or not, designed to work. We have an intricate muscular system that is capable of lifting more weight than we care to lift. Some of us lift more than others, and some lift more than they should all the time. Some of us don't bend our knees, even though that's what the Occupational Health Poster tell us to do that is up on the pinup board in the lunch room lounge, where we shovel in as much microwave popcorn that we can fit in our hand--, all day long for some of us. Since this is the twenty first century, most of us don't lift anything heaver than an ATM card thanks to the information age and the young and or underemployed lawn-care service techs that do most of your chores around the house.
Hey, I'm not knocking it; you are the one that looks like you could benefit from so manual labor not me!
My point here is simple--, if you allow your body to turn to mush, you are not doing your body a favor. Now is the time to control the mush before the mush controls you. By doing some light weight lifting along with some light calisthenics and or some aerobics you will not only look better, you are going to feel a lot better.
I can just hear the whining now--, "oh but--, blah, blah" sorry preaching to the choir.
As you know, the older you get and the more you hire out your personal household task that, believe it or not did have a health benefit after a week of working in an office planted behind a desk. Now you have deprived yourself of what little exercise you had to offer your poor aging bag of bones.
Weight lifting does not have to be a $1,000.00 a year Gold's Gym membership where you have to touch all the sweat that some muscle bound pinhead has selfishly left for you to deal with. No, all that is really not necessary to derive some sort of health benefit. Now if you are interested in mingling with those people, go for it, but health are not a fashion show or ego boost for the insecure. Leave that to the high school crowd, it's time to get that mush ball off the belt and the last thing you need is a dose of embarrassment.
When you start to lift weights it will hurt, and that is why you must take it slow. No pain no gain is a childish approach to this endeavor. I'll let you in on a little secrete--, you know that pain you feel in you muscles after a work out, well those are actually tiny tears in your muscles.
Those tears heal and then you come back and tear them up again. I suppose that is where the old saying came from (no pain no gain) but for us old folks, that seems to be a load of bunk! Hey who said that you have to lift any thing to work your muscles? It was not me, and I'm sorry if I mislead you in to thinking such a notion! Think that lifting could do more harm than good, no problem even walking is weight lifting in my book. It's a workout and even better if you walk with both hands holding some heavy objects. You just have to swing your arms in a normal fashion and what do you know, you have just worked out and got to check out the Jones' to see what they've been busy with for the past few weeks.
The bottom line (and it seems that's all we care about anymore) is if you take the time to assess your present physical condition by discussing a possible workout regiment with your family doctor, I'm sure your doctor will congratulate you on your decision, because if done with a plan, you can start improving your health immediately!
