EXERCISES YOU CAN DO WHEREVER YOU ARE

Are you getting an hourglass figure with all the sand in the bottom?  Is the floor getting farther away when you bend over to touch your toes?  Can you look down and see your feet when you’re standing up straight – or is there a ‘beer belly’ our in front?  Do your legs shake like jelly when you walk?  Have you noticed that you avoid stairs, or pull yourself up them by the handrail? 

If so, you’re unfortunately part of the in-crowd.  Far too many of us are in poor physical condition.  Physical fitness for the masses is slipping away more every year.  We are getting mechanized in everything we do today.  Know-how has taken the physical labour out of manufacturing jobs.  Typewriters, computers and business machines work with the lightest touch.  Our homes are electric; the housewife must beware lest she get calloused fingers from pushing buttons.

Even in sports we have taken exercise away.  We have golf carts to eliminate walking and ski lifts to take us to the top of the slope.  Instead of rowing, we use motorboats.  We are weekend athletes, or maybe only TV sports watchers.

Yet we all need daily exercise.  The body remains strong only if it is used.  Those parts involved in our usual daily regimen remain in reasonably good tone; those parts we don’t use get weaker.  More than 60 percent of the people in physicians’ offices are under exercised.  The only time many people step up their heart rates (the heart is a muscle and needs daily exercise) is when they get excited, smoke cigarettes or run across the street to avoid being hit by a car.

The only answer seems to be to make exercise part of your daily activities, like brushing your teeth and combing your hair every morning.  And while any exercise program should have a certain amount of vigorous activity, such as running or jogging, there are other calmer yet beneficial exercises that can be done almost anywhere.

For example, as you brush your teeth, pull your stomach muscles in tight and pinch your buttocks together.  Stand on one leg when you put on your underwear and stockings instead of sitting down.  It you walk to a commuter train, take big steps, breathe deeply and walk on your heels to stretch your heel cords.  If you’re driving (or riding in) a car, pull in your stomach muscles every time you stop for a streetlight.  Hold them tight until you start the car again.  Don’t ride elevators – walk up at least a floor or two.

If you are a housewife, do stretching exercises while making the beds.  Every so often stop whatever you’re doing for a moment, rise on your toes on one leg and hold for six seconds.  When you take the baby out of the crib, slowly lift him overhead four or five times.  As you do the dishes, do deep knee bends slowly.

Many other exercise you can do while working at home or in your office.  Don’t answer the first ring of a phone; sit there, pull your stomach muscles in tightly and hold until the second ring.  After the call, attempt to pull the phone apart, holding this position for six seconds before you hang up (next time, try pushing it together).  After a client leaves your office or after coffee with your arms, keeping your legs extended.  There are exercises you can do to improve your body- as part of your daily activities – from the time you get up in the morning until you go to bed at night.

Take a look in your mirror.  The average person is ten or more pounds overweight.  Many people can’t understand why they are tired most of the time and fatigue so quickly with a little activity.  But when you carry extra weight, your body has to work harder than normal.  Working harder, the muscles fatigue.  When fatigue sets in, muscles get tight, and the blood supply cannot circulate. With impaired circulation, the muscles ache and you have pain.

With daily on-the-job exercise, you can gain strength, and with more strength you will not have the fatigue and pain.  (You might also cut out some of your snacks and lose the extra weight.)  Before you begin an exercise program, have physical examination.  In most cases your physician will tell you that such a program is the best idea you ever had.  He will also indicate what exercises would be best for you.

Do exercises slowly for the first week.  Feel your way along so as not to hurt yourself with too vigorous contractions of the muscles.  Always exercise short of the point of pain. Remember that at first you will have a little muscle soreness.  Keep exercising – after a few days the muscle soreness will leave you.

Here are a few exercises almost anyone can fit into his daily schedule, using any lime available and repeating at least three times during the day.

·        Neck extension. Place hands behind your head with the fingers laced together. Attempt to push your head backward for six seconds (counting one-thousand–one, one thousand–two, etc.) as you resist with your hands.  Resist at three different positions – with head forward, straight, and all the way back.  Stretch your neck as far as you can in all directions.

·        Shoulder flexion.  Sit at your desk (or table) and raise your arms forward until the backs of your hands are touching the underside of the desk in front of you.  Keep your stomach muscles tight and your back straight.  Attempt to lift the desk, pushing for six seconds; then relax.  Vary this exercise by standing in a doorway and trying to push it apart with the backs of your hands.

·        Squeeze the desk together.  Sit at your desk; attempt to compress it by pulling your arms together, resisting for six seconds.  This exercise helps to keep the chest muscles strong and the bust firm.  Use stove, refrigerator, wardrobe or any other convenient item of furniture.

·        Back exercise.  Bend over at the waist, holding your legs with your hands behind the knees.  Pull your stomach muscles in and attempt to straighten your back.  Resist back extension with your hands and hold for six seconds.  Try this exercise anytime your back feels tired, but remember to stretch and loosen up the back before and after.

·        Straight leg raising; back ward.  Lean over a table.  Slowly raise one leg as high as possible (for six seconds).  Slowly return to starting position.  Alternate legs.  Vary by raising leg with knee bent. 

·        V sit-ups.  You can do this one in bed.  Raise both legs and your upper body simultaneously – keeping your legs straight, with arms out straight for balance.  Hold this V position for six seconds, slowly returning to the starting position.  Three of these exercises will help you to relax so you can get a good night’s sleep.

·        Hip flexion.  Sit on a sofa with your feet under the coffee table.  Hold the top of the table for stabilization. Raise one leg, keeping the knee straight until the toes touch the table.  Try to lift it with the straight leg for six seconds; relax.  Alternate legs.

·        Stretching on the stairs.  Stop as you go up the stairs, hold onto the rail and place the balls of your feet on the edge of a stair.  Slowly rise on the toes as high as possible; stretch.  Slowly lower down beyond the edge of the stair, stretching the heel cords.

In choosing specific exercises, think about your job.  Do you work in an office?  Are you a schoolteacher? Do you work on an assembly line?  Do you drive a truck?  How can you exercise on your job?  Make a list of exercises you can do daily as you go about your tasks.

Many people wonder how to remember to exercise.  They start off exercising regularly for a few days or a week, and then they get busy and forget all about it.  Here are a few helpful hints.  Try sticking pieces of adhesive tape around to jog your memory; for example, a small piece of adhesive tape on the corner of your mirror will remind you to pull in the abdominal muscles as you shave or comb your hair.  Or choose exercises that you can do whenever you hear a bell or the phone.

Remember, if you can move a muscle you can strengthen it.  It doesn’t matter how old you are – if you start slowly and add resistance slowly.  Your strength and range of motion will increase.  Begin today; tomorrow you’ll be a day older.

I have never seen anyone who could move a muscle and was willing to work who couldn’t gain strength and have a more active life.  You’ve reached middle age when your weight lifting consists of standing up.