Back in July I wrote about my weak, atrophied right shoulder and how I would be experimenting with Kettlebells to strengthen it. Luckily, I have not managed to reinjure the shoulder, or make it worse. Yay. I have not pulled by back out swinging a Kettlebell half my body weight (yes, I did swing about that heavy one time), or inadvertently dropped one on a toe at the end of an exhausting set. In fact, a whole lot has happened since July that could be called positive, if looked at in just the right light. Kettlebells, if swung Russian style, which means not above the shoulder, are a great strengthening exercise for my type of injury. I have been doing quite a bit of this, along with a slew of other strength and conditioning exercises. It has been lots of fun. I do dare say much more fun that Yoga! Yikes, I’m done for now. In fact my whole mind-set has been swung around. I’m no longer allergic to the gym. I’m prefering push-ups to downward dogs. I’m working out in the company of my gym rat buddies, not alone on my 3 x 7 feet of yoga space at home. I haven’t turned anti-yoga, I’m just not annoyingly crazy about it anymore. Long sigh.
As we near the end of the year and start looking ahead to a new one, many of us aging boomers (though my exact age will remain tastefully unrevealed, by some estimations I am included in this group) are faced with more thoughts about aging. How will the turning clock affect me this year? What does gravity have in store? How will my hormones play havoc? Some of us become obsessively serious about our health and fitness as we contemplate our fifth decade and beyond. All of this seriousness will, in the end, contribute to an early demise, so the trick is probably to be fully committed to your health while at the same time light hearted and carefree.
This is the conclusion Lauren Kessler comes to in Counter Clockwise: My Year of Hypnosis, Dark Chocolate, and Other Adventures in the World of Anti-Aging.
I enjoyed this book a lot because Kessler gives many of the current tenets of the antiaging movement serious consideration. In fact, she immerses herself fully. She tries the raw foods diet, she tries calorie restriction, she gets some ‘work’ done on her face, she detoxes. One oversight is the Paleo diet, which gets nary a mention…..we’ll assume it was just too contrary to her belief system and let it go at that. She also gives little mention to meditiation and the importance of a peaceful mind. She does, however, give exercise a long, hard, honest, look and concludes that serious sweat time is the best way to stay young. She backs this conclusion up with reference to lots of scholarly research. Yay. Exercise is low cost, (should be) fun, and reaps big rewards.
A whole chapter is devoted to ‘Thinking Young’, by which Kessler means your mental outlook and your tendency to pessimism or optimism. Aparently, after age 40 your biological age is the least accurate age indicator.
A good book for the new year. Remember, new year resolutions have to be lifestyle resolutions, not miracle fixes. Happy Trails!