Boomers Put Our Own Twist on Exercise

I've just returned from my health club. My NIA teacher didn't show up (a rare occurrence) so I headed for the weight room where I flipped through magazines and chatted with one of my fellow NIA classmates, while zipping along on the recumbent bike for 20 minutes, scooted through the weight machines, and then headed to the pool for a swim. For some reason, I started noticing that 99% of the people in the room were leading-edge Boomers. Then I began to think about how weight rooms had changed. No more Nordic Track machines. Only one stair-climbing machine and one stationary bike. Now, there are stretching machines, rows of recumbent bikes (great for weak or injured knees), elliptical motion training machines (also good on knees), and big orange and green plastic balls for Pilates and yoga stretches. And of course, many more weight machines. Only one young woman was running on one of the old treadmills.

It turns out my observations are on the money. The research folks at American Sports Data inform me that "older Americans are transforming the landscape of physical fitness." It turns out that the number of people who are 55 belonging to health clubs surged by 33% from 1999-2004 whereas the 18-34 crowd had zero growth in memberships.

". . .the compound measurement of Yoga/Tai Chi has grown by 118% . . . . At 11.2 million participants, Recumbent Cycling, a particularly back-friendly exercise. . . has grown 66%. . . . surpassed only by Fitness Walking and Aquatics." And the conclusion? "Mature exercise enthusiasts are not merely playing havoc with abstract fitness statistics; they are rocking the foundations of fitness facilities across the U.S. "

Interesting facts: Pilates participation has increased 506% during the period of the research report, elliptical training machines, 306%, Yoga, 118%, Nordic ski machines, -40%, aerobic rider exercise, -58%, stair-climbing machines, -29%.

These are great trends to contemplate. Boomers as a group are continuing to value physical exercise and fitness as one important key to a vibrant, active life. And, if we need to find new exercises that put less strain on our joints and backs, then we find them and we continue to stay fit. Boomers may yet succeed at making the concept of wellness and prevention a perfectly natural part of our culture and thinking.

Brain: Work on Working

I think it's entirely appropriate, and maybe a bit poetic, that I waited for a couple of weeks to write about findings on procrastination. Maybe they were just new findings for John Tierney, now blogging for the NY Times. He alerted me to them. But I don't care. It got me off the task at hand and into the mood to contemplate various aspects of my life before completing that or any other work. It seems that Piers Steel, a psychologist from the University of Calgary, has published several papers on the subject of procrastination and now has an online survey to measure how much of a procrastinator you are and help you figure out ways to stop it. Your filling it out also helps with his research. Tierney's right. There's no more alluring way to dawdle than to fill out a questionnaire. So have at it. I did.

I thought these excerpts from the site's Treatment page, presumably for those of us who have a really bad case, were helpful: "Too tired to work" was one of the main reason students use to explain their procrastination. . . . Work, especially work, that requires intensive concentration or physical exertion, becomes increasingly unpleasant when our "get-up-and-go" has "got-up-and-gone." So Steele goes on to mention the importance of sleep and exercise as well as structured goal setting, that is specific, challenging, realistic enough to really do, and with few choice points. Many of us go off the rails whenever we have choices. For example, do I search endlessly on the Internet for my old high school buddy or do I write the proposal I need to finish? Do I get a snack or organize my tax documents? etc. etc. I'm reminded of the story that Mrs. Melville chained Herman to his desk while he wrote Moby Dick. Who knows how he might have spent his time otherwise?

And the treatise on "learned industriousness:" "You may have heard that success breeds success, and this appears to be true. . . .If you start a new task, and you fail the first few times, instead of learned industriousness occurring, you might get learned helplessness. . . .When you start a new task, it is very important that you structure it so that your earlier efforts lead to success."

Uh-oh, I meant to do that. I know all these ideas are good for me. And I'm good at them too, but usually only if there's a deadline and real money involved. Need to assign this one to my brain: work on working.

Oh and, when you go to fill out your online survey (why not be distracted and amused for a few?), don't miss the Quotations page. Hilarious!