No exercise during retirement equals an early grave.

The other day I had a conversation with my dad, which got me thinking. Well it wasn’t as much of a conversation as a statement he made. I asked him when he was going to start CrossFit. Without hesitation he told me with a smile, I’m retired, I’ve worked my whole life, and now I’m gonna enjoy it. I’m gonna eat what I want, and do whatever makes me happy.

I smiled, said whatever, and walked towards my car, already planning my response to his statement with a future article.

I knew voicing my concerns over his plans in person was a waste of time, because they would have gone in one ear and out the other.

In this forum though, I might actually get through. Sure he’ll dismiss the article at first, but eventually, because he knows I’m right, ask for suggestions about an exercise and diet regiment. If he does it might just lengthen his life or at the least give him a better one while he’s alive.

That call will be hard for him because Marines, even those who haven’t been in uniform for quite a few years, don’t like asking Air Force pukes for advice, especially about exercise. Every time I bring up the subject of exercise, I am given the same speech that goes something like“ I went through Marine Corp boot camp and that’s all the extreme exercise I’ll ever need”.

But in the end I will get the call and let me argue why.

My argument for exercise during your retirement years.

Once again I am not a scientist, yet you’d never have guessed right? That was supposed to elicit a smile. But seriously, I don’t have any hard facts on my opinions. I write about my experiences and make assumptions based on them.

My opinion on inactivity during retirement goes something like this.

You tell yourself that you worked your butt off your entire life; you raised kids and feel you deserve to relax. Sure you do, but lets face some facts.

During your life you were never in really great shape (Oh and the shape you were in during high school or the military doesn’t count because that was well over 30 years ago).

Since then the only thing that has kept your body in semi-working order was daily life.
Now that daily life has slowed to a crawl (no work, kids etc), the aches, pains and weight gain have begun to add up, and you want to relax, which is a huge mistake.

Once you decide to relax and take it easy, your body becomes used to inactivity. Sure you might do some of the things you used to do, like maybe golfing or even an occasional bike ride, but those outings become less frequent over time.

Then someday in the future you decide to do your favorite activity again, like you used to, and you come back from the experience hurting and sore. Mainly because your body wasn’t ready to swing that club or pedal that bike like it did in the past.

Eventually everything begins to hurt due to inactivity (which might take years) and the couch becomes your best friend. Soon after, everyday movements seem too difficult and the pain associated with them is too much to handle. Once this happens you give up entirely and shrivel away.

Age is not an excuse; let me repeat that, age is not an excuse!

Sure you can’t do the things you did in your twenties. Sure it takes longer to recover. Sure it hurts more than you remember. Sure it takes time out of your super busy retirement schedule. But you really need to get off your butt and start an exercise and diet program for your family and for yourself.

Nothing is worse than watching someone, who has all of his or her mental wits about them, wasting away, waiting to die because they can’t move.

So what can you do?

CrossFit of course and no you don’t need to take it to the extreme. In it’s basic form, CrossFit is everything you need in an exercise program. It uses functional fitness principals. Plus all the workouts are scaled to fit your individual fitness abilities.

If you can’t run, you walk, you can’t jump, you step.
Everything is scaled to help you become a better, more fit you.

So what is functional fitness?

Well that’s simple, functional fitness workouts incorporate exercises that will help you to do things that you might need to do in daily life.

For example, lets say that you’re out driving alone and your car overheats and you have to pull over. It is the dead of summer and the temperature is soaring. Lets say your phone is dead and you can’t call someone for help, you remembered that a mile back there was an emergency call box. Without out help, eventually you might get heat stroke, so you need to walk the mile to make a call for help.

Can you make that walk? Seriously can you? What if it’s uphill?

What if you get a flat tire, can you change the tire yourself? Can you even crouch down without being in pain?

Preparing your body with functional fitness will allow you to live life confidently, even if it means changing a tire or having to walk that mile uphill.

It’s goal is not meant to help you win a beauty show, nor to win a body building competition, but to give you a better life. The plus side is that if you do stick with it and follow a healthy diet, your body will change in ways you’ve never dreamed of.

So how do you get started?

Well for those folks on a fixed income or who live in a remote area, you can follow the WOD’s (Workouts of the Day) on CrossFit.com. You will have to do some digging on the site and find alternates for the exercises, and scale the workouts to fit what your fitness abilities can handle, but all the info is there, free for the taking. One of the pluses of CrossFit is that since you will be scaling your workouts as a beginner, for the most part you won’t need any equipment, you’ll use your body weight.

If you have a CrossFit affiliate near by, you really should make a trip and see them.

The instructors are very knowledgeable and are a wealth of information. When you visit ask about a free intro workout, which many affiliates offer first time guests.

Now the hard part, it won’t be easy. You will be sore, and your body will hurt. You’ll have to make time for the workouts, and at times you’ll want to give up. But just remember the consequences of not making the decision.

Oh and one more thing, please consult your doctor before beginning any exercise program.

Just a bit more tough love, see you in the hills.

Lance