What Sport do you do to keep fit?

No but its very, very quiet - its the chasseurs we have to worry about most! That said its just common sense to wear bright colours, keep alert and trust no-one in a car…

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What sport do I do ? Well i’m 61 now, and trying to just keep myself fit enough that i feel healthy without sustaining injuries. These days my OH and I dance socially Blues / modern blues…and i walk …yep just walk.
In my younger life soccer, rugby ( Navy trials and played for a few ships) …and all sorts of water sports from sailing, surfing, kayaking, snorkelling.
Like David , i was better on the water than in it; swimming although was fine and comfortable in it, just wasn’t quick and it bored me rigid.
In mid 30’s took up running for a couple of years, 10k, 1/2 marathons etc…fastest time for 10 miles was 63 mins 20 …
but yes walk and dancing are my only exercise these days

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I’m fine at swimming just not fast and I’ve never enjoyed it. If you swapped cycling for dancing my CV is very similar to yours.

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At seventy one and sixty seven respectively Madame Wood and myself try and get round the golf course at least twice a week, in nice weather up to four times. I know it’s considered by many as a ‘good walk spoiled’ but we always play in each others company save for individual competitions and usually get round in about three and a half hours. We play off of about the same handicap of 20 so it’s very competitive and great fun.

https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2016/golf-s-many-benefits-brought-to-the-fore-in-health.

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I reckon that anything that gets us out into the fresh air… and moving… has got to be good… sounds like your Golf fits the bill very nicely… :relaxed:

Yoga! But it’s for mental/emotional health just as much as it is for physical health. Plus it’s a fantastic way to make friends, in a class full of people who care for their bodies and minds. :grinning: Thankful that Paris has such a great variety of affordable yoga classes in English. :pray:

I also enjoy climbing at Arkos here in Paris, as well as in Fontainebleu (although the last time, I dislocated my shoulder, so I have to ease back into it). Otherwise, I bike to work using Velib, so that’s a great way to build in a little automatic exercise, even on the days when I’m too lazy to be intentional about physical movement. :wink:

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I did golf once upon a time.

It was encouraged where I was working at the time and there were lots of golf days so I decided to try it. Started with a course of lessons with a pro and he seemed to think I did OK and I really enjoyed the lessons. So I decided to get equipped! Half set of ladies clubs, tees, balls, one glove (!), spiky shoes and even some check trousers. I really enjoyed the driving range and testing out all my clubs.

Then I tried an actual golf course and I was hopeless. Trying to judge distances, selecting the right cub, hitting the ball when it was in grass and not on a tee, green etiquette, 20 shots on the green etc etc. I went precisely 3 times and gave it up as hopeless.

Happily, I changed jobs and no-one played at all. Gave everything away in the end. There’s probably a moral somewhere in this story but I’m not sure what it is.

Anyway, I understand the golf course near me in Mazamet is very good and people come from far and wide to play it. If you are ever in the Tarn you might want to give it a go. There is a small group of holiday villas right next door to the course as well (I worked there for a while) if you are interested.

Hi Jacquelyn and Welcome to the Forum

sounds as if your fitness regime is very well organized… phew… I’m in awe… just contemplating that lot. :open_mouth:

@anon92567933: “There’s got to be a moral here but I’m not sure what it is”.

Maybe it’s that (organised or fetishised) sport doesn’t suit everyone, and isn’t the only and not necessarily the best route to fitness?

I’ve never been interested in sport and never engaged in it, except at school where it was compulsory, and subject to strict criteria of performance and achievement. You were either a success or a failure. I was considered the latter (I wasn’t the only one) despite trying my best, and came to hate sport, except - perhaps - long distance running. There’s a moral there too, perhaps.

50 years of nursing kept me fit. Nursing is (was) very physically demanding work, and one was in one’s feet and physically active for 8-10 hours non-stop. I remained strong and flexible all my life, and have never suffered a serious illness. I have a little weakness now in my wrists, but can still ‘touch my toes’ in a standing position, and lift my wife off her feet easily.

Gardening helps me to keep me moving freely, and walking on uneven terrain helps to keep the spine alive and responsive.

Half and hour’s standing meditation maintains poise of mind and body too.

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I love to watch sport Pete but, it’s true, I’m not good at it. Most sport takes lots of practice and training and I get impatient and frustrated when a skill takes a long time to learn.

I’ve done various things over the years in an attempt to lose weight and get fit but none of them really lasted very long. Whether it was swimming, fitness classes, roller disco (!), the gym etc. :running_woman:

The most longstanding one was salsa dancing which I picked up really quickly and was surprisingly good at. I stuck with that for a few years until my friend got a boyfriend (selfish cow :smile:) and stopped going. Didn’t want to go on my own. :dancer:

These days, with dodgy knees and hubby to care for, I try to walk as much as possible but that’s about it. The last six holiday seasons have been great because I had a part-time job cleaning holiday villas which was really demanding physically and a fantastic workout but I’ve had to give that up this year.

We have nurses come in twice a day now for hubby and I’ve noticed that they all have wonderfully toned and shapely legs. All that rushing from patient to patient all day every day is obviously great for the legs. Lovely ladies as well. :woman_health_worker::angel:

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Mandy I’m not convinced that being thin and being fit run in parallel. While medical nursing I saw not a few stringy athletic-looking types die of massive heart-attacks. Obsessive push-the-limits exercise can be dangerous, and sometimes life-limiting.

Not wishing Ken Wheatley ill, but I thought grimly that when he wrote about how slim and fit he was; and, of “fat, unfit” types, “it’s your heart attack” he should be careful not to tempt fate. He might live to regret having spoken those words. Let’s hope not. :thinking::confused::zipper_mouth_face:

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I reckon that “being fit” covers the mental as well as the physical… and it must be better for folk to feel comfortable/happy (not smug) with how they are… than to fret all the time…(possibly trying to achieve the impossible…).

Having said that… we do all know about sensible eating and drinking etc etc… and sometimes I am very sensible and sometimes I am definitely not… :open_mouth:… but I am nearly always happy… :wink:

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I think Ken was right when he said that fitness has different components so it is a bit hard to define what you mean by “fit”. He was also right in that a weightlifter does not necessarily have cardiovascular fitness. I’m not totally sure about “unfit” (ultra) marathon runners though - sadly he isn’t in a position to expand on that remark.

I would disagree a bit with his claim that being overweight (or obese) makes it harder to become fit - that’s true up to a point; if you are sufficiently obese that it directly impacts your mobility then it will, of course, impact your ability to improve your fitness. But, if that is not the case then having more bulk to move around may well make exercise more effective.

In any case one does not need triathlon levels of fitness to be healthy.

Indeed - neither of the two runners who died following the Cardiff half marathon were overweight.

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A good measure of cardio vascular fitness is the time it takes for your heart rate to return to normal after exercise. It’s simple to measure, especially for an ex-nurse; measure your resting pulse rate, do a simple repetitive exercise, a good one is step-ups onto a low step, perhaps a repetition of 20 steps to get your heart going then measure your pulse rate at regular intervals until it returns to the starting point. The ‘fitter’ you get the quicker the recovery rate.

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Totally agree, Paul. The word “fit” begs the question “fit for what?”, and Ken’s components didn’t seem to include the obvious (to me) element of statistically predictable susceptibilty to illnesses or injury. T2 diabetes being a fairly obvious one, but also degenerative changes in the weight-bearing joints etc.

The latter are not uncommonly experienced by otherwise very strong and heathy individuals as the result of excessive strain, wear and tear in the course of a lifetime’s work.

Up until my hip gave up five years ago I was playing competitive football and badminton every week as well as working on a building site nearly every day and I considered myself pretty fit but I was overweight. I now walk most days (sometimes as much as 10kms) and am making a conscience effort to shed some pounds by drinking less and cutting out crappy food, not sure what else I can do to give myself every chance of avoiding any sudden medical mishaps.

Ken’s fitness boasts are the extreme end of what you should do to stay fit and would not suit the vast majority of the population.

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I lift weights, do some yoga, walk a lot etc etc so I reckon I’m reasonably fit but of course that’s no guarantee of general health. I have a prolapsed disc for instance. My only reason for trying to keep fit is to be able to do all the things I enjoy now for as long as possible.
I gave an example further up the thread of my last MD(a Ken clone) who had a heart attack at 55. He probably thought he’d be the last person to suffer something like that, but you just never know.

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At 74, I compete on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Seniors circuit which I’ve been doing for years (“Seniors” start at age 35 in 5 year age groups). Have been playing for 67 years and competing for 65 years). In terms of the “stay fit” topic specifically, tennis and the training involved give one stamina, agility and improved mental fitness (you’re on your own on court so have to work out how to beat an opponent alone). The other “fitness” one learns is how to be magnanimous both in defeat and in victory. And that is in spite of my extreme competitive nature! “Winning isn’t everything, but losing is nothing”!

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IMO squash is much harder, I gave it up years ago when I considered I had reached my peak! I do suffer now from bad knees and elbows and wonder if it was from my earlier years of throwing myself into the game !:dizzy_face:

Years ago when I was training to be a specialist PE teacher one of the lecturers explained how we would be walking a fine line between preparing our bodies for a lifetime of fitness and well being or overdoing it and suffering from sports related injuries. To date I have few long term problems from the broken arm I suffered playing football, the fractured tibia and fibula playing rugby or the shattered teeth I endured playing hockey, rugby and even Windsurfing; my major problems come from the prolapsed disc and subsequent surgery I got from renovating my house in the 1990s. Luckily the best treatment for the aches and pains that I get as a result of that is exercise and the worst thing possible is too much inactivity and sitting around. I was so pleased to find that I could still run, jump, ski and Windsurf because for a long while I really thought that I would be restricted to walking, gentle cycling and swimming.

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