Now from my point of view, exercise is an incredibly important element of maintaining one’s health, but there is only one glitch for me – I am not particularly keen on actually doing it (with the exception of walking) – quite unlike Tim who loves and thrives on exercise.
He keeps telling me that we are meant to move and be active, and that if we don’t use it we will lose it – especially as one ages. So don’t get me wrong, I do exercise, it is just that it is not something I really cannot wait to do.
However – over the past thirty years I have tried and tested a few different forms of exercises such as
- . Tennis
- . Hatha Yoga
- . Bikram Yoga
- . Skiing
- . Cycling
- . Walking
- . Swimming
All of the above I have dabbled in for various lengths of time and found them great fun and beneficial. However the only thing that I have done consistently over the past 30 years is walking – especially with the dogs that we have owned over that period of time (either in Hyde Park when living in London, rural South of France in the 90s) and now on the beach here on the Sunshine Coast since the beginning of this millennium.
I have found walking extremely beneficial – especially when walking fast and getting my heart rate up. Research shows that walking every day for only 30 mins. can be very supportive to your overall health. It is also FREE – you don’t have to pay for it and it can be done anytime, anywhere, day or night.
However, the latest research now shows that high intensity training is extremely effective and very time efficient for people who say they have no time to exercise. It also guarantees that your body will produce the elusive Human Growth Hormone, when it is put under duress during the training, which is superb for maintaining health and for ‘youthing’. The body produces less HgH as one ages.
I have a terrific small booklet, written by an amazingly good and prolific British researcher called Phillip Day (www.credence.org) In this he explains painstakingly the incredible benefits of high intensity training and really blows out of the water the myth of going to the gym for hours each week. I shall explain on a separate page my regime – easy and simple and it only requires 20 minutes twice a week for excellent results over time. By the way you are actually only exerting yourself for a total of 4 of those 20 minutes – the rest of them you are recovering. So how hard is 8 mins exertion per week!!
I also religiously do my “Five Tibetans” exercises daily, which is my way of getting my body revved up for the day. When I am in Switzerland and the UK, where it is very cold in the winter – after these short exercises of only 10 mins – I am warm and ready to face the day. See our article about the 5 Tibetan Rites for full information on how to perform them. There is also an excellent booklet explaining them in detail by Christoper S. Kilham.
Lastly, it is also important to include some simple weight bearing exercises for bone strengthening, especially for older women about 3 x times per week. Simple exercises with weights will suffice for more details on this see high intensity training.