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Best, Cheapest Retirement Investment for Baby
Boomers? Exercise!
By Ellen Freudenheim
Author of
Looking
Forward: An Optimist's Guide to Retirement
Jan. 21, 2005 - People are always
talking about investments for retirement. Financial investments,
that is. If you start treating your health as an investment,
though, you could find that exercise is a terrific retirement strategy
worth its weight in gold.
Physical fitness can
be a cash-free retirement investment that pays off handsomely.
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Cash-free you
ask? While the promise of getting something-for-nothing may sound like a
snake oil sales pitch—“Fabulous Investment with No Cash Down!!” -- in
this case, it’s for real. Sure, lots of men and women spend big bucks on
equipment and sports clothing, spas and fancy gyms and personal
trainers. But aside from buying a decent pair of sneakers, you may not
need to spend much cash to launch this part of your personal portfolio.
And that’s because
what you’re investing is not really money—but your time and energy.
Think of exercise
like your piggy bank (OK, a lithe, physically fit, aerobically
conditioned piggy bank!). If you regularly invest a modest amount of
time, you’ll likely find as the years go by that you’ve racked up
savings in three areas:
First, you can save
hard cash. You’ll save by not spending on doctors’ visits and
medications.
Second, you will
likely save yourself from emotional stress. Exercise is to mood and
self esteem what yeast is to dough: a leavening agent. That is, it’s a
well-known antidepressant. And, to the extent that staying fit keeps you
healthy, you also save the aggravation and sheer inconvenience that
often accompany sickness.
Third, exercise
takes time—but on balance, it may actually save you time. Regular
exercisers swear by this seeming contradiction, explaining that because
exercise gives them more energy, helps them focus and puts things in
perspective, they are more efficient.
Overall, experts say
that regular moderate exercise helps rather than hurts most people as
they move up in years. Of course, nobody can promise that good health
will automatically follow if you exercise religiously. But engaging in
regular exercise in general increases an individual’s chances of staying
well. According to the National Institute on Aging, people 65 and over
become sick or disabled more often from not exercising than from
exercising.
There are different
ways you can invest your time in physical activity. And, it’s smart to
spread your time amongst them, the same way it’s smart to have a
balanced portfolio of stocks, bonds and cash.
Of the four basic
kinds of exercise recommended by the federal government's health
experts, it is healthy to include each type in your weekly routines:
1. endurance
exercises like walking or jogging which improve the health of your
heart, lungs, and circulatory system,
2. strength
exercises which build your muscles and make you stronger,
3. balance
exercises which help you prevent falls, and
4. flexibility
exercises which help keep your body limber by stretching your
muscles and the tissues that hold your body's structures in place.
There are elegant
and enjoyable ways to combine these. Indeed, you might be surprised to
learn that the most ancient of all forms of exercise—dancing—actually
combines all four of these elements. (See excerpt below). For more on
specific routines, you can obtain the free Exercise Guide, which
specific exercises of each type from the National Institute on Aging.
Call (1-800-222-2225) or go to
www.niapublications.org.
As with financial
investments, people often aren’t sure how much time to put into physical
activity. And (as with money) what the experts say might alarm you.
Recent guidelines, issued as part of the nation’s wake-up call to fight
the obesity epidemic in the US, suggest that Americans exercise 60 or
even 90 minutes on most days.
But that’s a goal,
not a mandate. You can aspire to it. And this doesn’t have to be done
all at once. It’s fine to split that time up—take a few 15-minute walks,
or stretch along with your favorite TV exercise program, or climb the
stairs rather than use an elevator. Meanwhile, the message for baby
boomers is simply: Get moving!
Of course, all
investments have risks. A risk of launching into a physical fitness
program is undue enthusiasm. Often people overdo it, get injured, and
land in weeks of physical therapy. So start slowly and sensibly. Consult
your physician before you undertake a new, strenuous regimen of say,
pumping iron or running long distances.
The most common risk
is dropping out, that is, not sticking with your own program of physical
activity. So, try some tricks to overcome your own resistance to this
new healthy habit. Try exercising with a friend for moral support.
Entertain yourself by listening to music with a good beat. You can make
a game of it by charting your progress online and routinize yourself by
marking your calendar for exercise sessions. Turn over a new leaf and
integrate physical activity into your life: walk instead of drive to the
store, post office, or to the local coffee shop for an afternoon break.
Some people give themselves exercise "assignments" ahead of time. And
it’s great to reward yourself when you achieve your goals—as long as the
reward doesn’t involve an ice cream sundae!
Retirement, like
life, is about more than money. When Looking Forward to your
post-career years, you can’t go wrong investing in your self,
too!
Think of physical
activity as a first-class investment, and include it in your personal
lifestyle portfolio. By spending little as the equivalent of one
half-hour TV show’s worth of time—thirty minutes daily exercise—you may
eventually save both time and money, feel better, look better and have
more energy. Exercise is, after all, the cheapest retirement investment
around.
The following excerpt is reprinted from Looking Forward: An
Optimist’s Guide to Retirement by Ellen Freudenheim (2004, Stewart
Tabori and Chang, $15.95)
Take the long,
evolutionary view. After all, human bodies would look different if we
were really designed to sit all day. “Hunters and gatherers walk for
miles, find food, and carry it back,” says Dr. Bernard Roos, director of
the Geriatrics Institute at the University of Miami. An expert in aging
and exercise physiology (musculoskeletal function), he spent some time
observing the lifestyle of Bushmen in Botswana in 1985. "By virtue of
their walking 30 miles on an average day, Bushmen maintain ideal
musculoskeletal function," he said. "That's a very tough routine, but
it's their lifestyle."
Decreasing levels of
physical activity to the point of an almost complete lack of exercise is
a recent byproduct of modern life. “Until about 100 years ago,” Roos
continues, “people rode horses, or walked, or biked. People walked up
stairs because there were no elevators. They pulled up the potatoes and
cut them, and cooked them, instead of driving through at McDonalds,
eating in the car, parking in a garage, and then sitting again before
going to sleep.”
The point is, the
body’s a machine that can do many things. It’s a brilliant, high
function design. The human body–your body–has potential that’s
just waiting to be used. And that’s true at any age….
It’s not just
aerobics you need. Or muscle strength. Or flexibility. It’s a
combination of things that your body needs to do to in daily life. You
need them all: strength, flexibility, power, and endurance….
Dr. Roos’s number
one recommendation? Dancing. “The jitterbug, waltz, samba, and fox trot,
and do them to different tempos,” he advises. “Just stop when it is not
fun anymore. Dancing is probably single best physical maneuver you can
do to prevent the loss of function.”
ELLEN FREUDENHEIM is
the author of five books, including three guides to Brooklyn, a wedding
planner for the executive bride, and a dictionary of healthcare terms.
Her career in public relations has spanned 25 years, and she has
appeared on television and radio programs on ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, and
BBC. See
www.lookingforward2.com for
more information.
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