It's Never Too Late to Rejuvenate

First, the bad news: No matter how much you exercise, no matter how healthy your diet, eventually you're going to break down and die. Yes, the mortality rate is the same as it's always been: 100 percent. None of us is getting out of here alive.

"Life is a disease," George Bernard Shaw once observed, "and the only difference between one man and another is the stage of the disease at which he lives."

So why bother to pump iron, to plod on the elliptical trainer, to bend your body into yoga poses? Because it's about quality of life, not quantity. Put another way, do you want to spend your golden years slumped and drooling in a wheelchair? Not me. If I'm stuck in a nursing home, I plan to be pushing wheelchairs, demolition-derby style, and pinching the nurses' bottoms (especially if they're babes).

Let me divulge the meaning of life: It's all about staying vertical. Every day, we reenact man's primal act of impudence--defying gravity, standing up to the crushing weight of the universe. Of course, the universe ultimately wins. We all wind up horizontal. But wouldn't you rather go down swinging in the bottom of the ninth?

The good news: You can. You can reclaim, rebuild, reshape and rejuvenate your body--at any age! Studies show that people in their 80s and 90s who begin a program of resistance exercise can triple and quadruple their strength. In a study of Harvard alumni (admittedly an atypical bunch of weenies and wonks), even folks who didn't begin exercising regularly until age 75 were able to realize gains in life expectancy.

What to do? Just follow the Holy Trinity of Fitness:
Thou shalt move. To keep your heart and lungs strong, your blood pipes open, your muscles toned, your joints limber.
Thou shalt lift. After age 30 or so, we lose muscle mass at the rate of about 1 percent a year. Lifting weights retards that decline, helping you maintain your strength. Resistance exercise also fortifies your bones and wards off osteoporosis (which afflicts men as well).
Thou shalt stretch. Your joints are held together by cords--tendons and ligaments. As you age, those cords shorten and tighten. They become dry and brittle, more prone to ruptures and tears. Regular stretching keeps them long and loose, which makes your body more supple and pliable.

Want more? Check out Fitness Over Fifty (Healthy Living Books, $15.95). Compiled by the National Institute on Aging, it's an easy-to-read guide that will help you improve the Big Four: endurance, strength, balance and flexibility. The bulk of the book consists of 25 tried-and-true exercises, fully explained and clearly illustrated. Also included is nutritional advice and inspiring testimonials from ordinary older folk who've woven physical activity into their daily lives. The book taught me a thing or two. For instance, when I flex my biceps for the Russian Princess, my sturdy mate, it becomes swollen and hard because the muscle is shortening as longs strands of protein slide toward and over one another. This makes my biceps bunch up and bulge, sending the R.P. into a swoon.

I also learned a new word--sarcopenia. Commit it to memory, boomers, because it's about you. As we age, we're double losers: Not only do we lose muscle (and strenght), we also lose quality muscle. Senior muscle tissue is often second-rate stuff (for one thing, there are fewer fast-twitch fibers capable of quick, explosive response).

Need some hope? Meet Joyce Schroeder. In late May and early June, Schroeder, who lives in Lafayette Hill, won gold medals in the 800-meter run and the triathlon at the National Senior Olympics in Hampton Roads, Va. Not bad for a jockette of 80. The retired executive secretary began competing in local, state and national senior games 16 years ago and has harvested bushels of ribbons and medals--for biking, race-walking, running, swimming and, lately, triathlons (5K run, 20K bike race, 500-meter open-water swim).

Schroeder's weekly schedule: She works out at the Ambler Y Monday, Wednesday and Friday (stationary bike, treadmill, weight machines, a half-hour of swimming); Tuesday, she takes a fitness class in the morning at the Y and a yoga class in the afternoon at the Ambler Senior Center; Thursday, she shows up for tap-dancing and line-dancing classes at the North Penn Senior Center. (She planned to tap dance in the Skippack Fourth of July parade).

"I'm not a great athlete. There's nothing special about me," Schroeder insists. "I just work hard. I enjoy doing it, and I love the benefits. It makes me feel good. It gives me the energy and strength I need to do things, like carrying the groceries, walking my 100-pound German Shepherd around the neighborhood, and cutting the grass."

"She mows the lawn and she shovels the driveway," says her daughter Barbara Oelschlegel, 52, who was spurred by her mom to undertake a senior-games triathlon herself. "She shoveled the really big snow we had..." "Every year, we do the MS 150 bike tour together. It's 150 miles of biking, two days, from Cherry Hill to Ocean City and back. She is the oldest woman doing it. This is our 12th year, and she's done all 150 miles eight times.

"We do it as a three-generation thing," Oelschlegel says. "My sister and I go and usually at least one grandchild. She inspires us all." Schroeder's secret? Good genes. One of her grandfathers lived to be 101. "My philosophy is I have these good genes," Schroeder says, "so I might as well take advantage of them."