Dad Lived to 101 and You Can Too (eBook)

Chapter 2

Getting Enough Physical Activity without Exercising

I watched my dad as he operated the old-fashioned commercial ironing press at the back of our family’s dry-cleaning shop. With both arms extended above his head and his hands on the handle, he pulled down the machine’s top plate onto the clothes he was pressing. At the same time, he stepped up onto one of the machine’s control pedals—upward his body went for a foot or so, as steam was released onto the garment. He held this position for a few seconds before stepping back down to the floor. This maneuver was repeated eight or more hours a day, six days a week, until he retired at the age of seventy-five.

Eddie’s Active Life

My dad had his first full-time job at the age of sixteen. To make money for his family, he worked as a deckhand on British cargo ships that picked up Chinese laborers from the Port of Shanghai. He would go out to sea for months at a time.

On the ships, he had a variety of assignments—everything from sweeping and mopping the decks, to washing the dishes in the kitchen, to shoveling coal in the boiler room. He told me he enjoyed his time out on the oceans, but it was hard, tiring labor. He continued this work until, one day in 1943, during World War II, his ship was unable to return to China due to increased maritime hostilities. So instead of navigating back to his homeland, the vessel docked in New York Harbor, where Eddie was dropped off at Ellis Island.

In America, Eddie soon found work as a farmhand in New Jersey. For a number of years, he tilled the soil, collected the crops, and tended to the chickens, cows, and horses. Eventually, he graduated to driving a farm truck to stores and vendors. Some of his responsibilities included loading and unloading heavy boxes and crates of produce and supplies. Again, it was hard labor, and he worked long hours, but it wasn’t bad, he would tell me. He was happy to have a job, and the owners of the farms treated him well. After collecting enough money to go out on his own, Eddie bought a small laundromat in Chinatown, New York City, before moving up to a dry-cleaning business in New Jersey. He would work there for the next three decades, pressing clothes and managing the store.

Throughout his life, Eddie’s jobs provided him with plenty of physical activity. After retiring, he continued to stay busy with household chores and home repairs. I remember a summer day when I helped my father fix an electric fan in the attic of the old house I grew up in. He was about eighty years old at the time.

In his detached garage, Eddie had a workshop where he kept his tools and electrical supplies. From this place, we had to walk to the house and up two flights of stairs to reach the attic. During our repair work, we had to go back to the garage repeatedly to get more equipment. I can remember making the trip four times over the next couple of hours—down the stairs, out to the garage, and then back into the house and up the stairs again. All that walking and stair climbing didn’t bother or tire my dad one bit. For all his life, he was accustomed to moving his body.

The Best Medicine There Is

Eddie never once thought of the medical benefits he was getting from his work and activities, but they definitely helped to keep him fit and healthy. Without them, he would have been at an increased risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, among other conditions. And if he hadn’t used his body so much, I’m sure that he wouldn’t have aged so well. Inactivity accelerates the aging process. The alterations that occur in the body with continuous sedentary living are similar to many of the changes that appear with old age: reduced physiological reserve of the heart, lungs, and other organs; diminished exercise capacity; and decreased muscle mass and strength with an increase in body fat. In fact, what we experience as we age is partly the result of our inactivity as we grow older.

Staying physically active like Eddie did is one of the best things you can do for good overall health. It benefits every part of your body, from your brain down to your toes. The use of your muscles to move about increases blood flow and oxygen delivery to all your organs and tissues. On a microscopic level, it rejuvenates your cells, preserving the functions of the cell’s components. This includes the mitochondria, the powerhouse energy-producing intracellular structure that is essential for your quality of life, physical well-being, and longevity.

Increased physical activity can do the following:

• slow down the aging process and keep you looking young
• help with weight control and improve your body composition
• strengthen your heart, muscles, bones, and immune system
• lower your blood pressure and improve your cholesterol profile
• reduce your risk of diabetes, heart attack, stroke, and cancer
• improve your mood and sleep quality
• decrease your stress levels
• maintain your mobility and independence as you age and reduce your risk of dementia
• increase your life span and health span

Eddie’s active lifestyle provided him with all these benefits. Many doctors say that physical activity is the best medicine there is for good health. It’s also the closest thing we have to the fountain of youth.

Why Exercising Is Unnecessary for Some

In his 101 years of life, Eddie never exercised once. But when I think about him pressing clothes in the dry-cleaning shop—his hands reaching up and pulling down the plate of the ironing machine—the movements and contractions of the muscles in his arms, shoulders, and back remind me of a common calisthenics exercise, the pull-up. This action was coupled with what appeared to be another frequent workout maneuver, the leg step-up, as he lifted his right foot off the ground to apply pressure onto the elevated floor pedals of the apparatus.

If you’d watched Eddie at work, you would never have said that he was exercising. But dress him in athletic shorts and a T-shirt, and remake the drab old pressing machine into a shiny chrome exercise contraption, you would view these same movements as exercise. So, what exactly is the difference between physical activity and exercise, and does the body really know or care?

The distinction between what we call activity and what we call exercise lies in the intention behind the movements. Physical activity is any motion of the body involving the skeletal muscles that consumes energy. Lifting grocery bags, mopping the floors, and planting flowers are all considered activities. Exercise is a type of activity and is defined as a planned, organized, and repetitive movement with the goal of maintaining or improving physical fitness. Based on this definition, almost any activity can be considered exercise if it is structured and done for reasons of fitness—walking briskly, swimming laps, and dancing aerobically, for example. I guess if Eddie thought of his efforts at pressing clothes as a means to staying fit, it too could be considered exercise.

The distinction between the two doesn’t matter to your body. Whether you are forced to climb multiple flights of stairs because of a broken elevator or choose to climb those same stairs for fitness reasons, the activity provides health benefits to your body.

For those of you who may not like to exercise, it’s good to know that you don’t have to—but you do need to live a physically active life. In fact, there is no scientific evidence that exercising is better for your health than an overall active lifestyle. Most of the populations from regions of the world where people live the longest are proof of this. They don’t go to gyms to work out or seek activities to stay fit. Instead, like Eddie, they labor at their jobs and participate in daily household chores and tasks that involve using their bodies to push, pull, and lift things. An active way of life is sufficient for them to stay healthy. That said, some of us, because we don’t move enough at our jobs or at home, will need to participate in activities with the specific intention of improving our fitness and health. In other words, some of us will have to exercise.

How Much Activity Do You Actually Need?

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that people between the ages of eighteen and sixty-four get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or seventy-five minutes of vigorous aerobic activity per week. Typical moderate activities are bicycling on a level road, playing doubles tennis, and light gardening. Common vigorous activities include running, hiking uphill, and playing basketball.

The AHA additionally recommends strength and resistance training, such as lifting weights, at least twice a week. The purpose of this type of activity is to maintain the mass and strength of both your muscles and bones. As you age, resistance exercises can improve your quality of life and prevent you from becoming frail, a condition that elevates your overall mortality risk.

Stand Up for Your Health

Eddie didn’t like to sit for too long. He loved to stand and took every opportunity to do so. If he was eating alone, it wasn’t uncommon to find him on his feet for the entire meal, despite the empty chairs around him. And when he was retired and had the time to read for extended periods, he would frequently alternate between sitting and standing while perusing his newspapers, magazines, or books. This love of standing was present all through his life.

Unbeknownst to Eddie, this habit protected his health. It decreased the total number of...