Oh Yeah, Exercise

I'm sneaking in a post today since I'm not at work. Something I have been putting on the back burner for awhile as I watch the rest of you run, pump iron, zumba, box...

Exercise!

I just renewed my gym membership for another year. I would estimate that I paid about $20 a visit for the number of visits I made last year. No excuses. I also have a full workout room in the basement. Don't use it either. We have a frozen canal here in Ottawa where people put on skates and skate for miles. Not me, unless I can have a Beaver Tail (donut type confection) covered in cinnamon sugar. Snow shoes and cross-country skiis sitting in the basement. Not used this year either.

I actually have always exercised since my 20's. Not to lose weight. It just didn't happen. But to feel better and to shape my body. It is needed now. The jiggles and lumps are appearing as the fat disappears. Toning is desperately needed. And maybe a little firming. But motivation? Where are you? 

Just when I thought I was hopeless this picture and article appeared on the front page of our newspaper on Monday:

The true secret of youth? Exercise

Treadmill program reverses signs of premature aging in mice, study finds.

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Canadian scientists appear to have proven that you can, in fact, run away from old age. In what could stand up as the most powerful evidence yet that exercise prolongs life, a study by McMaster University researchers in Hamilton found that signs of premature aging were halted — and even reversed — in virtually every tissue and organ in the bodies of exercised mice. (now this must be true since McMaster is my Alma Mater)  

The finding, which could be a turning point in antiaging medicine, suggests the proverbial fountain of youth won’t come from a pill or from an exotic berry from the Amazon, but rather plain old exercise.

Mice genetically altered to age faster were forced to run on treadmills for 45 minutes, three times a week (imagine those tiny little treadmills!). Five months later, the mice looked as young, healthy and active as wild-type mice while their sedentary and same-aged siblings were balding, greying and shrinking. While the exercised mice scampered and scurried about their cages, the aging non-runners huddled in a corner, barely moving.

Epidemiological studies in humans have shown that people who are physically active or exercise regularly have fewer chronic diseases and tend to live longer — runners especially.

But, the message is “it’s never too late” to start exercising. (I think they got a little wheelchair for the mouse on the right.) 

Soon I will be 57 (March 15th). I think I would like to look more like the mouse on the left than the haggard looking one on the right. I will get my @ss to the gym. Really. So for any of you still contemplating whether exercise in any shape or form is a benefit, just look at the picture. Who wants to actually look old!

I'm now waiting for the drunken mouse experiment. You know the one where they let mice drink two glasses of wine a day to see if it really does lower cholesterol. I'll keep you all posted.

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