What would you pay to keep from getting sick as you get older? How about a daily walk or other exercise? A new study suggests that’s exactly the right investment. In the study, people who were the most fit at midlife lived longer and spent less time being sick than middle-aged folks who weren’t fit.

I am actually a better swimmer today than when I was 20, says Don, now 50.
I find the mental ability to overcome barriers can easily let me keep swimming further.
In recent years Don has trained millions of yards, most in cold open water below 70f with no wetsuit.

Probably the most difficult aspect of training as we get older is cross training to balance fitness and muscle response to prevent injury.

  

There are many benefits to staying physically active and exercising daily. Exercise

• strengthens the heart and lungs
• makes blood vessels more flexible and responsive, improving circulation
• controls blood pressure and cholesterol
• helps muscles burn sugar
• reduces stress
• decreases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, some cancers, and other chronic conditions
• preserves memory and prolongs life

Another important effect of exercise, one that doesn’t get enough attention, is that it improves fitness. Fitness is a measure of how well your heart, blood vessels, blood, and lungs work together to supply muscles with oxygen during sustained exercise. It also estimates how efficiently the muscles use the oxygen. Fitness also reflects your exercise capacity.

The most accurate fitness gauge requires complicated machinery and sensors to measure the maximum oxygen consumed during exercise. This is called VO2max. It can also be done using the kind of treadmill test that cardiologists commonly use to check for heart disease.

Fitness translates to better health later on

To explore the effect of fitness on health status in old age, researchers with the Cooper Institute in Dallas looked at information that had been gathered from more than 18,600 men and women who were part of another long-term health study. When the study began, their median age was 49. Fitness levels were measured using a type of treadmill test. Once a volunteer reached age 65, the researchers tracked his or her health with Medicare claims information.

Those who were the most fit at midlife were less likely over the course of the 26-year study to have died of coronary artery disease, Alzheimer’s, heart failure, diabetes and other chronic conditions, the researchers reported in Archives of Internal Medicine. Just over 2,400 people died during the study. In the last five years of their lives, the people who had been most fit at midlife spent about 50% less time with four or more chronic diseases than the least fit group and 34% more time with no or one chronic disease.

Find your fitness

How do you improve your fitness? Increase the amount and the intensity of exercise over time.

Exercise capacity is usually measured in metabolic equivalents (METs). One MET is the amount of oxygen used when sitting still or sleeping. Nonathletic, healthy, middle-aged men and women have peak exercise capacities in the range of 8 to 10 METs. Marathon runners can have values as high as 18 to 24.

But you don’t need an expensive exercise stress test to determine your fitness. Many fitness centers have exercise machines that show METs. Some home treadmills and elliptical trainers also show METs.

If you don’t have access to such a machine, or don’t like exercising on one, you can measure your current fitness with a simple walking test. All it takes is a one-mile track or level terrain that you know is one mile long. You’ll also need a stopwatch or watch with a second hand, paper, and a pen or pencil.

First, get yourself warmed up by walking briskly for a few minutes. Record the time and start walking as fast as you can. Push yourself, but don’t overdo it. When you cross the one-mile mark, record the time again. Calculate how many minutes it took to finish the mile.

	Time in minutes to walk one mile
Fitness level	50-year-old woman	50-year-old man
Excellent	under 14:42	under 13:24
Good	14:42 to 15:36	13:24 to 14:24
Average	15:37 to 17:00	14:25 to 15:12
Fair	17:01 to 18:06	15:13 to 16:30
Poor	more than 18:06	more than 16:30

Don’t be concerned about how low your METs are now or how slow you walked. What’s important is to improve them. You can do this with regular exercise that challenges your body. That means working hard enough to speed up your heartbeat and breathing.

The intensity of exercise and the amount of time spent exercising that are needed to improve fitness differ from person to person. The goal is to increase your METs or decrease the number of minutes it takes you walk one mile. Don’t rush it. Improving fitness starts within weeks but will continue for months.

Reprinted from: 

Howard LeWine, M.D., Chief Medical Editor
Internet Publishing, Harvard Health Publications

Big Mac

Testing one's resilience literally returning from death!

A few days ago, sweet recovery

I finally returned to open water swimming last weekend after a tumultuous month of surprise cardiac medical activity. I am so happy given the ride I have taken recently but more so the friends from BAM and the Otter Club at Lake Zurich, my Doctor George Christy, Good Shepard Hospital and my family welcoming me back.

Since September when I sat on the shore in Dover watching my chance to attempt the English Channel fade due to bad weather, I took off some well deserved time and focused on my heath, letting my shoulders, upper back and neck recover from the last big push in training where I was routinely stroking away 35 - 38,000 yards per week during last summer.

In late September I was diagnosed with C 4, 5, 6 stenosius and one disk that is significantly compressed and two others that appear poorly aligned. We all thought swimming took its toll, or so we thought so this wasn't the real surprise.

The big surprise came after my doctor suggested I get that ubiquitous 'turning 50' stress treadmill test. Boy was I in for a surprise. First of all I hate running, actually let me rephrase, I respect greatly those who run well, I don't, I am a plugger on land. Thus, after 14 minutes on the tread mill at 20% incline running full out my heart monitor was showing the little tell-tail signs of a problem. At the same time I could not max our my heart rate which was at 148 and should have been 170 at this point. Thank god for my swimming and aerobic capacity helping out what we discovered later in a subsequent angiogram were two artery blockages the front 50% and in the back 90%. We did not immediately do the angioplasty and stenting because my doctor knew this was a surprise and and being such a great Doc conservatively pulled back to confer. I thank god for him and his counsel, wonderful bedside manner and that he kept my health and safety at the very front of all discussions.

It was during this time we all agreed that a conservative approach was to be taken prior to my angioplasty and I started taking Beta Blockers to prevent any heart damage. While I was in no danger since we had caught this very early it nonetheless slowed my heart rate further to the low 40's. Of course because I was aerobically in such good shape it seemed just fine until coming out of anesthesia from the Angiogram.

During my recovery from the Angiogram I was very comfortable but sat up quickly and proceeded to slowly pass out, speaking with the nurses calmly that I was faint. I vaguely recall as I blacked out hearing one of the nurses say something like "should I hit him" then someone said no, give the adrenaline push. a few seconds later I came around and the whole thing was surreal. I didn't know it at the time but I flat lined according to my Doc for a 8 seconds. I recall saying to my wife later that if that was what dying was like then no problem. It was extremely calm, warm and surprising relaxing. But of course it could have simply been Vagal response or something medical like this a few commented? What ever that means. Anyway, everything went well after that recovery proceeded and other than some minor drug adjustments I am fine.

Somewhere in front of my lies another scheduled date with the English Channel Sept 1-6, 2014 to be exact and the yet unknown cervical neck issue that I hope through better and more holistic training I can avoid to achieve my dream of being the 50th over 50 person in history to cross the English Channel. My coach, Marcia Cleveland and training pal Doug McConnell will get me their!

This Saturday I do my follow-up stress test which I expect to be normal, despite my hating running, and hope to return to some normal land and water training to have fun and build back endurance for perhaps a short race or two yet this fall.

Swimming - Life's Little lessons

Three-years-old and frozen at the edge of the pool, I’m counting one, two, two and a half, two and three-quarters and then three. ‘Whoosh’ I yell to my parents as I jump in the water. I had just taken my first stroke in a long journey to swim the english Channel.

Now in junior high, an adolescent struggling in school, my parents enroll me in clubs and sports so I may do well, build self-esteem, and become resilient. at 4’11” I learn basketball and football are not for me, that I am too slow for track, that choir and band are oK, and somehow, I find my way back to water.

Many successes and failures behind me, I am sitting in a familiar place after two and a half years of training, at the edge of a body of water – this time – the english Channel. Thousands of miles swum under every conceivable condition - freez- ing 60 degree fahrenheit water, jellyfish, darkness, sharks, huge waves, spinal damage, and even fam- ily tribulations only a parent appreciates. every detail planned. I am prepared.

I find myself facing a familiar challenge ... one, two, three ... but this time, it’s bad weather turn- ing minutes into hours, hours into days. I grow increasingly anxious, hope fading as wind and rain sweeps ‘la Manche’. a full week passes and my opportunity to swim the english Channel this season fades away. I am crushed.

While we most often think of resiliency as a virtue that helps us react to challenges and disappointments, it also proactively supports our lives. Before leaving for dover, I knew that the chance for success was illusive as weather blows-out more than 50 percent of all attempts and that success rates of those who get their chance is less than 20 percent. This is why (my friend and training partner)doug McConnell’s success is so sweet and my disappointment, while quietly understood, is so humbling. yet just getting there and being pre- pared is a success that will have to be enough for now. some things you just cannot control.

Without resiliency we are content to play it small; play it safe; hide from the world, protect- ing ourselves from being hurt, thus removing ourselves from joy, excitement, and satisfaction. It’s something you have to earn, like jumping in the water, taking that first stroke or watching your friend swim the english Channel.

resiliency is a learned virtue that comes from repeated exposure to success, disappointment and failure. We need to teach our children to try things on their own, that it is oK to fail and ex- perience negative emotions like sadness, frustra- tion, and fear. It is equally important to persist in the face of failure. as we get older we bounce back from our disappointments, overcome temp- tations to quit, face embarrassment from failure, and accept praise graciously while not gloating on our successes (which in this age of social me- dia is all too easy).

There’s no shortage of hand-wringing these days about the effects of coddling our kids, unin- volved parents, or the dangers of overzealous ones. This concern about kids getting “soft rewarded” for everything is easily spun on an age-old criticism leveled by each and every generation (“Back in my day...”.) But for a child to take chances, they must feel safe and supported so they can take that first stroke.

As a parent, a resilient spirit is one of the greatest gifts you must demonstrate and share with your child. It is a set of learned skills that will help them do better in school and work, have healthier relationships, and live a happier, and maybe even longer life. It’s the key to helping them reach their potential like my parents and teachers did for me all those years ago.

not everyone can be a winner all the time. yet trying our best and managing to cope with disap- pointment is perhaps the greatest lesson of all.

To donate, or for more information, visit www.220foundation.org and select the English Channel Challenge.

Quintessential Barrington | QBarrington.com

Swimming for Kids - Social and Emotional Education Link

July 4th Parade - A Lifetime of Friends, Family and fitness

Barrington Swim Club (BSC) and Masters Club (BAM) participate in annual Village parade walking to honor our country and also in support of our community.

220 Foundation and 'One Stroke at a Time' teamed up again handing our swim bracelets

Club participants, kids and families lining up for the parade