Yes, I know, another health and fitness book review, but despite boring me mostly, it is written by our new surgeon general Kenneth H. Cooper, M.D., M.P.H., and contains some very important research and recommendations for all adult women and older (fifty plus) men. This man, now in his very fit sixties, started the aerobics phenomenon with his first, hugely successful book, Aerobics, and went on to write many more books on various health subjects.
I did say it was mostly boring for me, but that is because the focus is on his “target training” instead of diet, although I’m not trying to lose weight, but learning about the health benefits of food and herbs sustains my interest more now.
Now before you start dismissing this book as worthless because target exercising doesn’t work, let me clarify that it is a comprehensive program of “strike, strengthen and stretch.” It is a series of quick exercises that help you stay more alert, limber and strong; of nutrition and preventive medicine principles that target such conditions and complaints as fatigue, obesity, flagging memory, lower back pain, arthritis and more serious problems like osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease. This training designed for different ages isn’t even the most helpful part of the book in my opinion, but the vast research that proves that impactive exercise like aerobics and jogging is the only kind of exercise that will prevent bone loss.
I know many people operate on the theory that weight-bearing exercise alone will prevent bone loss, but Cooper convincingly demonstrates that low-impactive, weight-bearing exercise (like weightlifting and walking) only strengthens muscles, which will help protect bones, but not build them up.
In a 1991 Duke University study, researchers explored the effect of up to fourteen months of aerobic exercise on bone density in older adults. The project involved 101 healthy men and women over age sixty (with a mean age of sixty-seven) who either engaged in an exercise program (stretching, cycling and walking three times per week for sixty minutes) or were involved in nonaerobic programs.
The researchers found that the exercise training produced a 10 to 15 percent increase in cardiovascular aerobic power after four months and a 1 to 6 percent further improvement with additional training. Also, the aerobic fitness program produced significant bone density increases in the men, but not in the women. (See Journal of the American Geriatric Society, Nov. 1991; 39(11): pp. 1065-70 pp. 33
Weight-lifting is, however, very helpful for premenopausal women if it is heavy and puts strain on the lumbar spine (spine and hips). (pp 32)
Contents
Part 1: The Power of Youth At Any Age
Targeting: Your Path to the Power of Youth
Strike (impact), Strengthen, and Stretch: The Basic Targeting Trilogy
Measure Your Staying Power on the Cooper Energy Scale
Defeating the Threat of Youth Drain (tensions caused by life)
The Overlooked Secrets of Stamina-for Every Age (laughing is one)
Cutting Through the Medical Confusion (secondhand smoke, dietary fat etc)
Part 2: The Ages of Target Training
There are three chapters that discuss the boomer years, seniors and children, but what I found most interesting was that adult women starting in their twenties will lose bone mass if they do not do impactive exercise, but men can get by with just weight-bearing exercise until they’re about fifty. Or maybe this was in another part of the book because I don’t see it here. He talks like a doctor, anyway, recommending who should go on HRT and that mammograms are essential after forty and stuff. He talks about men, too, and his daily exercise schedule at sixty-five is very strenuous! Also noted is his concern about Vitamin D deficiency in the retirement years that thins bones.
Part 3: Living Long and Well
The Outer Limits of Life
Conclusion: The Power of Youth, the Joy of Age
Final Comments
This was really written for someone either older, more sedentary or sicker than me. As noted I found some things very interesting and this will help me to retain, rather than regain, the power of youth. I am thoroughly convinced through his years of study with thousands of patients whose lives were turned around with his recommendations that everyone should start getting impactive exercise in their day. Swimming, yoga, bicycling, walking—these things are good, but not enough. The older you become, the more your exercise needs to be impactive besides weight-bearing. A pertinent point the doctor made is that his exercise doesn’t feel so wonderful at first, but in a few minutes he’s warmed up and feels much better with no aches.
Cooper really demonstrates how getting older doesn’t have to mean getting frail, achy and depressed or worse. He opened up the book telling about riding a steep mountain trail with a younger friend and having a bad fall, but only getting scratched. It’s actually pretty interesting and inspiring if you need to hear exactly why and how you can age with strength and vitality.
Regaining the Power of Youth At Any Age was published in 1998, is 270 information-packed and organized pages, and is aimed at middle-aged people who live lives of too little exercise (or just the impactive kind) and too many health complaints or conditions. It is a very good idea, though, for women to start early to prevent bone loss by taking the stairs, "jogging, ropeskipping, playing volleyball, tennis, canoeing or aerobic dance" as Cooper mentions on p. 36.
Thanks for reading this less-than-amusing book review. I hope the information was worth considering seriously at least so you don't keep losing bone density.
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