There is a culture of exercising.  We have the Olympics, Tour de France and many more organised sport events.  Locally, there are all kinds of opportunities from city facilities to private gyms and sports venues.  Our students have gym class everyday.  All homeroom teachers are responsible for providing DPA (daily physical activity) for their students.  Yet, it is not enforced.  Our gym teachers, our role models, are not always fit.  As we get older, we reduce our level of exercise.

I have personally been exercising regularly. I have been cycling yearly more than the distance to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific, for several years now.  Many friends and family members are active.  I can’t shake, however, this feeling that health and exercise is not seen by society as something important.  It is frowned upon.  Everyone is looking for a pill for health.

The following book calmed me down.  If you are consistently active physically, you are part of the generation making history.

https://www.amazon.ca/Fast-After-50-Race-Strong/dp/1937715264/ref=asc_df_1937715264/?tag=googleshopc0c-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=292863597780&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9860419764094084279&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9000807&hvtargid=pla-627165559912&psc=1

As an athlete and coach, Joe Friel, debunks some of the health myths society have.  Traditional advice from the medical community has been that older people (50 and over) should avoid strenuous exercise.  It’s dangerous.  He mentions 64 year old swimmers who swim from Cuba to Florida and Ironmen at 75.  Every human being is capable of achieving far more than they are currently accomplishing.  People believe that bad health is inevitable, that they have no control over it.  It is simply not the case.  The book’s main thesis is that the best antidote for the ravages of age is exercise.

I have been cycling for several years now.  I cycle because I enjoy it and it keeps me fit.  Although I am now 60, I keep telling my friends that I feel like a teenager.  I found out there is a name for that:  eustress.  It is stress that keeps you healthy, gives you feelings of vigour, well-being and satisfaction.  Joe Friel mentions that exercise keeps you healthy and much younger than what is normal for our society.  I know that from experience.

I started reading this book looking for a way to improve my fitness.  There are several tips but I found two answers that would work for me.  One is high intensity training.  Exercising regularly is good but the key is high intensity training.  If the heart is not challenged, if the left ventricle is seldom challenged to pump a lot of blood per beat, heart muscle size and contractibility may be lost, resulting in a decrease in aerobic capacity.  Doing for example intervals of going fast 3 times 3 minutes with 1 minute of rest in between is what is needed after a warm up time and cool down time.  It’s 12 minutes during a workout.  Not bad.  I will try.  The second answer is weight lifting.  Lifting weights can significantly improve your race performance if you haven’t trained that way before.

Joe Friel has done extensive review of the literature on aging and exercise and has found that little research is done in that area.  Current research seldom includes athletes and seldom include women.

I found this book inspirational for future researchers, people who want to make a difference, and for people who just want to stay healthy.

I am fortunate to have met Dr. Dave at a STAO conference in Toronto.  Having achieved so much, I found him quite humble.  He was presenting one of the 4 books he wrote for children.  He’s an accomplished astronaut, ER doctor, Director of a hospital. He also performed surgical operations in zero gravity.  I remember him saying that he was not well known, unlike Chris Hadfield, because there was no Twitter at the time he went to space.  He is currently 68 years old, and still active as an author and public speaker.  This is just amazing.

The title of this blog is a quote I just read from a book by Dr. Dave Williams.  He wrote several books but one I recommend for children is Go for Liftoff!

https://boutique.ingeniumcanada.org/fc/book-go-for-liftoff-hardcover.html

He describes based on his own experience as an astronaut what we need to become an astronaut.  This includes curiosity, confidence, physical fitness, passion, resilience and commitment.  Basically, you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it.  Your mindset is incredibly important for leaders and future leaders.

For astronauts, exercise is also crucial.  When he went to space, he used the exercise bike to cycle around the Earth  in the 90 minutes it took for the spacecraft to orbit the planet.  He also mentions NASA’s John Glenn who flew his second spaceflight at 77!!  What was his secret???  Well, … , he stayed in a top-top shape.

Our students need to see what is possible in order to question it, learn from it, and develop something better.

Not all students will become astronauts or will work to bring an astronaut to space but we can still learn from this experience.  Everyone on Earth needs to see a doctor, take care of their health and would like to live a fulfilling and healthy life.  After the pandemic, we need to rethink our health care system.  Can secrets revealed in this book serve as an inspiration to build a health care system for the next generation?