Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 251 posts

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#101

Post by ekianjo »

2845197541 wrote: post #20

On one side of my family retirement for my grandparents meant long days vegetating in front of the television with little dogs to pet. Church on Sundays were really their only time out. This brought dementia by age 80 and a host of other issues and they are on their way out. On the other side my grandfather plays basketball, golfs, runs, reads a book every few days, even drinks at a bar. No dementia. Sharp as a tack.…

there is no very strong link between lack of activity and dementia though. Anecdotal evidence is just that.

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#102

Post by DeusExMachina »

dvcrn wrote: post #79

My problem with exercise is simply time. There are a million things I want to do and with a 10-7 work shift, I just can't do much. Staying 30 minutes longer happens easily so it's 7:30. Commuting to the gym would take another 20-30. 1h in the gym and it's 9 (or later). Commuting an hour home and it's 10. Go to supermarket, maybe cook something up and it could easily be 11 already. This leaves 1-2h max to do anything…

This is a very typical "extreme reach" barrier. I cannot exercise every day, therefore I am not going to do any.

What about starting at once per week? You don't have start at the optimal point. Once per week is already going to create the habit, give you some health and energy benefits and you can scale up from there.

Also, gym or equipment are not necessary. I do everything at home, and my only "equipment" is composed of a mat and a pull-up bar attached to a door. You can get each item for around 10$.

You can do HIIT cardio exercises that last only 10-20 minutes and have been shown to be much more beneficial than long cardio sessions like running for one hour.

You can also increase muscle mass doing calisthenics exercises with as little as 10 minutes of exercise no more than twice per week (total weekly time: 20 minutes).

I recommend reading the 4 Hour Body from Tim Ferris for this.

There are a lot of options that don't need to include going to the gym or long exercises.

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#103

Post by ekianjo »

grecy wrote: post #44
imesh wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both my grandfathers where professors who kept working up until their irrespective colleges forced them retire due to their alzheimers. One ran marathons up until his 70s and the other one did moderate exercise. Both did everything you are supposed to do, both got alzheimers. 80 isn't going to be a party no matter how healthy you are, it's 80.

The guy who ran my white water raft guide course was 74. He did a backflip out of the raft in a 3+ rapid, into a glacier melt river North of 60. He laughed when I was given control of the raft for the first time and I flipped it with him and five others in it within 30 seconds. I'm willing to bet he will still be having a ball at age 80.

in your 70s you age much faster than you think. 5 years do a lot more damage than you expect from 75 to 80.

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#104

Post by dv35z »

ck425 wrote: post #70

Does anyone else worry about staying fit as an office worker? As much as I enjoy my career, I might give serious consideration to moving into something more physical in future. While you can easily fit in a decent amount of exercise outside of work if you only work 40 hours, it strikes me as much more efficient to make your work exercise in and off itself. I spent one summer working as a software engineer intern with…

I have mentioned this in previous threads, but here goes:

See if there are squash courts in your area. If so, take lessons (commit to 5-10 lessons), and ask the instructor to introduce you to other novice players. The game is exhilerating, easy to learn, low-inpact, high cardio, and has a huge supportive world wide community.

In one year, I went from doing no gym / physical activity, to playing squash 3x a week (or more). Additionally, since I'm at the gym anyway, I am now doing gym routine alongside playing squash (something that during my 34 years of living, I'd never managed to keep up as a routine). A funny aside - I've never been a morning person, but I've been trying to "fix" that by scheduling squash games with people at 05:30 am. It "stings" in the morning, but it's incredible how awake you are at 6:30 after having battled it out on the court at full blast. I might flake out on myself to get to the gym that early, but I won't flake out on another person I committed to. Your mileage may vary, but just sharing something which (finally) worked for me. Good luck!

(Just played an hour of squash, 2km rowing machine, full workout - all before breakfast)

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#105

Post by voidmain0001 »

JeremyNT wrote: post #100
dvcrn wrote: post #79

My problem with exercise is simply time. There are a million things I want to do and with a 10-7 work shift, I just can't do much. Staying 30 minutes longer happens easily so it's 7:30. Commuting to the gym would take another 20-30. 1h in the gym and it's 9 (or later). Commuting an hour home and it's 10. Go to supermarket, maybe cook something up and it could easily be 11 already. This leaves 1-2h max to do anything…

You simply have to prioritize it over some of those other leisure activities. Personally, I strongly recommend getting a door frame pull up bar and a set of gymnast rings to go with it. This should provide all the equipment you need for a reasonably good body weight resistance training routine. For cardio, there are many options. Running? You just need shoes and 30 minutes. And you only need cardio once or twice a we…

Agreed! While walking around the neighbourhood with my four year old, I found someone disposing of a skateboard. I grabbed it, and rode around for a bit. I'm hooked again! It has been 25 years since I was in to skateboarding. I bought a new board yesterday, pulled out my snowboarding wrist guards because I need my wrists to make money with a keyboard, and got to work learning my balance all over again last night for about 15 minutes. I'm bringing it to work to ride at lunch. I refuse to die with two young kids because I was too stupid to make exercise a priority.

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#106

Post by spodek »

Saying that exercise keeps the mind sharp normalizes not exercising.

I prefer to think of exercise as normal and sitting around as the mind-dulling deviation. I would say:

Not exercising can dull the mind.

or

A sedentary lifestyle instead of getting your heart pumping can dull the mind.

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#107

Post by Raknarg »

dvcrn wrote: post #79

My problem with exercise is simply time. There are a million things I want to do and with a 10-7 work shift, I just can't do much. Staying 30 minutes longer happens easily so it's 7:30. Commuting to the gym would take another 20-30. 1h in the gym and it's 9 (or later). Commuting an hour home and it's 10. Go to supermarket, maybe cook something up and it could easily be 11 already. This leaves 1-2h max to do anything…

You can make a good workout in 15 minutes if you have time constraints. Lifting dumbbells is not the pinnacle of exercise. Do sprint-related things or other high intensity training. It's been proven to have as much of an effect as distance running, with the added benefit of increased metabolic rate and more muscle gain.

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#108

Post by dv35z »

_Wintermute wrote: post #10
tomjen3 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody credible. The real question is how do you get people of their ass and start exercising? This includes me, I feel much better on days I make it to the gym.

Stop treating it as exercise and take up a physically active hobby. Hill walking, cycle touring, squash etc.

I agree with this. The "trick" for me was squash. Was never a "sports person" but always thought ping-pong was fun. Approached squash like it was a fun, goofy ping-pong hobby (as its basically fun with no skill whatsoever). Ended up feeling the competitive drive kick in. Got a few lessons so I felt confident that I was making progress. Now I've been doing it several times a week for over a year, gone to a few tournaments, and have a good roster of 10-15 people (now friends!) whom I play regularly.

I think as technology people, we often grew up missing the athletic / team / social aspect associated with sports, which helps make it actually desirable to keep as a lifestyle activity. I now have a good group of friends from this one hobby (where before, I'd have been more likely to just have video game buddies, drinkimh buddies, etc).

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#109

Post by smelterdemon »

dvcrn wrote: post #79

My problem with exercise is simply time. There are a million things I want to do and with a 10-7 work shift, I just can't do much. Staying 30 minutes longer happens easily so it's 7:30. Commuting to the gym would take another 20-30. 1h in the gym and it's 9 (or later). Commuting an hour home and it's 10. Go to supermarket, maybe cook something up and it could easily be 11 already. This leaves 1-2h max to do anything…

>All gyms around my home open from 9:30/10:00

I find this bizarre, both in that every gym I've belonged to opened before 6:00AM and that these gyms must be excluding a significant market of potential members.

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#110

Post by dagw »

dvcrn wrote: post #79

My problem with exercise is simply time. There are a million things I want to do and with a 10-7 work shift, I just can't do much. Staying 30 minutes longer happens easily so it's 7:30. Commuting to the gym would take another 20-30. 1h in the gym and it's 9 (or later). Commuting an hour home and it's 10. Go to supermarket, maybe cook something up and it could easily be 11 already. This leaves 1-2h max to do anything…

1h in the gym

My new life changing discovery is that you don't need to spend an hour. I've long resisted going to the gym for exactly the reasons you describe, but I've recently joined a gym just round the corner from my office and realized that I can go either before work or on my lunch break, and more importantly that by having a plan before I go and being efficient about it I can be in and out in 30 minutes or less. For me the practical difference now between going and not going to the gym being at work at 8.30 and being at work at 9.00.

Post reply on HN