Live data from Hacker News

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

bbc.co.uk

61–70 of 251 posts

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

#62

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.…

I get what you're saying. I would be happy to hit eighty sitting on a couch.

It seems where I live, in the Bay Area, the men seem lucky to live to 65, even the ones that exercise. I don't know why. I sometimes think it's our stressful lifestyle, and not going to church?

I bet your grandparents live in the Mid-West? I spent a month in Joplin Missouri, and was astonished to see so many people over 80 doing just everything.

This one guy was over 90, and still driving his car to see his girlfriend in Florida. The first time I met him, he was working on my buddy's air conditioning, in a shack in his back yard. That shop was sweltering. He shook my hand, and he saw me look at his chest scar. "That's my second. I told the doc to out in a zipper."

I'm too depressed to look up stats. My neighbors are dropping like flies. It's just weird. They are all high income too?

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

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish you had refrained. It really detracted from the rest of what you had to say.

God forbid someone tells a joke.

Yeah .. they're not really appreciated on HN. I'm guessing because they want to avoid the whole Reddit-style comment chain of meta-jokes, one liners etc. It's a little disappointing, but if you want a laugh, there are plenty of other places to find them. If it keeps HN a place for more serious discussion, then I'm fine with it.

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

#64
post #55
post #4

So that's why Taleb deadlifts like a madman.

TIL (!). I deadlift (amongst other things), as I believe it's a fundamental movement (what Dan John calls "pick heavy stuff off the floor"). Here's a writeup Taleb did about strength training (whether I agree or disagree in totality is a separate issue, but we can all agree to 80% and disagree on the rest): https://medium.com/@nntaleb/strength-training-is-learning-fr...

I'm not sure that I agree with a lot of that article, but one piece really resonates with me. I had a chronic hamstring injury from sprinting (tendinitis, with a couple recurring minor pulls over the years) and physical therapy was a complete waste of time. The first physical therapist I went to told me that it would take over a year of sessions to recover from a grade 1 tear (which is absolute bullshit). She had me doing a bunch of different weird balancing exercises and working with elastic bands. I dealt with this injury for years until I started doing 1) foam rolling and myofascial release, and more importantly 2) squatting, deadlifting, and olympic lifts. The difference was almost overnight, and I haven't had a single issue with my hamstring in years now.

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

#66

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.…

My grandmother lived to the age of 103. While she didn't do anything you'd normally label "exercise", she certainly did a lot of cleaning - and up until her 80s would routinely light a coal fire in the hearth, as her house did not have central heating.

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

#67
post #43
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compound studies find that 1hr of sports = 7hrs of additional life (up to 7hrs a week).

1h sports per week for 30 years means 7h * 52 * 30 = 10920h additional life. Equals to 1.25 additional years. So for 30 years of exercise you get about 1 additionl year? I hoped for more :-P

Or you could say only 1.07 years, if you hate exercise. Since your excercise time could have been spent doing something else. :-P

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

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God forbid someone tells a joke.

Yeah .. they're not really appreciated on HN. I'm guessing because they want to avoid the whole Reddit-style comment chain of meta-jokes, one liners etc. It's a little disappointing, but if you want a laugh, there are plenty of other places to find them. If it keeps HN a place for more serious discussion, then I'm fine with it.

[deleted]

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

#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 6 weeks in between working at a summer camp where I was on my feet all day every day. When I got back to the office my mood and focus were sky high compared to before but I never had to try to do exercise at summer camp, the job itself just was exercise.
Post reply on HN