Fit in 15 at 60+! - Short Overview

I rarely review books. I am writing about this book though. I have no relationship with the Author, and am receiving no compensation for this article. It is a valuable book if you are a Senior.

This book is a wise investment. On the surface, it is simplistic. The basis is the Author was over sixty and was having issues while trying to get in shape. Exercise was painful and was not producing results. How many people over 60 are not starting to have real issues with common tasks and simple exercise?

If you are over sixty, you and I both know exactly what the Author faced, and this is where his book shines! Are the books basic exercises simple? Yes they are. They start in a chair, it is difficult to get much simpler with exercise than sitting in a chair. 

I read complaints these exercises are too simplistic. I do them, and they are simple, yet effective. If you want to know how limber you are not, do some of the exercises. I found out I was not as limber as I thought I was. Now, I'm getting better and more limber. I now think, what else do I have to do, and what do I have to lose? Everything?

The fascinating thing about people over sixty is we are limber enough, most of the time to do those things we do every day. Completing new or rarely used movements more than a few times, and we know about it the next day, the day after, and the day after. I grew sick and tired of the muscle aches and the frustrations of exercising. There was pain and no gain.

This book is helping me to learn how to manage 'exercise' without waking up sore the next day, and bring satisfaction back to basic exercise. I hope the pep talks and the basic exercises in the book stick with me. They take little time and feel good, so I think they will. I am fairly limber, but if I do out of the usual type of yard work or my even preferred exercise routine, I wake up to spend a few days being very sore.

After modifying my exercise routine as Mr. Jenner suggests, most of my pain  and exercising frustration are now mostly in my past. I wake up knowing I used my muscles, but it is not painful as it used to be. I now look forward to exercising. I am happy to do the simple stretches as they help me feel even better.

The second fact I learned is what happens in our muscles when we get sore, and how to make it better. I scoffed at the suggestion that eating differently would make most of the pain of exercise go away. With nothing to lose I followed the authors suggestions. It is a miracle! I wonder how many years I thought I had Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (DOMS), only to realize some exercise pain is diet related.

After reading the book cover to cover, which is recommended before starting the exercises, I found these two insights about exercise and eating alone make the book worth it's asking price. I am sure Mr. Jenner, the author, experienced the exact same issues I have experienced. He dug around and researched until he found the answers. Exercise hurts more when you are over 60! But he found a fix!

His program is simple, it is intended for older adults, not twenty somethings. It is comprehensive. Give the simplest exercises a chance, what do you have to lose? I find the book is more than worth the asking price.

Surreal Choice, Real Life Decision

I was five years old, going down the stairs, then out the door to meet my friends when she appeared. If I had known the word, I would have called her an apparition or illusion. How can a very tall woman, stand in the door, above the door and in the wall, and make it look normal?

I immediately knew who she was, yet I did not know who she was. She was dressed in a brown pants suit with thin, vertical, darker brown stripes and a brown hat. She had brown hair and kind of a housewife appearance, though I knew she was not a housewife. She was not someone to trifle with, if for no other reason than her sudden appearance scaring the heck out of me. To this day I do not remember her eye color or if she wore nail polish or not. She did have a purse of brown leather and brown shoes.

Her voice was stern. "Well", she said, "are you going to do it or not?" As I did not have a thought in my head other than finding some friends outside to play with, it was not obvious to my child’s mind what her question meant. I did know by the tone of her voice, that this was a very serious question and my answer should be carefully thought over.

She repeated, "Are you going to do it?" It was the most awkward thing, trying to come up with an answer when there is only fog surrounding the question and a blank for an answer. I found myself thinking back to an earlier time, before I was here, before I was born.

I was an adult somewhere standing around with a few other people,  talking about what was next for all of us. I declared I was going to create a technology that would change the world in unimaginable ways. It would be the greatest gift for mankind ever known. Someone asked if I was sure. Of course I am sure. Now, I am here in this world, a child being asked if I am sure?

I was barely enough to know that two and two equals four, and here I was being asked a question I didn't really understand. It wasn't even a thought until this moment when she asked her question. Me standing on the third stair from the floor, my descent blocked by this woman who simply appeared and blocked the way.

I knew I had to give her an answer and what ever answer I gave her was binding. In this moment I had a choice. After my answer, there would no longer be a choice. It took no more than a few seconds, but took decision making to a level that was beyond abstract for a child's mind, to put it simply.

"No", I said, "I am not going to do it."

I arrived at this answer by thinking of everything I knew about modern technology and what we (mankind) has done with it. Everything firstly had been used for the destruction of other Humans in one way or another. I was not going to be part of a perpetual world killing machine.

She stared down at me, and asked if I was sure. "No, I am not going to do it." "Very well, your life plan is erased." In an instant she was gone.

More than six decades later, I can still visualize the scene. This giant Woman standing where it was impossible to stand. Blocking my exit and demanding an answer to a question that had no meaning until that moment, when a before being born memory came flooding in from a place I could not remember being at, talking about something I did not until that moment remember.

My decision on that spring morning changed my life in ways lives are rarely changed. My life path was erased. My only direction my life was the direction I applied it to each day. It was akin to a sail boat with no rudder. I listened to other kids tell me what they were going to be when they grew up. I felt as if I only had two vague choices for my life, do good or do something else.

Now I am still at peace with my decision. I could not have lived with the guilt and horror I may have brought to this world, and the people that would have died as a result of my trying to do improve the world.

Surreal as it seems, this was an event that fashioned my life in ways I never could have imagined. I have the freedom to follow whatever life direction, randomness and chance send my way. Mine has been a difficult, frustrating yet liberating life. Made possible, by an event that perhaps did not exist.

Late Morning Funeral

I attended the funeral of a forty-two year old man. I met him first when he was about ten, on a camping trip. I saw him a few times since then, mostly in random encounters. He died a senseless meaningless death. Someone took his life from him, though it is possible he encouraged his death via his life style.

The eulogy, if eulogy is the correct word, started with pictures of a happy-go-lucky kid. It ended with a series of posed pictures that would not be shared too far away from immediate family. It was mentioned he remained happy-go-lucky throughout his life.

With the funeral in progress I gazed at what represented him now. He was inside a small pearl white box with two rosaries draped over it. On top was a black baseball cap. I do not remember the patch on it, but knew from his last pictures it was his current favorite hat. In the first rows sat immediate family members who now have him in only in their hearts. Others sat behind, relatives, friends, friends of the family.

What a senseless death it was. Preceded by what to me was a mostly invisible adult life. There was not much said in the eulogy that seemed unexpected, nor mention of what type of person he was. There was a brief mention of his having children, but little about any family life. Listening to the words of the eulogy, he seemed to have lived in a semi-vacuum. It added to my sense of loss, this man gone in the middle of his life, with so little said at the end about what he had done with his life.

I had a brief few moments speaking with one of his siblings later in the day. I wanted to express my anger and frustration over his meaningless death. I said how badly I felt for his family, now left behind, his brothers and sisters. The Sibling's response was one of the most profound comments I have ever heard.

"He lived the life he wanted to live". I immediately understood the volumes of unsaid life details and feelings which were wrapped into those few words that were not included in the eulogy. It was not important that I knew little about his adult life. It did not matter there was nothing said of what he had done with his life up to that moment.

He lived his life as wanted to. His end was apparently no surprise, possibly not even to him. It seems the happy, fun loving ten year old boy, grew up, took what life offered, and went on from there. In eight little words, I understood it did not matter what I did not know more about his life. We were not there to listen to or pass judgement on how he lived his life. We attended his funeral to validate him, nothing more, nothing less.

Life is mostly about luck. You are lucky at the right moments or you are not. Maybe he was lucky to have lived so long? Maybe he made his own version of lemonade with the lemons life gave him. I will never know. I don't need to know. I do know, no matter what he did or what people who knew him, thought about him, "he lived the life he wanted to live". I find it difficult to say there is a better way to live.

What peace there is now, to know that no matter how much I wish someone would change this or that in their life to better suit how I think they should live their life, they are indeed living the live they wish to live. I will keep this thought with me for the rest of my days. The most profound and liberating comment on life, I have heard yet.

"He lived the life he wanted to live."