Exercise May Diminish Cancer Risk

I have always walked uncounted miles per day, from childhood til now. I believe in the powers of excercise. And, the older I become, the more determined I am to keep it up.

Edgar- When I lived in NY, one of my biggest joys was to walk all around Manhattan, especially on Sundays. I think my record was when I walked from Penn station to Wall Street, then up to 57th Street on the East Side, and back to Penn Station.

If you were doing that in 1968, you likely would have passed me. I walked all over Manhattan and eventually quite a bit of Brooklyn.

I work out at the gym 3-4 times a week. I play tennis, swim, basketball, weights and hike. I may have left something out. I'm pushing 50 but I feel like a kid. My BMI is 18%.

I WAS doing that in '68. On school vacations, I would take my son into Manhattan. We played this little game. I would ask him where he wanted to eat. We would see a place, and he would say, "Nah, I'll bet we can find something better". We would go past restaurant after restaurant, all the while my son was looking for something "better". We would walk our feet off until we found something that satisfied him.

My son also is an inveterate walker!

I didn't have a car until I was 22. Walking and hitch hiking were a way of life with me. My work also keeps me on my feet, going up and down stairs and carrying loads.

In my opinion, safety would dictate no Walkman, or anything that prevents one from hearing cars, approaching people, etc. It also, I believe, makes one look more like an easy target for anyone wanting to do anything not nice, since with a headset, one is obviously multi-tasking, and less aware of one's surroundings.

Sometimes I practice whistling a tune, while I walk. That is not for everybody, and might make a woman look odd in some people's eyes, I believe? Most of the time though I am just a silent walker, mulling over the petty annoyances of daily life.

Anyway, I walk, and do a different exercise with dumbbells each day. About four sets of 12-15 repetitions, using less weight than I did years ago (each dumbell is 20-30 pounds).

I've been walking my neighborhood lately. I rather like it, a small tract-y neighborhood - first time I've owned a place in one, I'm an old city girl - but it has many charms.

I've been a sporadic exerciser - jogging for x years, swimming for x years, walking for many years, but with desultory non-exercise times in between. I'm at heart a person who is very happy in a comfortable chair with a good book and my instinct is always pushing in that direction.

I know exercise is good, pretty much always have. That's not the primary reason I do it although important - I do it because it makes me feel connected. I like the observing process just about as much as I like any exercise endorphins. Wherever I live, walking connects me to the outside air, weather, neighborhood.
Timing matters - I don't like walking when it's 100 degrees and I don't like maneuvering on ice, or going too far in one direction with no respite at hand if it is really cold.

We had an elderly man in the apartments, who was essentially healthy, until he became sedentery. He discovered the need to exercise when it may have been too late. He began falling down and had to move to his daughter's home for his own protection. I hope he was able to rebuild his strength, but will never know for sure. I found out that he is still alive, five years later, but coud not get any other information.

There is a lady in my community who is 100 years old, and lives with her widowed daughter. Apparently, she had been in a nursing home up north, and was failing.

Her daughter brought her down south, and put her on an exercise program. Every day the daughter brings her to the community fitness center.She spends time on the treadmill, and uses some of the machines. She walks by herself, without the help of a cane.

She is alert, articulate and has the strength of a much younger person.