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| Do Senior Citizens need their own page? | Yes and no. Basically, you need to read this page so I can explain why you don't need your own page! | |
| An Example of the Problem: (Nutrition) |
Senior Citizens, and many other groups, are led to believe
that they are more different than they are similar to the rest of the
population, and have all sorts of special needs that need to be addressed. No
doubt this is true, but also no doubt it is abused, as but another ploy in
marketing. Here is a classic example. The BIGGEST difference in the 1989 RDA for young adults and seniors is in the thiamine requirement. 1.5 vs. 1.2 mg. WOW! A whole 0.3 mg difference! This is totally insignificant, given the expected errors in the RDA to begin with!! And, virtually ALL of the RDAs for the other micro nutrients are identical!! Yet how often have you been sold a nutritional bill of goods emphasizing your "unique" needs?? Centrum, anyone? Now I am not saying that there are no differences.. Of course there are. But they are quite secondary to the similarities, and the differences that DO exist are more hormonal, not nutritional! Another billion dollar hustle! |
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| Marketing Differences | Entrepreneurial/Marketing America thrives on amplifying
the smallest difference so that we, the consumer, may have the PRIVILEGE of
being sold a whole 'nother ("different") bill of goods that supposedly
addresses those differences. Entrepreneurs and marketers "forget" to tell us that for many many purposes, we are more similar than we are different. The very fact that we can procreate is strong evidence for this! |
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| The bottom line to health and exercise: It's the same for everyone; the intensity just varies! |
There ARE some age-related differences that are
important. For example, kids should generally not be put on diets (perhaps not
adults, either!), nor should they be allowed strenuous weight lifting while they
are growing. Senior citizens must watch things like increases in intra cranial pressure (ICP) in exercises like inversion, and be more cognizant of hormone therapies that might benefit them. But here is the bottom line: (almost) EVERYTHING on this site applies as well to senior citizens just as it does to an olympic athlete. In fact, the principles here apply to most MAMMALS, never mind different age groups! You should do the SAME pushups, chinups, and weight lifting that HE does! Just do it at your level. You should, if you are so inclined, go for the lactic-acid "burn"... You'll just get it sooner than he does! You should go for your maximum, just like he does...it will just be lower, and slower in coming. But IN PRINCIPLE, almost everything is the same. If I may reference the HoloBarre, your pushups will likely be at a higher angle than mine; if you do some of the acceleration moves, they will be a little slower than mine. But all the principles are the same!! This is a profoundly important concept, especially in light of all the "manufactured differences" created among us. Philosophically, it's important because the stance presented here serves to reduce the gender gap, which is another unnecessarily wide division. Regardless of the modality you choose, whether it's the HoloBarre, a $10,000 home gym, a health club membership, or your own calisthenics, or my much recommended Heavy Hands technique, you should not look at your routine as any different than anyone else's, other than individual differences of capacity. |
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| Nutrition for Senior Citizens | ||
| The extraordinarily important Philosophical Big Picture: The Big Mistake of Trading Wisdom for Performance Not an even trade! |
My philosophy is radically different from what you will generally read elsewhere. I uncategorically reject the notion of "performance," because it is an open-ended and none-ending source of trouble, physically, socially, and philosophically. Performance is embodied by the typical TV/Magazine ad, which boasts some kind of superlative: best body, best skin, highest climb, fastest run, winning-est record, etc. Our exchange of wisdom for raw performance (and the "victory" or conquest) is what makes senior citizens "second class" citizens in this country. Psychologically, America is not the place to grow old in. Fortunately, it has a high standard of living, which does dull the insult somewhat And soon, this philosophy will be exported to all countries and cultures, along with McDonald's and blue jeans.. So I reject performance, not just as a concession to the elderly, but for ALL age groups. I view exercise strictly as compensation for our sedentary lifestyles, which means it is more of a THERAPY and aid to development in ALL age groups. Be the best you can be, and all this performance jargon, is just more hype. It is a twisted version of the message, Do what is best for you in the long run, which has nothing to do with performance. In another article, I will discuss the diabolical effectiveness of shame-based marketing, and how it fundamentally induces an unhealthy foment within ourselves. Sixteen y.o. girls getting breast implants is just one result of this mentality. There is a place for performance, and that is for kids. And even then the competition is not the most humane, but perhaps necessary as a sort of psychological teething process. But it is a phase, like fast cars and motorcycles, that as a culture we seem not able to let go of. For one basic reason: Once the wisdom of age has been rejected in favor of the performance of youth, no further transition is possible--we have nothing to look forward to except the loss of performance! So our culture is geared toward forever maintaining performance, or restoring it, since there is nothing else to embrace. Wisdom has already been rejected! And the issue is not only that senior Citizens are led to re-perceive themselves; I don't think too many seniors miss running the 100 m dash in under 10 secs. Rather, it is how youth is primed to REJECT the aging process, and the wisdom that goes along with it. While it would be nice to live longer and healthier, it's also a shame to do so stupidly--while making other people suffer in the process with an imposed value system. Which is what is happening today. It is important for senior citizens to not only clearly recognize this, but to get angry, and organize around this. AARP has many important political and social functions. Addressing cultural trends, and dangerous ones, should be a part of it. These perspectives and analyses on health & exercise will hopefully be a part of this consciousness. |
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