I was most interested to read recently about a study on the value of exercise and possible increases in brainpower.
That’s really a ‘duh’ moment!
Not just because of the brainpower issue but because exercise seems to be the first line of defense for nearly every condition imaginable.
Even paraplegics benefit from exercise.
Obviously anyone who has a replacement hip, knee, shoulder joint receives ‘therapy’, which is supervised exercise!
Physical Therapists oversee your exercises and then give the patient exercises to do at home. But who does them? I believe Physical Therapists are some of the miracle workers in modern medicine.
Massage therapy is recommended for all ages – it’s a passive way for muscles and ligaments to be loosened – it’s exercise!
Now if massage therapy is also suitable for infants and children and walking and other exercise is good for those having joint replacement or with diabetes and – follow my thoughts here – our children aren’t exercising enough because they don’t have the opportunity and they eat junk food too – why then wouldn’t it be important to have our toddlers start walking outside as much as possible at the earliest possible age?
The gait of many children with developmental delays is often quite markedly awkward – could it be it’s because they only walked around their houses and never had a chance to develop good walking posture and stamina?
Have you ever seen adults with strange walks? Some men have quite an effeminate walk even though they are heterosexual. What is it that develops our walking stance – does it start very early, as with so many other aspects of our development?
Do fearful parents create children who don’t walk well or with an inappropriate gait?
“I’m afraid of the trafficâ€
“I can’t take both my children for a walk at the same timeâ€
“I’m concerned about the germs en route to the park and even more concerned about the germs on the playground equipmentâ€
All these comments have been made to me by educated parents – by educated I mean with a Bachelors degree or a Masters.
Is this the second generation to grow up with walkers, activity centers and working mothers? Do those children need to be ‘anchored’ in one place for the mother’s/caregiver’s convenience?
It just seems that in my experience those families with developmentally delayed children are also the least likely to take walks with their children.
Walking is the cheapest, easiest, most basic means of fitness.
My grandmother walked everywhere and lived to be 92. My friend Rose walked a mile or so to the store when she was in her mid-90’s. My mother at 88 now walks everywhere covering about 10 miles a week on average!
Walking loosens all the joints. Very often those who carry the most weight also walk the least and end up needing surgery on their joints – the extra weight also increases their risk of complications during surgery.
When my husband went in for emergency surgery in 1999 his initial medical report described him as a “56 year old obese maleâ€. He was horrified to read that and has worked for nearly 8 years to get his fitness level back to where it was in his mid-30’s. He’s nearly there!
We credit his recovery to the years he spent either bicycling, or walking with our sons in a backpack plus the number one reason – he’s not a smoker!!
But his core body fitness was the overriding factor in his recovery. That gave him mental fitness and stamina.
Fitness is all for all ages – let’s start walking!