About Physical Ageing
New Beginnings at 75 - Is it truly possible to start something new at age 75?
by Gopi Menon
Most people think not! They think that it is the time to wait patiently for our inevitable exit from this planet, as graciously as we can.
For the last couple of years, I had found myself spending hours watching TV. But there is only so many replays of movies and TV series one can take. I was bored silly! Then I realized a great truth: “We get bored only because we don’t have any new goals to go after.”
I asked myself: “Why should I not find something interesting to do, even at my age?” After all we call this time of our life ‘the Golden Years’, don’t we? As I was entertaining such thoughts, something happened in Malaysia that gave me the incentive to start anew!
The 14th General Election in Malaysia that took place on 9th May 2018 created good shock waves. After 61 years of having the same coalition government in power, the people voted for change! In an orderly manner, without strife or violence, the new Government took over, led by the 93-year old former PM.
As my sons and I stayed up all night watching the results live on TV, we saw that we had a new, better edition of the old PM. His mind was still sharp and he was still decisive, but he was no more authoritarian. Thus, we were looking forward to a truly New Malaysia!
The next morning, I told my wife: "If a 93-year old can take charge of the country once again, who are we (in our seventies) to complain about being too old?"
My wife reminded me that according to a fortune-teller (who had been uncannily correct in predicting demises in our family), both of us may only live for three more years. She felt that it was no use making new plans.
I replied: “If that were true, why would I waste the final few years of my life on this wonderful planet, especially in this blessed country I am fortunate to be born in?”
So, I decided that if I truly had only 3 years to live, I would try to make it the best 3 years of my life!
In order to achieve that, my top priority would be to improve my health. I began to go for regular morning walks. Initially, I struggled to complete even one round of the walking circuit in the nearby park, but I persevered.
There is a saying that “nature conspires to make our dreams come true” and as though on cue, came the annual ‘Anak-Anak Malaysia Unity Walk’, which was to take place in another month. I signed up for it, to keep me motivated to continue walking daily. I struggled to finish the course but managed to complete the 5 km walk.
After that event, however, I found it difficult to make regular morning walks a habit. Sometimes I woke up late, other times it rained, and yet other times I did not feel like driving through the morning traffic to the nearest park.
While wondering how I was going to make exercise a daily habit, I came across a YouTube video which showed that exercising on a ‘mini-trampoline’ or ‘rebounder’ was very beneficial for senior citizens. The video claimed that it was non-stressful for our joints while providing exercise for all the cells in our body.
Compared to a treadmill, the rebounder was very reasonably priced and did not take up much space. A few months ago, I bought a rebounder complete with a balance bar. (The balance bar helped me keep my balance especially when beginning the exercises.) The rebounder is a boon because it motivates me to exercise whenever I see it in the corner of the living room!
I think it is helping me gradually improve my fitness. After about one month of jogging on it, I found my heart resting rate had improved from the earlier 84 beats per minute (bpm) to about 78 bpm. This encourages me to continue until I reach my target heart resting rate of about 70 bpm or less.