On being more youthful

                   
                                     (vintage Windmill dancers)

Continuing on from last week. I also have many other posts on this topic.

What is the best sort of movement for youthfulness? 

I truly believe that there needs to be several goals, with exercise, to stay youthful:

muscle tone

After we turn thirty, our muscle-to-fat ration decreases. Over the decades, we very slowly start getting more fat than muscle. We can end up skinny fat, if we are slender, and don't build up our muscles. Which means that we can stay the same shape, weight, and size, but inside, under the skin, we can get less muscle, and more fat.

And when we put on weight, over the years, generally we are not putting on muscle.

So what can we do? What sort of exercise maintains muscle tone, and what builds muscles?

If we are in reasonable shape to start with, toning is excellent, with:

• light weights
• pilates
• yoga where you are doing strong poses like warriors, downward dog, and planks
• exercises using our own body weight like squats, push ups and crunches
• sports where you are using your body

It's about keeping in shape, in this case, and not much is needed. But sometimes when we are flabby, we need more. Such as:

• heavier weights
• gym machines

Muscles are indeed a big part of the fountain of youth. 

My present routine

I am now seriously considering joining a gym, probably in about a month's time, when I can free up my time. In the meantime, I am using light weights, yoga, and walking. I also do a small set of flexibility movements nearly every day. They take me five minutes, and I do them as I am not a naturally flexible person (despite the yoga). So that's quite a comprehensive list of exercise. I am doing it all for health reasons, and the feel-good factor. None of it, so far, has helped with weight loss, but hopefully soon that will change. When I am better with my diet (which, actually, is a good food regime).

Posture and movement

Going back to muscle tone here. When we have poor muscle tone, we start to stoop, and can eventually end up with a rounded upper back, and we get shorter. As a yoga teacher, I've always been very conscious of this when I'm teaching, always subtly training people to stand tall. And for myself, too. I can feel the natural tendency to stoop, within myself. (as they say, age is a witch with a 'b') I do work at it, in a casual way, but I am so short (very short), that I really don't want to be any shorter. 

When we have muscles, we also seem to have more energy to move. When I was sick with blood issues, I put on a lot of weight and lost a lot of muscle tone. I could only move slowly,  partly because I was so exhausted, but also because my muscle tone was not good. As soon as I got 'better', I started moving. A bit at a time, as I had been quite debilitated for so long. 

And this is the way to do it, I feel. If we are out of condition for any reason, start slowly. A bit at a time:

• get up and walk around the house. Frequently 
• when you can, move a bit more quickly
• go for walks, even five to ten minutes at a time, until you can manage more

Moving is youthful.

A lovely inspiration

A few years ago, I was teaching yoga at a retirement village to a couple of lovely ladies, and whilst I was waiting for them, an amazing older woman walked past. I saw her and my gaze was riveted. I could not take my eyes off her (I know, I was a scary stalker lady in that instance). She was tall, in her early nineties, and walked like a ballerina. Fluid and expressive. I watched her talking: she was vivacious. 

This lady lived at the village and taught low impact aerobics there. She had been a Windmill showgirl in her younger years, on the stage in London. That would have been quite out of the ordinary in those days! She also was dressed elegantly yet casually. I so want to be like her when I am that age.

She became my new inspiration, as, clearly, her age was not defining her in the way that it defines most people of her age.

Can we do that? Age beautifully? I think so.