Riding in your Later Years? How about Exercising

Here it is, well past the end of January where New Year's Resolutions on exercising and dieting come to die. The hectic lifestyles of many people destroys the diet and exercise plans often with the rationalizaton (okay excuse) 'I don't have enough time'. And then before you know it the years have piled on. Decreased health, poor physical condition and injuries make riding horses much harder, not to mention all the time eating chores that come with horse keeping. But it doesn't have to be that way.

I'm in my early sixties and I learned the concept of 'Live Long, Die Short' almost 20 years ago. Even as the injuries and age related degeneration all pile up and make riding, even living, harder, I feel in better health than ever and haven't physically slowed down much. I attribute that to regular exercising. I certainly intend to be riding horses until the day I die, though I'll do it a little more cautiously. And my plan for death is to go kicking and screaming into it just like the passengers in Grandpa's truck.

Many of us live a physical life bucking hay bales, stacking feed bags, carrying buckets, and a host of other physical chores. However the physically tasking some of that may be, many muscle groups suffer from lack of moderate stress to stay healthy and strong, and some of the lack of full range of motion things we do can make us more injury prone.

Like many people, I don't have the time to go to a gym and I find it difficult to carve out dedicated time to workout. What I do instead is to leverage the time I have and fit workouts in between all those chores. The concept is easy. Waiting for a stock tank to fill? Do a set of pushups or curls. Waiting for a bucket of pelleted feed to soak? Pickup that shovel and do some presses over your head.

You don't need barbells and other apparatus. Use what you have around the barn - a pry bar, buckets filled with water, a piece of oil field pipe, a sledge hammer.....use your imagination. Even my new puppy Buck gets it (that's him top right - 9 months old). Using a a Jolly Ball clamped in his mouth he runs all over the place building his neck and front end muscles and dropping the ball at my feet giving me the look that only a puppy can asking for me to throw it again.

I work out about every four days and fit it in like I said, between chores. Clean one pen, do a couple sets. Clean the next pen, then do a couple sets. It doesn't feel like you are adding much time to your work day. And you will get a whole new set of friends,....Mr Ben Gay and Mrs Deep Blue Rub. But the best thing about it is that you start to feel better and maybe that leads to reinforcing that success with other healthier lifestyle practices. If you jump into a routine, any routine, it's best to start slow and build from there, like you would when working with horses.

I am including some photos of my basic routine using expedient common barn items. I try to get 15 to 25 reps of any exercise. If, for instance, a pry bar is just a little too light of weight for curls, I slide a small section of oil field pipe onto the bar for added weight. Buckets are great as you add just the right amount of water to get the weight you are looking for.  I hope this helps someone find an upper body strength routine that works for them.  Down the road I'll do an article on stretching, which is as important if not more important that strength training.