Like most people, you’ve probably heard that activity and exercise are good for you. The frailty and decreased energy often associated with aging is largely due to muscle loss.  (Here’s where I can’t resist adding the old adage “Use it or lose it”.)  So true.  

Being physically active on a daily basis is one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself.  As a matter of fact, exercise is THE key to maintaining your mobility and prolonging your INDEPENDENCE!  It is central to daily functioning…think about it.  Your daily activities like getting out of bed, rising up out of a chair, standing in the shower, carrying groceries, walking down the hall.  They all require strength and energy, and one of the best ways to keep muscles healthy and strong and to increase the body’s vigor is with mobility-enhancing exercises.  Also called strength training or resistance training, these exercises are among the best ways to fight weakness and frailty that can come with age.  If done regularly they will build bone and muscle, and help preserve your INDEPENDENCE.

So, let’s make our founding fathers proud, take back our freedom of movement and refuse to surrender to the tyranny of aging!  We may be born into a life of liberty, but we must not ever remain idle. After all, the key to INDEPENDENCE (and therefore happiness) lies in the pursuit.

Susan S. Covey is the Director of Community Center for Health and Fitness at Bayleigh Chase-Acts

There was a day when metropolitan newspapers published several editions a day.  

That meant reporters could cover a breaking news event, write about it, and then update it, with more information, for the next edition, or the one after that. 

 I faced that situation on my first day as a general assignment reporter for the Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News.   

I had been sent to a fire in the city. Somewhat nervous but with notepad in hand, I went to the site—an abandoned building– and obtained the basic details from the fire chief on duty—the who, what, when, where and how elements, basic to all good reporting. But I was facing a deadline for the paper’s first edition. I did not believe I had enough information or time to write the whole story by the deadline. 

That’s when the City Editor admonished me not to worry, just use the information I had. “Go with what you’ve got,” he said. More details could be added in subsequent editions.  

For those of us in the country’s “aging population,” isn’t “going with what we’ve got” good advice for lots of circumstances, especially those involving physical challenges?

Go with what we’ve got….

If sight or hearing is diminished,

If legs aren’t as strong as they used to be,

If joints ache 

If energy levels aren’t up to snuff,

If balance is a challenge, 

Or breathing is difficult,

If chronic pain persists,

If tremors or dizziness annoy us,

Or lapses of memory frustrate us, 

Let’s resolve to “go with what we’ve got.”   

Do the very best we can with today’s story. 

There will be time to add more paragraphs tomorrow. 

Just do it. 

Ross Jones is a former vice president and secretary emeritus of The Johns Hopkins University. He joined the University in 1961 as assistant to President Milton S. Eisenhower. A 1953 Johns Hopkins graduate, he later earned a Master’s Degree at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Whether you are trying to do pull-ups, carrying luggage or opening a stubborn jar, a strong grip is important in a variety of exercises as well as everyday activities. What you may not realize is that your grip may also be indicative of overall health. A study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research concluded that grip strength is a predictor of muscular endurance and overall bodily strength. Other studies have found that a stronger grip correlates with a lower risk of heart attack and stroke. Researchers say the findings definitely suggest a link between heart health and muscle strength.

Because general hand health is important, extension as well as flexion in the fingers, you may need to build the muscles on both the top side and palm side of your hands.

Exercising all parts of your hand will also help you avoid creating an imbalance between the muscles that help you open and close your hands. And, because overworking only the muscles used to closed your hands, could lead to tendonitis, try strengthening both sides of your mitts by shoving your hand into a bowl of warm uncooked rice or sand and extend and flex your fingers.

There are actually three types of grip strength, namely crush, pinch and support. Each one lends itself to the overall sturdiness of your grasp. The crush grip is the strength between your fingers and your palm, which helps you shake hands or crumple up a piece of paper. The pinch grip is the strength between your fingers and thumb, the one used to grab a piece of paper, for instance. The ability to hold onto something such as a bag handle for a long period of time, is called support grip.

How can you improve your grip? Here are a few simple moves:

Place a dumbbell in your hand and then let it roll down your hand and catch it with the tip of your fingers.

Gripper squeeze: Using a hand gripper/exerciser or a stress ball you may have at home, flex your fingers into your palm and out for twenty seconds.

Newspaper roll: After you’ve read the Sunday paper, place your hand on top of one sheet, pulling the paper in with your fingertips until you roll the paper into a ball.

Pinch moves: Press each fingertip to your thumbs and hold a few seconds, then open your fingers in a stretched position for a few seconds and proceed to the next finger and thumb, etc.

Susan Covey is the director of Health and Fitness at Acts Bayleigh Chase

Am I crazy? So the truth is that I’ve been contemplating going back to grad school to get my Ph.D. for some time. I started the process nearly 50 years ago (I’m 73) and have been increasingly frustrated that I never finished what I started. It gnaws at me like a bad hangnail day after day. It’s been on my mind so much as of late ( and perhaps due to the pandemic), that last year I sat myself down in front of the computer and researched online programs that interest me in the field of organizational development and leadership,  programs established in both business schools and schools of education. 

My goal – it’s a bit vague – if I were truthful I’d say it was for personal fulfillment. But I’d also like to spend my time continuing to build and enhance a program that I helped develop at the University of Maryland (UMD) training leaders from the emerging markets in urban planning and development, finance and smart growth. 

I plunged into the admission process, sending out 7 applications. Now I haven’t filled out an application like that in many, many moons. UGH! …21 letters of recommendation from friends and former co-workers, 23 personal statements and hours and hours contemplating what I want to do with this degree )primary question asked both orally and in writing by each and every school).

The end result was acceptance at all 7 schools ranging from NYU to Baylor to USC. USC is my school of choice. The Program is a joint program in the School of Business and the School of Education in the area of Organizational Development and Leadership – looking at new forms of organization and leadership styles for the 21st Century. Armed with this information I hope to make my program at UMD richer and more innovative. 

USC’s program is 3 years long full time, both online and residency. Twenty four students were accepted out of a pool of 430. Average age of accepted students is 32….and then there’s me: 73. I like that. Being with younger people will be invigorating and thrust me into a pool of learners who are cutting edge.

Balancing pragmatism and intellectual interests is not an easy task for me since the two unfortunately don’t merge well. I have to make a decision within 2 weeks. Yes or No. I’m torn. It’s enormously expensive, time consuming, mostly on line and thus (I think) technically difficult. As many have counseled me: so you want to sit in a classroom with everyone more than half your age and with whom you share very little in common and frankly, Bruce, what’s it going to bring you in the final analysis?

I believe I know the answer and which way I’m leaning…Yes, I do want to sit in that classroom and no I don’t have a pat answer for what it will bring me: perhaps a bit of happiness, perhaps some fulfillment or perhaps a whole lot of frustration. Who knows? I have no idea! 

They say college is wasted on the young! I’m about to disprove that old adage. After all, 73 is the new 53.

On a personal note my grand niece is a sophomore at UCLA and this just might cause a kind of wonderful, crazy family feud!  UCLA vs. USC! Could be fun!

GO TROJANS!

Bruce Purdy is a resident of Oxford, Maryland.