Timeline of Decreasing Physical Movement
The Timeline emphasizes selected
key points in ancient, as well as more recent, European and American history.
This historical list is not intended to reflect completeness or to weigh in on
the existence of a higher power. The remarks do not intend to categorize all
modern conveniences as blights, blots, or banes. The abuses of modern
conveniences directly contribute to vast portions of society’s ills, including
sedentary and dysfunctional lifestyles.
Some of the years
cited are approximations. Most of the dates are commonly accepted by scholars,
while some are disputed. Anthropology, history, and science are evolving fields
of study.
Readers who
conclude that I am guilty of “preaching in a timeline” are quite accurate. If I
am able to assist you in cutting the cords of sedentism
by opening your mind and heart to our common human history of daily practices
of wellness, eventually I will be preaching to the choir.
The Timeline
6 Million B.C. - Oldest known
hominine fossil (Toumai) discovered in Central Africa (sources claim a date
closer to 7 million B.C. than 6). These early, upright walkers are considered
gatherers. Scavenging is another mode of how early, upright walkers acquired
food. That means they found animals that were killed by others (or simply
expired) and then grabbed what they could. Does that mean we have a hyena or
vulture streak in our lineage? Undoubtedly, that may be why some of us “go ape”
about garage sale deals and free stuff on clean-up days.
What this book
refers to as movement
(physical movement) is programmed into our DNA. (Some experts contend so is
addiction and so is laziness.) Unlike some hibernators, most branches of the
animal kingdom (humans have long been listed as part of this) lack built-in
mechanisms that can keep them healthy and well without physical movement. The
human tendency is to wither away (or become bloated with fat) and die without
movement. For people who live off the land, days without active physical
movement means there is no food — without which hunger sets in. Enough weeks
without food means death. Sustenance has always been the main reason for
movement. Even today we generally don’t work for fun; we work to be able to
afford our expenses, including groceries.
1.8 Million B.C. - The remains of
Homo erectus hominids from this era indicate pursuits of hunting and gathering.
200,000 B.C. - Approximate
appearance of Homo sapiens, hunter-gatherers.
100,000 B.C. - DNA evidence
suggests that dogs, through breeding controlled by humans, were separated from
wolves around this time. They were used as hunters’ helpers and are considered
the first domesticated animal.
40,000 B.C. - We share the same DNA
as the Homo sapiens from this era, yet we treat our bodies completely
differently. Part of the human quest has been to make life easier, to minimize
suffering and toil. History reveals that this hasn’t always been the end result.
“Sedentary Nation” makes the claim that lack of physical movement — including
the avoidance of activities that produce huffing and puffing, increased
circulation, and endorphin-type highs — directly equates to unnatural living
and the breakdown of mind and body.
9,000 B.C. - Sedentary villages
appear. Inhabitants domesticate plants and animals concurrently with continued
hunting and gathering. This immediately initiated social classes and long
(sometimes endless) hours of work for the field workers. Scientists and sociologists
readily make clear that Homo sapiens have two major traits about which we
should all be aware:
1.
Evolution has programmed us to hold onto calories, storing them as fat, for
long winters or other periods of food scarcity.
2.
As a group and as individuals, we tend to focus on the immediate. We have
rarely been adept long-term planners, and for that reason we have frequently
not acted ecologically. Our choices have regularly destroyed our planet’s
systems and each other instead of working within natural, holistic living
paradigms — and
planning for the future.
Today,
much of this has to do with the shortsightedness of greedy people at the top
who are sponsored by hungry, greedy, and ignorant constituents.
7,000 B.C. - One of the first
cities grows from a small village in Jericho, Palestine. Not counting certain
empires that built large cities (for example, the Roman Empire), widespread
(meaning across the planet) urbanization did not exist until the 19th century
A.D. Up to that point, there was typically no way to feed large populations of
city dwellers. Urbanization grew vigorously when civilizations were able to
feed people who served in administrative, clerical, and ruling hierarchies, as
well as those who worked in sales and production — initially workers like
builders, artisans, and merchants. Eventually, factories, mills, and plants
created more areas of dense population.
4,000 B.C. - Oxen are used as draft
animals. At times, people were panting and sweating during daily chores, as
well as travel by foot. At other times they remained still, or moved quietly,
breathing softly, when they needed to sneak up on game … or while playing
hide-and-seek.
500–400 B.C. - For Greeks, creating
beautiful human bodies meant people were more godlike. This is perhaps the
first popular example of pumping iron and posing for the purpose of looking
good.
General Trend of Food and Movement (not date-specific)
Ready-to-eat food, including
ready-cooked, is frequently connected with urbanization, but hunter-gatherers
and farmer-cultivators also needed food to go — fast food. Humans are more able
to perform their tasks when supplied with continual nourishment. People often
think of vitamins and minerals when they think of food, and both are important.
But food’s most important and immediate role is to provide calories. Without
calories in the system, the human engine is less able to generate movement.
Lack of movement leads to starvation. Thin people starve relatively quickly.
From the time of the original sedentary villages, cultivators and
hunter-gatherers continue to populate the globe. Vast populations die off while
others prosper. Most everyone has a physical job they are required to perform,
and most jobs revolve around the acquisition, production, and delivery of food.
In
the Eastern Roman Empire, children and military recruits are sent to schools to
learn. Eventually, this practice leads to masses of young people being forced into remaining
seated (a sedentary position often taken up on the ground) or standing in one
general area for long periods of time. This ultimately led to providing chairs
and desks to students.
Sitting
at school desks inherently sets us up to believe spending long durations of
time seated in constricting apparatuses is normal. Some would argue an easy way
to control a population is to get it sitting down and listening to repeated
messages from the controlling forces. School teaching is generally based upon
an approved and required curriculum (including sponsored textbooks), funded by
tax dollars and overseen by government entities. School also teaches obedience
to the system. By design, today’s system is, as a rule, production and
consumption oriented, not liberation and discovery oriented. Intrinsically,
nations are organized under unity, defense, obedience, propaganda, and control.
All of this needs directors and enforcers, who, just like the masses, need to
be fed, clothed, and housed. The more a hierarchy is top heavy, the more the
food workers become resentful of those who are not toiling in the fields but
instead hire people (enforcers, thugs, bad hombres)
to wield whips (or withhold pay) and impose authority.
In
Asia, many followed teachings inspired by Confucius, aka Master Kong, a Chinese
philosopher who is said to have lived around 500 B.C. Physical movement —
including tai chi, martial arts, sword practice, and holding positions — with a
spiritual motivation leads the practitioner to health, focus, and moral
character.
In
India, a daily practice first concentrated on the spiritual side comes into
use. Yoga, which means “union,” was developed by Hindu priests because they saw
the benefits of moving their bodies during parts of their meditation. They knew
that sitting around and just
attempting to move the mind and spirit generally produced
immediate and chronic threats to wellbeing. Of some adept gurus, it is said
they are able to move the energy through their body without physical movement.
Rome: 60 A.D. - Nero builds a
public gymnasium:
Greek word for “place to be naked.” These were places men could go to train, be social, and experience intellectual stimulation.
The heart, the mind, and the body were kept invigorated. Much of this took
place without roofs — sunlight during the day, fresh air after sunset. Remember
that ventilation and sunshine are important factors in sanitary cleanliness.
Roman
citizens had long maintained their physical fitness for battle readiness. But
over time, fitness subsided. Gluttony, complacency, and laziness (and even lead
poisoning from pipes and utensils, among other things) increased during periods
of excess, plagues, and overpopulation. The population eventually grew more
unfit and the physical infrastructure (roads, buildings, aqueducts) fell into
varying states of disrepair. Invaders vandalized aqueducts, cutting off water
supplies. (The same technique, turning off the water, was employed by the Nazis in 1943
in the final battle in the ghetto of Warsaw.)
The
Western Roman Empire eventually declined to the point of being unable to get
food from the farms into the urban areas to feed the populations. The capital
city of Ancient Rome once boasted 40,000 apartment units and almost 2,000
palaces. Barbaric tribes conquered Rome partly because of the physical strength
and unity of the tribes, who lived mainly as hunter-gatherers while also
raising domesticated cattle. Well-to-do Romans found it inconvenient to die for the Empire.
And the poor, increasingly turning to Christianity and its promise of a
paradise after death, preferred martyrdom to serving the Caesar. The result:
hiring of mercenaries to take the place of the legendary Roman Legions. Alaric,
the Christian barbarian king, was reportedly met at the gates of Rome by
mercenaries. The rest of the story can be summed up: “Money talked, mercenaries
walked.”
After
the gluttonous Roman civilization crumbled (476 A.D.), the lives of many
returned to a survival mode where only the fittest and best cooperators
survived. Former city dwellers took to the fields and worked the land. If they
didn’t do well in working the land or stealing from those who did, they
perished.
The
end of the Eastern Roman Empire was not until 1453 A.D. with the conquering of
Constantinople by the Seljuk Turks, or as we know them, another dark horde from
the Siberian Steppes.
The Middle Ages, 6th–15th century -
The early period had some populations moving away from cities. Subsistence
farming eventually gave way to feudalism. The lives of the masses revolved
around food. The field workers — serfs — toiled away, protected by the
landowners — lords. History has shown how the wealthy would keep the workers
down so that the workers would have substantial challenges in organizing into a
fighting force against their masters.
The ruling class did, however, need fit soldiers who generally came from
farm-worker stock. This was a period noted for backbreaking work and wars.
Conditions of harshness and endless repetition seemingly provide an indication
of why humans would someday gravitate to living indoors and flipping channels.
Renaissance, 14th–17th century – It
was common for the royals, the king and queen included, to recreate via dancing
balls, walking, riding horses, hunting, fencing, and sex. Over the course of
history, sex (not just in long-term partnership) was at times used recreationally
… and still is. See your own sources or refer to the cultural phenomenon called
the “hook up” and refer to the 2010 best-selling book “Sex at Dawn.” Also see
how the bonobos, our closest DNA relative, use sex for stress relief and to squelch
communal disturbances. One 17-year-old prep school boy thought it a bit strange
when he was asked if he was going out on dates in 2013. “Dates are out.
Today it’s the hook-up. You meet them at parties or wherever. You make out and
that’s it. Done. You don’t even exchange phone numbers. Who needs the
aggravation and who has the time for all of the dinners and movies.”
1519 - The horse is reintroduced to
the Americas by Cortés, Spanish conquistador.
United States Modern Period, 1600s
- Forced sedentism of Native Americans. The settlers and the governing bodies
removed Indians from their traditional tribal homelands and hunting grounds and
tried to force them to be sedentary farmers. Depression, alcoholism, obesity,
poverty, and drug addiction became prevalent on reservations.
U.S. Late-Modern Period,
1800s–2000s - In 1800, 95 percent of Americans lived in rural areas. By 1920,
due to immigration and the Industrial Revolution, some 60 percent lived in
cities. In the early 1800s, 95 percent of people worked in some capacity
related to growing food. Today the number is reportedly less than 5 percent.
How
aerobic is the life of a cowboy? If the work of a cowboy or cowgirl has them
huffing and puffing over long durations, that’s an indication of aerobics. If a
cowpoke is just slowly riding the property line watching the stock, his
activity is deficient in significant physical exertion.
Neck
and spine pain plague sedentary humans. Holding the head-down position —
evidenced when some incorrectly posture themselves for reading, writing,
laptop, and beadwork — puts tremendous stress on the body. Many four-legged
animals have a strong nuchal ligament (aka paddywhack as in …”With a
knick-knack, paddywhack, give a dog a bone. This old man came rolling home”)
and musculature to support the weight of their heads for the horizontal-leaning
head position; human necks (and the integrity of our upright anatomy) aren’t
built for grazing … or surfing on low-angled digitized screens all day — and
evening.
The African-American
slaves are freed. At first, some of the freed slaves are given land, often
referred to by the phrase “40 acres and a mule.” When this practice ended, a
great deal of land was given back to whites, forcing countless African
Americans to work as sharecroppers, which spelled more poverty and subservience
for them. From 1890 to 1970, in what is known as the Great Migration, more than
6 million African-Americans left the South and settled in the North. For
African-Americans, urban populations grew, as did sedentary lifestyles. (A
recent report said that African-Americans spent more time with TV and digital
devices than any other ethnicity.
[i] Latinos
were listed in second place. In the U.S., these two groups suffer the highest
per capita percentages of obesity, asthma, heart problems, and poverty.)
1828 - The iron horse (steam
locomotive) is developed. Tracks laid at Baltimore Harbor and, in 1830, in New
York. The train is arguably one of the most comfortable of all modes of
transportation when interiors are spacious and tracks are kept smooth. Sedentism
is reduced since passengers can move about with relative safety. On longer
trips, passengers can even step off the train at periodic stops for stretch
breaks. As witnessed recently, some actively stretch their legs; others stand
around and smoke.
1845 - The Police Gazette is
founded in New York City. One of the first American tabloids, it enjoyed
tremendous success based on creating a readership ripe for stories and
illustrations of scandal, obscenity, and gossip. Long published on pink
newspaper stock, it created a following of readers intrigued to read about the
lives of actresses, chorus girls, and prize fighters, as well as other stories
deemed of potential interest to the curious masses. It used sensationalism and
yellow journalism better than most of the papers of its time and was
instrumental in creating a pop culture that had readers spending increasing
stretches of time preoccupied with the lives of others. Degradation and decrepitude
normally follow when citizens spend more time following the lives of the famous
and infamous than they do taking care of themselves, their families, and their
community.
1854 - The Otis elevator is
installed at the World’s Fair in New York City. The construction of tall
buildings necessitates new modes of conveyance for humans and supplies.
1896 - The escalator debuts at Old
Iron Pier at Coney Island, New York. It was developed, in part, to move people
through congested areas.
1890s–1960 - Dance halls could be
found in towns small and large across the United States and Western Europe.
Dance halls were a place for people to congregate, dance to live music, and
meet new friends. The Savoy in Harlem during the 1930s has been called the
first truly integrated building in the United States … for both dancers and
musicians. Dancing is an unwinding celebration creating, on its positive side,
an opportunity to bring out the best in people. As a regular activity starting
from youth, large numbers of people developed their skills and became
proficient. It was cool to get in on
the fun.
1900s - An exodus from farms
continued to satisfy the worker needs of the Industrial Revolution and war
efforts. Untold numbers left farms with hopes of a better life. They already
knew that farming was extremely difficult work and in no way promised land
ownership.
(The
following is one of the most startling facts uncovered while writing “Sedentary
Nation.” This encapsulates the overriding theme of man’s complacency with the
paradigm of profit and control in trumping wellness and doing the right thing.)
Because of the almost inconceivable reason that
six to nine months of storage life for milled flour wasn’t long enough for
bread industrialists, wheat flour is bleached with potentially harmful
chemicals (including chlorine dioxide) in order to keep it from going rancid.
The modern era preserving process removes or depletes many of the good things
that wheat bread originally provided, including unsaturated fatty acids,
proteins, vitamins, and trace minerals (especially magnesium, selenium, and
chromium). These things may not matter to consumers once they are easily
convinced that “it’s all about taste.” The current health food movement veers
away from low-cost, nutrient deficient food in favor of better nutrition. The
experts all agree the end result is improved overall health and wellbeing —
ultimately the lower cost way to live.
1899–1900 - The first American
truck was developed by a team headed by engineer Louis Semple Clarke and released for sale by
the Pittsburgh Motor Vehicle Company. Trucks, trains, and ships allow for
distance shipping of nearly everything, including food. Truck driving is one of
the classic sedentary jobs and has long caused its share of pronounced physical
disabilities. The restaurants at truck stops have traditionally provided heavy,
greasy fare, and the chance to use the cigarette machine.
1906 - Upton Sinclair writes the
new century’s most famous American work of muckraking. It was censored and only
its softer rewrite — which toned down the harshness of the work conditions —
was permitted to be published. “The Jungle,” a work of historically accurate
fiction, exposes abuses of human labor, examples of horrible treatment of
animals during slaughtering, and atrocious health hazards related to meat
processing. Its popular success provoked immediate reform. Once again, reforms
are drastically needed in the new millennium. According to the 2009 documentary
“Food Inc.,” in 1972, there were roughly 50,000 FDA inspections of meat and
poultry processing plants versus 9,200 inspections in 2006. Part of this is due
to consolidation by corporate giants — there are far fewer plants.
1913–1918 - WWI is the first major
war to institute a petroleum-powered, mechanized military. Still, it could be
considered an old-school war. Reports claim that 6 to 8 million horses died in
the conflict. The muddy trenches (and virtual lack of sanitation), and dead
humans and horses, made for a toxic and sometimes sedentary field of war. One
4-month stretch of the war resulted in more than 1 million casualties, with
only six miles of land changing hands between the opposing warriors. Some
records show that British soldiers were sometimes fed rations of beef for
breakfast; Americans in the trenches were known to take a morning meal of
coffee, donuts, and cigarettes. The pancreas, teeth and gums, and our other
markers of wellness (including the bowels) certainly don’t respond well to the
American trench breakfast diet. In this case, meat provided a more stable blood
sugar level than carbohydrates, poison, and junk.
1915 - The beginning of what
obesity researcher Dr. Richard Lustig, M.D., calls “The Coca-Cola Conspiracy.”
The expanding container sizes of soft drinks parallels the supersizing of
Westerners. Sugar, he emphatically states, is causing obesity: 1916, 6.5-oz.
glass contour bottle; 1955, 10-oz. bottle; 1960, 12-oz. cans; 1988, 44-oz. huge
cups; 1992, 20-oz. plastic bottle; 2011, smaller plastic bottles introduced
because, “Americans are counting both their calories and their pennies.”
[ii]
Caffeine is a diuretic, which makes you urinate good water. That plus the
sodium (salt) in cola makes you thirsty and makes you drink more. The more salt
in cola, the more sugar is needed to mask the salt. Dr. Lustig says, “They
[Coca-Cola and other soft drink companies who follow this model] knew exactly
what they were doing.”
Ask
yourselves if PepsiCo knows what it’s doing when it sponsors playgrounds around
the world that feature product logos and images.
1916 - White Castle opens its first
location in Wichita, Kansas, and becomes known as the first hamburger chain.
When it opened its doors, it only charged 5¢ per burger. Cheap and convenient
fast food is a significant part of our sedentary world.
1919 - The gasoline-powered
lawnmower is first manufactured in the United States, but homeowners continue
to use push-reel lawnmowers and scythes because they work well and burn
calories rather than hard-earned wages.
If you were
regular folk, your lawn didn’t have to be perfect. You didn’t normally have to
keep up with the Joneses. You just needed a place for your kids to play and perhaps
for you to invite some friends and family over for a Sunday afternoon outdoor
meal.
1920s - Radio networks begin
broadcasting. Listeners are not required to sit idly. They can still move their
bodies and accomplish things while being entertained or informed, though some just stared at
the box. Terrific scripts, directors, actors, and sound effects
permitted listeners’ imaginations to come up with their own images for the
popular radio shows. Some argue that the mind was experiencing richer
engagement without the use of any visual screens. Instead of fancy photographic
visual effects — and the viewer’s amazement at what they
[the photographic producers] can do — radio permits the brain to do one thing it does superbly, create
its own images. Look what it can do.
1930s - Howard Johnson’s pioneers
franchised restaurants with standardized menus and marketing. Since the food is
the same in any of their restaurants, you get what you pay for whether you’re
in downtown Queens or on the outskirts of Alameda. Food becomes as standardized
as toilet paper. Fast forward to today’s typical supermarkets where your
purchasing is limited to three main apple types — all uniform, none with any
marks, stamped with a label, coated in wax — that were all sprayed with various
chemicals while on the tree. One spray causes them to ripen and another to drop
to the ground. Everyone knows about the long-term use of pest spray.
1940s and beyond - World War II
brings an extraordinary mechanized war effort. The desire and need for
automation and mechanization begins to permeate all areas of life, including
lawn mowing, which, more and more, is handled with power mowers. The countdown
to microwave ovens begins. Four decades later, they will become standard issue
appliances in mid-range new construction. Homes increasingly become electronics
warehouses that have residents being bombarded by hazardous EMFs.
1951 - TV networks broadcast from
coast to coast and the visual medium replaces radio as the dominant home
entertainment medium. TV increases sedentary living and almost instantly
becomes the major
addiction that leads to a sedentary lifestyle. Nearly every
family with a parking spot owns or has access to one automobile. Urban and
suburban grandmothers may still walk to the market and church, but it becomes
increasingly unlikely that their adult children will.
Up until the time
that TV became a preferred pastime, kids who weren’t working a job would play
games, frequently outdoors, even in inclement weather. Some games were
competitive; some were just for kicks. A senior citizen had tears in his eyes
in 1987 when he told me, “Kids today are missing out. We used to play football
in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the spring. I don’t get
them with this TV flipping.” What he didn’t get was the term “addiction” —
addiction to an indoor, sedentary lifestyle.
20th century - Couches, previously
reserved for those of privileged wealth, are now within financial reach of the
masses. With more disposable income than their predecessors, the working class
can afford couches for the first time in history. Couch potatoes (of all
classes) are, in part, formed when people become excessively and unproductively
sedentary. In most cases, the TV is the main couch-centric pastime. Since it’s
hard to pull away from the boob tube — for some, impossible — it clearly has
become a powerful addiction.
Positive pursuits
like resting and relaxing after work or school, reading and improving
education, and communing with family and friends, are placed on the back
burner. Instead of actively recreating or getting some needed rest, a group
some have termed lemmings
tune in for more stimulation (not just quality programming, but the
mind-numbing news, flashy imagery, and invasive sound) from the TV. In the
1970s, comedian George Carlin imitated a home-based woman who had to cut her
phone conversation short, “… because my stories [soap operas] are coming on.”
Without having
time to quiet their minds, many remain worn out —
wired by unhealthful options and
choices. Some writers criticize the 20th century, whose worship of pop culture
creates a dumbing down of society. An entire population, many of whom witnessed
the backbreaking work of their family’s elders, is cajoled into further sedentism
and hyper consumerism. This trend is led by TV, whose language is often based
on a less than ninth-grade education. Media writers, once taught to cater to
eighth-grade levels, eventually have to stoop even lower to reach their average
audience.
[2]
Instead of creating a wiser electorate, the Age of Information creates a dearth
of common sense.
It could be argued
that the more TV you watch, the less engaged you are in true contemplation,
critical thinking, and problem solving. (Watching a program for enjoyment,
learning, or both, and discussing it or reflecting on it before flipping to
another one seems of higher intellectual and interactive gain than mere channel
surfing.) Devoid of knowledge about how to live off the land, subjected to mass
campaigns of idiocy in TV programming and commercials, people become subject to
extreme behavior. Living a simple life away from malls, bars, and hair salons
doesn’t correlate to ignorance — just the opposite. Keeping up with the Joneses
and never being satisfied is an offshoot of mass consumerism. The 20th
century’s extreme capitalism in a growing economy was made possible by extreme
consumerism. The spread of this image — keeping up with the Joneses and the
families Westerners got to know via TV programming — contributes to and
benefits from extreme sedentism.
To
promote literacy, Margaret McNamara, former teacher and the wife of Robert
McNamara — JFK’s secretary of defense and one of the brightest minds (but not
most altruistic) in Big Power at the time — gathers a team of volunteers. In
1966, Mrs. McNamara and her volunteers began the program of donating new and
used books to young school children. Reading Is Fundamental has suffered due to
budget cuts. The dumbing down of society gains strength.
The
20th century Western Fitness Pioneers, Bernarr McFadden, Paige Palmer, Dr.
Kenneth Cooper, Bonnie Prudden, Jack LaLanne, George Leonard, Jim Fixx, Covert
Bailey, and others, lay the groundwork for the modern fitness movement. They all
were concerned with the same issue — getting their adherents moving and
exercising.
1950s - America is home to a
growing beer culture. Beer companies sponsor football games, and countless
viewers sit idly while packing in the calories from beer, soft drinks, and
greasy foods like pizza. (Mentioning this here is not to categorically suggest
that fermented alcohol is bad or that good quality pizza doesn’t have its
place.) Over time, sports TV becomes a powerful addiction. It will become more
common for citizens to watch others doing movement activities than to be
enjoying outdoor recreation themselves. Some may call this laziness, but it’s
more correctly termed an addiction that increases over time.
1953 - Swanson’s TV Dinner is
introduced. Americans welcome the faithful meal of turkey, stuffing, gravy, and
cherry tart patterned after an original New England Thanksgiving meal. The
notion of frozen dinners is not a bad one, but an overreliance on prefabricated,
processed food means fewer nutrients, more preservatives, and less pride in preparing
food from scratch.
Juicing (using
steroids) helps make some athletes superstars. In 1954, after watching his team
break world records, the Soviet weightlifting coach tells American team
physician,
Dr. John Ziegler, that the
Soviet team uses steroids and other concoctions to boost performance. This
reportedly led to the introduction of performance-enhancing substances in
American sports and other forms of
cheating with drugs and blood
doping. The prevalence of doping had gained momentum among cyclists in the Tour
de France, which has had allegations of doping since the Tour began in 1903.
The need to perform almost impossible feats of strength and endurance was predominantly
induced by sponsors of the Tour who wanted winners coupled with racers desiring
to earn a living and eventually achieve fame and fortune.
[iii]
1956 - During Eisenhower’s
presidency, the President’s Council on Physical Fitness is organized as a
response to unfit American children (as compared to European children).
1957 - Scientists develop a way to
turn corn’s sucrose into high fructose. It will take corporations 20 years to
drop that bomb on society. By the 1990s, high fructose corn syrup is a leading
ingredient in a wide range of products including juices and cereals marketed to
children. A number of scientists also consider high fructose corn syrup a
gateway drug (one that leads to other drugs).
1960s - Public dance halls are
replaced by private discothèques.
Counting
their early appearances in Europe, the Beatles only tour for a handful of years
before deciding to stay in the studio to record. Plenty of rock musicians binge
and party, yet generally stay slim.
[3] Most of
their maintained slimness may have been because this was an era before severe
sedentism, corn syrup, large portions, and high-calorie mushy food.
In their younger
days, music icons like the Big Bopper (210 lbs; d. 1959) and Fats Domino were
neither big nor fat in comparison with heavy singers of more recent decades.
Vast numbers of the late 20th-century and early 21st-century rock stars have
trouble with excessive pounds, even as young people — some examples being Bobby
Brown, Brittany Spears, and Christina Aguilera. The 1960’s performers in the
group The Temptations were just as good at moving to the beat as they were at
singing — all members of this Motown group were relatively lean in the 1960s.
(Some will argue that youthful age is the reason and that metabolism slows with
age. If your metabolism slows, do you think it sensible to become less active
and more gluttonous?)
The 1960s show a
sharp rise in inflammation-related diseases. Some scientists include arthritis,
asthma, cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and chronic pain in this list and
consider the rise in EMFs combined with ungrounded lifestyles as direct causes.
Because of lots of
walking barefoot or in leather-soled shoes, people were grounded to the Earth
in prior generations. (Outdoor animals still are.) Some scientists suggest this
played a role in neutralizing free radicals and instantaneously reset our
voltage to the same level as the Earth’s. The 1960s ushered in rubber-soled
shoes and wall-to-wall-carpeted homes, which substantially reduced human
grounding.
[iv]
1970s - In the modern era, the
1970s mark a big line in the sand for the downward spiral of socioeconomic
trends in the West. Sociologist Ira Goldstein points out that the early 1970s
ring in the beginning of the decline in the U.S. standard of living largely based
on a decline in domestic productivity. Production goes overseas and across
borders leading to less of a demand for skilled and unskilled laborers at home.
This also leads to more geographical and income distance between the classes,
including a decline in real income for middle income levels. Depression and
anxiety lead to further couch potato syndrome, addiction (including endless
caloric intake), and sedentism.
1973 - The first Miller Lite beer
TV commercial featuring football players is produced, a sign that accumulation
of excess fat had begun to take hold in Western society, especially in the
lives of the sedentary viewers.
1977 - Some 20 years after its
initial development, high fructose corn syrup is produced and marketed by large
corporations with deep pockets and strong influence. Is their influence the
reason the U.S. government imposed tariffs and quotas on sugar imports (which
made their corn product the much cheaper option) in the same year? You bet it
is! Greedy, bleepin’, shortsighted, controlling corporate and political
buffoons.
1977 - A big year for huge Federal government snafus. Here’s
another one: the U.S. government sets its policy to adopt the low-fat diet. The
adopted philosophy is called the diet-heart hypothesis and, according to one
body of research, incorrectly correlates heart disease predominantly with LDL
levels (think “L” for Lethal, though these levels may not be as vital a concern
as we have been told).
The
argument against the flawed government policy favors diets higher in percentages
of protein and fat and lower in carbs. The high-protein diet (the optimum
version of this would be termed “low-carb balanced diet”) suggests eating some
foods that contain saturated fatty acids (including coconut oil, avocados,
animal fat, and butter — not transfats like margarine) that were deemed
harmful, since they increase total lipids. Scientific experiments have shown
these diets raise HDL (think “H” for “Healthy,” aka the good transporters of
cholesterol) even more. Studies have come to conclusions on both sides of the
higher fat / lower fat argument.
Some
consider the low-fat diet the really big coup and turning point, and arguably
the big hinge toward pancreatic malfeasance, obesity, and other downturns in
wellness. The studies available in 1977, including pre-World War II German
research, might just as easily have caused the U.S. government to adopt a diet
of low-sugar (low simple carbs), low-sodium foods with limited processing and
low contamination. Instead, the dietary practices of Americans were filled with
all of these banes. Waxing revisionist, look what these choices, together with
the pandemic of sedentism, have done. (Ask an older, fitness-oriented physician
— one who is a senior citizen — how she feels about the change in her patients’
physiques over her years in practice in the late 20th century.)
1970s - Higher percentages of
people begin to show the unhealthful signs of sedentary lifestyles coupled with
high-calorie diets. Kids who still actively play through their high school
years don’t show much roundness but inactive adults do — their belt sizes grow
a few notches. The term “health nut” is at times used pejoratively in
criticizing people who take care of their bodies. As a health push emerges,
health food stores and vitamins (better termed supplements) gain popularity.
1980s - Increased prevalence of
both desk and couch potatoes. Desk potatoes are known to sit in cubicles,
private offices, open floor plans, or behind counters. A better option would be
to have them doing some work standing at a high desk or counter and some
sitting on a high, adjustable-position stool with an attached footrest. These
people, as well as the rest of Americans, use fast food and junk food on a
regular basis; some slug it down daily.
The
Age of Video and Information helps make short attention spans even shorter,
which makes people more subject to deception and addiction. The Baby Boomers
are known to prize youthfulness and money, while resenting their immobile,
sedentary lifestyles — and ultimately, themselves. Unlike the nuclear family
units of the 1950s, fragmented families became the norm. Especially noticeable
in the cultures of white and black American families is that the grandparents
are recurrently no longer part of the family unit — unless they are called upon
to be parents again. “Everyone wants their space,” is an oft-used adage.
The
nuclear family detonates in divorce, and 30-year careers are cut short due to
changes in economics and human resource strategies. For example, at-will
employees can and are hired and fired at will; pension plans are increasingly
reduced, pillaged by predators, or eliminated. This runs concurrently with the
notion of everyone having a personal psychological counselor. The hardy souls
from rural America and the Great Depression — both of whose ranks were
physically and mentally pooped out at the end of an average day — are replaced
by droves of wired people who stay up late. Cable TV provides an incredible
number of options, 24 hours a day.
Large
fitness centers populate America. With fluorescent lights; central ventilation;
black rubber floor coverings; chemical, germ-fighting, cleansing sprays; Velcro
and vinyl; and tinted windows or no windows; there is a total disconnect from
nature and the outdoors. From the outside, mega fitness centers might look like
any other box store. Diana Ross created a hit with lyrics that went, “I want
muscles …”
“If
you didn’t belong to a gym,” a friend says about this era, “there was something
wrong with you.”
Over the history
of the known world, people generally would rise with or before the sunrise and
bed down within a few hours of sunset. Twentieth-century inventions create
large numbers of people who remain awake until late at night. People are fatigued,
yet they experience sleep disorders. Indoor lifestyles demand electrical
lights, which produce EMF radiation and produce no vitamin D. This combined
with workers holding non-physical jobs and having at-home access to
entertainment boxes and high sugar foods and beverages continues to generate
stress and compromises health.
In
the late 1990s, it’s not uncommon to find each adult member of a family with a
personal automobile or to see each family member with a personal TV. Driveways
become parking lots and bedrooms become havens of screen-time entertainment. People
— especially and ironically kids — are spending significant amounts of time
indoors, plugged in to noise and imagery — and canned laughter and crime
updates. Video games like Grand Theft Auto, which feature violent themes,
become popular.
Sleep-related
problems are largely sourced in the lack of physical work and play, the lack of
vitamin D, abnormal melatonin levels, the stress of daily living, the stress
medications that disrupt sleep patterns, and atrocious diets, which, among
other things, create highly unstable blood sugar levels. This leave adults
thinking there is something wrong with them. Elder generations are not spending time side by side, working and
recreating with the younger generations, besides the occasional visit or
phone call. When you need wisdom, help, or someone to listen, “who you gonna
call?” Or talk to … the counselor, the bartender, the palm reader, the
psychiatrist, the spiritual leader or, in the new millennium, the life coach? “Somebody’s
got to listen to me!”
1990s - Vast numbers of people of
all ages in America become supersized. At home, dinner plates and glassware
become increasingly larger. Still, plenty of people get seconds and thirds just
as they did with the smaller plates used in the earlier, more active decades.
Motorized mobility scooters, originally invented for disabled people, now haul
around the self-inflicted and junk-food-inflicted rolls of fat belonging to the
dysfunctional supersized and the morbidly obese. Experts consider many of the
obese to be genetically and emotionally predisposed to obesity. For both adults
and children, there is an increasing prevalence of the following conditions:
diabetes, obesity, and asthma. A growing number of school-age kids carry their
own prescription steroidal inhalers. The field of individual and family
psychological counseling gathers more steam.
Mega
churches — some as large as college campuses — flourish. Part of their growth
is based on the capability to fill in for some of what used to be provided by
the greater family, neighborhood, and village. Vast numbers of churches of all
sizes have meetings and activities going on throughout the day and evening.
Churches grow in size and scope. No longer just sanctuaries for worship with
meeting halls, many have evolved as family and help centers, responding to the
ever-expanding needs of people seemingly deficient in areas needed to survive
these complicated times. Churches offer diverse options, including English as a
Second Language (ESL) and computer classes, daycare, crisis intervention,
senior yoga, job training, marriage counseling, and addiction meetings.
The
home-cooked, American meat-and-potatoes diet of old was originally patterned
after a European — not Mediterranean — ancestry. Meat and potatoes is bumped
aside by the popular dishes of pasta and cheese, which typically mean excessive
calories. Such dishes include carbs high on the glycemic index as well as
factory-farmed animal products. For convenience and taste, people purchase and
serve the highly processed, junk cheeses and pre-made mac-and-cheese offerings.
Before the doping and feedlot raising of cows, the original meat-and-potatoes
diet may not have been perfect, but it was arguably a better choice than the
boxed food that followed. Remember, the original European-American immigrants
vigorously moved their bodies for their physical jobs and tasks and needed
sufficient and long-lasting calories.
Both
the pasta-and-cheese and pizza diets dump lots of sugar calories and oils into
the body very quickly. A diet of roughage and fiber-filled vegetables and
protein and fat-rich meat takes much more human-body processing time since
these ingredients need to be chewed and broken down. Even a salad with carrots
and radishes takes a fair amount of chewing. Pasta and melted cheese go down
with far fewer chews (as few as two or three), making meals almost swallowable.
This equates to excessive calories being consumed and in the bloodstream in a
much shorter period of time. Many experts consider these diets less than
optimum in nutritional value. Pasta is high in carbs and cheese contains the
milk sugar, lactose. Most of the harm is done when we overdo them. It’s hard
not to overdo them when you start out as a child and never learn the importance
of nutrition or how to prepare healthful meals.
The
Internet, home video games, and 24-hour cable TV (eventually beamed by
satellite) have people clicking away on digital devices because, “Life itself
has become boring ...” Attention spans grow even shorter.
Policymakers
and parents demand more academic rigor — in some schools, P.E. and recess get
reduced and even eliminated. Teachers are singled out for many of the problems
in education. Years later, teachers and districts will categorically be singled
out in the much-criticized 2001 Act of Congress program No Child Left Behind.
Kids, young adults, and their parents spend increasing spans of time in seated
positions.
Years later, in
the craze of smartphones and text messaging, an athletic teacher would tell me,
“Young people’s dexterity is superb, as long as you are talking about their
hands.”
1995 - Doritos gives an enduring
Christmas present to Spain. In December, the Doritos brand is introduced there.
A Spanish medical marketing consultant told me, “Before this time, we
customarily ate traditional Spanish dinners, often while watching soccer games.
Essentially, tapas or a main course
and a salad were the meal. The goal of Doritos’ makers [and the other snack
makers as well] was to convince consumers that it was the hip thing to do ...
eat snacks while watching TV. It didn’t take much convincing. The foods are
tasty and addicting. This meant we Spanish started with junk food and soda or
beer during the games and then did our best to eat the dinner that had already
been prepared. That meant we consumed lots of calories over a two- or
three-hour period.”
In
the 1990s, worldwide snack food and fast food consumption climbs appreciably
higher. Revenues in 2012 were listed at $300 Billion for snack foods and $500
Billion for fast foods. Some analysts expect growth to continue.
2000s - The field of wellness takes
on problems of health, diet, and inactivity. But it faces challenge in the new
generation of people who are accustomed to seeking instantaneous rewards in the
fast-paced, image-conscious world of short attention spans and ubiquitous
convenience food. Body art, including piercings and teeth grillz with bling, as
well as multiple tattoos, become vogue for a wide segment of young and middle-aged
people. For many in the new generation of young men, a new movement of tattoos,
smoking cigarettes, trendy hairstyles, muscles (including six-pack abs and
sculpted pecs), and sexiness seems to take precedence over athletics and
physical recreation, the learning of craftsmanship, and general wellness.
Plastic surgery and Botox aren’t just for drooping adults; young people fill
out the practitioner’s schedule as well. Growing percentages of high school
girls are getting breast augmentation and a growing percentage of boys are
getting breast reduction. One source stated that the number of breast augmentations
in the under 18-year-old crowd rose nearly six times, to 7,882 from 1,326, over
a 10-year period ending in 2007.
[v]
Diet
books reach record sales. The low-carb revolution causes food companies to
offer low-carb products, including low-carb pizza and low-carb pasta. Sales of
books by Dr. Robert Atkins (who died in 2003) reach 20 million copies. People
are desperate to lose weight. Soon detractors from the low-carb craze publish
reports that claim the diet is unnatural, doesn’t work, and may cause harm.
According to the reports from some of the highly touted physicians and
researchers who come out against the low-carb diet, people have been once again
duped!
The
year before Atkins dies, journalist Gary Taubes publishes a momentous article
in the New York Times Magazine, “What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie?” This
article was a catalyst in reopening the diet debate. In Taubes’ half-decade of
research, he resurrects historic studies that had been mostly forgotten by the
mainstream dietary pundits and media. His work attempts to provide more
evidence that high-carb diets — sugar — are instrumental in causing us to
become fat and obese. The studies he cites show that hormones, including
insulin, cause our fat cells to store more triglycerides and make us fatter as
we continue consuming food that is easily converted to sugar. Exercise, according
to Taubes and many others in this camp, is wonderful, but people aren’t getting
obese because they are inherently lazy. What Taubes and others call
Endocrinology 101, shows that many are predisposed to obesity by individual
biology and chemistry, and then high-carb diets — soda, juices, beer, breads,
rice, pastas — fill their fat cells and cause these cells to grow.
Backing
up to 1999 reveals that a good-sized (811 participants; 62 percent women, 38
percent men), two-year study found that four different diets all achieved
similar results in terms of weight and waistline reduction and improved health.
The participants followed strict diets based on four different groups, which
were separated based on varying percentages of fat, protein, and carbohydrates.
The key to the study’s good results was a 750-calorie reduction daily diet. No
daily intake was below 1200 calories. Thus, in this case, it wasn’t as much
what percentages of calories came from what food group, but the total number of
calories. The participants also did moderate exercise and consumed calories
considered more healthful. As far as weight loss, in this particular study,
those who participated in counseling sessions did better.
[vi]
Increasing
sales of popular books and documentaries show historical and behind-the-scenes
looks at wellness, including diet, food sources, food conglomerates, and human
addiction. Some notables to mention: “Food Inc.,” “Fast Food Nation,” “The
Future of Food,” “Supersize Me,” “Healthy at 100,” “The China Study,” “The
Omnivore’s Dilemma,” and “May I Be Frank.”
Parents
and educators are concerned with how to properly raise children in the age of
digital, sugar, and short attention spans. Considerable numbers of books and
documentaries are released in attempts to inform people of the best methods for
interacting with special needs children.
The world
is also full of special needs adults. Who doesn’t have special needs? In 2001, Robert J. MacKenzie publishes his book “Setting Limits with Your Strong-Willed Child:
Eliminating Conflict by Establishing Clear, Firm, and Respectful Boundaries.” It’s not only a book that can help parents and
teachers, but all of us might pay heed to establishing respectful boundaries in
our own relationships and in regard to our own behavioral shortcomings,
including inclinations toward digital overload, poor diet, and excessive work. Again, it’s not only young people who have
trouble controlling impulses. We all need to realize how our emotions and brain
chemistry are triggered by sensations, memories, and images.
Pack
your bags if you have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which has
historically had a 5 percent survival rate and, as a rule, is directly related
to lifestyle — especially boozing. It takes about 20 years to generate its
symptoms. That means that by the time it is diagnosed, it’s normally too late.
For 95 percent of those with this diagnosis, the trip leaves very soon.
Functional
training, Pilates, Zumba, CrossFit, P90X, spinning, Egoscue, cardio kickboxing,
kettle bells, Body Boot Camp, Super Slow, Body By Science, qi gong, yoga and
other parts of the fitness and physical activity movement are popularized in
the United States.
Doing
these activities doesn’t put money in your pocket or food on your table — as in
farming or hunting-gathering, nor do they get you to your next destination — as
in walking or running. But they are some of the practical answers to the crisis
of inactivity and lack of mind-body connection. The group classes also provide
zing from what is known as the group dynamic; they also provide camaraderie.
“Dancing
with the Stars” and “The Biggest Loser” TV programs showcase movement that
sedentary viewers can watch as they sit, casually enjoying how other people are
burning calories. There’s hope that the show also motivates viewers to take up
physical movement.
Pay-per-view
watchers reserve the evening to watch physical combat. The Ultimate Fighting
Champion (UFC) and other no-rules fighting competitions replace boxing as the
big draw on cable TV, and martial arts enrollment soars. One of the most
popular is the grappling arts, which hearken back to ancient human practices as
well as those of animals like tigers and bears. Tigers and bears grapple from
an early age and do so their entire lives to settle disputes without fatality
and to keep up their physical skills. Cable TV programmers note the viewers
want to see more devastation and mayhem than the grappling arts provide. The
answer is found in the sometimes bloody and gory mixed martial arts fighting
programs (like the UFC), which satisfy the bloodlust in the same way that the
gladiatorial fights did during the Roman Empire. At times, the ancient gladiatorial
bouts got the bloodlust ramped up so high that men would leave the arena and terrorize
the town and each other (a la European soccer hooligans). This bloody bedlam
was eased by lining the areas near the arena’s exits with prostitutes — in some
cases, thousands of them.
2005 - Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a
50-year government researcher and insider, publishes “The China Study.” He
boldly points out, “most nutrition and health information is very misleading.
It is no coincidence that we now have a medical care crisis which is very
expensive and which compromises the quality of life for millions of Americans
and others living on a Western-style diet.” Dr. Campbell is also a long-time
recreational runner. “The China Study,” especially its vegetarian claims, is
later criticized by some practicing physicians who claim that it’s not even a
study, just a collection of untested observations. (Can you see a pie fight in
the making?) A detractor to vegetarian philosophy is Dr. Loren Cordain, author
of “The Paleo Diet,” who states, “When
I initially became involved in evolutionary nutrition, I knew that common
diseases of civilization like hypertension, high cholesterol, and
cardiovascular diseases could be reduced or totally prevented by maintaining a
contemporary Paleo diet,” which in part means getting some of our dietary
protein and fat from safe, unprocessed meat.
2008 - The movie “WALL-E” grosses
$23 million on its opening day. Walk-in theatres grossing billions of dollars
are filled by increasing numbers of supersized people who have atrocious eating
and exercise habits and spend money — not only on tickets but also on the
junk-food offerings at the cinema.
2009 - President Obama signs
healthcare reform bills into law. The original bills only earmark $1 billion
for Wellness and Prevention out of a total health budget predicted to exceed $1
trillion.
2010 - Revenues of fast food
providers approach $200 billion on U.S. sales alone, which is not even close to
the gross needs of the U.S. health budget. Revenues of pharmaceutical companies
(which also own supplementation companies) may exceed $1 trillion in worldwide
sales.
2011 - Jack LaLanne, a gifted
motivator, beloved pioneer of fitness, gyms, juicing, and a healthy lifestyle,
dies at age 96. He is the answer to the question posed earlier regarding the
famous chin-up champ who is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles. He
remained positive in his approach to wellness and never gave up on us. Fitness
and wellness pioneer Bonnie Prudden outlives Jack by a few months, also dying
at age 96.
Tony Horton’s P90X
(top-selling fitness DVDs) infomercial manager, Carl
Daikeler proclaims, “Whoever succeeds at
making the living room an effective place to get fit is going to be a
billionaire.”
2012 and beyond - In the modern
era, a significant portion of medical-center training and medical-industry
schooling have historically been based on teaching sick patient care. If you
count immunizations, screenings, and checkups, there is some sick patient prevention care but very little natural
wellness. There is a growing trend to move to a wellness modality, including
preventative medicine and healthful lifestyle training. Healthcare costs and
disability costs are some of the most worrisome parts of the federal budgetary
troubles. These costs can be greatly reduced by healthful lifestyles. Will this
happen before the economy and an individual’s bank accounts go bust?
Easy
Takeaways
1.
Once you see
millions of years of history that show how humans once moved, you fully
understand how the modern era has been robbed of one of the most natural of
human activities.
2.
Unlike some
hibernators, most branches of the animal kingdom (humans have long been listed
as part of this) lack built-in mechanisms that can keep them healthy and well
without physical movement.
3.
A growing trend
is a prevailing avoidance of activities that produce huffing and puffing,
increased circulation, and endorphin-type highs. Lack of physical movement
directly equates to unnatural living and the breakdown of mind and body.
4.
Evolution has
programmed us to hold onto calories, storing them as fat, for long winters or
other periods of food scarcity.
5.
Although I say
the 1970s equal sedentism, physically unfit citizens were a problem much
earlier on. Exercising’s history goes way back. In 1956, during Eisenhower’s
presidency, the President’s Council on Physical Fitness was organized as a response
to unfit American children (as compared to European children).
6.
In the modern era, the 1970s mark a big line in the sand for the downward spiral of socioeconomic trends in
the West. Sociologist Ira Goldstein points out that the early 1970s ring in the
beginning of the decline in U.S. standard of living largely based in a decline
in domestic productivity.
7.
Experts and
regular folks alike are rallying for a societal move to a wellness modality,
including preventative medicine and healthful lifestyle training.
[i] Corey Washington,
“Study Shows Black Children Consuming More Media; Mobile Tech Contributes.”
June 8, 2011. <http://www.blackvoicenews.com/bvn-now/the-tech-report/46287-study-shows-black-children-consuming-more-media-mobile-technology-contributes.html>
[ii] Mike Esterl, “Coke
Tailors Its Soda Sizes Backing Off of ‘Supersizing,’ Company Aims for Wider
Range of Ounces, Prices.” WSJ.com. September 19, 2011.
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903374004576578980270401662.html>
[iii] Plenty of helpful
research and history of the Tour de France is available on the Web and in
print. Of particular help to me was a book called “The Tour de France: A
Cultural History” by Christopher S. Thompson. University of California Press,
2008.
[iv] Ann Louise Gittleman
and her quote of telecommunications pioneer Clint Ober as included in
Gittleman’s book “Zapped.” Harper One, 2010. p. 71.
[v] Camille Sweeney,
“Seeking Self-Esteem Through Surgery.” NY Times, January 14, 2009.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/fashion/15skin.html?_r=0>
[vi] Frank M. Sacks, M.D.,
George A. Bray, M.D., et al. “Comparison of Weight-Loss Diets with Different
Compositions of Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrates.” N Engl J Med 2009;
360:859-873
BOOK TWO...
"The concept for this book is provocative. It is somehow counterintuitive to think of
great athletes becoming unfit in old age. Of course the recent suit brought
against the NFL by former players indicates that fitness and health can erode
all too quickly. The aging pursuers of
fitness featured in 'The Aging Athlete' are the exceptions and not the rule. We
can all learn from their own stories of perseverance.
Tom Jones, Author of "Sports Competition for Adults
Over 40"
What can we learn from former top athletes that is
especially relevant for our health and lifestyles? Even though most athletes
are essentially performance minded rather than maintenance and wellness minded,
it’s still a compelling revelation why 90 percent of them don’t continue a
program to try and retain some of their skills and conditioning. Learning from
the 10 percent who do stay fit and healthy is where we can all benefit.
The Aging Athlete chronicles the fitness and mindset of
a group of retired and semi-retired athletes, of what’s worked for them over
the years since they stopped competing or serving in the armed forces.
Some of the top athletes include Billy Mills — 1964
10,000m race gold medalist once considered the most famous living Native
American; Ken Shamrock — former UFC heavyweight champion who was named the
World’s Most Dangerous Man; Sam “Bam” Cunningham who starred in the famous 1970
Civil Rights Football Game; and Allen Winder — a blue-eyed basketball player
who was called upon by Meadowlark Lemon to break the color barrier … in
reverse.
WHAT READERS WILL LEARN IN THIS BOOK
1. Why?
Why all of the attention on athletics and aging
athletes?
What might it be like to be the caregiver/spouse of a
28-year-old athlete who was until recently one of the most physically powerful
athletes on the planet?
How old is an aging athlete? Bobby Orr was injured, and
partially hobbled, at the end of his first year as a pro--age 18. His kids have
never participated in competitive skating or hockey.
Why did kids used to play different sports year round,
all seasons, and now often only take up one sport and train for it the entire
year?
2. Why isn't wellness emphasized more for all and
especially for performance oriented athletes? What are the payoffs of
recreation vs. performance oriented sports?
3. Why don't we learn to coach ourselves? Why do high
numbers of performance athletes (inc. ex military and ex ballet performers)
stop maintaining fitness soon after leaving their performance time?
4. The importance of downtime.
5. How to pursue self-mastery.
