Your Cart is Empty
Pat VanGalen, 71, competing in The Rut in September. It is a vertical race all uphill 2.8 miles. She was able to enter the event in her 70s near her home in Montana not because she is a successful ager. Rather, Pat is a ‘robust ager’.
By Ray Glier
There is successful aging, which is warding off disease with medicine and being lucky enough to have won the lottery of inherent good genes.
Then there is “robust aging” with vitality as the centerpiece, which is in contrast of simply relying on science and genes to avoid poor health as we pile up birthdays.
Pat VanGalen, 71, a fitness professional, was skiing in the Alps this week. You bet she has succeeded in aging. But that’s not why she is skiing down the Dolomites. Pat got in sync with the idea of “robust aging” years ago, which is another way of saying she swam out to meet the wave.
This is where Geezer Jocks come in.
You are 68, or 78, but the fitness window didn’t slam shut on you and Pat can prove it. Just know robust aging does not involve taking up rugby at 75, but it does require adding to the mix something other than a few pills per day.
You will be surprised at how easy it is to switch from necessary aging to robust aging.
It requires a firm grip, not on a dumbbell, but your psyche.
**
VanGalen’s method starts with a directive:
Think about what you want to be able to do in six months or 20 years.
Pat, who has been in the fitness industry for 50 years, had a 78-year old client who she started coaching with a simple “setup” question. It didn’t involve dumbbells or a medicine ball, or psychological razzmatazz.
Pat simply asked Jean, “What do you like to do? What do you want to be able to do in six months?
Jean was five feet tall and round as a barrel and didn’t move well, VanGalen said. Jean was in a unhealthy hole she dug for herself over the years. She told Pat she wanted play golf with her friends again. It was Christmas Eve, 2011.
They worked together for five months. By May, Jean was golfing with her friends.
She is 92 now.
Jean called Pat recently and said, “You saved my life.”
Robust aging saved her life. Pat started Jean’s fitness push with plainness.
Walking.
Their sessions started with a walk for 30 minutes and the other 30 minutes was devoted to strength.
“Strength and power is the key to aging for females and, for men, it’s more an emphasis on mobility and cardiovascular health,” VanGalen said.
“My goal is I have to find out what makes them tick. What is that thing that they really like to do, something very specific to movement?
“People really don’t think that way. They complicate things thinking a weight training regimen immediately. Start with movement.”
Jean lost 50 pounds the first two years working with Pat. She was taking just one medication after those 24 months. She was 80. After a blood workup at her primary care doc, the staff asked Jean what she was doing.
“Well,” she said. “I’m walking.”
That was 12 years ago. Jean is still walking, but with VanGalen’s teaching she was able to do more. Remember, this woman started getting back in shape at 78.
You see, a fitness ultimatum can make us feel small, as if it is an expedition we are not ready for. But it doesn’t have to be laborious to be labeled “robust aging”.
“I emphasize the movement piece. I didn’t say formal exercise. I said the movement piece, you know, how about working in that garden?,” VanGalen said. “How about mowing your own freaking lawn?
“It’s just doing more physical things that you’re totally capable of doing. All movement matters. Tying your shoe, moving rocks, carrying a baby, walking a dog. Everything matters.”
For instance, don’t slow roll through the parking lot hoping a parking spot close to the door opens. Grab a spot further away and take a walk.
Mickey Mouse? Frivolous?
Change your mindset. It’s vitality. It’s robust aging at its basic form.
“Robust aging is really how we adapt as we age,”Pat said. “It’s resilience and it’s durability.”
**
So what if you are Pre-Geezer Jock? You are in your 40s, 50s, 60s.
Same drill. Start ordinary, VanGalen says.
And ask yourself, “What do I want to be able to do in my 70s?”
For Pat it is being able to do a race at 71 years old ALL uphill in Montana. In September she did the RUT VK and walked up 3,632 feet of elevation, or 2.8 miles.
“The challenge is in people’s perception of athletics ... many do not, have never, and will never, compete at anything,” VanGalen said. “So when they see an older adult athlete who has overcome incredible odds, they think ‘I could never do that.’ ‘That’s not for me.’
“But they never look at the lessons learned from ordinary people, nor carry them over to their own lives. It’s not about the competition. It’s about the consistent TRAINING and the mindset that got them there.”
Pat calls it “functional training” and there are all kinds of workshops out there and lesson plans. Her idea of FT is training for the environment you live, work, and play in.
Environment?
Yeah, like your house.
“I shovel my own snow every winter, I work in the garden every summer, I get down on the floor and scrub my floors at least every two months,” VanGalen said. “I have not bought slip on shoes because I can bend over and tie my shoes. I have been hiking all my life, and now I use hiking poles because I want to continue to hike.
“What we stop doing we’re going to lose. It’s your brain, your muscles, your nerves. They need stimulation. So I will often say, ‘We get what we train for, we keep what we do and we lose it slower’.”
It is Robust Aging, not to be confused with necessary aging because even if you won the gene lottery, you need to go the way of Robust Aging.
Pat’s 5 Pillars Of Robust Aging
Purpose
Movement
Nutrition
Tune in to rhythms that shape our day.
Manage stress.
Please support Geezer Jock™.
Comments will be approved before showing up.
