Making exercise a habit is the key to longevity!

Getting to the age of 92 has involved several things that I’ve talked about in earlier posts: exercise and mindset. Before I start on that, there’s another example of habit I want to mention and it’s quite amazing! It’s about Eric Davis who lives in Miami and when he visits Maine in the summer, he exercises in an outdoor gym he built in the beautiful Maine woods next to his cabin. I would say that only a guy with a serious exercise habit would do that! All he has to do is walk out the door and start doing his exercises! A great story and a great guy with a really good habit! So, back to the development of my own habit.

Eric Davis, doing a shoulder boulder pushup from the gym he built in the Maine Woods -- a sure fire way of making exercise a habit.

In earlier posts I’ve talked about exercise and mindset. The exercise part having to do with aerobics such as running or using the elliptical, and doing exercises are easier to explain and understand. They are the obvious things you think about when deciding how to get fit. And, to make an exercise truly successful it must be done on a regular basis.

To maintain regularity of let’s say, every day or several days a week the mind has to help. It has to keep you motivated. The mental part is the key to regular exercising. The longer I do my exercises the more I realize the importance of this ‘mindset’. Making exercise a habit is the key.

I can still do most of the things I was capable of several decades ago and I continue to do a version of the original fitness routine. It has all the basic elements that I started with. I’ve also had my share of bumps in the road physically and otherwise. During it all I continued with my exercise program except when I was recuperating from something or I was traveling or there was some other event that temporarily stopped me.       

This was me jogging in Orangeville, Ontario, probably in the 1970s. (I still have and wear the same hat!). That day was just one day in a lifetime of slowly building a steady exercise program that has been a regular habit for decades now and has has allowed me to live a full and rich life at the age of 92.

The mental part is the key to regular exercising. The longer I do my exercises, the more I realize the importance of this ‘mindset’.

I think that my exercise program must have helped me a lot when I remember some of the incidents that caused me so many problems years ago. I didn’t realize at the time that the way I was coping with these issues was by exercising. After I finished my exercise routine I felt better about things in general and I think the ‘feeling better’ part is what creates the good memory associations I have with exercising.

This exercise is one I still do every day as part of my regular routine at age 92.

I believe now, looking back, that these associations helped to develop the habit making process so that eventually I felt I had to do my fitness routine to make sure I started off the day with a success and feeling good and with a sense of well-being.

So, every workout is a success even if it isn’t quite perfect. My mind is clear and I’m ready for the day!