Boomers Have a New Hero -- Bill
Anderson
Reprinted from the Fitter After
50 newsletter, vol. 4, no.
6
What will you do to celebrate your 81st
birthday? Take a little bike ride? A long nap? Or strap
yourself into your rocking chair for a day of rocking-good fun?
Bill Anderson of Yuma, Arizona chose the first option to
celebrate his eighty-first -- a little bike ride -- as in
cycling the perimeter of Arizona, a fourteen-and-one-half-day
jaunt of about 2,000 miles.
Doing the "Impossible"
In completing this arduous journey across
Arizona's rugged terrain and in its scorching heat, a feat that
is generally accepted as "IMPOSSIBLE" for someone of his age,
Bill has challenged your current, self-limiting,
self-destructive beliefs about aging (not to pick on you, as we
all have these disempowering beliefs to one degree or another).
He has challenged you to adopt new, more empowering beliefs
that will serve you better. He knows that your choosing these
new, more empowering beliefs is key to any lasting
transformation, any significant slowing of the aging
process.
Why would someone take on such a daunting
task? Bill did it because he enjoys taking on challenges that
others consider unachievable, unimaginable, or just plain
foolhardy. He also sees it as a good opportunity to raise
awareness of the Yuma Crossroads Mission and needed funds for
the homeless it serves.
Bill didn't consider this trek to be
reckless or ill-advised because of his track-record of
successful ultra-long distance cycling adventures and his very
demanding daily workout regimen. Just last year, for example,
he rode his bike from the Mexican border to the Canadian border
AND BACK. In 2004 he cycled from the Canadian line to the
border of Mexico and also from San Diego to Jacksonville Beach
in Florida in the same year -- all for the fun of the adventure
and to raise funds for the Mission. Not content to be just a
cyclist, Bill also hiked the Grand Canyon from rim to rim to
celebrate his 80th birthday.
His Arizona 2000-mile ride turned out to
be "far tougher than anything I've done" -- more difficult than
the longer 3,000-milers. First, there was the scorching
triple-digit temperatures of the Arizona desert country
(dropping all the way down into the mid-nineties for a couple
of night rides). Then, there were the hills. The way Bill put
it was, "other trips had hills, but they were gradual." All of
this was "straight uphill, or so it seems." At one point he had
to climb from about 200 feet above sea level to over 8400 feet;
that's more than a mile-and-a-half increase in altitude. His
goal was to complete this epic journey in 14 to 16 days.
Despite the hardships, Bill rolled back into Yuma, right on
schedule, the morning of the 15th day, which means he averaged
about 130 miles (7 or 8 hours of peddling) a day. According to
his chase-vehicle driver, Kevin McEwen, Bill cycled "15 miles
per hour on the flat, up to 40 mph on some downhills and about
5 mph on the uphills." Even elite young cyclists would be
hard-pressed to keep up with Bill on this bike tour. After all,
the famous
Tour de France is a similar distance over a 3-week time span
and without the desert heat.
Bill describes his epic adventure this
way, "I struggled the whole way, but I like struggling -- I
like to work hard!" This enjoyment of a challenge and hard work
is something he learned in his youth and is at the center of
his super-energetic lifestyle -- his amazing
youthfulness.
The Workout Schedule That Made
This Possible
Bill's daily workout schedule which prepared his body and mind
to be able to tackle 2,000 miles of rugged Arizona terrain is
almost as impressive as his ultra-long rides. It is why he can
complete rides that would challenge the fittest of
25-year-olds.
Bill works out 6 days a week, 4 to 6 hours
a day. He takes Sundays off to allow his body to recuperate and
out of respect for the Lord. His daily routine goes something
like this: * a 2-mile walk * 30 minutes of punching bag work *
an hour to an hour and a half of weight lifting * some work on
the rowing machine * a couple hundred sit-ups and other
calisthenics * work on some other exercise machines in his
arsenal * always capped off with a bike ride -- usually 50
miles.
This should embarrass all but a few of the
multi-millionaire professional athletes who complain when the
coach schedules two practice sessions in a single day and who
don't work out anywhere near as much as bill does. On top of
this, Bill says that he's "always motivated to work out" and
never misses a day. It must be working for him because he says,
"The older I get, the stronger I get." He can thrive on this
schedule which would wear most folks out in short order,
because working out and cycling are his passions -- he loves
them! He does adjust his workout schedule somewhat, cutting
back his workouts from six hours to a mere four or five hours
if he had a particularly tough exercise session the day before
or he's not feeling quite up to it -- but he always takes the
50-mile bike ride.
A Diet to Support this
Lifestyle
Bill eats a mostly vegetarian diet with only occasional forays
into fish, chicken, and turkey. Six small meals a day keep his
energy level on an even keel as do his nutritional supplements
which include a protein supplement and a special product
designed to maintain his weight (with his daily
extra-heavy-duty workout regimen keeping his weight up is the
challenge -- not trying to lose it -- as more sedentary
Americans must constantly try to do). He also makes sure he
drinks plenty of water.
On his ultra-long-distance bike rides Bill has a "power meal"
every two hours. At these refueling sessions he makes sure he
gets an easy-to-digest source of protein to maintain his muscle
mass, carbohydrates to re-supply his depleted glycogen stores,
and vitamins and electrolytes as needed.
Why Is This Important for Us to
Know?
Why is it so important for us to know what
some octogenarian from Arizona does? It's because the way we
view 80-year-olds is a self-fulfilling prophecy that greatly
influences the quality of our life through all the decades to
come.
Make a mental picture of aging as a downhill ski slope with all
your adult ages on a continuum following the trajectory of the
hill. How we see 80-year-olds versus how we perceive those in
their third decade of life determines the steepness of that ski
slope or how fast we are heading for old age.
As you pay attention to the Bill Andersons
of the world, YOUR aging-"hill" becomes more of a beginner's
slope, with no steep physical or mental decline as the years
fly by. This is because those, such as Bill, who display more
youthfulness than 99% of the young people, inspire you to
improve your lifestyle. You eat better, exercise more, and
generally take better care of your most precious possession --
your health. You do this because you now recognize, thanks to
the Bill Andersons, that by making some simple, little
lifestyle improvements you can SIGNIFICANTLY slow the aging
process.
But There's Another Reason
But there's another reason why we owe a
debt of gratitiude to Bill. It concerns the financial burden we
will place squarely on the shoulders of our children and
grandchildren, whom we profess to love so very much, if we
adults don't take better care of ourselves.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control), in a recent report, put
it this way, "The cost of caring for aging Americans will add
25 percent to the nation's healthcare bill by 2030 unless
people act now to stay healthy." As of 2005 that cost for us
was $2 Trillion (with a "T") or $6700 per American. That's a
record 16% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and the cost is said
to be rising at twice the rate of inflation. Those numbers add
up to an additional $500 Billion burden -- in the form of added
taxes and other financial hardships -- being imposed on our
children and their children when they become adults. Is this
what you want for YOUR children? It's not what I want for
mine!
According to Dr. Richard Murray, whose
company funded the CDC study, "If people adopt healthier
lifestyles, they may not develop the expensive, chronic
diseases that raise health costs sharply, such as diabetes,
cancer and heart disease." In advocating healthier lifestyles
he's obviously talking about exercise, eating our fruits and
vegetables, stopping smoking, and similar easy-to-implement
tweakings of our lifestyle.
Emulating Bill Anderson's
Lifestyle
Now unless you plan to cycle thousands of
miles up the sides of mountains and in desert heat, you don't
need to adopt a 4-to-6-hour-per-day-exercise regimen; nor do
you need to copy Bill's dietary protocol.
Much smaller improvements in your way of life can pay huge
dividends. For example, a recent study, published on the online
PLoS One in May of this year, showed that a little exercise can
actually reverse aging at the cellular level. In this study two
standard one-hour weight training sessions per week over a
six-month period (performed by volunteers 65 and older) caused
genetic changes. Simon Melov, co-author of the research,
explains it this way: "The genetic fingerprint [of these
seniors] was reversed to that of younger people -- not
entirely, but enough to say that their genetic profile was more
like that of young people that old people."
Bottom line: It doesn't
take much change of lifestyle to have extraordinary results,
and the best news for many is that the worse shape you are in,
the less you have to do for tremendous gains. Bill suggests
that seniors wanting to get in better shape start with a visit
to their doctor for a checkup and then, when cleared, begin
with a couple of months of 2-mile daily walks before adding
some strength training.
Thanks to Bill Anderson and others like him, we now know that
we can reclaim much of the energy and vitality of youth. The
question now is: Will you? Anyone for a little bike ride?
###
Want to
see more articles by Ed Mayhew?
Visit Ed's Blog at www.YouCanGrowYounger.com
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