Interesting: I’m 51, I smoke and often drink more than the government’s silly recommended limits. On January 1st after Christmas excesses my blood pressure was at 144/90 which, if you check the graph below, you’ll see is getting dodgy. As is our custom we knocked drinking on the head throughout January and after that just found ourselves disinclined to drink as much as we had been before (the hangovers just get worse and worse).
About mid-February a brief exchange with someone we know, who bought a Wii after hearing us singing its praises, reminded us about that device, which we hadn’t used since coming back from Crete. At Caroline’s instigation we started using it again, dancing to various songs for half an hour a day. This half hour, every time, has resulted in me with my shirt off while a drip sweat. At about this point, probably because of January’s abstinence, my BP was 136/87. Ten days later it was down to 131/75. Now, a month after we started in on this, it is at 124/79.
Of course BP readings can change all the time and you need to take a lot more readings than I have been taking and average out, but there’s definitely been a downward trend. It’ll be great if it continues on down until both diastolic and systolic are both in the green area. Perhaps to get there I need to shed the extra stone I’m carrying…
About mid-February a brief exchange with someone we know, who bought a Wii after hearing us singing its praises, reminded us about that device, which we hadn’t used since coming back from Crete. At Caroline’s instigation we started using it again, dancing to various songs for half an hour a day. This half hour, every time, has resulted in me with my shirt off while a drip sweat. At about this point, probably because of January’s abstinence, my BP was 136/87. Ten days later it was down to 131/75. Now, a month after we started in on this, it is at 124/79.
Of course BP readings can change all the time and you need to take a lot more readings than I have been taking and average out, but there’s definitely been a downward trend. It’ll be great if it continues on down until both diastolic and systolic are both in the green area. Perhaps to get there I need to shed the extra stone I’m carrying…
4 comments:
Hi Neal, when you say dancing on the Wii I'm just curious as to which game that is? I've been using the Just Dance 2 game for the last couple of weeks and I've noticed a definite improvement in my fitness although nothing as technical as monitoring my BP. Glad to hear whatever it is is working for you too.
Kez
Since I had my lumbar surgery last year I've dropped two dress sizes. And feel fitter than I have since 2004. That’s the last time I did the London Bikeathon.
The interesting thing here, is that when you can actually see an effect other than weight loss, you find yourself dancing to a different tune almost unconsciously. I got given a peak flow meter because my asthma was really bad a year or so ago. Seeing it down really low pushed me to push myself, and to finally give up the weed completely, and as for hangovers… WTF is all that about? Why do they get worse the older you get?
We were out on Saturday night, and on Monday I’m still feeling fuzzy, forgetful, irritable and a bit dis- associated with reality, and while we did have a few we weren’t blathered.
Good luck with the spare tyre.
LadyLynx, we've used Just Dance 2 and Michael Jackson, but now seem to have settled on Abba. I feel like a bit of a dick doing it, but no other exercise so convenient has such a huge effect so quickly.
Graeme, seeing definite effects does push you harder. It wasn't really my BP that kept me going but the physical high at the time and just how much better I felt afterwards. I'm also sleeping better too - none of those annoying early morning wake-ups.
As for hangovers ... liver and so on just not as efficient as when we were sprogs? Funny the motivations here: my father gave up smoking because it interfered with his music (saxophone and clarinet - jazz), while I seem to be knocking the booze on the head because it interferes with my writing the next day.
My physio said that if it was possible to bottle post exercise euphoria, the medical profession would disappear.
And you're right about sleep, it's always better if you know you've earned it and your body needs it, as opposed to going to bed just because "its time to".
I myself can't settle to write, if I haven't done something cardio vascular first... I feel like sitting down all day banging on the keys without exertion of some sort is ruinous of ones aging carcass.
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