Dr. Jamie Peters counsels his patients on fitness for the aging, and Denis Nagan is the model patient.
Nagan, 69, has been active in sports or fitness since grade school. Peters is a sports medicine specialist caring for aging athletes and other older adults wanting to preserve or improve their fitness.
Peters advises older people to stay active, with at least three days a week of moderate activity, intensifying the effort if possible to the point of not being able to carry on a conversation. He advocates cross-training to spread the stress of exercise among different muscles. It's particularly important to exercise the core muscles, he said, because a strong core will diminish the kind of awkward gait people adopt when compensating for joint pain. But when cross-training isn't possible, Peters advocates walking — it's better than not walking.
Nagan has found his own path, on the brink of qualifying as a septuagenarian, to most of what Peters prescribes. Fitness has been an integral part of his life since he joined a swim club as a kid. But in his late 60s, he found himself adapting his regimen to meet changing physical and mental health needs.
He has biked throughout his life — for transportation, for fitness and to compete, culminating in the 1,200-kilometer Paris-Brest-Paris ultramarathon bike tour. He was a runner for the same reasons, to the point of logging 50-kilometer training runs with former Olympians. But these days he's more likely to move at a pace that fits his age and lifestyle, something that many older adults can emulate.
That's walking.
"I walk for utility and I walk for aimlessness," the northeast Minneapolis resident said. A trip to pick up an item at Home Depot? That's a two-and-a-half-mile walk. A walk downtown to the library, or to catch the Blue Line to the V.A. hospital, is 7 or 8 miles round trip.
"It's been very beneficial both mentally and physically," Nagan said. Walking lacks the cardio intensity of biking and running. Sometimes he'll jog up a hill, just to push his heart rate and get some of the cardiovascular benefits Peters prescribes.