Use it or lose it.  This expression is often said by trainers in gyms to motivate slothful clients to exercise more. Losing it, alas, does not refer to weight loss but to losing muscle strength and stamina. As anyone who has slacked off from regular exercise knows too well, it takes a long time to regain the fitness level one had before the exercise regimen was halted.

Recently I saw first hand an example of “use it or lose it” in the waiting room of an Amtrak auto-train station.

The auto-train carries passengers and their cars on an overnight journey from central Florida to outside Washington D.C. Traditionally the passengers are retired ‘”snow birds” who live for six months in the warmer climes and return to their northern homes mid-spring. My husband and I decided to take the auto train because we love trains and it is hard to find one as comfortable and efficiently run as this one.

On this particular trip, the train carried about 600 passengers, average age 78. (I don’t know how old the cars were). As we milled around the waiting room while our cars were being loaded, I stared at the passengers and saw my future. At least my future if I ever stopped going to the gym, or running or biking or lugging home bags of groceries.  Most of the passengers were in terrible physical shape. Mentally they were wonderful, full of stories, joking with each other, chattering on their cell phones, playing cards, reading, and giving us all sorts of advice on how to survive the train trip. But physically they had lost it.

They had lost the ability to stand and walk with ease. Balance was a problem, and many used canes to protect themselves from falling. Their posture and body shape revealed substantial muscle loss, and they gave off a sense of frailty even though they were not by any means thin. They moved very, very slowly.

During the train trip itself, I chatted with many passengers as we sat in the lounge or dining room. All of them mentioned how dependent on cars they were in Florida as they lived in communities where it was necessary to drive to get their mail, a loaf of bread or see a friend. Exercise was restricted to golf but they had to use golf carts. Walking the course was forbidden because it prolonged playing time. Some of them strolled in the morning with friends but few went to their community health club. None even considered doing regular exercise to maintain their stamina and strengthen their muscles. The only people who were aware of muscle strengthening exercise learned them while undergoing physical therapy.

Loss of strength and stamina is not limited to the older populations. At our weight-loss centers we have clients decades younger than my fellow passengers who do not exercise unless we cajole, nag, scold, reward or threaten them (with slower weight loss). We know that once weight-loss is achieved many will stop their exercise because they associate physical activity with dieting.  I thought of them as I stared at my fellow passengers.  Would they recognize that unless they continue to exercise, they too would end up slow, unbalanced, prone to falling (a major cause of death among the elderly) and frail?

Several years ago, anti-smoking ads showed TV. viewers what their lungs looked like if they smoked. Should we start a pro-exercise campaign by showing those who won’t what their bodies will look like without doing physical activity?  

It certainly worked for us. As soon as we arrived home, we went off to the gym.

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written by Jeff, May 07, 2007

Very Funny. LOL. They should have commercials like that. It would certainly get the 40,50, and 60 year olds out there.