Still with diet and exercise.. and let us go back together a few years.. the years between 2012 and 2013, the height of the unrest, and the feeling that Egypt was lost for good.. I barely moved from my seat.. tobacco tins beside me.. and I would call and order the family bucket of KFC and 4 litres of cola.. they would stay beside me all day until they were finished, along with 9 - 10 cups of coffee.. sitting in front of the television and the internet, following the news of the sit-ins and the problems and the strikes.. and this one burned a live soldier, so he became a hero.. and that one set fire to the Scientific Complex, so he became a star of the age..
Continuous nervous pressure.. and at the end of the day I would go to sleep.. I stopped caring about myself, and with my smoking and how little water I drank and that awful unhealthy life, my weight rose enormously and my skin began to weaken and peel and change colour.. and if you had seen me then, you would have turned and fled from me and been filled with terror at me.. every day the same way.. and tomorrow is a new day..
My weight reached more than 140 kilograms.. and my health deteriorated.. until 12 August 2012.. and I do not remember what blasted news item I saw on television that made me certain, after it, that this country was finished.. it began with bouts of shortness of breath and a persistent cough and a struggle for air..
I stayed on that track.. and we added to the matter unusual pains in the rib cage.. as if pieces of burning ember were crawling between your bones.. until God brought it about and I reached a critical condition.. and at the end of February 2013 I diagnosed myself with a pulmonary embolism.. and the diagnosis was correct.. 20 days in intensive care.. between me and the patients beside me in the different beds there were curtains.. we would talk to one another sometimes - the conscious among us - and every day we would bid farewell to another one, and we would bet.. I wonder which of us will die tomorrow.. and we would laugh as if there were no tomorrow.. because for us there really was no tomorrow..
When I came out of intensive care there were none of my belongings that fitted me.. and my mother had to buy me new clothes, I put them on and went back to my old room in her house for a period of convalescence.. after that I went back to my own home and decided to start again..
I took all the cola bottles and emptied them into the toilet.. and I put the sugar out on the pavement in front of the building's door for the ants.. and I emptied the fridge and decided to fill it with clean, healthy food.. but that is not enough for me to get back to my natural weight, which I had lost in two years, after 28 years in which I practised intense sport..
I decided to start with calisthenics at home.. before that I could do about 70 push-ups.. that day I did 3.. and my arms would not carry me and I fell afterwards.. a deeply demoralising thing.. but not for me.. not this time..
I started doing the 3 I could manage every little while.. 3 push-ups on my way to the bathroom.. 3 on my way back.. 3 push-ups with 3 squats.. 3 on my way to open the door, 3 on my way back.. the 3 became 4, and then they became 6 and 10 and 15 and 100.. and I reached 114 kg.. and at that point I decided I could go down to the iron gym..
I had relapses in weight two or three times after that, but they never reached the old tragedy.. and I always knew how to make a transformation and come back, this time included.. with my decision to stay on this path as long as I am alive..
I was jogging not long ago on the Alexandria Corniche when I met my respected doctor, Dr. Hamdy, who treated me in intensive care.. he did not recognise me at first glance.. and when he remembered.. he told me he was stunned, because he had expected me to walk with a cane for the rest of my life..
Never stop and never give up.. whatever your age or your condition.. would you like your son to see you as a sick, wasted body and walk in your footsteps? Or to learn from you how to live a healthy life?.
By the way, if you have a young son and you would like him to train with weights, even if he is 18 or under.. he must go to the iron gym under a trainer's supervision and must never go in alone.. because the equipment there, sir, is not a set of swings.. these are dangerous machines that can cause violent injuries or kill any young man who does not know how to handle them properly..
If you are over seventy and you decide to take up exercise and a diet for the first time, this must be under a doctor's supervision.. in general, even if you are young and you are taking any medication or suffering from any condition, you must consult the doctor, even if you are only going to take aspirin.. even about your ordinary food, which you imagine holds no harm..
For example, people who suffer from clotting and take certain “blood thinners”, when they eat vegetables rich in “vitamin K” like broccoli.. it can affect the medication.. and expose them to danger..
For our elders, forget the stories of “I have grown old and my body's cells no longer respond”.. our cells die and new cells appear in their place all the time.. exercise and healthy food will improve your life beyond measure..
You will not become an Olympic runner, of course.. nor will I.. nor will any of us ordinary people, but you can do without the cane.. you can get your sugar and your blood pressure under control.. you can sleep well and breathe well and your back stops hurting.. and your knees stop hurting.. and you walk and go out and move about like you used to..
The first video in the references has exercises for you if you are 70 or over and have never exercised in your life.. or stopped for decades.. the weights in this video are 3 kg at most.. and some people, as you can see, use a one-litre water bottle instead.. whatever you can manage..
The second video has the same subject.. but exercises for flexibility and stretching.. the same words that were said to the young are addressed to our elders.. be serious.. and you must rest, you cannot train every day.. you must drink enough water.. you must eat healthy food.. if it is hard to quit smoking.. at least refrain from the conditional cigarette.. the one tied to a particular situation.. like “a cigarette after food”.. or delay it by half an hour..
The third link has exercises from the website of the British Ministry of Health.. after 3 weeks to a month of doing these exercises regularly.. you will find you breathe better.. your mood is better.. you sleep well.. and you will find you are able to walk more or climb the stairs, and even if you are leaning on a stick or a cane you may feel you simply do not want it any more..
The advice here.. do not rush.. stay calm and keep training gently.. walk longer distances every day if you can.. and follow up with your own doctor about the right time to take the exercises to a higher level.. gradually you will find that you really do not need a cane.. and you have grown twenty years younger..
You can do all these exercises at home.. but if you would like to go to an iron gym.. then that will be under the supervision and follow-up of a doctor and a trainer together..
If your doctor's opinion conflicts with your trainer's opinion, tip the scales towards the one that carries the doctor's opinion..
For the young and the old alike, before any weight or exercise you must warm up and do a little warm-up.. push oxygen-rich blood to the muscles before you work them..
Vary the exercises and swap them and change them all the time.. so that the body responds.. there are young men in the iron gym who go and do a particular exercise for the shoulder muscle, for example.. they do this exercise hard and increase the weight every time.. but the muscle does not grow.. because it has already grown used to that exercise..
What happens here is that with every tension you put a muscle under, it struggles to grow stronger and endure it.. and it really does, and it grows used to it and protects itself from it.. the exercises must change all the time..
The old and the young alike should not sit all the time.. sitting most of the time is a deadly habit even if you exercise.. if your work requires it.. you must get up every hour and stand and walk and move for five to ten minutes..
The old and the young alike should, before sleep, do simple stretches for their bodies before sleeping.. this will help them sleep better and let them get the greatest benefit from the training they do during the day.. no more than a few minutes before sleep..
The last video shows how to do these stretches..
So now nothing remains but for us to summarise everything we have said before, with a few passing tips.. and we will have something like a general programme for diet and training.. we will continue next time.. and then it will be time; to close the discussion..
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References:
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1 - https://youtu.be/Ev6yE55kYGw
2 - https://youtu.be/YGRje8p5gbc
3 - https://www.nhs.uk/.../NHS_ExercisesForOlderPeople.pdf
4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpbZn3EiW5s
Previous posts:
1 - https://bit.ly/2KbIV2G
2 - https://bit.ly/2BgpGT3
3 - https://bit.ly/2qSrcET
4 - https://bit.ly/2S5rwM4
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