you too could have a body like this

This is what a typical 70 year-old member of my cardio-pulmonary rehab gym looks like.  It's amazing what a bit of exercise can do for those with long-term, life-changing conditions.

I know you probably won’t believe this, but not so long ago he was overweight, breathless, with low self-esteem and still sore from the operation that brought him to our gym in the first place.  He didn’t do much in the way of exercise before he became ill.  His only experience of a hula hoop was the savoury snack of the same name.  

Now, although he can’t actually spell the name of this particular apparatus, he can place it on the floor and step in and out of it without falling over.  Quite a few times.

He can lift a1kg weight as if it were nothing more than a bag of flour.  And the stairs - once a barrier to the delights of the tea room on the first floor -  are now taken one step at a time.

He often stares in the large mirror at the end of the room - placed to ensure corrected posture when lifting weights rather than for reasons of vanity - and imagines the ‘hoola' hoop orbiting his midriff like a planet round the Sun.  This is enough to raise his endorphin levels and he gives a silent ‘Yay’ at a job well done.  He’d even ‘hi-five’ one of his friends if he had the energy.

Who said exercise was hard?  It’s all in the mind.