Just Keep On Moving

By: Dave McCaughan

Go to any conference, read any book, check out any blog like this that deals with ageing population and some one will talk about “movement”. It has been recognised for ever as a key to longevity and health ageing. Forever? Well, we seem to have always connected movement with enjoying life, coping with life, and extending life.

Let’s think about movement both in an actual exercise way and also movement in terms of going places.

A couple of years ago I read a great story about retirees in Seoul. Most, like most retirees everywhere, cannot afford fancy international travel but the desire to move is still strong. So many are making a weekly habit of getting up and moving in a little way. The story explained that the retired couple would make a weekly effort to go to their local subway station, look at a map of the network, spot a station they had never visited, and go there for the day. Take a wander in a different neighbourhood, explore an unknown café, stretch the legs and the minds just a little.

A simple plan for movement that my wife and I have now followed here in Bangkok.

It also reminded me of a friend of ours in Tokyo. Keiko is now in her late 80s. My wife has known her nearly 20 years. She’s a very active woman who still goes to her local Curves gym a couple of times a week. But more interesting is that every Thursday, for literally decades now, she goes and has lunch at a restaurant or café. The trick? Each Thursday is a different venue, a café she has never tried before. It forces her to try something new, to move out of both her eating and walking norm. Now in the world’s biggest city she has so many options of course. But it is a great exercise to “move”.

We sometimes forget that “older” people have always liked movement. The joys of a walk in the park, or taking grandchildren out for the day. But in my four decades of studying people passing through the 55-75 year old life stage I call New Life Builders I have noticed an explosion of more active movement. Remember around the turn of the century where, especially in more developed countries, we started to see hordes of Sunday morning bicyclists. Running, especially marathon running, took off. Stories of people in their 60s rediscovering gyms became normal weekend reading. In Japan there was a huge surge in hiking clubs. And we saw role models popping up more and more. Like the 102-year-old Japanese man who recently was reported as the oldest person to ever climb Mt Fuji (a tough hike for anyone).

There was also a lot of reporting of less strenuous exercise. In Shanghai, foreigners were surprised to see retirees at dawn doing dancing classes in parks. About a decade ago there was a small park near where I live in Bangkok that was converted from a child’s playground to a place where older people gather to do stretching and do tai chi and picnic every morning. Famously, in Mumbai there was the morning laughter club where a large group of people got together in a famous park and just laughed together for 30 minutes or more. All movement. All good for you.

Way back in 2012, a major review of studies connecting longevity to physical activity found that moving probably extended your life by up to nearly seven years. In the famous Blue Zones reports discussing the factors that lead to some groups of people having longer lives than others, staying active, physically working, gardening, exercising, and moving is key.

And we all know that today’s media reports are full of the threat overuse of personal technology has on pure physical wellbeing. So maybe stop reading this post now and go move.

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