Chapter 7: How Am I Doing?

National Institute on Aging

Enjoying Retirement
Photo of man playing golf Until he was 48 years old, Ron Ekovich, of Leesville, South Carolina, smoked a pack of cigarettes every day. Looking to the future made him decide to quit.

“I figured I had to make some changes in my life if I was going to enjoy my retirement,” he told us.

Needless to say, Mr. Ekovich, who is now 61 years old, no longer smokes. He works out with strength-building equipment 3 days a week, and he carries his own bag of clubs on the 3 days a week that he plays golf.

And he stretches. “If I had to choose the most important thing you can do as you get older, it would be stretching. It helps keep you self sufficient,” he said. Mr. Ekovich was only half joking when he gave an example: When his back itches, he said, he’s able to just reach back and scratch it. This example might seem funny... unless you aren’t able to scratch your own back.

“The more physical activity you get the better you feel. The achievement makes you feel great emotionally, and it makes you feel good physically,” he said.

Mr. Ekovich also cites a person’s outlook as an important component of physical activity and exercise. “The only thing that limits people’s ability to achieve their goals is themselves,” he said. He recently finished shoveling about 10 tons of earth — that’s 20,000 pounds — to make a new garden for his wife.

There are ways to tell when it's time to move ahead in your activities, and we have mentioned some of them in the preceding chapter. For example, when you can lift a weight more than 15 times, you know it's time to add more weight in your strength exercises. And when endurance activities no longer feel somewhat hard to you, it's time to exercise a little longer, then to add a little more difficulty, like walking up steeper hills.

As you progress, you can do some simple tests, shown in this chapter, that will tell you just how far you have come. These tests also can help you assess how fit you are before you start exercising. After that, try them again every month. Record your scores each time, so you can see your improvement the next time you test yourself.