Building an active lifestyle—it’s never too late
Lisa Lemler, associate director of the University’s Department of Recreation and Wellness, presented a lively and well-attended workshop on maintaining an active lifestyle.
It’s never too late to start building more activity into your life, and activity can be tailored to your age and physical condition. Activity improves both physical and mental functioning; it both extends life and makes life more enjoyable.
For this UMRA workshop presentation via Zoom on January 19, 2021, Lisa described and illustrated, with selected exercises, five components of an active lifestyle:
- Movement throughout the day. Try to engineer activity into your daily activities. For example, get up and move around every 20 minutes, take the stairs, and park farther away rather than close to your destination. Consider setting specific goals and getting an activity tracker to measure your progress.
- Aerobic activity (aka “cardio”). Activities that elevate your heart rate are important to cardiac functioning and include walking, cycling, and swimming. Guidelines call for getting a weekly minimum of 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity. An activity is considered vigorous when it makes it difficult to carry on an extended conversation.
The key to benefiting from aerobic exercise is doing it consistently. Activities that you will do consistently are likely to be ones that interest you and that you find enjoyable. Try different things until you hit on the ones you like. - Strength training. People lose muscle mass when they age, but the effects of that loss can be mitigated by doing strength exercises. You should try to do something to work each major muscle group at least twice a week, doing at least one “set” of 8 to 20 repetitions of each exercise. You can use weights, weight substitutes (e.g., soup cans, detergent bottles), resistance bands, or your own body weight.
Lisa illustrated two simple body weight exercises: For the upper body, wall pushups: leaning into a wall or counter, and pushing off. For the lower body, repeatedly rising from and sitting down on a chair, without lingering in the chair or using your arms. - Flexibility exercises. This involves gently stretching different muscles for a total of at least 10 minutes a day, either after other training or intermittently throughout the day. Hold each stretch for 10 to 30 seconds, without causing pain. Besides static stretching, consider active stretching activities like yoga or Pilates.
- Balance and posture activities. Improving balance and posture is important to fall prevention. Do a few exercises intermittently throughout the day. When you are doing such exercises, like standing on one foot, have a support nearby and use it whenever you need it. Over time, you will probably use it less and less.
The internet is full of exercise programs. When trying exercises, look for those that induce a “burn” (indicating your muscles are working) but that never create sharp pain.
—Ron Matross, chair, Workshop Committee
Making choices to be active, healthy, and well
Tue, January 19 2021, 11am
Event to be held via Zoom.
Our Living Well Workshop for January, the month when people traditionally head back to the gym, will focus on building physical fitness and activity into our lives, an especially challenging task in a pandemic winter.
We all (hopefully) know how important physical activity is to our overall well-being. But, while there is a plethora of information available—just do a quick search on Google or YouTube—identifying a framework or a plan that works best for each of us as individuals can be challenging.
This workshop will explore the components that will help you shape a well-rounded, active lifestyle, address the importance and benefits associated with each, and offer ideas on how to be intentional about small choices, each day, that can help us be healthy and well.
Creating the conditions to thrive
Our presenter is Lisa Lemler, associate director for wellness and programs at University Recreation and Wellness. She holds an undergraduate degree in exercise physiology and a master’s degree from the University.
Professionally, Lemler is focused on creating a culture of well-being and striving to create the conditions for students, staff, and faculty to thrive. Helping people discover their own unique health and well-being is the personal mission statement that "gets her out of bed" each day.
Lemler has mentored dozens of students on teaching fitness classes, conducting wellness assessments, and doing personal training. And, as many UMRA members can personally attest, she is a dynamic fitness instructor in her own right.
Please register and join us for what promises to be an invigorating workshop starting at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, January 19.
—Ron Matross, chair, Workshop Committee
Upcoming Events
We are fortunate to have UMRA member and former Minnesota Landscape Arboretum director Peter Moe to lead this approximately 3.7-mile hike at the Arboretum on Monday, May 6. Plan to have lunch together after the hike at the Eatery café inside the Oswald Visitor Center.
This session will continue the discussion begun in the May 8, 2023 session. See that article for details.
If you currently live in your own home or apartment, have you looked ahead to when you might want to consider a senior living option? Do you have any idea what those options might be? How much they cost? What they provide? UMRA’s May 14 workshop will provide an overview of the world of senior living and the basic information you need.
You’re invited to join the final Family History Interest Group meeting for 2023–24. This will be an opportunity to ask questions related to family history, share insights, talk about recent projects, and suggest topics for next year.
Stephanie Daily will lead the discussion of Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by best-selling author Mary Roach when the UMRA Book Club meets via Zoom at 2 p.m. on Friday, May 17.
The May 20 hike will start at the Historic Lift Bridge in Stillwater and go along the river to the new bridge, cross over and then back on the Wisconsin side, a total of approximately 5 miles. Most of the route is paved. We will eat lunch after at Brian's Bar and Grill in Stillwater. Car pooling will be available.
Climatologist and meteorologist Mark Seeley joined the U of M faculty in 1978 and has been a weekly commentator on Minnesota Public Radio since 1992. We are honored to welcome him as our guest speaker for UMRA’s May Luncheon Forum and 2024 Annual Meeting. He is always entertaining and informative.
UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club welcomes back, for the second time, author Julie Schumacher, U of M Regents professor of creative writing and English, for a conversation about her novel The Shakespeare Requirement.
We are in for a treat on June 3! Lynn Anderson, will lead us on trails at two parks near her Monticello home. Bring a bag lunch and we will gather in Lynn's yard along the Mississippi River for eating and socializing after the hike.
Get out to the ballpark with fellow UMRA members for the annual U of M Day at Target Field as the Minnesota Twins take on the Oakland Athletics on June 14 at 7:10 p.m.
Please join us at 9:30 on June 17, 2024 for a walk around Lake Como in St. Paul before attending the UMRA Summer Social and Picnic starting at 11 at the Como Pavilion. A perfect opportunity to get in a walk before we gather to celebrate summer.
Picnic under the covered, open-air Como pavilion, gaze at the water, spy some birds, catch up with friends and former colleagues, and meet new members. We’ll have lunch with plenty of time for visiting and then compete in teams as we are challenged by our Quiz master(s)!
Healthy aging, mindfulness, fighting ageism, and more will be the focus of the third annual Age-Friendly University Day to be held on the U of M Twin Cities campus.