Surprisingly, walking and swimming are excellent ways to keep up the maintenance side.
if we golf twice or more per week and walk the golf course, then, that’ll take care of half the need for walking. swimming is good, especially for stamina training ( breathing ) and also taking care of the 50’s shoulders ( freestyle , butterfly).
Use it or lose it !
Oatmeal is good, but stay away from the instant variety, and the rolled oat. We like the Irish Oats ( steel cut oats). Bob’s Redmills Organic steel cut oats is our favorite. Soak over night and bring to a boil the next morning ( adding water to cover the top of the oats 1/2" ). Turn off the fire after it’s boiled and cover, let the liquid absorbed into the oats.
Done ! save energy cooking it this way and very yummy, with a little crunchy feel like nuts.
Some times adding pieces of Medjool dates for sweetness or local honey. Pieces of banana and/or berries could also be added. Filling and will last for quite awhile without feeling hungry( plant base protein ).
Thank you for the new, gigantic, timesink. LOL.
Lots of great stuff at Spud’s link, everyone.
Well, we’re a couple months into winter, how’s everyone doing sticking to their off-season plans?
I’m down 7 pounds since Christmas and have been sticking to my workout plans pretty well. Also have been doing yoga and/or my TPI-recommended hip mobility exercises at least 3 x a week. Flexibility has noticeably improved.
Been playing a ton on the newly-acquired Skytrak. Sometimes I think maybe I should be doing more drills/range work, but playing on a sim is way more fun.
I was doing okay, but fell off the wagon last week on our golf trip. Not sure I ate too much, but I certainly drank too much and had too little sleep. Also we take carts every round. It was vacation, but I’m definitely getting too old for the drinking.
I don’t know if the working out and bit of speed training I did helped, but had some more distance down in Florida. Maybe just the faster fairways compared to New England, but the irons were also flying farther. I had to play my “max” distances rather than average. We have 2 big hitters in our group and I was keeping up with them more so than usual. I always do seem to get freed up when I’m away from my narrow home course so maybe just more mental than physical.
Back at this week. Better diet and regular exercise. Superbowl will be cheat/treat day, but I want to drop 10 lbs before golf season resumes.
Sounds like your workouts are paying off!
It is nearly impossible to eat/drink healthy when you’re on vacation.
My biggest obstacle is just the weekends - I’ll watch what I eat all week and drop a pound or two, then gain it all back over the weekend with a couple restaurant meals.
Yoga hasn’t been mentioned enough in here … after serious back/muscle injuries late last season, I picked it up and cannot overstate the benefits!
In tandem, of course, with healthy eating (I’ve added some more protein, more regularly … gonna be 66 soon…) and regular exercise.
It’s not just cute women in sexy yoga pants 
… if you start with a basic “flow”, aka routine, and stick with it you WILL start to see and feel the benefits! Lots of resources online, including YouTube.
Absolutely agree! I found even just some basic Yoga done regularly works wonders. I do some basic stuff for just a few minutes almost every day now and it’s made a huge difference for me. I dismissed it for a long time like most guys, but it works.
Also lifting weights is great for you, but learn to do things properly. Even with the Yoga, I tweaked my back a handful of times using kettlebells and doing deadlifts. Your head/eyes should NOT be looking up as many advise. I haven’t tweaked my back since making this minor adjustment (knock on wood)
Spot on (ha ha see what I did there) … proper form is absolutely essential, mandatory, no question!
Every time my PT or Chiro shows me a new exercise they always emphasize using the proper form.
My diet is great, but the cardio exercise has not been where I want for certain! I’m down 2-3,pounds only! The stretching and swing training is good. My Swing Speed is up to an average of 97 mph from 94. I have been able to clock it upwards of 100mph without stressing myself. It’s definitely trending better. I am really happy with my mechanics, I really feel a lot less stress on my spine. I really won’t see any full red until I get on the course in April.
No one has mentioned the relationship between one’s eye sight and their golf game.
Just how important do you believe good eye sight has to do with ball striking ?
Since I pass the milestone of 65 and had my cataract surgery, I can tell you that the eye sight is vital to a good golf game.
Ever heard the expression of eye-hand coordination ?
Definitely makes a difference. I didn’t start golfing until I was 30 and needed glasses for distance not long after. I struggled as I needed the glasses to follow a ball in flight, but they distorted my view of the ball at address.
I pretty much play exclusively with some prescription sunglass that allow me to look under the lenses at address. Next step is probably bifocals as my vision gets just a little worse every few years.
Make sure you get your annual eye exam, not just to spot any existing issue but also to identify possible future issues coming your way.
One of my kids is a practicing optometrist and I had learned a lot about how to take care of my vision to make it stay healthy longer.
All of this. I cannot follow the ball in flight anymore unless I have near-perfect conditions, both seeing and striking. If I hit the ball the way I anticipate, I can find it in the air if the seeing is good, but mishits? Good luck. It’s frustrating. Had LASIK 25 years ago, and it’s just now getting to where I need reading glasses, and maybe some distance help too.
It just takes longer to switch focus distances, and keep multiple objects at different distances in ‘enough’ focus to be useful. Example, I used to be an OK to good pistol shot with irons. Not winning bullseye competitions, but I’d shoot possibles on a qualification course, etc… My depth of field has shrunk enough to where I can’t meaningfully see the sights now. Not well enough to line them up on the target, anyway. Same thing with tracking a golf ball. I can focus at address, and through impact, but afterwards trying to find it? LOLtastic.
Wow, do you think that you’re due for a complete eye exam ? Maybe an adjustment surgery ?
Vision correction surgery had come a long way, a consultation could find ways to help you correct your vision issue.
Annual vision check is important for seniors, if anything, to discover and prevent vision problem. The equipment they use these days could look behind the eyeballs and even spot issues in the brain from the blood vessel imagery taken behind the eyeball. Called the retinal exam. Find a good optometrist, who can interpret the image.
My kid found brain tumors through the retinal exam for several patients at both the VA hospitals and one air force base. It’s amazing what they could find with the new equipment they have these days.
Do you work out often? Sometimes, it’s really hard to make yourself do sports and eat healthy food, especially when you’re getting older. I have recently started getting some useful tips from this source https://unimeal.com/blog/push-exercises-for-beginners-62. It helps a lot.
Nice link for exercise suggestions. However, more than half of the routine are out of range for the seniors.
we are, after all, not lazy but after crossing the line of 60 not motivated to do the exercises we did when we were younger. Some of us are physically unable to have the range of motion it requires which is demonstrated.
Another reason is probably feeling the press from the time. No time to do all the things we like to do in life. Do we do the exercise or do we get on the golf course ?
I do agree, the need to keep moving and put in the effort to expand the ever shrinking range of motion from all our joints.
Diet is important, just don’t forget to enjoy the food you like, moderation is the key. No one lives forever.
Lots of my friends got into bad habit after retirement. they started off with a beer or two , then progressed to hard liquor. Their excuse was, it gets there quicker and don’t need to go to the can as often. This is probably the worst thing they could do to their health.
Personally I’m not against having a drink or two after dinner for winding down the day; medical data showed no ill effect of doing that.
The issue is still doing everything in moderation.
Same with exercise and golf… or any other activities. we have to keep things moving, while be mindful of our age and ability so we won’t wear out any parts prematurely.
If you don’t have the self discipling to watch yourself; best have someone monitor your activities. Drink and diet being the number one on the list of watch.
If I’da had ANY idea whatsoever that I’d be living past 55, I woulda saved up some money.
Always smart to look for employer participating retirement program. Some will match 50% of what we could save up, taken out before tax which is another bonus. $1.00 saved before tax = approx. $2.00 later.
These programs are getting difficult to find now.
Oh, the inevitable. When we’re 55 and older, the inevitable is that we’ll die. And then what? In many ways, it’s a scary thought. But you know what? It’s not that scary. Because the thing about the inevitable is that there are so many things in life that can happen before it. And when those things happen, they can be very good things for you.
The first thing I want to say about “the inevitable” is that it’s not a bad thing when you’re a young person because if something happens to you before you get there, then it becomes a “good thing.” If something bad happens to you after you turn 55, then it becomes an “unhappy thing.”
So let me give you some examples of how this works!
Example 1: You get married at 55 and have two kids by 65. That’s a pretty good life! You’ve got kids who are smart and athletic and kind and funny and interesting — which means they’ll make great friends for yourself and your wife when they get older (and hopefully their kids will do the same!). And they’ll learn how to cook…which means they’ll be able to feed themselves well as adults.
Can you explain 55 older use golf grips? hahahahahahahahaha lolxxx