Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
All-or-nothing mindset can make a man unhealthy
DALLAS — After Glenn Gehan graduated from college, he didn’t want to keep up the intense workouts that had allowed him to attend the University of Southern California on a swimming scholarship.
He gave up the meet focused, year- round, four-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week regimen he’d kept from age 10 through college.
“I was burned out,” says Gehan, 47, of Dallas.
So he didn’t exercise for 10 years.
That all- or- nothing attitude is common and unhealthy for men, experts say.
“There hasn’t been a lot of really good science about why men don’t exercise, but anecdotally there is no doubt at all,” says Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times columnist and author of The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter and Live Longer (Hudson Street Press, $25.95).
“There’s an aura of competitiveness in many men about what they have to do to be fit and healthy,” she said. “I hang out with a lot of middle-aged men, many of them former athletes, and it’s really common for them to feel if they can’t do a sustained amount of vigorous exercise, then they’re not going to do anything. As a result they don’t do anything.”
The mistake, Reynolds says, is that any movement is helpful for the former athletes, and for the nonathletes who shied away from physical activity after deciding they couldn’t throw a ball or excel in a particular sport.
“Inactivity is the greatest public health concern in America and the easiest to combat,” she says.
60 PERCENT NOT ACTIVE
More than 60 percent of American adults are not regularly active, and 25 percent of adults are not active at all, which heightens the risk of a multitude of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes and dementia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The solution sounds simple and facile, but it’s not,” Reynolds says.
“You have to understand that the human body is built to move.” Unlike some scientists, Reynolds doesn’t believe the body is built to run, “but we are built to walk. You don’t have to have a sport, and you don’t have to compete, but the science is unequivocal that going for a walk makes a big difference physiologically. It will make you healthier, and it may help you be around for your kids for another 10 years.”
Those who scoff that a walk won’t make you fit or lose a significant amount of weight are right, too, but fitness and weight loss are different goals from health, she said.
“If you want to move from being healthy to being fit, then you walk five times a week 30 minutes at a time or swim or bike. ... If you can’t do 20 minutes a day, move 10 minutes multiple times a day. If you stand up every 20 minutes, it will help. Just do something.”
ONE THING AT A TIME
Dr. Rosemary Bates is an internal medicine specialist in a private practice in Plano, Texas. She often tries to persuade male patients, who believe that they can’t exercise if they don’t have two hours a day to devote to a workout, that there is another way.
“I tell them if you would just walk away from your house for 15 minutes and walk back, it would be so beneficial,” she said. “Women will go for brisk walks with a friend and chit-chat, but men think if they’re not huffing and puffing, it’s not worthwhile.”
She speculates that men have become increasingly sedentary because, unlike women, they tend not to multitask. Instead, many drive to a desk job. The technology available at most desk jobs, from e-mail and texting to Internet access, allows them to get everything done without leaving their chair. Then they head home and sit again, with a remote in hand, to relax and watch TV.
“Men love their technology and their gadgets,” she said.
Gehan, the former swimmer, started seeking a less competitive approach to exercise 15 years ago.
Working with a trainer, he found a schedule and pace for his swims, his runs and strength training that he could balance comfortably with his work schedule and home life as a father of three.
It’s much different from the schedule of his youth, and it’s a change he likes.
“I got into it for mental health,” he says. “When I took those 10 years off, I didn’t feel as good mentally as when I was working out. There was also a little bit of vanity involved when my clothes didn’t fit. I thought instead of going to the tailor, I’ll go to the gym.”