June 19, 2024
It’s a great time of year, and not just because the Boston Celtics are the champions of the National Basketball Association again for the eighteenth time. It’s a great time of year because major news outlets like the New York Times and The Atlantic are rolling out their summer reading lists, and book groups around the country are deciding on which books they are going to read starting in the fall. We are all on pins and needles waiting to see what the President of the United States is going to read on vacation. Presidents Clinton and Obama would famously depart for Martha’s Vineyard with an arm full of books. The media would salivate over the names, and attempt to psychoanalyze each President about the books selected. Aides would hustle to the book store to make sure they were reading what the boss was reading. I am sure that Donald Trump will curl up with his gold-leafed version of the Holy Bible at Mar-a-Lago while he curates a WWIII reading list.
I belong to an online book group that started in March, 2020, just in time for COVID when many were pondering their own mortality. The theme of the book group is “Aging Athletes.” We are made up of mostly college classmates, who were former athletes, and are currently involved in athletics as active participants and/or coaches, and are aging. We have an Olympic rower, two football players, a wrestler, two track athletes, a cyclist, and me. One of our participants, who was also an Olympic rower and physician from Northampton, sadly passed away about a year ago. We read, review, and discuss books that help people like ourselves deal with the inevitable decline of physical and mental skills. Here is our reading list to date.
Sports Gene, David Epstein
Endure, Alex Hutchinson
Play On, Jeff Bercovici
Right Call, Sally Jenkins
Remember, Lisa Genova
Open, Andre Agassi
Exercise is Medicine, Judy Foreman
Keep Sharp, Sanjay Gupta
Peak, Mark Bubbs
The Body, Bill Bryson
Sweat, Bill Hayes
Exercised, Daniel Lieberman
Younger Next Year, Crowley & Lodge
Fast After Fifty, Joel Friel
Thanks to Jon Gorham of Woodbridge, CT for starting the group, leading the discussions, and taking on the hopeless task of keeping us focused. He has gleaned many chestnuts since we began from the books we have read. Here are some of the concepts that I believe are worth considering no matter what your age.
1. Exercise is its own reward. Youth isn’t about distancing yourself from death. It’s about the opportunity to challenge yourself to grow, to feel like a beginner with much room from improvement.
2. Exercise will grow you younger. Caring about others will grow you happier. In order to walk the road to altruism, you need the three C’s: Connect, Care, Commit.
3. Fitness is the ability to do a task. Health is your overall well-being. Exercise can turn on your smart genes, support emotional stability and stave off depression and dementia.
4. The future of human performance is unlocking the power of the brain. Mindfulness is the gateway to that potential.
5. Five keys to brain resiliency: 1) exercise and movement, 2) having a sense of purpose, 3) sleep and relaxation, 4) nutrition, 5) social connection
6. Of all the things that your brain can do, memory is king. Memory gives you your sense of who you are, and who you have been.
7. Good practice is purposeful, detailed, and prioritized. Self-discipline is a form of freedom, freedom from laziness and lethargy, and freedom from expectations.
8. Endurance exercise can boost mitochondria. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) can’t be beat for the biggest gains in the shortest amount of time.
9. You can grow old gracefully with joy.
10. George Bernard Shaw said, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.”
The Spin Doctor 