David Shnider presented a practical and pragmatic program ‘Mature Health Fitness’ to the Pattaya City Expats Club (PCEC) at their Sunday, March 8, meeting. His wise advice was blended with demonstrated, reasonable exercises that can be done by older folks. David Shnider is an experienced Personal Trainer from Melbourne, Australia where he owned the Body Challenge Health and Fitness Centre.
He graduated from Melbourne University in 1971 majoring in Psychology and Physiology. He immediately went into personal training in Melbourne at the then famous Fitzpatricks gym in Brunswick as one of the first 3 qualified personal trainers in Victoria. He now resides in Pattaya.
In his introduction, David stressed three important principles. First, there is no specific scientific evidence correlating life longevity to exercise. So, don’t exercise just to live longer. Second, as you age you will have aches and pains due to muscle and joint fatigue and tendon inflexibility. These are the natural effects of aging. And lastly, he emphasized that no exercise regimen should be undertaken without clearance from legitimate medical authorities.
Two additional overriding principles were also highlighted…for mature adults, over 60, high impact exercises are not only not recommended but may be harmful and no matter the exercise program chosen, always begin with plenty of stretching to prevent injury.
After an anatomy overview pointing out which areas of the body would benefit most from exercise, David mentioned factors which impact on conditioning by older adults. Alcohol for example, is not a problem if used in moderation, but smoking is always a no-no. Lack of activity probably plays a major role in the process of ‘getting old’ and as he already mentioned, high impact activity is not needed or recommended.
He then listed the areas of your body where exercise might be concentrated. This included legs; lower, middle and upper back; and chest and arms. With help from three members of the audience who had previously volunteered to assist, he spent much of the presentation by demonstrating several simple exercises that can be used to manipulate these areas of the body. These exercises can be viewed on the PCEC’s video of the presentation at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4_83rXxm1s. He also mentioned three useful supplemental activities to these exercises which are using a stationary bicycle, walking in a pool, and swimming in a pool if able.
In conclusion, he emphasized that to achieve mature health and fitness, one does not have to aim for pain to gain, but only to spend a little time a few days per week in sensible exercise. During the Question and Answer session following his talk, David made clear his attitude toward extraneous non prescribed medicinal supplements. When asked about protein supplements, he advised against them unless training was being implemented toward a specific event. Otherwise, a proper diet is all that is needed.
After the presentation, the MC brought everyone up to date on the upcoming club events and others of interest. This was followed by the Open Forum where questions are asked and answered about Expat living in Thailand, especially Pattaya. For more information about the PCEC, visit their website at: www.pcec.club. The PCEC’s YouTube channel has videos of this and other presentations as well as post presentation interviews of the speaker. You can use Google or other search engine to find “pcec youtube channel” to view the videos.
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