What Does Yard Work Have to do With Retirement?

A couple of days ago I received an irate email from a reader regarding this post.  He resented any implication that a person’s body falls to pieces when he retires.  This 73-year-old reader told me that he plays tennis every Wednesday with his 66-year-old friend and consistently kicks his ass.  But he’s not the oldest tennis player in his social set, on Tuesdays he plays doubles with three other friends, 80, 84 and 87.  Just to stress his point he wrote, “THAT'S 324 YEARS OF TENNIS PLAYERS ON THE COURT AT THE SAME TIME.”

The irate reader?  My dad.

Using a technique that I certainly appreciate, taking a random sampling and making a glittering generality out of it, he has come to conclude that he can tell who will enjoy good health in retirement simply by who does their own yard work.

Another reader, 66-year-old Emelita, writes that she has always walked 3 miles every other day, participated in aerobics 3 times a week, and still wears a size 3 in her retirement.  She points out that, “Bad or good habits never die . . . if you’ve been lazy it’s hard to start anything.”

It certainly is easier to be fit if you are just staying fit rather than waiting to get fit after retirement.  But all is not lost if you’ve waited.  Clay, another recent retiree, emailed that he only had time to work out 2 times a week when he was still working.  Now that he’s retired he goes to the gym every day and is now in the best shape of his life.  (I’m jealous—while I already had a pretty good exercise regimen before I retired, I can’t say that I’m in any better shape than before, even with all the “extra” time.)

Don't despair if you don’t do your own yard work, though.  My irate reader agrees with Clay, it’s never to late to start.   But start slowly at first, you don’t want to bring out a chainsaw when you haven’t even mastered the clippers yet.

Related Posts:

            Retirement Calories

            The Myth of the Skinny Retirement

            Retirement and Skinny Jeans

 

This is an article from Retirement A Full-Time Job

Comments

[Barb]

I'm laughing out loud. I was going to post a comment to the other thread, but I held off. Reaally, if you look around, reired people are doing all kinds of things. the idea that you should retire early or you wont be able to do them is really a fallacy but I assumed at the time you were injecting a little humor there. If you really felt that way at forty something, you're in for a big shock. Of course I also disagree with your life slowing down post, but then I do much more in retirement than I did in my working life.

[Retired Syd]

@Barb: Finally, someone gets my humor! But I do have to say, I have at least 2 readers that are consistently telling me that health problems and physical ailments are slowing them down in their retirement (one in his 70's and another pushing 60). As a side note, though, most of the people decades older than I lead faster paced lives than I (as you mention above). But the comment I continually hear from retirees of all ages is how happy they are to be able to take life at a slower pace. Glad this made you laugh!

[fred doe]

simplify, yard work is fun but who are you doing it for? time,money v.s. return. once your retired there's other ruts to explore. do it yourself is the way to go ( like the home depot commercial "more doing more spending" lol) i have begun using the less is more approach and i still get compliments from my neighbors. i mix eggplant,peppers, herbs, tomatoes and even the dreaded zucchini in with the flower garden there by doing away with the vegetable garden. planting ornamental grasses instead of a tree a bush or a shrub. one neighbor made fun of me for the vegges in with the flowers i just told her when your retired there's no rules.

[Graham Forbes]

Anything that gets the boomers and older citizens to get riled up and talking about there fitness is great. We need to stay engaged and be conscious of our health and activity. Being challenged might be good motivation for some to start, which is how change begins. I have been writing about the boomers challenge to get fit, not fat.