Necessary Physical Conditioning

Maintaining a sustainable lifestyle requires at least a minimum of core muscle strength, balance, and flexibility. Starting a sustainable (and thus much more active) life probably requires even more strength and agility. What's your secret for staying in adequate physical shape? What books or online resources do you recommend?

Note: Please indicate whether you are under or over age 50. Example: Both my partner and I are age 50+. If you have faced any additional physical challenges, I would be grateful if you can discuss, at least in general terms, how you plan to handle the physical demands of sustainable living, such as gardening, removing brush to make your home fire-safe, etc.

Feel free to ask for suggestions if you are still planning your transition to a sustainable lifestyle.

It's important to not wait until you confront a bear (as I did), that your degree of physical conditioning becomes relevant to your staying out of nursing homes or assisted living facilities for your entire life ... and remember, institutional food is pretty bad! Here are books I recommend for building core muscle strength, flexibility, and balance:

The 10-Minute Rejuvenation Plan: T5T: The Revolutionary Exercise Program that Restores your Body and Mind

The Core Program: Fifteen Minutes a Day that can Change your Life

Gosh I HATE exercise! But I love to work.

And I'm counting on good genetics to get me through the next 20 years. My dad, who is exactly 20 years older than me still visits and helps to cut trees and brush, haul materials and do whatever needs doing.

I'm 60+ and I keep feeling younger all the time. Life is fascinating.

In my early 20s I started weight training and have kept that up, on and off, ever since. I’m 47 now and have shifted from traditional weight lifting/cardio for power lifting and conditioning with kettlebells and some other things. I train so that I can do other things (kayaking mostly, but hiking and carrying my own giant bags of cat food), but I do enjoy the heck out of it. I recommend any books/training regimens by Pavel Tsatsouline. He’s a big proponent of the kettlebell and takes a pretty non-competitive approach to it; meaning the biggest opponent you have is yourself. Tracy Reifkind is another good resource for beginning kettlebell programs. For a while there I followed Pavel’s joint mobility routine also, but have gotten out of the habit. I figure if I can still squat, swing a bell, bench and deadlift and do Turkish Get-ups, I’m doing ok, but I should incorporate more joint mobility, balance and sprinting.