Couch potatoes beware. The exercise goons (hello!) are coming to get you. As a sofa spud in long-standing training myself, I know the lure of a perfectly indented cushion, contoured to and by your butt. I also am coming to understand the need for brain use beyond just moving my thumb around on the remote [...]]]> by Richard

Couch potatoes beware. The exercise goons (hello!) are coming to get you. As a sofa spud in long-standing training myself, I know the lure of a perfectly indented cushion, contoured to and by your butt. I also am coming to understand the need for brain use beyond just moving my thumb around on the remote control.

A group of “professional couch potatoes,” as one researcher described them, has proven that even moderate exercise — in this case walking at one’s own pace for 40 minutes three times a week — can enhance the connectivity of important brain circuits, combat declines in brain function associated with aging and increase performance on cognitive tasks.

I think it’s the word moderate in there that makes this a key bit. You don’t have to kill yourself or the little dudes with the game controllers permanently grafted to their hands to get a benefit from exercise.

The researchers measured participants’ brain connectivity and performance on cognitive tasks at the beginning of the study, at six months and after a year of either walking or toning and stretching.

At the end of the year, DMN connectivity was significantly improved in the brains of the older walkers, but not in the stretching and toning group, the researchers report.

The walkers also had increased connectivity in parts of another brain circuit (the fronto-executive network, which aids in the performance of complex tasks) and they did significantly better on cognitive tests than their toning and stretching peers.

And that’s the good news, especially considering walking isn’t all that hard. I’ve taken to walking Buzz, the dog that walks like a garbage disposal, on walks during the day. It gets out some of his energy and gives me some of my own. Also, apparently, it are making my brane theenk butter.

Or was that joke too obvious?

Previous studies have found that aerobic exercise can enhance the function of specific brain structures, (researchers) said. This study shows that even moderate aerobic exercise also improves the coordination of important brain networks.

Working together is apparently an important thing for brain bits to do. So good for us.

The even better news here is we’re talking about walking. And you can easily walk with your iPod or iPad or whatever. Which means you can actually watch TV or a movie or listen to music while you’re ambling along at your own pace. You might not knock off all those pounds this way, but you will be able to think better. And that’s better. I think.

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The middle young dude, Zippy the Monkey Boy, goes to a private school, which means we pay (out the nose) for his education. And the lovely thing is this means it’s like he’s going to college for four years before he goes to college.

Anyway, there are times when he’s overjoyed to be going there and [...]]]> by Richard

The middle young dude, Zippy the Monkey Boy, goes to a private school, which means we pay (out the nose) for his education. And the lovely thing is this means it’s like he’s going to college for four years before he goes to college.

Anyway, there are times when he’s overjoyed to be going there and I’m a little suspect. Today is one of those times.

Every year, the high school portion of his school packs up and the young dudes and dudettes head out to camp. Yes, they’re going to Camp Cheerio, the same place Zippy the Monkey Boy, Hyper Lad and Sarcasmo, have spent so many happy summer months.

Now, the school says this three-day excursion is an exercise in team building and getting the students into a different setting to work on their educations and their approach to learning.

Me? I’m thinking it’s more of a mini-vacation for a group of students, who already have far too many days off during the school year.

Yes, I am turning into a grumpy old man. Why do you ask?

Zippy the Monkey Boy loves it, though, so I’ve decided to quit griping. At least in public. Well, at least where he’s likely to notice it anyway.

The good news is that it’ll be two days where I won’t have to actually dynamite the young dude out of bed on school mornings and that’s always good for my blood pressure.

So, I guess, cheers!

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So, over the spring, we had Sarcasmo enrolled a class where he learned to be a lifeguard. Then, of course, he spent most of the summer away at various camps and service projects and rarely, if ever, saw a pool. That all changed the day before school.

Sarcasmo got his first job. The young dude who [...]]]> by Richard

So, over the spring, we had Sarcasmo enrolled a class where he learned to be a lifeguard. Then, of course, he spent most of the summer away at various camps and service projects and rarely, if ever, saw a pool. That all changed the day before school.

Sarcasmo got his first job. The young dude who sometimes has a difficult experience when I ask him to do two things simultaneously was, for 8 seven hours Tuesday, in charge of the lives of hundreds of strangers.

I’m here to report they all survived. Including Sarcasmo.

It was actually pretty neat. Sarcasmo had dropped off an application with a local company that supplies lifeguards to a lot of the pools around Charlotte. We thought he’d get called right away, but it turns out that a lot of college students came home from their various campuses and took most of the steady jobs. However, they’ve left here to go back to college, which freed up some shifts.

Sarcasmo was caught by surprise. I’m pretty sure he’d become convinced he’d make it through the summer without actually having to work. He got the call on Saturday. Being a teenager and being Sarcasmo, he accepted the job, found out where it would be and when and thought that was it.

“Do they supply the uniform?” I asked.

“I dunno.”

“How much are you getting paid?”

“I dunno.”

“Do they want you to have a whistle? Wait. You dunno?”

“You’re not as funny as you think you are, Dad.”

On Monday, Sarcasmo called back the pool management people and found out he had to supply his own uniform and whistle, which lead to a quick trip to the store.

He looked great with his red lifeguard shorts, his white lifeguard shirt and the whistle hanging around his neck. And then he was gone for more than eight hours, only getting back by about 9 p.m. that night. I can’t tell you how hard it was to resist the urge to head down there and spy on him.

I didn’t want to check up on him, but just see him in action. The only thing holding me back was that I didn’t want to look like (or even be) one of those types of helicopter parents who hover around their kids constantly. I trusted the dude, so it wasn’t that. It was just the urge to see him out there, standing strong and independent and in charge.

I wanted to see his first steps as he emerged from the cocoon of childhood and started walking as a true dude. Instead, I had to content myself with his after-action report when he got back.

“It was boring. Sometimes we had breaks for, like, 20 minutes and I didn’t bring my book so I didn’t have anything to do.”

Which was, I thought, probably a good thing for a lifeguard.

I think he liked it, though. He said he was looking forward to taking some more shifts.

I guess he really is growing up. My little dude is becoming a dude.

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