Today is Saturday
Jul 04, 2009
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Breaking a sweat when it's cold outside |
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 | | | By Joel Keller
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
If you ask any fitness expert, they’ll tell you that the best way to maintain a fitness routine is to exert yourself in something you enjoy doing. For most people, that means some sort of sport or outdoor activity. It could be a round or two of golf each week, a few games of tennis, or even just a walk around the block, all of which are easy and enjoyable to do when it’s sunny and warm.
But when the weather turns cold, those fun outdoor activities become a little less fun, or downright impossible to do. So what does a person who wants to keep up his or her fitness level do if it’s just too cold outside? The Erickson Tribune asked the folks at Cedar Crest, where there are plenty of indoor sports and athletic activities that a person can do.
Some of the activities available are shuffleboard, billiards, swimming, and other aquatic exercise classes at the community’s indoor pool, yoga, and Wii bowling and tennis competitions. You could even walk the length of the campus without ever stepping outside, thanks to sky bridges built between each building. Two popular activities are the competitive table tennis group and the serene tai chi class.
Ping-Pong exercises every muscle
One of the most competitive of the group activities is table tennis, or as most people call it, Ping-Pong. “Before [my wife and I] came here two-and-a-half years ago, there was only one table and less than ten people playing,” says Tse Woo, who runs the very active table tennis group at Cedar Crest. Now, between the setups in the Belmont and Woodland Commons Clubhouses, there are six tables, with 52 players of all skill levels hitting the little white ball back and forth.
The residents play five days a week, with predetermined pairings and ten-minute matches. “Sometimes we have a lot of people play,” says Woo. “To make it fair to everybody—because good players don’t want to play with beginners—we have a lottery system and draw numbers.” | |
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Some of the players, approximately 30% of the group according to Woo, also play regular tennis during the warmer months. Those players, he says, have been surprised at how much effort it takes to play Ping-Pong well. “Outdoor tennis is more strenuous, but you don’t do every motion,” he says. “Ping-Pong is faster. With every motion you’re exercising your whole body. Tennis is more concentrated on the arms and legs.”
The group also has monthly gatherings that include dinner; here the players socialize and watch videos of some of the best table tennis players in the world, like the men’s singles matches from the Beijing Olympics. They’ve even mounted a tournament, beating the community’s student servers. “We had 12 games, and the residents won 9 of them,” Woo says. “Everybody had a good time.” Woo doesn’t want to stop with the student servers, though. “We’re thinking of challenging the management [staff] to a tournament,” he says.
Tai chi transforms mind and body
Physical fitness is not always about competition. Sometimes it’s about inner peace. Jerry Landsman, a seven-year Cedar Crest resident, likes the contemplative nature of tai chi.
“It’s an aerobic exercise, a meditative movement,” says Landsman, who leads two tai chi sessions a week. “It’s aerobic when done properly. You know it when you’ve done it.”
When Landsman lived in Montclair, he studied tai chi chih, a simplified form of the Chinese martial art, for 12 years. When he came to Cedar Crest, he was encouraged by Peter Cataldi, the director of resident life at the time, to start a class, which attracted about 20 people. Right now, he teaches one class each in the Belmont and Village Square Clubhouses, with a total attendance of about 40.
Tai chi chih, which has one pose and nineteen movements, “appeals to the older generation,” says Landsman. “It’s very gentle, not long, not complicated.” Landsman is an advocate of the exercise’s versatility; not only can it be done indoors or outdoors, but it’s a good solution for whatever ails a person, whether it’s physical or emotional.
“When [residents] ask me what’s supposed to happen here, the only rational answer is, ‘You’ll know it when you have it,’” he says. “It has to do with certain weaknesses, either known or unknown. Some people say ‘I feel invigorated!’ Others say they have a better mental attitude. It sounds like a mystique, but it really isn’t; it’s something palpable that they’ll feel.”
It doesn’t matter whether you want to get your juices flowing with serene contemplation or by slamming a spike past your opponent. Just keep moving, no matter what time of year it is.
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