The Key is to be active no matter what a person does. Some people have health problems that they have to take care of before they should start doing physically demanding activities. You here all the time were people have heart attacks and die while hunting because they do not take care of themselves during the year then come hunting season they try and do things they used to do when they were younger and more active.
Good luck on your goals and it sounds like your making great strides of improvement. For me now that most of my hunting is done for the year, I am gearing up for ice climbing and snow shoeing. I am not much for skiing because I didn't learn when i was young and I am afraid if injuring myself or busting up a knee or something serious like that.
I plan on working on improving my gun accuracy and my hand loads through the winter. Right now I am trying to improve my technique for bumping back the head space to -.002 with .001 variance between all of my brass. I have been annealing my brass and then resizing the brass for the best results.
What a good post!!
Even a guy shooting benchrest would do well to get into good shape. Not just hand strength, but also breathing exercises.
I can't ski (I've tried it) due to a really nasty left knee problem. The knee is pretty good (very good for my age), but I've been carrying five pieces of iron inside it for forty plus years. They finally discovered it ten years ago, and it was too late to dig them out. But I can get out and walk four to six miles without a problem.
My doctor did a full blood work up on me January two years ago, and promptly put me on a diet. My cholesterol was a little higher than he liked (slightly over 200), and my blood pressure was also a little too high (157 / 77). Weight was way too high as well. The cholesterol is now in the 175 area, and the good part is extremely good. Blood pressure was checked a couple weeks ago, and it came in at 130 over 69, but have gotten checks in the low 120's over 68 a lot of times. He wanted me to loose 45lb., and I did that in four months, so he adds another 15lb. to the target, and I had that beat in six months. So he adds another 15lb, and I'm now at an 83lb. loss. I think I'm going to shoot for 100lb. The diet has been somewhat expensive, as I'm constantly giving away clothes, but I feel pretty good. The doctor actually sent a blood pressure machine to my house, and they call me every now and then for a check. My youngest son was here when they did the last check, and he came in at 116 / 68!! I wanted to slap him up the side of the head as this wasn't fair!
By the way, the diet was extremely easy. (in case anybody here wants to try it) I started out by cutting my red meat intake by 50%, and supplementing that with turkey, chicken, and fish. A few weeks later it was about 33% red meat. I have learned to go one day, and often two days with no red meat at all. Now I don't do late night snacks like before, but just grab a couple pieces of fruit. I also cut my salt intake back somewhat (never used a lot anyway), and have learned to replace it with some herbs. Now if I could find an easy way to take another four inches off my waist and butt! On the subject of red meat, I can eat all the venison, elk, antelope, and probably moose I want to.
gary