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Some days the
Cooper Institute’s director of exercise physiology
doesn’t exercise at all and he doesn’t worry about it.
He used to go at it with a vengeance.
But he’s learned, through experience and research,
that moderation is the best approach to exercise.
Now he’s trying to relay the message to others.His newest book is Don’t Count Yourself Out,
about “Staying Fit After 35.”
He co-wrote it with tennis star, Jimmy Connors, who’s
still competing at age 40 but looking ahead to a time when
exercise will be part of his family life, not his
professional training.
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The
book and Dr. Gordon’s work at the aerobics institute
stress what he terms “lifestyle fitness.”
Physical activity doesn’t have to be in big
doses, the doctor says, and it benefits your brain as
well as your body.
Dr. Gordon, 36, hasn’t always had sensible views about
his activity level.
During his high school years in his native South
Africa, he was obsessed with running.
Nothing short of a world record would do, so at
16, he says, he was training by running a hundred miles a
week.
Such extreme exercise can only damage the body, Dr.
Gordon now says; as a result, he suffered inevitable
injuries and at 18 had to retire from competitive
running. Even
then, he sought a sport he could excel at while working
around the injuries. He found karate, achieved a second-degree black belt and was
a member of a South African team that toured Europe.
Now he’s thrown himself – with some measure of that
fervor but without the excesses – into the Cooper
Institute’s research and programs.
“The big message that I try to get across to my
patients and that I apply to my own life and try to apply
to my family’s life is: moderation.”
Says Dr. Gordon, “We’ve gone totally overboard in the
advice that we give patients,” telling them to exercise
every day, cut this, quit that.
“What we should be doing is, in each individual,
looking at a couple of little changes that a person can
make and that they can stick with for the rest of their
life. Make
those small changes, and once you’ve made those
successfully, then try to take it to the next step.”
At home in North Dallas, he plans activities that his
wife, Tracey, a former X-ray technician, and his
daughters, ages 6 and 8, can join in.
With the girls, the key is to keep the activity
play and not duty, Dr. Gordon says.
His father is a pharmacist who worked at a large hospital
in South Africa for about 20 years.
But it was the running injuries and treatments in
high school that spurred Dr. Gordon to enter sports
medicine. He
thought he, too, would treat injuries, probably as an
orthopedic surgeon. Instead, he trained in preventive medicine, then obtained a
Ph.D. in exercise physiology, both in South Africa.
Along came Dr. Cooper and an invitation to his
institute. Dr.
Gordon became a permanent U. S. resident in May 1987 and
a citizen in November 1992.
In five years, he’s obtained a master’s degree in
public health from UCLA, received two national research
awards and joined the boards of several medical
organizations, including the Dallas affiliate of the
American Heart Association.
Over the years, he’s written more than 50 scientific
articles and seven books.
“My ambition in life since I went to medical school has
been really to try and benefit as many people as
possible…Research is one avenue…But then you’ve
also got to get out the message.”
As for his own regimen, most days, he does 30 minutes of
aerobic exercise. “And
I’ll maybe train with weights, doing 10- 15-minute
sessions twice a week.
That’s it.”
Sometimes, if he’s traveling, he can’t do either one.
Those days, he just tries to walk more in airports
and hotels.
“What
I say to people who say they haven’t got time, I say:
‘Realize that it’s vitally important.
Realize that if you fit it into your life,
you’re actually going to get more accomplished.’”
Park farther away, he suggests, and use mall
stairs instead of the escalator.
Try walking the dog with the kids.
Statistics, he says, indicate that exercise boosts
one’s mental output and one’s chances of living
longer.
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