Scouting, Volume 68, Number 4, September 1980 Page: 50
98 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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1
Want to unwind? Then
toss some Frisbees.
Water ski. Go for a sail.
Or try a host of other
relaxing lifetime sports.
AMERICA HAS BEEN called a sports-
mad nation, and with good reason. Mil-
lions of us follow professional football and
baseball results with greater attention than
we give to Junior's report card. Sales of
tennis equipment, skis, and other sports
gear have skyrocketed in the last decade.
Our streets and byways are alive with
joggers.
Still, for most of us our involvement
with sports begins and ends in front of the
TV set on Super Bowl Sunday. Fewer than
half of all adult Americans ever engage in
any physical activity for exercise, accord-
ing to the President's Council on Physical
Fitness and Sports. Most of us go through
our daily routine without walking long
distances or climbing many flights of
stairs, much less participating in an active
sport on a regular basis. We're like the
man who, when he was invited for a round
of golf, replied, "Whenever I get the urge
to exercise, I lie down until it goes away."
The result: Too many of us have flaccid
muscles and weight problems. We puff
hard at the slightest exertion. More than
half of us die from diseases of the heart
50
and blood vessels, due, in part, to physical
inactivity.
In Scouting magazine's May/June issue,
we considered some sports for adults that
can help improve physical condition,
especially the functioning of heart and
lungs (assuming, of course, that a medical
examination has revealed no abnormali-
ties that may make vigorous exercise dan-
gerous). A fast game of tennis singles or a
half-hour of jogging puts considerable
demand on heart and lungs which, in the
view of most medical experts today, is
beneficial to health.
There are, however, dissenters. Among
the most prominent are Drs. Meyer
Friedman and Ray H. Rosenman, who
strongly oppose vigorous exercise for any-
one over 35. In their best-seller, Type-A
Behavior and Your Heart, they recom-
mend that after 35 a person would do well
to exercise only moderately, putting no
heavy strain on heart or lungs.
Friedman and Rosenman write: "By
moderate physical activity, we mean any
form of exercise whose execution does not
cause panting, excessive acceleration of
your heartbeat (that is, above 120 beats per
minute), or leave you unduly fatigued.
Walking on the flat, up very gentle hills,
up one flight of stairs or down as many
flights of steps as you wish, swimming
(noncompetitive), golfing, bicycling, ten-
nis (but only doubles, and preferably
mixed doubles), fishing, hunting (but not
deer hunting at high altitudes or wading
after fallen ducks), skeet shooting, horse-
shoe playing, croquet, billiards, and so
forth, are the forms of exercise we
recommend."
But why should an adult play any sport
unless there is pronounced physical im-
provement? Well, as Friedman and Ro-
senman concede, there will be some phy-
sical and psychological benefits from
moderate exercise. A casual walk or a
round of golf may not do much for your
cardiopulmonary system, but it's much
better for the body than sitting hour after
hour in front of the TV.
The psychological benefits are even
greater. Our time has aptly been called the
Age of Anxiety. Like our grandfathers, we
worry about paying the bills, feeding and
educating the kids, and becoming suc-
cessful in our careers. Unlike them, we live
with the spector of nuclear warfare, the
dawning knowledge that some of the
earth's resources are running low, and the
realization that there are limits to material
progress. Gramps may have been a wor-
rier, but he was small potatoes compared
with most of his grandchildren.
Sports can provide an outlet for our
anxieties and frustrations. Nothing beats a
solid three-iron shot that stops five feet
from the pin or the contentment of a lazy
afternoon on a trout stream for easing the
stresses of our age. (Paradoxically, sports
can have the opposite effect, too. A fan
watching a sports event on TV can become
so tensed up by the struggle, with no way
to relieve his tension in physical activity,
that he will be emo- (continued on page 93)
September 1980 Scouting
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 68, Number 4, September 1980, periodical, September 1980; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353701/m1/50/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.