It All Starts With Exercise

It All Starts With Exercise
I’ve spent a lot of time over the last 18 months writing about how to optimize your fitness. There are lots of components;  diet, sleep,  minimizing stress but in my opinion, the most critical element is “Movement” or in other words exercise.
Everyone has different reasons for getting active.  For me, it all started at the age 12.  I was an adolescent with raging hormones and giant crush on the very voluptuous TV star Suzanne Sommers.  This was 1981 and Suzanne Somers was playing Chrissy Snow on Three’s Company. I admit it I wasn’t a baby Einstein, what I was a 12-year-old with a crush on a beautiful 35-year-old blonde.
 
As the story goes, I saw her and Lou Ferrigno on a superstars completion type show (okay I’m going way back) where Lou and their Dune Buggy got stuck on some type of obstacle track. The mammoth, Lou Ferrigno, got out of his recreational vehicle and picked it up like a sack of potatoes.  Suzanne looked thoroughly impressed and so was the 12-year-old me watching the screen. I turned to my dad and said I want to look like him.  My father proceeded to purchase me a set of vinyl welder weights filled with cement. I came home every day from school with no idea what I was doing and pumped out set after set of bench press with visions of being the next incredible hulk.
 
Thirty-seven years later I still love pumping iron, granted with a little less reckless abandonment but no less passion. 
 
 
That’s my story here are the stories of 5 other FitAfter45 contributors:
Hal Johnson, is a public speaker, fitness advocate and along with his wife, Joanne is one half of the Bodybreak team. Most well known for their series of more than Three Hundred, 90-second vignettes which would air during commercial breaks, Bodybreak has grown to be more of a movement that encourages people to get out and be active in order to become healthier and happier.
“The biggest thing is – find something you enjoy. If you enjoy whatever activity you are doing, you’re not going to think of it as work. It’s not going to be a work out; it’s going to be something you can’t wait to get to. When I play hockey, I don’t think, “I’m going to go skate now, and I’m going to burn 586 calories, therefore, I can eat this donut.” I’m going to play hockey because I like to play hockey. The same thing with hiking, we enjoy it.”

Mark McKoy is a Success Coach, Speaker, Mentor, Health & Fitness Advisor and a 5-time member of Canada’s Olympic team who Captured the Gold Medal in Men’s 110m Hurdles at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

He has quite an impressive resume; competing in 4 Olympic games, 5 World Championships, 2 Commonwealth Games and is a member of the Canadian Athletics Hall of Fame and the Ontario Athletics Hall Of Fame.

Mark’s journey started in England where at age 10, he gained interested in developing a fitness program. He kept the dream alive and always remaining athletic; competing in track and field, soccer, volleyball,  and basketball (to name a few). When Mark was in Grade 10 he was attending the same high school as Tony Sharpe, who also competed in the Olympics for Canada as a sprinter and had held the Canadian record in the 200 meters. In order to avoid competing directly with Tony, he chose to pick up the hurdles.

Katherine Roberts

Katherine played every sport growing up and was a self-confessed tomboy.  In terms of competitive sports, Katherine competed in tennis and basketball. She has been playing golf since she was 15 and continues to play. She has been practicing Yoga for 18 years and it serves as one of her main athletic ventures along with golf, paddle boarding and running.

As she grew, Katherine went onto bigger and better things. She served 13 years as a Major League Baseball with the Oakland A’s, LA Dodgers, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Texas Rangers and the Milwaukee Brewers. Katherine also works with both PGA and LPGA golfers and her Yoga for Golf program is being taught by certified instructors in 22 countries.
Nowadays she is still hard at work! She is the founder and President of both Human Performance For Sports and Yoga For Golfers.
Michael Sadler not only has an extensive fitness background but one in music as well! Michael is the lead singer of Saga, a Canadian rock band, formed in Oakville, Ontario.
Before hitting the big stage, Michael heavily involved himself in a plethora of athletic activities. As a child, he played all the usual; sandlot baseball, pee wee hockey, etc. Later in high school, he did track and field, was on the basketball team and then tried out for the football team (which is where he unfortunately suffered an injury due to Osgood Schlatter disease).
Michael still remains immersed in the world of fitness and dedicates 4 days a week to stay active!
Bernie was one of the most dynamic scorers to ever play in the NHL.  Bernie played an incredible 1,127 games scoring 475 goals and 1,209 points. Bernie still stays very active in his post-playing days — more on that below.
He started skating at age three and began playing Minor League at age 5. Bernie was drafted by the LA Kings in 1980. He played all kinds of sports growing up but his second sport outside of hockey was fastpitch.  He was no slouch, playing in the 1980 Ontario Summer Games.

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