Cool for Kupuna is a weekly show on Sundays at 5:30pm on KITV2. I don’t get tv stations but I can watch past episodes on their CoolforKupuna.com website.

Sue Jorgenson is a returning local (Kaimuki!) gal who interviews, visits, and tries all kinds of interesting things around the island that us old mature people would enjoy. I recently met her at the Hawaii Potters Guild when she had a lesson in wheel throwing and panned over the hand building area (where my good friend Esther Nowell used to teach and still plays on Mondays.). This episode will air on Sunday, March 24, 2024 on KITV2.

Her January 14, 2024 episode featured Kaimuki (for the 3rd time) and featured W&M Hamburger and Jazzercise at the Kaimuki YMCA. I watched it, saw seniors moving and moving slowly, and I thought to myself, “Self, you can do this. You really DO need to exercise!” So I joined the YMCA on a monthly basis ($59/mo), signed up for Jazzercise ($15/mo) and went to my first class yesterday morning at 8:00. I figured earlier is better so I can eat breakfast after class instead of moving around with food in the tummy and then having to go. You know what I mean by “go.”

Well, there were some people younger than me, a few that were older, the room was air conditioned and totally not crowded and I was raring to go! (NOT that kind of “go”, but the other kind of “GO!”)

It started off slow – tap, tap, double tap tap, and arms up, up, sway, sway, stretch, shift – nice and easy for the warm up. I liked it! Except it then started adding more steps and different songs and a faster tempo, more steps, slide, ball change, kick, kick, turn, arms up, over, out, all at the same time as legs and feet moving to the beat – and I was SO out of my comfort zone of being a couch potato. I had to sit it out when they grabbed their weights and did a couple more songs and routines. I wanted to go home already. I joined back into the group for the “cool down” – my favorite part.

It wasn’t fun yet. It was mental and physical torture because I didn’t know the steps and my body was not used to an hour of intentional movement. That Cool for Kupuna video (shown below) slowed down the participants in class so I wasn’t expecting that my heart would race, my head swimming with frustration, and me looking like the oldest one there because of being two beats behind them and confused.

Oprah Winfrey, in her book “Things That I Am Sure Of” spoke about determination. If you determine something, the universe and all the powers that be will conspire to make it come true.

And so, as I took my break sitting on a chair and watching the enthusiastic teacher (Caroline Dang) and her devoted students moving and grooving to the upbeat music, I said to myself, “Self, I am determined to become really good at Jazzercise – and I will dance again.”

And so, I will continue.

Update: I went to my 2nd Jazzercise class but this time I ate my regular breakfast of oatmeal, yogurt and coffee a bit earlier than usual. Was able to “go” before class and showed up a little bit late. And I did it! I wasn’t feeling woozy or weak, but still out of sinc with the dance steps. I didn’t do the weights but I didn’t sit it out. It’s happening and I am so glad for it! I guess I should not go on an empty stomach.

I am being a hypocrite here.  I say to everyone that you should exercise but I hardly do myself.  I do love to weed and garden, and that is very good.  I also have started to learn TaiChi in the Young style – my pal Patricia and I take weekly lessons on Tuesdays.

TaiChi section 1 Showing for a limited time, for us beginners who still haven’t quite remembered the first section.  Thanks Gerri and Virginia!

TaiChi section 2:

Walk with Leslie Sansone for those of us who need to exercise but we really don’t have the time to put on our sunscreen, exercise clothes, socks and shoes every day.  A great way to walk 2 miles with a nice perky lady.  You will be glad you walk!

Bruce Lee playing ping pong with nunchucks.
Okay, this may be beyond what we will ever do, but in my dreams, I would love to be able to do this.  Woooowaaaah!

Check out the PACE exercises in the Exercise section.  Short, fast, slow to intense.  Build lung capacity and you build good health.

Here’s a great example of a P.A.C.E. workout that can give you more lung power and improve your Age Quotient (Dr. Sear’s standard) starting today. It’s called an Airplane.

1.  Stand with your feet together, knees slightly bent and upper body leaning slightly forward.
2.  Hold your arms in front of you about waist height, hands together in a “praying” position.
3.  Spread your arms and swing them backwards, and at the same time, lift one leg behind you.
4.  Return to the starting position, then swing your arms and raise the other leg.
5.  Repeat until you are slightly winded.
6.  Rest and recover.  This may take a short time, or a long time (since I am quite out of condition).
7.  For the second set, increase the intensity until you can only speak in short sentences.
8.  Recover.
9.  For the third set, increase the intensity until you can’t complete a sentence, then stop.  (gasp, gasp)
The slight increases in intensity make it a true P.A.C.E. workout. You can increase the intensity without increasing the impact by doing the airplanes “bigger.”  That means leaning a little more forward, doing a squat before you “airplane,” or extending your hands and arms as much as possible with each repetition.

More P.A.C.E. exercise, thanks to Dr. Al Sears:

Remember to do these two things:

Use progressivity – Little by little, you increase the intensity of your exertion over time
Apply acceleration – Try to reach your intensity target faster, and reduce your recovery time.

1.  Stand with your feet shoulder width apart

2.  Bend slightly at the knees and lean forward, arms hanging straight down

3.  Squat down, and as you come back up, swing both arms up and back in a windmill, as if you were doing the backstroke in a pool using both arms at the same time

4.  Return to start position and repeat until you are slightly out of breath

5.  Recover

6.  Do three sets, with recovery periods in between
In the P.A.C.E. studio, we use a 5-7-9 progression for intensity. That means do the first set at what you perceive to be a 5 on your intensity scale. Do the second set at 7, and the third set go almost all out, leaving a little room to where you could have done a bit more.

Every time you work out, you’ll be a little more fit. Your perceived exertion will change over time so that your “5” of today will only be a “4” tomorrow. So you have to progressively increase your intensity to match your fitness.

That might mean adding a little jump to your squat. Or doing two backstrokes on the way up. Or adding a few more squats to each set but trying to do them in the same amount of time. It’s P.A.C.E. as long as there’s a tiny increase in intensity with each workout.

Then, you accelerate the intensity. Instead of resting for three minutes between sets, only rest for two. Then one minute. Then 20 seconds. Also, instead of a 5-7-9 intensity progression. Try for 6-7-9. Then 7-8-9. Eventually you’ll be able to go 9-9-9 right from the start.
Acceleration is so beneficial because it gives you energy fast, that you can feel right away.

Here is another of Dr. Sear’s great exercises that even I can do.  He stresses the  5-7-9 intensity scale for working out with POWER Fit, this allows you to get the full benefit of building lung capacity and also endurance.

Do your first set for each routine at what would be about an intensity level of 5 for you. That means you’d still be able to speak sentences afterwards, but you’re a little winded.

Rest and recover, and up the intensity to a 7. After, you should only be able to talk in short, clipped sentences, but you’re not gasping for air. For the third set, go up to 9. That means that you’re breathing hard and can’t complete a sentence.

The numbers are just a way of converting something subjective – exertion level – into something concrete. But they don’t tell the whole story.

They’re also a way to keep your focus on your intensity, so you can be in control. If you get to your peak heart rate after the second set, you’ve gone beyond your current level of conditioning and lost control.

And you want to be in charge of how hard you’re exerting yourself. You want to focus your attention on your use of oxygen, on your heart rate, on your perceived exertion.

We have the capacity to feel that. To feel how we are working in a much more complete and detailed way than most of us do because we’re so distracted. We’re taught to be distracted.

It’s gotten very bad in the modern world because we use our brains to disconnect from what our bodies are feeling. We take our brains somewhere else through TV or music when we work out.

But you want to bring your mind back into your body, and bring your body’s signals back into your conscious focus.

You’ll know with a lot more reliability how hard you’re working. And you won’t all of a sudden find you’re working out at peak intensity and huffing and puffing because you were thinking about something else.

Then you can influence your body, and direct it. And make your exertion, by intent, what you want it to be.

It’s the reason why we find P.A.C.E. to be so exceptionally safe. I think that part of the reason is because you’re focusing on the intensity.

It’s like if you were reading a book and walking on the edge of a cliff, it’d be dangerous. But if you’re walking near a cliff while paying attention to how close you’re getting to the edge, you can get pretty close and be safe.

That’s what you get when you repeatedly challenge yourself. You never get to your maximum intensity, but you are by design looking at how close you are, and getting closer and closer. That progressivity is what makes P.A.C.E. so effective.

Here’s one of the exercises we were filming that you can use to challenge your focus and intensity. It’s called a jumping side crunch.

1.  Start with your feet a little wider than shoulder width

2.  Raise your arms so they’re in a goal post position – upper arms parallel to the ground, elbows at 90 degrees, hands pointed up

3.  Jump up, and as you come back down, turn your upper body toward your right leg –
Do a kind of twisting abdominal crunch, pressing the left elbow toward the right knee

4.  Rise up out of the crunch and return to start position

5.  Jump again, and repeat on your left side, pressing your right elbow toward your left knee.

To increase the intensity, you could do the side crunches faster, squat all the way down before each jump, and jump as high as you can.  Remember to BREATHE!  We all remember to inhale, but don’t forget to exhale (I usually exhale on the down motion).

In every P.A.C.E. workout we use contralateral arm-leg movement. The opposite leg and arm move together. That’s why, for the side crunch, you turn and move your weight onto one leg, but press your opposite elbow into it.

It’s how our natural neuromuscular coordination works. We’re already hard-wired to move this way. People who have been taught aerobics and people who lift weights often forget this natural movement. They tend to use muscles and tendons on the same side of their bodies. It’s one of the reasons I don’t recommend lifting weights.

The solution is to exert yourself with your body weight using contralateral movement and it all works perfectly.

[Try this one – it is easy to do, and Dr. Sears is right – focus so you have complete control over how far to push yourself.  He also said:

“This is something I see a lot with people just starting P.A.C.E.  Everyone does the warmup set (intensity 5) fine. She knew she had to gear up the intensity for the second set, but kind of zoned out and went after it too hard. By the third set she would have had nothing left.

As a teacher of P.A.C.E., I tell my students to work on keeping their focus. I want you to know how intensely you’re doing it. I want you to pay attention because I want you to be in control.

You get more benefit by easing off a little bit, so you can effectively increase the intensity a little at a time.”

Here is another of Dr. Sear’s great exercises that even I can do.  He stresses the  5-7-9 intensity scale for working out with POWER Fit, this allows you to get the full benefit of building lung capacity and also endurance.

Do your first set for each routine at what would be about an intensity level of 5 for you. That means you’d still be able to speak sentences afterwards, but you’re a little winded.

Rest and recover, and up the intensity to a 7. After, you should only be able to talk in short, clipped sentences, but you’re not gasping for air. For the third set, go up to 9. That means that you’re breathing hard and can’t complete a sentence.

The numbers are just a way of converting something subjective – exertion level – into something concrete. But they don’t tell the whole story.

They’re also a way to keep your focus on your intensity, so you can be in control. If you get to your peak heart rate after the second set, you’ve gone beyond your current level of conditioning and lost control.

And you want to be in charge of how hard you’re exerting yourself. You want to focus your attention on your use of oxygen, on your heart rate, on your perceived exertion.

We have the capacity to feel that. To feel how we are working in a much more complete and detailed way than most of us do because we’re so distracted. We’re taught to be distracted.

It’s gotten very bad in the modern world because we use our brains to disconnect from what our bodies are feeling. We take our brains somewhere else through TV or music when we work out.

But you want to bring your mind back into your body, and bring your body’s signals back into your conscious focus.

You’ll know with a lot more reliability how hard you’re working. And you won’t all of a sudden find you’re working out at peak intensity and huffing and puffing because you were thinking about something else.

Then you can influence your body, and direct it. And make your exertion, by intent, what you want it to be.

It’s the reason why we find P.A.C.E. to be so exceptionally safe. I think that part of the reason is because you’re focusing on the intensity.

It’s like if you were reading a book and walking on the edge of a cliff, it’d be dangerous. But if you’re walking near a cliff while paying attention to how close you’re getting to the edge, you can get pretty close and be safe.

That’s what you get when you repeatedly challenge yourself. You never get to your maximum intensity, but you are by design looking at how close you are, and getting closer and closer. That progressivity is what makes P.A.C.E. so effective.

Here’s one of the exercises we were filming that you can use to challenge your focus and intensity. It’s called a jumping side crunch.

1.  Start with your feet a little wider than shoulder width

2.  Raise your arms so they’re in a goal post position – upper arms parallel to the ground, elbows at 90 degrees, hands pointed up

3.  Jump up, and as you come back down, turn your upper body toward your right leg –
Do a kind of twisting abdominal crunch, pressing the left elbow toward the right knee

4.  Rise up out of the crunch and return to start position

5.  Jump again, and repeat on your left side, pressing your right elbow toward your left knee.

To increase the intensity, you could do the side crunches faster, squat all the way down before each jump, and jump as high as you can.  Remember to BREATHE!  We all remember to inhale, but don’t forget to exhale (I usually exhale on the down motion).

In every P.A.C.E. workout we use contralateral arm-leg movement. The opposite leg and arm move together. That’s why, for the side crunch, you turn and move your weight onto one leg, but press your opposite elbow into it.

It’s how our natural neuromuscular coordination works. We’re already hard-wired to move this way. People who have been taught aerobics and people who lift weights often forget this natural movement. They tend to use muscles and tendons on the same side of their bodies. It’s one of the reasons I don’t recommend lifting weights.

The solution is to exert yourself with your body weight using contralateral movement and it all works perfectly.

[Try this one – it is easy to do, and Dr. Sears is right – focus so you have complete control over how far to push yourself.  He also said:

“This is something I see a lot with people just starting P.A.C.E.  Everyone does the warmup set (intensity 5) fine. She knew she had to gear up the intensity for the second set, but kind of zoned out and went after it too hard. By the third set she would have had nothing left.

As a teacher of P.A.C.E., I tell my students to work on keeping their focus. I want you to know how intensely you’re doing it. I want you to pay attention because I want you to be in control.

You get more benefit by easing off a little bit, so you can effectively increase the intensity a little at a time.”