Boomer Gym: 1-1-1

image via www.mycornerview.com

Baby boomer numbers scare non-boomers.

Most of the numbers you hear sound like this:

• 79 Million Baby Boomers in America.
• 10,000 Baby Boomers retire every day.

Those are the frightening numbers.

Number matter, but one of the most important is one hundred eleven, the old 111.

But what does it mean?

It’s a natural number.

A spiritual number.

Call it an angel number like google does when you look at the results of a 111 meaning search.

This baby boomer blogger likes those interpretations, but there’s more.

We could sit back and contemplate the 111-ness of it all, but not one example nails 111 the way it was explained a few days ago.

There I was practicing my dying swam move on gym cables, the exercise where you stand on one leg, hands gripping overhead cable handles attached to a machine with Y shaped arms.

Kick your free leg back and hook your foot in the horizontal bar on the machine front like a quad stretch, then lean down for the dying part of the swam.

If you look in a mirror you’ll see a chance to fall over and land on your head, so hang on tight.

The woman I copied the exercise from stopped to comment and correct my posture. I get lots of correction, so it’s okay.

When she did it, she looked like a swan instead of a fat boomer about to lose his balance and crash. Then she started explaining the idea of 111.

“You see, when you are in shape, your abdominals are in shape too. When you see yourself you can see a muscle line down the middle and each side of your six-pack.”

I had to look around to be sure she was talking to me. Six-pack abs? Lines of muscle? Where?

Can you get six-pack definition without giving up the six packs? Not that I can tell, but she continued.

“So many people do sit-ups and crunches and side bends, but good abs start in the kitchen.”

Well, that’s where my fridge is, where my six packs hang out. So far so good.

“You can do it if you can do the dying swan.”

The dying part I’ve got figured out. Not so much the graceful swan.

Here’s what she meant:

1 = External oblique muscle.

1 = Linea alba.

1 = External oblique on the opposite side

111 means your are one lean, mean, gym machine boomer who isn’t carrying a death sentence around their mid-section.

You can tie your own shoes without passing out, walk up stairs with sweating out, and be a good example to fellow boomers without making a big deal of it.

Remember your hair, your tie dye, your sandals? Did you have a 111 back then? Do you sport the same gear now?

Men and women who are 50 and older with the 111 abs aren’t showing off, and shouldn’t. Be responsible and keep your shirt on.

But if you must go to the beach, the park, or take a walk downtown with your shirt off, be ready to respond to the comments.

And if you have 111, or want a 111, leave a comment here. You can type and kegel at the same time? Of course.

This is good for all boomers, their kids, and their parents.

The family that exercises together stays together in more ways than one.

Do it for Team Boomer.