<p>Thanks. Is there is a 24 Hour Fitness near you by car, Himom? I did the Costco deal online. Maybe your zip code isn’t good for this deal.</p>
<p>Yes, there is a 24-hour fitness near us & they gave me a free 7 day pass. Maybe I’ll look into it. 
There are also a lot of deals around the holidays, trying to encourage folks to give fitness as a gift. Neither H nor I am fond of gyms, so we’ll have to see. Walking in the neighborhood seems more likely than going to a gym.</p>
<p>Once I had to give up squash, I hated the gym. Everything in the gym. The weights. The elliptical. The stationary bikes. The treadmills. The ropes. The smells. The competitiveness. The fashions. The snack bar/pick up bar. The locker room. The chlorine stinking hot tub. Hate absolutely everything. Not my kind of place. And when you were born with a kegger rather than six-pack, you’re outta luck.</p>
<p>Ah, the offer specifically excludes those of us in HI & several other states. 
Oh well, will figure out what else works for us.</p>
<p>Speaking of, in several states Costco offers individual and business healthcare plans through Aetna.</p>
<p>Chlorine is a real problem for me, as well as other smells. Probably will stick with yoga and walking instead of becoming a gymrat, but who knows what the future holds?</p>
<p>Who wants to live forever?</p>
<p>“Rare muscle stem cells are located inside each skeletal muscle of the body. Also called satellite cells, due to their position on the surface of the muscle fibers they serve and protect, these cells are essential to maintaining the capacity of muscles to regenerate. Satellite cells are able to generate new, differentiated muscle cells while keeping their identity as stem cells, retaining the ability to maintain and repair muscle tissue. Normally in a resting or dormant state, satellite cells respond rapidly to repair injured tissues. The current study finds that aging muscle stem cells lose their ability to maintain a dormant state, so that when called upon to repair injured muscle, they are unable to mount an adequate response.”</p>
<p>“Andrew Brack, PhD, of the MGH Center for Regenerative Medicine, senior and corresponding author of the Nature paper, says, “Just as it is important for athletes to build recovery time into their training schedules, stem cells also need time to recuperate, but we found that aged stem cells recuperate less often. We were surprised to find that the events prior to muscle regeneration had a major influence on regenerative potential. That makes sense to us as humans, in terms of the need to sleep and to eat a healthy diet, but that the need to rest also plays out at the level of stem cells is quite remarkable.” An assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Brack is also a principal faculty member at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.”</p>
<p>"In a series of experiments in mice, the authors found that a developmental protein called fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2) is elevated in the aging muscle stem cell microenvironment and drives stem cells out of the dormant state. Satellite cells that are forced to replicate lose the ability to maintain their identity as stem cells, reducing the stem cell population. The authors also found that blocking the age-related increase in FGF signaling both in aged satellite cells or in the cellular microenvironment protected against stem cell loss, maintained stem cell renewal during aging and dramatically improved the ability of aged muscle tissue to repair itself. Lead author Joe Chakkalakal, PhD, a research fellow in Brack’s lab, says, “This work highlights the usefulness of targeting the aged stem cell or its environment to protect stem cells and the tissues they serve from the effects of aging.” "</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.massgeneral.org/about/pressrelease.aspx?id=1504]Inadequate”>http://www.massgeneral.org/about/pressrelease.aspx?id=1504]Inadequate</a> cellular rest may explain effects of aging on muscles - Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA<a href=“Press%20Release”>/url</a></p>
<p>Mini, I checked the gym out. I talked to a friend who is a member of the gym. I talked to others. I have been a member of a couple of gyms.</p>
<p>I made sure there are times of day when the gym has very few people and those times are going to be the times I workout. :)</p>
<p>BCEagle92, great link.</p>
<p>I know you like stocks, so my story is I bought Gern 11 years ago because I thought their technology had a chance to prolong life in a big way. Not one of my better selections. Down 85 percent. Merck bought a stake in Gern a short time after me, so I am not the only dummy.</p>
<p>Back to your link, my muscles don’t bother me, but what about ligaments and tendons? There are going to be a lot of injuries if muscles improve and ligaments and tendons don’t.</p>
<p>It seems to me that the amount of work involved in these research projects is substantial to learn a few things about how our bodies work and these are just small pieces. I think that the discovery process will be relatively slow (though very fast by historical standards) and then maybe thoughts on how to change things. I see slow progress - but progress just the same.</p>
<p>It reminds me of watching the computing industry and its incredible progress through the 70s, 80s, 90s, etc. and realizing that there’s still so much more that we can do. In Biology, it looks like just baby steps right now.</p>
<p>I agree…</p>
<p>Another cool article. I had high hopes but my dr said it won’t work on me.
[Cartilage</a> regeneration builds a new knee, from the inside - USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/medical/2010-09-27-knee27_ST_N.htm]Cartilage”>http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/medical/2010-09-27-knee27_ST_N.htm)</p>
<p>I remember reading about that in the 1990s. One of the Genomics companies would take out some of your cartilage cells, grow them and then put them back in your knee. I think that the procedure was very expensive back then.</p>
<p>Today, I believe that they use animal cells though I’m not 100% sure. I have had cartilage problems over the years but rest usually fixes them. Of course resting is hard for me.</p>
<p>When talking about retiring later, I think of my FIL who worked as an electrician, outdoors in all weather in Pittsburgh. It was not an easy life and when he retired at 60 he was tired. He also did not live long after that. I think those that talk about retiring at 70 or 80 are in much easier jobs, physically. </p>
<p>My other thought is that it seems as the baby boomers are damned if we do retire early - mooching off the next generation- and damned if we don’t - not getting out of the way for the next generation. Depends on who is writing the article that day. It would be nice to see a real cost benefit analysis to the next generation as to which is better for them.</p>
<p>Singersmom07, My guess is it is better both monetarily and psychologically better for the young if the old step aside.</p>
<p>I saw it where I worked. The young want to take over.</p>
<p>I work for a privately held firm. There have been several owner meetings this week. Now, an M&A lawyer is with the three on-site owners is a meeting. I may be “retired” by Monday! Hmmm…</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Nicely put. </p>
<p>Maybe the article writers should just say that we should all just die off.</p>
<p>I;m not mooching off the next generation. I’m mooching off my wife.;)</p>
<p>"My other thought is that it seems as the baby boomers are damned if we do retire early - mooching off the next generation- and damned if we don’t - not getting out of the way for the next generation. Depends on who is writing the article that day. It would be nice to see a real cost benefit analysis to the next generation as to which is better for them. "</p>
<p>A lot of us have spent fortunes educating the next generation to give them the tools to be successful, so I don’t have any guilt feelings whatever happens going forward.</p>
<p>I figure I’ll need to work until I’m 70 just to recover financially from the strain of putting two daughters through college. Also to keep my younger D on my health insurance until she’s 26, if she hasn’t landed a stable career-ladder job with good health benefits by then.</p>
<p>I always thought that after I retire, I’d like to work part-time in a bookstore. Light work, something to keep me intellectually engaged, and I love being around books. Too bad bookstores seem to be a dying breed.</p>