LocalLit book review: Fitness is just a rocking chair away

My first thought as I was reading “The Rocking Chair Exercise Book” by Joliet naprapath Henry Ogle (deceased) was not, “Can this book really help me get into shape?”

No, I was thinking how much I missed Ogle’s quick wit.

Only time will prove if “The Rocking Chair Exercise Book” can live up to its claims, which means I’ll have to give up light weights and yoga for a while to try out Ogle’s suggestions.

But I could – and did – immediately enjoy the mirthful way Ogle explained people’s need for exercise.

First, here is the book’s Amazon description: “As a doctor of naprapathy, Henry F. Ogle was constantly being asked for an exercise plan that was not only fun and easy to do, but also designed for people of various physical capabilities.

“One day while visiting his favorite country store, Dr. Ogle noticed a number of rocking chairs for sale. Dr. Ogle noted the gentle rocking motion and the muscles it affected. He realized that this was the base of the exercise system he had been looking for.

“In this book you will find 49 creative exercises. These fun and simple exercises can be done in several different ways so that you are stretching and strengthening different muscles. “The Rocking Chair Exercise Book” takes you from beginner to advanced and allows you to work at your own pace.”

The book, originally published in 2007 (Ogle died in 2009), begins with Ogle’s observation of eight people sitting on a porch in Georgia. The four sitting directly on the porch were obese; the four sitting in rocking chairs were not.

Ogle forgot about the scene until years later. He was sitting on a rocking chair outside a country restaurant (Are you thinking Cracker Barrel, too?), waiting for his table to be ready when he noticed a tightening his abdominal area as he rocked.

When he later shared the experience with a patient, the patient told him that his slim, 80-year-old aunt only had rocking chairs in her living room.

In true Ogle form, Ogle comments in the first pages of his book about how working 12 hours a day, six days a week was helping him get into shape – “if you can call pumpkin-shaped a shape.”

He said his “six-pack” had turned into a “sixty pack.” Ogle recalled how, in his younger days, his friends couldn’t keep up with on his hikes and that now he couldn’t keep up with toddlers.

But Ogle also knew what happens when doctors tell their inactive patients that they need an exercise program.

“The couch potato will usually make a significant change – to a different doctor,” Ogle wrote.

So Ogle started observing the effects on different muscle groups as he rocked. He noticed that the average rocking chair can be rocked approximately 30 times in a minute, which he said equals about 30 abdominal crunches.

Ogle said he once asked a teen girl to try some of his rocking chair exercises. She had to stop after three minutes because her abdominal muscles hurt. But in addition to couch potatoes and teens, Ogle felt that people who couldn’t afford expensive equipment, people working long hours and the unmotivated could all benefit from the exercises in his book.

“What most people need is a gentle exercise system that slowly, safely and effectively conditions the body parts without inflicting pain and creating soft tissue damage,” Ogle wrote. “Most people need a system that can be gradually increased as they become stronger and more flexible. The starting point that’s needed is a program that can bring their middle body from the couch potato stage to a more physically fit stage. The Rocking Chair Exercise program is designed to accomplish that purpose.”

As with any exercise program, Ogle advises getting the OK from your doctor. He also advises starting slowly and lays out the program, with diagrams.

Excuse me now while I run out to buy a rocking chair.

Buy “The Rocking Chair Exercise Book” on Amazon.

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