Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 and Treadmill Exercise(Rambling 8)

One of the challenging problems with working out on treadmill on regular basis
has to do with dealing with boredom while exercising on treadmill anywhere
from 30 minutes to one hour.
Of course the longer one wants to exercise on treadmill, the more challenging
the boredom is. If you happen to be an impatient type A person, the boredom can be unbearable and
can make you walk faster or run faster to get it over quick and
by sweating it out quick, in which case the whole effort can be dangerous and
may trigger a heart attack or fatal cardiac arrhythmia and cardiac arrest which
was what happened to the former Michigan governor, George Romney.
As many people know, George Romney ran for President and so did his son.
George Romney also was well known to be a super type A.
He loved to play golf but felt that spending 4 hours for a round of golf was too much
waste of time so that he always played 9 holes but played two balls every hole,
which comes out the same in his analysis as playing 18 holes and one ball.
He died of cardiac arrest in his 80's while exercising on the treadmill, possibly
walking too fast for his age. By the way, he lived about a mile from my place.
The golf course, Bloomfield Hills Country Club, where he played is right next to his house.
My older son did caddying there when he was in senior high school.

Most gyms have TV mounted right in front of the treadmill,
but most people including me don't want to spend the money although some of my patients do have them.
More people once again including me would resort to music of their choice to deal with the boredom.
In the last twenty some years dealing with this 30 to 60 minutes of exercise
and my own quiet time has become a most personal affair.
Besides the medical aspect of exercise physiology which in other words
may mean dozens of my own programs taking into consideration the heart rate response,
the blood pressure response, cardiac output response, cerebral blood flow, etc.,
I have had to try different classical music I prefer to listen.
By the way I must confess that many good thoughts and creative ideas
have come while exercising.
After having listened to a lot of classical music over the years, finally I came to
my conclusion, which is,
Tchaikovsky's Symphony Number 6 by Seoul Philharmonic conducted by Chung Myung Hoon
is the ideal music for my treadmill exercise for 50 minutes.
The Symphony lasts between 48 and 50 minutes, which is long enough for
my exercise program consisting of warm up, acceleration. maintenance of
target heart rate(85 per cent of maximum heart rate), and cooling off period.
I don't like the nickname of the so called Pathetic Symphony.
To me it is far from being pathetic. Instead it is energetic and gives me plenty of
energy, ambition for life, reflection and meditation.
It has all the elements that keep 50 minutes of my exercise time filled with many good and creative thoughts.
I listened to several other performances by different conductors but I find that
the one by Chung Myung Hoon and Seoul Symphony is the best quality in every aspect.

Certainly dying of cardiac arrest as George Romney did may well be the best way to
leave this world. But as a retired cardiologist, it has not tempted me to consider
that possibility yet.
Perhaps someday there will be an easy method discovered to induce the fatal ventricular fibrillation
so that one may have a choice to die of cardiac arrest
at one's chosen time and place while listening to one's favorite music like
Tchaikovsky's Symphony Number 6.