Well, this past week I was looking down into the holler toward Webb’s Creek thinking about a trim 77 year old jogger who has officially run 38,000 miles, invented the word “aerobics” and has personally listened to former President George W. Bush’s heartbeat for many years. I met him last week at a breakfast meeting. Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, M.D., of Dallas, Texas is an amazing dude!

In 1968 he wrote his first of many best-selling books, Aerobics. “Aerobic” means living in the presence of oxygen and Dr. Cooper’s word “aerobics” referred to any exercise that temporarily increases your heart rate and breathing like jumping around in front of your TV, hiking, walking or jogging. At that time many doctors thought jogging was harmful to your health and only a few people jogged for exercise. Dr. Cooper led a world-wide aerobic revolution and now over 30 million people in the U.S. jog regularly. He trained the Brazilian soccer team the year they won the World Cup in 1970 and they still call jogging, “Coopering”, down in Rio on Ipanema Beach.

He talked Pepsico into taking certain fats out of their snacks and his quote was printed on the back of packages of Frito-Lays Baked Chips; “Fitness is a journey not a destination. It must be continued the rest of your life.” When Webster added Cooper’s new word to their dictionary they called him up for the definition. Dr. Cooper is an amazing bundle of energy who looks like he is in his 50’s instead of late 70’s. In a caged kick boxing contest versus ex-coach Philip Fulmer I would put my money on the energy bunny from Texas.

As I ate my cantalope he explained how he created the word “aerobics” by simply adding an “s” to the word aerobic. (It made me wonder if I could create or add a few letters to a word and also become a multi-millionaire—hmmm…“hikesters”?) Dr. Cooper studied this stuff for the past 40 years and has proven that just about any aerobic activity can change your life for the better. He once did a study of a large group of men in Philadelphia who had chronic weakness in their knees and arms. After putting the study group on easy, regular exercises they all improved muscle strength and tone big time. The average age of the test group was 93.

Dr. Cooper really got my heart beating when he talked about how most of us are not very fit and that 20% of our children will be obese in the year 2010. It was pretty scary when he said there is an epidemic of diabetes and obesity and that one out of three children born after the year 2000 will develop diabetes. Sadly, the parents of those children will be the first generation ever to live longer than their own kids. Whoa! He made his point by pointing out that the life expectancy of one of those gigantic NFL lineman is only 57 years! After hearing that I pushed aside my biscuit and immediately started doing invisible leg lifts under my table.

The great news is that by exercising just a little bit each day a whole lot of good things and good feelings happen to you and your body. His 40 years of research says one thing; don’t become a couch potato. Dr. Cooper has scientifically proven that regular exercise improves intelligence in children, prevention of diseases and improves brain activity in adults. “Exercise is fertilizer for the brain.” (Dr. John Raley)

There are plenty of hiking trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I would humbly suggest to all “hikesters” (my new word) to pick one of them and go hikestering (my second new bonus word). Wiley Oakley was one of the Smokies most famous hikesters. Wiley loved the mountains and knew the value of aerobics long before Dr. Cooper even invented the word. Learn from Cooper and Oakley. The secret to a long and happy healthy life is “Coopering” and “Hikestering.” That is just how it looks from my log cabin.

John LaFevre is a local speaker and co-author of the interactive national park hiking book series, Scavenger Hike Adventures (new: Shenandoah National Park/Summer 2009) Contact John at scavengerhike@aol.com. Artist G. Webb illustrates the national book series and lives in Pittman Center, Tennessee. Gwebbgallery.com.