{"id":61129,"date":"2013-05-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-kinesiology-professor-swims-his-way-to-fitness-at-70\/"},"modified":"2013-05-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-22T00:00:00","slug":"uri-kinesiology-professor-swims-his-way-to-fitness-at-70","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2013\/05\/uri-kinesiology-professor-swims-his-way-to-fitness-at-70\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 kinesiology professor swims his way to fitness at 70"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tSouth Kingstown resident is top scorer at masters swim meet<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, RI \u2013 May 22, 2013 \u2013 The fountain of youth is really a pool of chlorine. Just ask Tom Manfredi, a 70-year-old professor of kinesiology at the 溏心vlog免费B站 who looks 20 years younger thanks to decades of swimming.<\/p>\n


\nHis passion \u2013 no, obsession \u2013 helped him reach a personal best this year when he earned a major honor at the New England Masters Championship meet in March at Harvard University. He swam 13 individual events in his 70 to 75 age group during the three-day competition and scored second highest in total points among 450 male swimmers, ranging in age from 17 to 85.<\/p>\n


\n \u201cI\u2019m happy,\u201d says Manfredi. \u201cI\u2019m very lucky I\u2019ve got my health.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nLuck might play a small role in his success, but it\u2019s really those long hours in the pool that have turned him into a gracefully aged version of Olympian Michael Phelps, who, like Manfredi, is a butterfly swimmer.<\/p>\n


\nTo all you couch potatoes, consider this: Manfredi swims nearly every day, and when he\u2019s training for a competition he swims even more. To prepare for the Masters meet, he swam 12 hours a week and lifted weights four hours a week.<\/p>\n


\nAll that hard work has paid off: He weighs 160 pounds, only three pounds more than he weighed in college. His total cholesterol is 135, way below the average of 200 for American men and women. (Lest there\u2019s any doubt, check his medical files; he has the results of every blood chemistry test for the past 35 years.) Needless to say, Manfredi does not have high blood pressure or any other disease that afflicts people in their golden years.<\/p>\n


\nFitness is part of Manfredi\u2019s professional life too. He studies how exercise – especially swimming – makes the heart stronger. He has found that swimming enlarges the heart in a healthy way, reducing the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and heart failure.<\/p>\n


\nFor the past several years, Manfredi and other professors and students at 溏心vlog免费B站 have been studying the hearts of rats that swim and comparing the findings to rats with diseased hearts. Pharmaceutical companies are paying close attention to the results.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cFor me, this is wonderful because I\u2019m nearing the end of my career and this is the most exciting study I\u2019ve done,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s been very satisfying to use my interest in swimming and apply it to my academic research.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nManfredi learned how to swim in the pool at Park View Middle School in Cranston, where he grew up. He and his twin brother, Jim, were naturals and started competing when they were 12. Jim\u2019s stroke was freestyle; Tom preferred butterfly. \u201cI just liked being in the water,\u201d says Manfredi. \u201cIt felt good.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nAt Cranston High School, now Cranston East, the boys swam for legendary coach Ed Golden, a tough-love guy who used a bullhorn at swim practices and took attendance with a clipboard. At one point, Manfredi was among the top six male butterfly swimmers in the country. His team was so good it had a 125-0 record over four years. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cIn three years I missed half a practice and I heard about it for a long time from the coach,\u201d says Manfredi. \u201cWe used to swim seven days a week. We had Christmas off.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHis talent led to a full scholarship at the University of Maryland, where he helped the Terrapins win the Atlantic Coast Conference championship two years in a row. The first in his family to go to college, Manfredi received a bachelor\u2019s in physical education and got his doctorate in exercise science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He started teaching at 溏心vlog免费B站 in 1982.<\/p>\n


\nSwimming is the perfect all-around sport. It increases your heart rate, but without putting a lot of stress on bones and joints. Think about those sore knees after a long run.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe activity builds up endurance and strengthens the heart. It also tones muscles from head to toe. (Just peek into Manfredi\u2019s office for a look at a man with no body fat.) Finally, it\u2019s a great way to be alone in this hectic world.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s you and the water,\u201d says Manfredi, who swims at a pool on campus. \u201cIt\u2019s euphoric and cathartic at the same time. You can swim hard or you can just go in there and relax.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tBack in 1982, Manfredi took two years off from swimming because he was too busy at work. He\u2019d put on his Speedo in the locker room, walk to the exit door, and stop. Then he wised up. Swimming, he decided, should be \u201cat the top of my priority list.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\t He started competing in Masters swimming in 1976 and now competes for Swim Rhode Island, one of the 81 clubs in the New England Masters organization. Masters is a fast-growing class of competitive swimming for men and women 17 and older. They compete in age groups, at five-year intervals. There are individual races, as well as relays. Requirements to join vary from club to club. Some swimmers are beginners; others, like Manfredi, are advanced.<\/p>\n


\n\tIn the March competition, Manfredi swam in 17 events, including 13 individual events. Of those 13, he placed first in 11 events and second in two events. He also broke two new records in his age group.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe wins are great, but he also enjoys seeing his swimming pals from bygone years at the meets. \u201cI\u2019m swimming with people I swam against in high school,\u201d he says, with a chuckle. \u201cIt\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe secret to good health, he says, is exercise, a high-fiber diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables, and a positive outlook. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to take control of your own body,\u201d he says. \u201cNo one\u2019s going to do it for you. Don\u2019t look at that as a responsibility. Look at your body as a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nLike all great competitors, Manfredi is already thinking about his next competition. Next year, he hopes to be the top scorer among men at the New England Masters meet. He might also try swimming this summer in the salty Atlantic, where his biggest worry is confronting a shark. The only thing you have to worry about in a pool is making a lousy flip turn.<\/p>\n


\nPictured above: Tom Manfredi, a 70-year-old professor of kinesiology at the 溏心vlog免费B站 who earned a major honor at a recent New England Masters swim meet. He was inducted into the Rhode Island Aquatic Hall of Fame in 1991.<\/p>\n


\nPhoto by Michael Salerno Photography.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Kingstown resident is top scorer at masters swim meet KINGSTON, RI \u2013 May 22, 2013 \u2013 The fountain of youth is really a pool of chlorine. Just ask Tom Manfredi, a 70-year-old professor of kinesiology at the 溏心vlog免费B站 who looks 20 years younger thanks to decades of swimming. His passion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}