Three and One-Half Hours of Exercise a Week Can Keep You Healthy and Fit

While recently visiting a nursing home, I was saddened by the sight of so many people just existing, and waiting for death to come their way.  Some were there because of stroke and heart disease, some because of alzheimer’s and dementia, and some just because they were too frail to handle the activities of everyday life on their own.

As I walked the hallways, I wondered how many of the residents might have escaped this fate had they been exercising regularly all their adult lives?  You see, according to a recent study on Physical Activity and Public Health co-published by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the American Heart Association (AHA), adults and seniors need regular aerobic and strength training exercises to promote and maintain good health.  Unfortunately, most older adults do not perform the minimum amount of physical activity required for health and fitness. Lack of physical activity is related to a variety of degenerative conditions including cardiovascular disease, stroke, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, colon cancer, breast cancer, dementia, anxiety, and depression.  For complete article see...

Strength Training Over 50, Age is Only a State of Mind

Many people believe that once you reach the age of 50 your health and fitness start to decline.  That's an urban myth and here's why.  People who perceive themselves as old and feeble are more likely to stop participating in the activities that keep them healthy and fit, such as regular exercise.  On the other hand, people who have a positive attitude about aging tend to do the things that lead to life-long health and fitness.

Here's the truth, regardless of age every worn-out cell in your body is replaced every 11 months of your life.  So, every year your body is completely renewed.  Thus, your body is doing all it can to help you stay healthy by replacing old cells with new ones.  Now the question is do you have the right mental attitude to additionally aide your body in it's life-long effort to keep you healthy and fit?

The right mental attitude about aging leads you to do the things that help you stay healthy and strong your whole life, such as exercising on a regular basis, and having a healthy diet.  These are the things that help you thrive and not merely survive as you age.

The benefits of regular exercise as you age are many.  Here's some of the most important. (1)

• Exercise helps older adults maintain or lose weight. As metabolism naturally slows with age, maintaining a healthy weight is a challenge. Exercise helps increase metabolism and builds muscle mass, helping to burn more calories. When your body reaches a healthy weight, your overall wellness will improve.
• Exercise reduces the impact of illness and chronic disease. Among the many benefits of exercise for adults over 50 include improved immune function, better heart health and blood pressure, better bone density, and better digestive functioning. People who exercise also have a lowered risk of several chronic conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, and certain cancers.
• Exercise enhances mobility, flexibility, and balance in older adults. Exercise improves your strength, flexibility and posture, which in turn will help with balance, coordination, and reducing the risk of falls. Strength training also helps alleviate the symptoms of chronic conditions such as arthritis.
• Exercise improves your sleep. Poor sleep is not an inevitable consequence of aging and quality sleep is important for your overall health. Exercise often improves sleep, helping you fall asleep more quickly and sleep more deeply.
• Exercise boosts mood and self-confidence. Exercise is a huge stress reliever and the endorphins produced can actually help reduce feelings of sadness, depression, or anxiety. Being active and feeling strong naturally helps you feel more self-confident and sure of yourself.
• Exercise is amazingly good for the brain. Activities like Sudoku or crossword puzzles can help keep your brain active, but little comes close to the beneficial effects of exercise on the brain. Exercise benefits brain functions as diverse as multitasking and creativity and can help prevent memory loss, cognitive decline, and dementia. Exercise may even help slow the progression of brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

I can personally attest to the fact that age is only a state of mind.  I'm in my late 50s and I've been weight lifting on a regularly most of my adult life.  I'm still stronger than I was in my twenties.  Here's the key, I never let any negative thoughts about age linger and take root in my mind, and neither should you.

(1) HelpGuide.org, Exercise and Fitness as You Age

A Message to the Baby Boomers

I'm a personal trainer and member of the Baby Boomers and it's my mission to to help each one of you to stay healthy and fit as you age. Your body is designed for movement and the worst thing you can do for your health is to become inactive. "Use it or lose it" is especially true when it comes to maintaining your muscle mass, strength, and independence as you age.

Research has proven that strength training is the best thing you can do to preserve your muscle mass, increase your strength, and stay independent as you age. Strength training is important because as early as your 30s you can begin to experience age related muscle loss know as sarcopenia, and this process accelerates with time is left unabated. If you are inactive, you can lose up to 10 pounds of muscle each decade starting at age 40.

Loosing muscle is detrimental to your fitness because muscle is the component of your body that burns the majority of the calories you consume each day. Therefore, when you lose muscle your body requires less calories to function. Consequently, those extra calories you consume are stored as fat around your waist, hips, and other places.

Your body constantly burn calories, even when we’re doing nothing. This resting metabolic rate is much higher in people with more muscle. Every pound of muscle uses about six calories a day to sustain itself, while each pound of fat burns only two calories daily. This small difference can add up over time. In addition, after a bout of strength training, muscles are activated all over your body, increasing your average daily metabolic rate.

Fortunately, strength training can mitigate, and even reverse the loss of muscle at any age. Studies have shown that people in 90s gain muscle, and increase their strength level when they start weight lifting on a regular basis.

Increasing your metabolism isn’t the only benefit of strength training. It also helps:

Develop strong bones. By stressing your bones, strength training increases bone density and reduces the risk of osteoporosis.

Control your weight. As you gain muscle, your body burns more calories more efficiently which can result in weight loss. The more toned your muscles, the easier it is to control your weight.

Reduce your risk of injury. Building muscle protects your joints from injury. It also helps maintain flexibility and balance which are crucial to remaining independent as you age.

Boost your stamina. Building muscle helps to increase your energy level.

Improve your sense of well-being. Strength training can boost your self-confidence, improve your body image, and reduce the risk of depression.

Sleep better. People who strength train on a regular basis are less likely to have insomnia.

Manage chronic conditions. Strength training can reduce the signs and symptoms of many chronic conditions, including arthritis, back pain, depression, diabetes, obesity, and osteoporosis.

It's my hope that 2016 is the year you take control of your health and fitness by starting to strength train on a regular basis.  Start by finding a certified fitness professional to design a safe and effective exercise program for you.

A good strength training program should consist of exercises that target all the major muscle groups and should be performed two to three times each week.  You can download my favorite strength training programs by clicking on this link: Forever Fit and Firm.

Balancing Your Physical Energy As You Age

Ashrita_at_Stonehenge. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Starting your daily activity in your spiritual energy, then mastering your mental energy allows a harmonious flow of energy into your physical activities. Your physical body is the end result of the creative flow of energy from spirit into matter.

Your body is designed by the Divine for movement. It is a magnificently designed living organism and, if properly taken care of, will provide you health, strength, and mobility for all of your years here on earth.

Think of it like this, your body is the only vehicle you have through which you can do your daily activities. There are two very important components to maintaining a healthy body: daily exercise and proper nutrition.

People seem to think that once they reach the age of forty, their bodies start to deteriorate, slipping down the slope into “old” age. They blame their lack of energy, their pudgy appearance, and their aches and pains on “getting old.” Most of these symptoms are however the result of years of negative thinking, lack of exercise, and poor dietary choices. The key to keeping your body fit and firm as you age is making healthy lifestyle choices on a daily basis.

It’s a proven fact that people who make healthy lifestyle choices live longer and have a better quality of life than those who adopt unhealthy habits. So, deciding to incorporate healthy habits into your life is the first step to getting and staying fit and firm with age. The next step is choosing those activities that are the most beneficial in your quest to stay fit and firm.

Those, including myself, who stay fit and firm as the years pass find that a positive state of mind, and a proper mix of strength training, cardiovascular exercise, and balanced nutrition is fundamental to getting and staying healthy as you mature. Al Beckles and the late Jack LaLanne can teach us so much about living a healthy lifestyle.

Al Beckles is a legend in the bodybuilding world. At the age of 55, Al placed second in the Mr. Olympia competition, the premier bodybuilding event which thousands of competitors from across the world dream of winning each year. Al Beckles competed into his sixties because his physique was still phenomenal and better than competitors more than half his age

Jack LaLanne was a living icon to the benefits of healthy thinking, eating, and exercise. Over the years he performed amazing feats of strength and conditioning on his birthday. Jack worked out well into his 90s, devoting one and a half hours each day to strength training. This is a true testament to the value of strength training as you mature.

The above is an excerpt from my latest book, Balanced Life Living Life From Within.  Check it out on Amazon.

Seated Row, My Second Favorite Exercise for Developing Upper Back Strength

Last post I showed you the lat pulldown as one of my favorite exercises for strengthening your upper back.  Now I'd like to introduce you to my second favorite, seated rows.  The seated row is also an exercise that targets the muscles of the upper back.  I like to incorporate two movements for the upper back because these muscles are neglected and weak in most of the clients that I see.  Weak upper back muscles not only lead to posture problems they also lead to neck and shoulder problems.

Place the pin in a resistance with which the last three repetitions are difficult to complete, again you may have to experiment to get the proper weight for you.  Sit on the bench and place your feet on the foot rest.  Lean forward grab the attachment, slid back until your legs are almost fully extended and hold the attachment waist height with your arms fully extended.  This is your start position.  Lift your chest high and slowly pull your hands to your naval while rolling your shoulders back and pinching your shoulder blades together then slowly return to the starting position.  Your breathing pattern for this exercise is to exhale when you are pulling in and inhale when you are returning to the starting position.