The Benefits of Exercise

Your body is designed to be active.  Nicholas A. Dinubile, MD says "If all the benefits of exercise could be packaged in a single pill, it would be the most prescribed medication in the world".  I'm a personal trainer and I specialize in fitness over the age of 50.  I would argue with anyone that a sedentary lifestyle is the leading cause of most of the aches and pains associated with aging.

I've seen first hand people of all ages who complain of back pain, shoulder pain, knee pain, and many other physical and mental aliments get better when they get up and start to exercise on a regular basis.  I have a client in his 60s who had been getting steroid shots in his lower back for years recently tell me that he hasn't needed another shot since he started working out with me over two years ago. Click here to read the complete post

Fitness Over 50, You Can Be Stronger Next Year

Lately I've noticed a lot of fitness videos and programs aimed at those of us over the age of 50.  It seems that these programs have good intentions, however the exercises and fitness routines they recommend are more geared toward people in rest homes.  Just because you are over 50 doesn't mean your exercise routine should only be composed of resistance bands and light weight dumbbells.

If you are in poor physical condition, using resistance bands, and light weights is a place to start in your journey to improve your health and fitness level, but it isn't a place for you to stay for very long.  The ripe young age of 50 is where you really need to concentrate on building and maintaining your muscle mass and the best way to do this is with strength training better known as weight lifting.

Building muscle is important because you naturally start to lose your muscle mass at a rate of about 1 lb per year beginning in your 40s and this process accelerates with time if you don't do anything about it.  The good news is that you can slow and  even reverse age related muscle loss by lifting weights on a regular basis. 

Muscle is that component of your body that makes your bones and joints strong, keeps your metabolism high (which makes losing weight easier), and helps you remain youthful and strong.   Studies have shown that people in their 80s and 90s can build muscle and get stronger by lifting weights on a regular basis.

I believe firmly in the benefits of regular strength training.  I'm in my fifties and I've been strength training three to four times each week for over 30 years and believe it or not, I'm stronger and more fit than I was in my 20s.  And you can be too.  If you are over 50, starting a regular strength training program is one of the most important things you can do for your fitness.  If you start now, I guarantee you will be stronger and more fit next year.  Wouldn't that be awesome?

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

Exercise is Key to Maintaining Your Muscle and Strength as You Age

Hi, I'm Darvis Simms, and I'm in my mid-50s and I am as strong and fit as ever. You can be too with  exercise and a good diet.  Strength training and getting the right amount of protein in your diet are the keys to staying healthy and strong as you age.  Don't believe me?  Just read the following article from the New York Times on "Aging Well Through Exercise." Then get some information on strength training at Forever Fit and Firm.

 Source: Reynolds, Gretchen. “Aging Well Through Exercise,” The New York Times. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/aging-well-through-exercise/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=NYT+Wellness 9 November 2011

Read New York Times writer Gretchen Reynolds’ article, which describes a new study that reveals how exercise is not an inevitable part of aging:

Aging Well Through Exercise
Is physical frailty inevitable as we grow older? That question preoccupies scientists and the middle-aged, particularly when they become the same people. Until recently, the evidence was disheartening. A large number of studies in the past few years showed that after age 40, people typically lose 8 percent or more of their muscle mass each decade, a process that accelerates significantly after age 70. Less muscle mass generally means less strength, mobility and among the elderly, independence. It also has been linked with premature mortality.

But a growing body of newer science suggests that such decline may not be inexorable. Exercise, the thinking goes, and you might be able to rewrite the future for your muscles.

Consider the results of a stirring study published last month in the journal The Physician and Sportsmedicine. For it, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh recruited 40 competitive runners, cyclists and swimmers. They ranged in age from 40 to 81, with five men and five women representing each of four age groups: 40 to 49, 50 to 59, 60 to 69, and 70-plus. All were enviably fit, training four or five times a week and competing frequently. Several had won their age groups in recent races.
They completed questionnaires detailing their health and weekly physical activities. Then the researchers measured their muscle mass, leg strength and body composition, determining how much of their body and, more specifically, their muscle tissue was composed of fat. Other studies have found that as people age, they not only lose muscle, but the tissue that remains can become infiltrated with fat, degrading its quality and reducing its strength.

There was little evidence of deterioration in the older athletes’ musculature, however. The athletes in their 70s and 80s had almost as much thigh muscle mass as the athletes in their 40s, with minor if any fat infiltration. The athletes also remained strong. There was, as scientists noted, a drop-off in leg muscle strength around age 60 in both men and women. They weren’t as strong as the 50-year-olds, but the differential was not huge, and little additional decline followed. The 70- and 80-year-old athletes were about as strong as those in their 60s.

“We think these are very encouraging results,” said Dr. Vonda Wright, an orthopedic surgeon and founder of the Performance and Research Initiative for Masters Athletes at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who oversaw the study. “They suggest strongly that people don’t have to lose muscle mass and function as they grow older. The changes that we’ve assumed were due to aging and therefore were unstoppable seem actually to be caused by inactivity. And that can be changed.”

Other recent studies have produced similar findings. Last year, researchers at the Canadian Centre for Activity and Aging, for instance, examined muscle tissue from older competitive runners, checking for the density of their motor units, a measure of muscle health. A motor unit is, essentially, the control mechanism of a functioning muscle, composed of a neuron and the particular muscle fibers that that neuron activates. The more motor units in a muscle, the stronger it generally is.

In multiple earlier studies, people over 50 have been found to possess far fewer muscle motor units than young adults. But that wasn’t true for the sexagenarian runners, whose leg muscles teemed with almost as many motor units as a separate group of active 25-year-olds. Running, the scientists wrote, seemed able to “mitigate the loss of motor units with aging well into the seventh decade of life.”
Of course, the volunteers in both Dr. Wright’s and the Canadian study were, for the most part, lifelong athletes. Whether similar benefits are attainable by people who take up exercise when they are middle-aged or older “isn’t yet clear,” Dr. Wright says, “although there’s no reason to think that you wouldn’t get similar results no matter when you start.”

In an encouraging animal study from last year, elderly rats that had been sedentary throughout their adult lives were put on a running program. After 13 weeks, their leg muscle tissues had filled with new satellite cells, a specialized type of stem cell that is known to build and repair muscle. Comparable experiments in older people have yet to be done, though.

Other questions about the impacts of exercise on aging muscle also remain unanswered. “We don’t know what kinds of exercise are best,” Dr. Wright says and, in particular, whether endurance exercise is necessary for muscle sparing or whether weight training might be as good or better. Scientists also haven’t determined just how much activity is required to maintain muscle mass, or how intense it needs to be.

“What we can say with certainty is that any activity is better than none,” Dr. Wright says, “and more is probably better than less. But the bigger message is that it looks as if how we age can be under our control. Through exercise, you can preserve muscle mass and strength and avoid the decline from vitality to frailty.”

Source: The New York Times

Renew Your Mind and Renew Your Body

Every notice how some people never seem to age?  I call these people ageless because you can't tell their age by looking at them. Then you have to ask the following questions, why do some people age faster than other?  Is it genetics or is it something else?

Age is defined as the length of time a person has lived or a thing has existed.  Then what does age have to do with mental and physical degeneration other than what you believe it does?  I think that what you believe about the aging process has more impact on the way you age than genetics.  You simply become what you believe.

In my profession as a personal trainer for over 20 years, I have noticed that people who have a positive mental attitude about aging are the ones who become ageless.  You never hear them complain about growing old and consequently they stay healthy and strong throughout their lives.  On the other hand, the people who complain about the aches and pains of aging seem to attract the very conditions they speak of into their lives as they get older. This leads me to believe that the mental and physical decline  associated with the aging process is mostly about how you think about getting older.

Every cell in your body is replaced and renewed every 11 months.  That means you have a completely new body every year.  I believe whether your body is renewed with strong and healthy cells or with weak and unhealthy cells is all in the way you think about aging.

My grandmother was 92 years of age when she passed from this earth.  I never remember her being ill a day in her life other than a common cold every now and then.  She remained mentally sharp and physically fit throughout her entire life and I never heard her complain about getting old.  That's a testament to the effect that a positive mental attitude has on aging.

I believe where your mind goes your body will follow.  If you have any doubts checkout this video of me leg pressing over 1200 lbs at the tender age of 55.

Muscle Plays a Major Role in Your Health

I've been in the health and fitness industry for over 21 years now and I've always emphasized the importance of building and maintaining healthy muscle, especially as you age. I've always known that muscle plays a major role in your overall health and fitness and current research has now proven this as so.

The importance of muscle mass, strength, and metabolic function in the performance of exercise, as well as the activities of daily living has never been questioned. However, the role your muscles play in whole-body protein metabolism is less recognized.

Your muscle plays a central role in your whole-body protein metabolism by serving as the principle reservoir for amino acids to maintain protein synthesis (growth & regeneration) in vital tissues and organs in the absence of consuming enough protein in your diet.  In other words, if you don't get enough protein in your diet, your body breaks down your muscle mass in order to make the necessary amino acids you need to survive.

Additionally, new research points to a key role that muscle metabolism plays in the prevention of many pathologic conditions and chronic diseases.  Loss of muscle has been associated with weakness, fatigue, insulin resistance, fractures, and frailty. Thus, many of the degenerative conditions that are associated with aging are caused by poor muscle health.

Thus, building and maintaining your muscle mass is one of the most important things you can do for your overall health.  In my next series of post I will show you the most effective ways to accomplish this.

Low Protein Plus Little Strength Training Equals Accelerated Aging

Lots of people seem to think that once they reach the age of 40 they start to become weaker, less toned, and less fit.  They blame these conditions on aging.  In my line of business I hear all about the aches and pains of getting older.  Most people think there is very little they can do to avoid the physical degeneration that is associate with aging. Contrary to this belief there are 2 things that have been proven to combat the aging process, and they are increased protein in your daily diet, and regular strength training.

Most of the physical decline in your body  you associate with aging is caused by muscle loss.  Muscle loss associated with aging is called sacopenia and it can begin as early as your 30s and it accelerates with time if you don't do anything about it.  Fortunately increasing the amount of protein you consume daily combined with a regular strength training program has been proven to be the best approach to curbing and even reversing the effects of sacopenia.

Protein is a necessary part of every living cell in your body. Next to water, protein comprises up the greatest portion of your body weight. Protein substances make up your muscles, ligaments, tendons, organs, glands, nails, hair, and many vital body fluids.  It is essential for the growth, repair, and healing of your bones, tissues, and cells.  Additionally, the the enzymes and hormones that catalyze and regulate your body processes are comprised of protein.  So, you see protein is greatly involved in many vital activities in your body. 

All proteins are made up of building blocks called amino acids. As you age your body becomes less efficient at processing protein and if you don't get the proper amount in your diet your body starts to break-down lean muscle in order get the amino acids it needs to keep your body functioning.  Thus, the protein you consume will be used for purposes other than building and maintain muscle which leads to muscle loss.

As you age the goal of protein consumption should be to optimize lean muscle mass.  Studies now show that consuming 25 to 30 grams of high quality protein at each meal is necessary for maximal muscle growth, repair and maintenance.  Thus, eating this way signals your body that it has enough protein to start a process called protein synthesis (growth and repair).

Strength training or weight lifting has been demonstrated to increase muscle size and strength.  Your muscles grow and increase in strength in order to meet the increased resistance you are lifting.  2 to 3 strength training sessions weekly are recommended to increase muscle size and strength.

Now you see that when you combine proper protein consumption with regular strength training you maximize muscle growth and strength, and thus you minimize the effect of muscle loss associated with aging.  This combination of increased protein intake and strength training is what I do to build and maintain my muscle mass and strength as I age.  I'm in my 50s and I am stronger and more fit than I was in my 20s.  I'm living proof that this strategy works to combat the effects of aging.

Please checkout my strength training publications by clicking on this link: My Publications, and also checkout one of the highest quality protein supplements on the market by clicking on this link: Protein My Whey.

Is Sacopenia Causing You to Get Fatter?

Sacopenia is the progressive loss of muscle mass, function, quality, and strength related to the aging process.  When the word aging comes mind most people think of 65 plus, however you can start to lose muscle mass in your 30s.  As a matter of fact, between the ages of 30 to 60, the average adult will gain 1 lb of weight and lose 1/2 lb of muscle yearly.  That's a gain of 30 lbs of fat and a loss of 15 lbs of muscle over a 30 year period.

How does this happen?  Beginning in their mid-30s most people start to lead a more sedentary lifestyle.  They have careers, get married, have children, and lead less physically active lives.  Your body is designed to be physically active, and the old saying "use it or lose it" is the truth when it comes to your body, especially your muscle mass.

Why do you gain body fat and lose muscle? Muscle is the component of your body that is active and burns the most calories.  Muscle mass burns calories while you are at rest just to maintain itself, even when you are asleep.  A pound of muscle burns approximately 6 calories per day even if you are doing nothing but resting and it burns more if you are active.  Your muscles favorite fuel during times of rest and moderate activity is body fat.

On the other hand, body fat is designed to be used by your body in times of famish.  It is encoded in your body to store body fat just in case you had to go without food for several days.  Consequently body fat only burns about 1 calorie per day to maintain itself.  So, you can see over time as you lose your muscle mass you lose your capacity to burn the calories you consume at the highest level.  Other words, your metabolism drops in relation to your muscle loss.

What can be done to prevent sacopenia?  Research shows the two most important things your can do to prevent muscle loss as you age is regular strength training (also known as weight lifting), and consuming the proper amount of protein high quality protein at each meal.

2 to 3 strength training sessions each week elicits an anabolic response in your muscles (repair and growth) causing your body to adapt to the increased demand to the resistance you are lifting.  And getting enough protein at breakfast, lunch, and dinner signals the body that it is okay to use the protein to rebuild and repair your muscles thus, maintaining your muscle mass.  Experts now agree that 25 to 30 grams of high quality protein at each meal is enough to maximize muscle growth and repair.

I'm in my 50s and I have more muscle mass than I had in my 20s.  I strength train 3 to 4 times each week and I supplement my protein requirements with a whey based smoothie every morning and I have done so for years.  Whey is a dairy derived protein and is one of the highest quality and most digestible proteins that you can consume.  Recently I teamed with a company called Vitalabs to produce one of the best whey protein supplements on the market.  Check it out by clicking on this link and let me know what you think. Protein My Whey.

Muscle is Key to Long-Term Weight Loss

I believe, as you age strength training is the best thing you can do to improve your health and fitness level. Strength training is important because around age 40 you start to experience muscle loss. “If you don’t do anything to replace the lean muscle you lose, you’ll increase the percentage of fat in your body,” says Dr. Edward Laskowski, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Left unabated, 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 you’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 resistance training, muscles are activated all over your body, increasing your average daily metabolic rate.

Fortunately, strength training and the proper amount of protein in your diet can mitigate, and even reverse the loss of muscle at any age. Thus, increasing the amount of calories needed to function. That’s why you hear some people say that their appetites increase after they have been strength training for awhile. This is a sign that they are starting to build muscle.

It's been proven that consuming 25 to 30 grams of high quality protein within 30 minutes of completing a strength training session is the most effective way to stimulate muscle growth and recovery.  Thus, I use Protein My Whey for my recovery immediately after my workouts.  Protein My Whey contains 26 grams of muscle building whey protein isolates, one of the highest quality protein sources available.  In addition Protein My Whey is:

• Fat Free
• Cholesterol Free
• Only contains 1 gram of carbohydrates
• Sugar Free
• Lactose Free
• Sweetened with Stevia

I highly recommend Protein My Whey.  Find out more by clicking on this link: Protein My Whey
.

Protein Quality is Very Important

You've probable seen an advertisement something like this " our product contains 12 grams of muscle building protein."  But, is 12 grams of protein enough to build and maintain your muscle mass?

Truth is the quantity and quality of protein in your meal is very important in building and repairing your muscles.  Let's talk quantity first.  The goal of protein consumption and lean muscle mass is to optimize muscle protein synthesis (the biological process by which muscle cells are regenerated).  Studies show that consuming 25 to 30 grams of high quality protein at each meal is necessary to stimulate protein synthesis. Consequently, any meal in which you don't get a least 25 grams of protein does not start the rebuilding and repairing of your muscles.

Let's talk quality next.  While plant based sources of protein are good, the best and highest quality of protein comes from dairy, meat, poultry, and fish. To better assess the quality of protein in various foods, analysts often use the protein efficiency ratio, or PER, a measure of a specific protein’s ability to promote growth.

Whey, the watery residue from milk after the formation of curds in the cheese-making process, ranks among the highest quality proteins based on PER calculations, according to “NSCA’s Guide to Sport and Exercise Nutrition.” Used widely in protein supplements, whey has a PER rating of 3 to 3.2 and digests rapidly, which paves the way for rapid uptake of the amino acids it contains by your muscles to begin protein synthesis.

That's why after over 20 years in the health and fitness industry, I'm proud to introduce my new brand of whey protein to you.  It's called Protein My Whey.  Each serving of Protein My Whey contains:

• 26 grams of muscle building whey protein
• No fat
• No cholesterol
• No sugar
• 1 gram of carbohydrates
• Lactose free
• Sweetened with Stevia

You can find out more and purchase this great product by clicking on this link: Protein My Whey.

Decreasing Health Risks with Fitness

Great guest post by Kishana Sainte

Aging is something that happens to us all. As we grow older our organs, muscles, bones and ligaments lose their vibrancy, but there is one thing we can do for ourselves to combat the negative effects of aging. Exercise!

Especially for people in society that are over the age of 40, staying true to an effective fitness regime is mandatory for improving and keeping a high quality of life. There are a variety of different ways that exercising and staying fit can help a person. Here are a few examples.

Reducing the chances of cancer: A definite concern as we age is the risk of cancer. It is a devastating disease that no one wants to face. Studies have proven that working out and staying fit are your best bet in fighting the evil C. For example, experts say that a committed fitness plan can reduce the chances of colon, breast and prostate cancer, some as much as 50%. In addition, a regular fitness routine has shown to be effective in lowering the rate of pre and post-menopausal women developing cancer by nearly 30%. According to studies done by both the American Cancer Society and the Nurse’s Health Study, exercise done at a mellow level can reduce the possibility of cancer reoccurrence. Not only is exercise showing to be beneficial for people avoiding cancer, but it is also positively affective for patients undergoing chemotherapy as it assists with fatigue.

Increasing the capacity of the aging mind: Another issue that becomes evident with age is the slowing down of the mental capabilities and memory loss. Exercise has proven to be beneficial for both increased retention of energy as well as reaction time. Being fit and active has also proven to be beneficial in fighting Alzheimer’s. Experts and doctors agree that low intensity exercise for patients of Alzheimer’s helps with patient depression as well as better mobility. Sticking to a fitness plan has also been shown to be positive for patients of Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases. Not only does it help in lubricating the joints and avoiding becoming stiff, but it also helps with muscle loss.

Keeping a positive attitude: Aging can be depressing at times. It is proven in a variety of studies that staying fit and exercising is mandatory for staying happy as we age. Doing activities such as yoga, meditation, running, and bike riding have all shown themselves to be beneficial in reducing stress, depression, and anxiety. Especially for aging people, staying fit is demonstrating a healing ability where antidepressants have failed.

Bio

Kishana Sainte writes on health & fitness topics, including weight loss, diet and lifestyle articles on behalf of MyDocHub.com, a trusted online patient recommendation and medical information website.

Healthy Muscles for Healthy Adults

Here is another great blog by Dr. Donald K. Layman.

Muscle size and strength are usually associated with body builders and athletes, but the latest research is proving that healthy muscles are critical for adult health. Average life expectancy continues to increase, but along with the blessing of longer life comes the risk of age-related diseases. The risks for obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease, and cancers increase with advancing age. Excluding individuals who die early in life from an accident, injury or acute illness, we all expect to live healthy and robust lives well into our 80’s or beyond. For adults over the age of 65, the real risks for loss of health relate to muscle function and mobility. The measure of functional mobility is defined as the ability to perform activities of daily living or ADL. ADL is a measure of independent living and directly predicts morbidity and mortality – how healthy will you be? … and how long will you live?

A few years ago, a colleague, Dr. Robert Wolfe, wrote an article entitled The Underappreciate Role of Muscle in Health and Disease. The article highlighted the importance of skeletal muscle in adult health. Dr. Wolfe looked at healthy aging, acute illnesses, chronic diseases, and recovery from surgery or falls and the common factor for recovery and even survival from each of these conditions was skeletal muscle health. If your muscles are healthy, then your odds of avoiding or recovering from illnesses improve greatly. Dr. Wolfe reported some eye-opening facts – women over the age of 65 who fall and break a hip, over 50% never walk again; recovery from cancer and chemotherapy is directly related to muscle mass at initial diagnosis; and risk of developing diabetes is inversely related to muscle metabolic health. Dr. Steve Blair at the Cooper Institute coined the concept of Fit and Fat to reflect that many people can be overweight and still healthy – as long as they have good muscle health. The list of examples goes on but the point is clear, healthy muscles equal healthy adults.

The importance of muscle health highlights a critical difference among weight loss diets. There are many fad diets and so-called nutrition companies that make claims about rapid weight loss or cures for obesity, but the secret they want to hide is they also cause muscle loss. That’s a critical factor when you evaluate a weight loss program. People tend to ask “how much weight can I lose in the shortest period of time?” These quick fix fad diets may work for spring break when you’re 18 to 22, but it’s a dangerous practice for any adult over 30. The correct questions are “is it a proven weight loss program, and what are the proportions of fat and muscle lost?” Be sure that the so-called miracle diet PROVES that it only causes loss of body fat and not muscle. Loss of muscle means you have damaged your metabolic flexibility and your functional mobility and virtually guaranteed the weight will return (note: research shows 93% of weight is regained within one year with these fad diets); and even worse the weight that returns will be all body fat increasing the risk for diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis. If you lose muscle during weight loss, the muscle loss will be permanent increasing your metabolic risks and accelerating aging.

Muscle health is so important that medical experts in gerontology are debating whether adults over 60 should EVER lose weight. Skeletal muscles have obvious importance for posture and mobility. When we’re young our muscles are strong and flexible. The same is true for metabolism. Young muscles have high metabolic flexibility. Teenagers seldom get muscle soreness and usually recover rapidly after an exercise challenge. As we get older, we observe changes in physical strength and flexibility, and there are changes in metabolic flexibility that we can’t see. As we get older, muscle health and metabolic flexibility requires more attention.

To maintain muscle health, you need healthy behaviors and a healthy lifestyle. Two major components of a healthy lifestyle are physical activity and nutrition, and specifically the physical activity needs to involve stretching and resistance and the nutrition needs to control protein and Carbs. These are fundamental principles in the METABOLIQ Lifestyle.

Don’t be fooled by the claims of the latest fad diet. Look for the research. METABOLIQ was developed and tested to protect skeletal muscles and the results are published in the leading nutrition research journals. We’ve done the research with young adults and with adults over 65. METABOLIQ allows for natural loss of body fat while protecting active muscles for everyone. Remember, muscles are the foundation of adult health and the METABOLIQ Lifestyle delivers on the promise of energizing muscles and creating a natural and healthy weight loss.

For your health,
Dr. Donald K. Layman
CSO, Qivana


Dr. Donald K. Layman is Professor Emeritus of Nutrition in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois. With more than 33 years of teaching and research experience, Dr. Layman has numerous awards and recognitions, including awards from the American Society for Nutritional Sciences, the National Institutes of Health and the Nutrition and Metabolism Society

Please follow this link to find out to purchase the Metaboliq System and other amazing natural nutritional products, Qivana

Inspitation over 50, Walt

Recently while working out, I looked across the gym and  I saw a guy doing hand stand pushups.  This has always amazed me, so I walked over to compliment this guy on the total body strength that it took to perform that movement.  I was even more amazed when I found out that he was over 50 years old!  So, let me introduce you to Walt, a great inspiration to all the Baby Boomers.

 

Me: Where were you born and where did you grow-up?

Walt:. I was born in Pittsburgh,Pa,but moved to Ambler,Pa when I was around 2. I grew up in Ambler,and moved to North Carolina in 1976.
Me: What's your age? Walt: 55


Me: How do you stay in such great physical condition?Walt: I routinely do core exercises like pull-ups,sit ups,leg lifts,hand stand push-ups,and dips.I supplement those exercises with some cable work ,and bench press.I also stay in shape through the warm months by waterskiing.

Me: What advice would you give someone in their 50s trying to get in-shape?
Walt: My advice for someone in their 50's is just get up and do something! Push ups are a great way to start an exercise regimen.Then progress to weights if so inclined ,or stay with core like pull ups. Stretching is also a necessary key to a successful,and safe exercise regimen.
 
Me: What would be your advice to anyone who wants to start an exercise program on matter their age? Walt: I would say the same thing for anyone as above.
 
Me: Who has been the greatest influence in your life and why? Walt: The greatest influence in my life would be Richard Landis. I grew up with,and was best friends with his son Rick. He was a Naval fighter pilot in the Korean war,and I have always respected him for everything that he is. I have learned so much from him,and have him to thank for getting me on track to be fit for life. When I was a freshman in college,I put on a few pounds.He noticed it ,and commented on that fact. I respected him so much,and did not want to disappoint him in any way. I went back to school and hit the gym hard 5-7 days a week. I haven't looked back since then,and never stopped working out

Me: What is your profession?
Walt: I am a Pharmacist.
 
Me: What's your biggest dream? Walt: My biggest dream is for my wife and I to be the best grandparents we can be for my son's kids one day.


Me; What's your greatest accomplishment?
Walt: My biggest accomplishment is my son. I could not be prouder of him as he is an accomplished athlete,scholar,and just an outstanding person through and through.


Walt, thanks for the interview and for being an inspiration to everyone.