New research

Exciting new research has been release regarding aging and muscle growth. IT used to be believed that after a certain age 79 plus that it was very difficult to build new muscle in fact virtually impossible. It is now known that it is not the fact; in reality and elderly individual following the same training program as a twenty year old will make the same muscular gains, thought they will take longer to adapt. What makes this research exciting is that it proves it is never too late to become active and start weight training. You will derive benefits whether you do it preventatively in your youth,  start in middle age, or even as a senior.

So dust off those running shoes and spandex, invest in some weights, get a trainer, go to the gym, and get going!

 

Deep Breathing

Deep Breathing Exercises

Deep breathing is a relaxation technique that can be self-taught. Deep breathing releases tension from the body and clear the mind, improving both physical and mental wellness.

We tend to breathe shallowly or even hold our hold our breath when we are feeling anxious. Sometimes we are not even aware of it. Shallow breathing limits your oxygen intake and adds further stress to your body, creating a vicious cycle. Breathing exercises can break this cycle.

The importance of good posture cannot be overstated. While sitting, we tend to slouch, which compresses the diaphragm and other organs, resulting in shallow breathing. Slouching also strains muscles in the neck and back. It is helpful to sit in a chair with good back support to avoid fatigue that leads to slouching.

How to do Deep Breathing Exercises:

Sit up straight. (Do not arch your back) First exhale completely through your mouth. Place your hands on your stomach, just above your waist. Breathe in slowly through your nose, pushing your hands out with your stomach. This ensures that you are breathing deeply. Imagine that you are filling your body with air from the bottom up.

Hold your breath to a count of two to five, or whatever you can handle. It is easier to hold your breath if you continue to hold out your stomach. Slowly and steadily breathe out through your mouth, feeling your hands move back in as you slowly contract your stomach, until most of the air is out. Exhalation is a little longer than inhalation.

After you get some experience you don’t need to use your hands to check your breathing.

You can also do the above breathing exercise lying on your back. Deep breathing exercises can help you to relax before you go to sleep for the night, or fall back asleep if you awaken in the middle of the night.

You can also practice deep breathing exercises standing – e.g. while sitting in traffic, or standing in a lineup at the grocery store. If you are really tense and feel as if you are holding your breath, simply concentrate on slowly breathing in and out.

 

Source.

 

Body Awareness

As you progress along healthy lifestyle changes you can not help learning more about your body and build body awareness. Body awareness is not only proprioception (knowing where where your body is in relation to itself in space), emotional state, and frame of mind. This is a useful full tool for many reasons; firstly being body aware in an exercise context will award you greater in gains in stability and proper form.  From an emotional standpoint the ability to identify where feelings arise can assist in navigated them more proactively.

A great body awarenss building exercise is as follows:

Sitting on your chair eyes closed, bring attention to your breathing, do not controll it, just observe.

Switch your focus to your buttocks in the seat, feel the chair support you. Feel your cloths on your back, the fabric, the weight of your clothing.

Bring your attention to your heartbeat, feel it pulse through your body, nourishing it.

Choosing a relaxed and peaceful emotional state slowly bring your attention back to your breathing. Count back from 10 and slowly open your eyes.

 

Remember awareness is what is fostered in meditation, so take some time to tune and and find a moment of inner peace…. every day.

 

Latest research

Exciting news for those of you trying to reduce your waistlines…

Obesity is a prevalent public health problem associated with a number of severe health effects and those over 40 are at increased risk of being overweight. This risk may be due to a decrease in energy expenditure, reduced energy requirements, or an increased susceptibility to excess energy consumption in this stage of life. Increasing daily water consumption is widely recognized as a weight loss strategy, yet there is actually little data to support this. From studies that are available, it has been shown that:

  1. Energy intake (EI) is significantly lower in water drinkers than non-water drinkers (1),
  2. substituting water for energy-containing beverages decreases self-reported EI (2)
  3. increasing self-reported daily water consumption by 1 litre or more in overweight women is associated with increased weight loss (3), and
  4. water consumption with a meal reduces ratings of hunger and increases ratings of satiety (4,5).

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that pre-meal water consumption would lead to greater weight loss in older overweight and obese individuals consuming a hypocaloric diet. The secondary objective was to determine if water intake before a meal to reduce meal EI is sustained after a 12-week period of increased water consumption in older overweight and obese adults.

  • Both groups (with and without water prior to eating) experienced significant weight loss but a greater decline in weight (44% greater) was found for the water group.
  • The decline in total fat mass was greater for the water group.
  • Mean daily EI, energy and ED (energy density) from food, and beverage ED declined similarly in both groups.
  • Total dietary ED from food and beverage declined more in the water group as compared to the non-water group.
  • The water group participants demonstrated greater increases in water and total fluid consumption than the non-water group participants.
  • There were no differences between groups for all other outcome measures.
  • No gender differences were found for measures in the groups.

 

Understanding food labels…

Proper nutrition and heart health go hand in hand. It is important to have a diet low in saturated fat and sodium. Include high fiber foods, and healthy fats. Get enough protein and vitamins. Do you know how to read a food label?

To learn how, or refresh your skills check this website out.

 

Sometimes laughter is all you need….

WARNING: the following link is crass, but funny none the less. View at your own risk.

Awkward workouts

 

Stretching: new research

A new study (Batista LH, Vilar AC, Ferreira JJA, Rebelatto JR & Salvini TF) has be published on the effect of stretching and it impact on fitness, specifically in application to older adults. Here is a brief overview of the important factors:

Deficits in muscle strength and range of motion are common in older adults but not to exclusive to, due to a decrease in overall flexibility. Reduced flexibility is generally caused by shortening and increased rigidity of muscles. These viscoelastic changes in muscle fibers have deleterious functional consequences, such as aberrant gait patterns, and hampered ability to rise from a seated position, leading to a greater incidence of falls and loss of independence.

Stretching is an exercise performed in clinical settings and physical fitness facilities used to increase range of motion. Research has shown that stretching can cause morphologic change in muscle fibers and connective tissue, ultimately leading to an increase in overall muscle strength.

Previous studies have shown that similar results can occur after a stretching intervention implemented every day for 6 weeks straight. This study showed that flexibility training twice a week for 4 weeks is as efficient as a 6 week training protocol

According to this group of researchers, it is conceivable that stretched muscles are stronger because both passive and active forces add to strength production. Previous research concluded that the increase in stored energy and ranges of motion after stretching is important because it can increase the elastic recoil capacity of a muscle. However, this notion is not completely agreed upon in the fitness industry.

Regardless, stretching is a vital component of fitness, equally so as cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength, which not only has benefits in its own right but improves all component of fitness.

 

February is heart month!

Many causes have designated months to raise awareness about their plights. For example February is black history month, as well as heart month (as per the heart and stroke foundation). This is the one with more relevance to our purposes and a cause close to my heart since heart disease is prevalent in my family.

Check out the Heart and Strokes website, be ready for lots of fun and interesting heart facts this month.

Happy heart month!

 

What inspired me….

Keeping up with a lifestyle change can be very challenging, often we feel like the payoff is not worth the effort, especially when the results can be slow coming. I have my own personal experience to share; after a long period of being ill, not working out, eating poorly in my late adolescence I decided to get my life in check, I was not happy with my body and I felt crummy. At the time I had not idea how much work it took to get the results I wanted. I had a dance background so for most of my life up until then, it was not something I though mush about. When I first started going to the gym I thought going twice a week was a lot of time, especially because it felt wasted. I was intimidated by other more fit women in the gym. I found a cartoon in a magazine that captured what I felt, it was accompanied by this editorial story; this woman had gone through the same thing I was going through. I was INSPIRED! I loved the cartoon, so I kept it. I taped it to my bathroom mirror, to remind me every day why I was doing what I was doing and to not give up. As I became stronger I enjoyed going to the gym more, I went more often, saw more results. It took me a full five years to really see all the changes I wanted, it had to build over time. That cartoon, stayed on my mirror all of that time. When I moved I kept it and took it with me. Now I can generate my own motivation, but I sometimes remember what it felt like to not have any, and that cartoon’s role in keeping me one track. Do not underestimate the power of the small things.

Do not give up, keep at it, it will come.

 

Tricking yourself into staying; when motivation is nowhere to be found

The follow excerpt is from another blog that I follow. I wanted to share it with you because I could not have said it better myself.

Does your training ever leave you feeling like you’re participating in a science experiment with a sample size of N=1? There are training routines to plan and track, data points to be harvested and analyzed, and a constant quest for innovation to reach your personal limits. Sometimes these factors make training exciting. And sometimes they make training seem incredibly boring and like a chore.

When you find yourself fishing for the snooze button on your alarm instead of springing out of bed to assault the day and the training you have so carefully carved out time to execute, you could keep doing the same old thing. But the same old thing is why you’re lying in bed listening to your alarm squawking and cringing instead of rushing full force into an awesome day that you can’t wait to start and a training session that will invigorate you and help advance every area of your life.

Don’t let your training routine be something you dread. When it is, turn it into a game and trick yourself into staying fit even when you’d normally want to bail. There are many ways to achieve this goal, but here are a few of the quickest, easiest ways to keep it fresh and playful.

Unless you’re a professional athlete, remember that this isn’t your job. It’s something you do electively because you enjoy it. Keep that thought in the front of your mind and visualize the moments you’ve most enjoyed in training, the times you’ve overcome your inertia or personal limits and gone to a higher level. That’s fun. That’s the attitude you want to have every day. Cultivate it, visualize it, experience what it feels like and carry it with you so it’s accessible every time you want to just say no to training.

When all else fails, promise yourself a reward. Been dying to eat a bowl of ice cream? Need a new pair of shoes? Want to watch your favorite television show later in the day but feel guilty about making the time to do it? Take anything you’d really like to do and promise it to yourself if you complete every workout seven days in a row or for two weeks or a month or whatever. Write down the reward, what you have to do to achieve it, and make it happen.