Are You Proactive or Reactive?

I meet a lot of people who have recently had a health scare and have decided to start exercising because of it. They are being Reactive.

I also talk to a lot of people who started exercising long ago because they wanted to delay or prevent health problems. They are being Proactive.

Which of these types of people do you think tend to live longer and better? My money's on the Proactive people.

Let's talk about this in the context of fall prevention. Most people only start to think about training their balance after they experience a fall. Wouldn't it be a better idea to start training your balance before you fall in order to delay or prevent that fall?

Whether you've fallen before or not, if you want to be proactive with your balance, start doing exercises for balance today to give yourself the best chance of preventing more falls.

2 Exercises for Better Balance

Recent research out of Portugal revealed that training two key muscle groups helped seniors improve their scores in balance tests.

The study involved exercising these muscles 3 times per week for 5 minutes.

I made a video that will show you how to train those muscle groups that you can view by clicking below:

Lower Leg Strength for Seniors Video

Watch it. Try it.

Top 3 Diet Tips

There's so much information out there about what to eat, how much to eat, and when to eat it, it's easy to get lost in the mix. Every month there's a new diet book on the shelves.

A lot of this information is just the same old stuff recycled and repackaged again to sell some books. Come up with a new variation of a diet rule that everyone knows works, give it a gimmicky title, and put some skinny people on the cover and watch the money roll in.

If you've been thinking about dieting, let me just save you the time and tell you the top 3 healthy eating tips. They're simple and effective.

1. Eat less.

2. Eat better food.

3. Spread the calories you eat more evenly throughout the day.

If you decrease your intake by about 10%, eat higher quality food (fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, fiber, protein, etc.), and distribute your calories more evenly, you'll can make a big difference.

To get more details on the 3 steps, read the full healthy eating article here.

The Basics of Fitness

I've just posted a few new articles that cover the basics of the four main areas of fitness:

Cardio - Exercises for the heart

Strength - Exercises for the muscles

Flexibility - Stretching to keep you limber

Balance - To help prevent falls

You can click on any of the links above to get the basics. For each area you'll learn:

Why to do it.

What it is.

How often to do it.

How much to do.

Hard difficult to make it.

If you're not currently doing something for cardio, strength, flexibility, and balance, check out these short articles and get started today!

Why You're Getting Stronger

When starting a strength training program, many people notice that it seems like they are getting stronger very quickly. Most people assume this is because their muscles are getting bigger.

There are three other mechanisms at work that are more likely to be responsible for perceived strength gains:

1. You started too easy at first because you were being safe. Then the following week you remembered it was too easy and decided to use a heavier weight.

2. Your brain is recruiting more muscle fibers to do the job. It only activates enough fibers to do the job, so as you use more weight, your brain just uses more fibers.

3. You are getting better at the movement. Your brain learns how to best do the exercise as you do it more.

Because of these three things, it may seem like you're getting stronger every week for the first month or so of strength training. Just realize that this isn't going to last very long.

You won't be able to increase your weights at that pace forever. If that were true, anyone who had been strength training for a couple years would be using 80 pound dumbbells.

To learn more about these mechanisms and learn how to tell if you're using too much weight, read the full Getting Stronger article here.

Great Athletic Achievements by People Over 55

Society and the media like to portray older adults as weak, grumpy, and always complaining about the weather or arthritis.

If you get bombarded with these images on TV for long enough, pretty soon you start to expect that that's what you will become as you get older.

But that doesn't have to be the case. You can be strong and full of life and energy at any age. To prove my point, I put together a Hall of Fame of great athletic achievements by people over 55.

Check out the Hall of Fame here

Seeing what others have accomplished will open your mind up to better possibilities. If they can do these amazing things, why can't you?

Wow! I'm Getting Stronger! Why?

Many people find that in the first month or two of strength training, they make great gains in their strength. This isn't because your muscles are getting huge, though.

A lot of it is just your brain figuring out (learning) how to do the exercise better. It's learning which muscles to activate and which muscles to relax in order to accomplish the task more effeciently.

As you do something more, you get better at it. It's not unusual for a person to add weight to their exercises every time they work out in the first month.

The problem is that sometimes this breeds a false confidence. Eventually, you won't be able to increase your weights any longer at that pace. If you could, they everyone who had been strength training for a while would be using 100 pound dumbbells.

If you want to learn more about why you get stronger, and make sure you're not using too much weight, read the full article here => Weight Training - Why You're Getting Stronger.

Are Treadmills Better Than Just Walking?

I often get asked if walking on a treadmill is any better than just walking outside or on a track. I've just put up a 3-part article series called "Treadmill vs. Walking" on the website. It compares using a treadmill versus walking outside or on a track in three areas:

1. Body mechanics

2. Quantification of workout parameters

3. Balance

Whether you're using a treadmill or just walking outside, it worth a look. Read the article here.

Fitness for Seniors - 5 Common Mistakes

I've just posted a special report that you can read here: Fitness for Seniors

It covers the five most common fitness mistakes that I see seniors making. Those mistakes are:

1. No Variety
   
2. Inconsistency
   
3. Not doing balancing exercises
   
4. Using the wrong weight
   
5. Starting too late
   

This 6-page report will show why these mistakes can keep you from reaching your full potential. Then it gives you some ideas about how to fix things. Give it a read!

Three Pillars of Fitness

I've talked before about the four areas of fitness you need to be addressing - cardio, strength, balance, and flexibility. Here's three factors that should be incorporated so that you get the most out of your fitness program:

Variety - You should not be doing the exact same program day in day out for months or years on end. You might be overworking a certain muscle or using a certain joint to much in one movement pattern. You can add variety by trying new exercises every month or so. You can also change the reps, sets, time, weights, order, or rest periods.

Example: Your cardiovascular program at your health club consists of 1/2 hour on the treadmill three times per week. How about you do the treadmill one day, the bike on day, and walk some laps in the pool a third day?

Progression - After you do an exercise for a while, your body adapts to it. Then what? To see continued improvement you need to progress the exercise, or make it harder. This could be adding more time, more weight, more reps, more speed, etc.

Example: You always ride the bike at level 3 at around 70 rpms. Try doing level 4 for a couple minutes, then go back down to level 3 for a couple minutes, then back up to level 4 again. Systematically increase the time you spend on level 4.

Consistency - This is the most important one in my book. You can have the greatest program in the world, but if you only do it once a week, or you skip a month here and there when you get busy, you'll never see any real results. On the other hand, even a rudimentary program can produce positive results if you are consistent with it.

Example: You occasionally do exercises to improve balance when you think of it. Try to take a more structured approach and do balancing exercises on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, or whatever days suit you best. Once you make a plan of what you're going to do on what days, it's much easier to be consistent.

How do you rate? Do you need more variety? Are you progressing your program? Are you consistent? Take the suggestions above and make some changes if needed.

You're Never Too Old!

Today at the fitness center I was talking to a member when an old friend of his walked up. They hadn't seen each other in a while, and one said, "You're still working out!"

The other man answered, "I'm too old to quit exercising!" 

That phrase just about knocked me over due to the power of it's hidden wisdom. So many people think just the opposite of that. They think that once they reach a certain age, exercise is a lost cause. Certainly exercise can't help them at their age, they think.

Wrong!

Exercise can help at any age. In fact, I would even say that the older you get, the more important exercise is. As you get older and the activity of daily life decreases, it becomes necessary to schedule regimented movement (we call that exercise).

The same can be said for balance. The older you get, the less you use your balance. But that disuse allows your sense of balance to deteriorate. That is why it's so important to do exercises to improve balance after age 60.

Then when you're doing your balance exercises and someone asks you why you do them, just tell them you're too old not to.

Calculate How Much Water You Need Each Day

One of the foundations to good health is getting the right amount of water.  Here's a simple formula we use to determine how much water you need each day:

1 - Take your bodyweight.

2 - Divide it by 2. That's how many ounces of water you need each day.

3 - Divide that number by 8 to find out how many 8-ounce glasses of water you need each day.

Example: If you weigh 180 pounds, that's 90 ounces of water a day, about 11 8-ounce glasses.

So calculate your number and drink up!

Click here for more senior fitness tips.