Getting fit little by little

One of the things I enjoy most about being relatively fit is that life is so much easier than when I was out of shape. It’s easier to carry in the groceries. It’s easier to pick things up off the floor. There’s virtually no spot on my back I can’t scratch. And I can twist to get something out of the backseat of my car without risking a back spasm. My energy level is higher, and I sleep more soundly.

I had no idea I was taking sips from the fountain of youth eight years ago when I started what has become a regular fitness program. How did I get going? Fed up with being sluggish, achy and tired, first I began walking most days of the week. Then I started working with light dumb bells two days a week. Later I took yoga classes to build my core strength and flexibility.

I benefited from regular exercise so much that I wanted to share it with others and began studying to be a fitness professional.  Over time my strength, endurance and flexibility improved so much I now feel 20 years younger.

Are you game? To create a good balance of physical activity, opt for aerobic workouts (walking, dancing, tennis or such) at least three to five times a week and strength training two to three times a week. Warm up before you exercise and cool down afterwards, finishing with stretching.

If that sounds like too much time, remember many benefits of exercise accrue with a minimum of 150 minutes of exercise a week, according to scientific research. That’s 30 minutes 5 days a week or however you want to split up the time. Check with your doctor if you have health concerns to learn if you need to limit or modify exercise in any way.

If you have a hard time scheduling large blocks of time, accumulate activity in increments of 10 minutes or more several times a day. What about stretching or lifting dumb bells (or cans of food) while you watch TV? What about a short walk? Ten minutes here and there can kick start your fitness program.  Life is not only easier with exercise, its better.

What works for you

Starting off the New Year with new resolutions – especially those concerning fitness and wellness - is an energizing feeling, but the key to fulfilling them is a combination of desire, will and strategy.

Sometimes following a resolution is a snap. You decide to go after something, and you just seem to do it. Love it when that happens!

But many times a resolution may be challenging to fulfill. If you slip up it’s important not to be too hard on yourself and give up. Instead you can “fail forward” by becoming a student of your own behavior; learning from what went wrong and making adjustments.

Social scientist Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., recommends analyzing what does and does not work for us in her book “The Willpower Instinct.” She says it greatly helps to consider what obstacles we may face and how we will overcome them. For example, if you can’t resist ice cream, but want to cut down on it to reduce calories, best not to keep it in the refrigerator at home. If you tend to forget your gym bag, put it by the door the night before.

Another aid to boosting our willpower is reducing stress in our life. We need down time to refresh ourselves whether it is listening to music, walking through the woods or meditating. The more stressed we are, the more difficult it is to make healthy choices, research has shown. When we are agitated we tend to seek relief, including through comfort foods and watching too much TV.

Not addressing internal conflicts may keep us from being fully committed to our goals and derail us.  For example, is a loved one pressuring you to do something you want to do but you are resisting doing it because of their insistence? Or is a friend trying to talk you out of doing something you want to do? Find an individual or a group who will be in your corner and maybe even exercise, diet or quit smoking with you.

It can help to shore up your resolve to fulfill those New Year’s resolutions by listening to inspirational speakers or reading encouraging literature. Journaling about the ups and downs of your wellness journey can be helpful. And many find calling upon their higher power makes all the difference. Find out what works for you and make it work for you!

Working out alone vs. with others

When choosing the right exercise strategy for you, one question is whether to exercise alone or with others. I like opting for a mix!

Working out alone is easier to schedule and comes in handy when all your friends are busy. Some people enjoy the quietude of exercising just with the sound of music, nature or their breath. It can be a time for reflection or meditation.

Exercising can also be done a little at a time when you are on you own. Ideas: A few glut bridges before you get out of bed, a simple balance challenge while brushing your teeth, neck and upper back stretches in the shower, a few chin tucks at red lights, and/or some ankle circles and seated breathing and posture exercises while watching TV.  Restorative, conditioning movement throughout the day is great for the body!

Exercising with others, on the other hand, is also beneficial. It can serve as a reminder and motivator to exercise more regularly. Scientific studies show that people who exercise with others tend to exercise more often. Extroverts tend to be drawn to groups while introverts may prefer to exercise with one or a few people they know very well.

You may already know one or several people who would like to become exercise buddies. Walking with a spouse or a friend or strength training with a buddy at the rec center or gym are all options. If you enjoy larger groups, going dancing, taking group exercise classes, or playing sports can be rewarding.

If you feel hesitant to try a new exercise class, it can be less intimidating if you take a friend the first time, especially if the class is large. Senior center and church exercise classes tend to be a little more user friendly from the get go for the solo participant.

Another option, especially if you have specific physical challenges or want to improve your fitness level before you take a group class, is to work with a personal trainer. You may find you only need a few sessions to get you going. Or you may like the coaching and exercise customization so much that you opt to train on an ongoing basis.

Try experimenting a little to find the right combination of exercising alone and with others that is right for you!

Strong or flexible?

When it comes to being strong or flexible, which is best for keeping your muscles and tendons healthy?

Okay, it's a trick question as it is best to be both. Muscle-bound weight lifters can lose range of motion and become so stiff they walk funny. Ultra-flexible yoginis can injure themselves because of too much muscle and tendon laxity and little strength.

Weak and/or tight muscles – often associated with poor posture and body mechanics - can lead to muscle spasms and painful trigger points that can only temporarily be relieved by massage. The underlying problem needs to be addressed.

Another problem weak and tight muscles - as well as muscle strength and flexibility imbalances - can lead to or worsen is osteoarthritis. Healthy (strong and flexible) muscles and tendons help keep joints working properly. A balanced exercise routine to avoid repetitive use and injury of the joints is also important.

Any time you participate in strength training, please stretch afterwards. Resistance training tightens the muscles and over time can lead to loss of range of motion. Also, when you can, stretch after walking or other cardio.

Yoga and/or pilates can improve your flexibility overall. After doing my fitness turnaround several years ago, the increase in my range of motion, just through a bit of yoga and additional stretching, has me feeling 20 years or younger than my actual age.

For do-it-yourselfers: As I have mentioned before, an excellent book on stretching is "Stretching" by Bob Anderson. It's thoroughly illustrated and includes stretches targeting various sports and activities. There are numerous books on strength training. The American Council of Exercise website offers a wealth of information on balancing strength and stretch.

No matter how you approach it, just remember the archer’s bow. Seek to be both strong and flexible.

Toys vs. the machines

You don’t have to be a gym member to get or stay fit. Working on those bulky weight machines may seem to be the be-all-end-all, but they definitely aren’t the only way to gain strength and better health as well as improve your appearance. Exercise props or “toys” as some of us like to call them, can be just as effective and in some cases more effective. So don’t despair if the gym is not for you for whatever reason!

Before I studied to become a personal trainer and group exercise instructor I relied on weight machines for my resistance training. But when I started training to be a trainer I became better educated about the advantages of toys. I’ve come to use them pretty much exclusively for my own workouts because of their convenience, flexibility and power.

Instead of struggling with machines that are often awkward to adjust, I can custom tailor my workouts and those of my personal training clients as well as my group exercise classes. Another advantage: You get more core work in by tightening and stabilizing your abs and lower back muscles, etc., when doing resistance while sitting on a stability ball or standing.

Exercise toys are extremely inexpensive and portable. You can buy them at many discount or sports stores. Getting a basic set up can cost you less than $50, approximately the price of one month of a gym membership. I use toys all the time when I do in-home training, carrying dumb bells, bands, a weighted ball and ankle weights in a bin and a mat under my arm. Some of my clients invest in their own set of equipment plus some additions, including a stability ball. Having toys on hand makes working out so much more convenient and private. Some of my clients take exercise bands or tubes with them when they travel in case their hotel doesn’t have a fitness center.

I also use toys in my group exercise classes. My students love the variety. Instead of doing two or three sets of the same arm and back exercises on a machine, for example, we vary the sets by training the arms and upper back as well as the core stabilizers first with dumb bells, then with exercise bars and then with tubes. Afterwards we get down on the mat and really work that core some more! Seated crunches on a machine get awful boring by comparison to Pilates-style body work on the mat.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not dissing exercise machines. Machines can be valuable for gaining and maintaining strength if you regularly get to the gym. Some of my clients who are gym members prefer them for at least part of their regimen. And if you are exercising without a trainer, machines require less memory work. They often include instructional displays in case you forget how to adjust or use them.

Still, I recommend even those who have access to and enjoy machines to learn how to work with dumb bells, exercise bands and the like whether at the gym, home or when traveling. Toys give you more options and ability to do strength training!

To move or not to move?

Machines that aren't regularly maintained with proper coatings and lubricants and kept moving tend to rust. Their moving parts move only with difficulty or not at all. Over time their rusting metal gets so brittle that it breaks into bits, disintegrating little by little. Kind of sad and a waste of a beautiful mechanism that's useful life was cut short.

Most of us wouldn't let that happen to one of our treasured possessions. Unfortunately some of us do let a similar process of disuse and decay happen to our bodies. Fortunately it's reversible if we get off the couch, out of our chair and up and moving.

I have definitely been guilty of not moving enough at times in my life. I had no idea the price I was paying, especially as I grew older. Now that I'm so much more aware of anatomy and physiology and the danger of disuse because of my personal training study I am super motivated to stay moving and fit.

When we don't move our bodies often enough or in a great enough variety of ways our joints don't get lubricated with synovial fluid as they should. Our tendons, ligaments and muscles stiffen and weaken. Our bones become more brittle. Over time we become weaker, more unbalanced, rigid. For most people the debilities of aging, including the inability to perform regular activities of daily living, aren't so much about the natural aging process, but about disuse.

True, it's often a greater challenge to keep moving as we age because of weight gain and/or a growing number of aches and pains. But we can't let that stop us. Otherwise we'll just start a downward cycle of weight gain, more pain, less and less activity and greater and greater debility.

The truth is that we're either getting fitter or less fit every day because of our choices to move or not to move. The more we move on a consistent basis the healthier we'll be. Even those with health challenges, pain and/or disabilities need to move and can with some medical guidance.

I so admire the seniors in the 70s, 80s and 90s in my exercise classes and personal training sessions who continue to move it on a consistent basis even with discomforts such as arthritis, neuralgia, stroke debilities, and other chronic conditions. They are all younger than their chronological age in terms of physical health, appearance, mood and general well being. They aren't rusting out, they're stepping out into every day like the adventure it is.

Give Me Strength

Once I saw strength training as something only body builders would want to do. Now I know it’s as important to my health as brushing my teeth.  Just as I don’t want to develop rotten teeth and inflamed gums, I don’t want my bones to develop osteoporosis, my muscles to give way to flab and my ligaments to deteriorate. That hunched over senior with the brittle bones shuffling down the street with a walker once stood tall and likely would still if he/she had followed a strength regimen.

While most of us can get away with a hit or miss approach to exercise while we’re young and still stay relatively healthy, by middle age we’re faced with the ugly and painful reality of what lack of regular exercise will do to our bodies. Bloated bellies, strained backs and other signs of our mortality begin to accumulate. Meanwhile the more active among us seem to have drunk from the fountain of youth and maintain a youthful physique and general wellbeing.

Fortunately if we heed our wakeup call, whenever it comes, we can regain much of our youthful strength, flexibility and attractiveness. Getting our heart pumping with cardio workouts is important, but we’ve also got to build our strength.

Today I worked with a middle-age lady who did not know that we begin to lose muscle mass each year beginning as early as when we turn 25 to 30 years old. Our metabolism slows because of it. We also gradually lose our ability to lift as much. She also didn’t know that our bones become more brittle over time, especially for women after menopause, if we don’t strength train. While she takes calcium and other supplements she wasn’t aware that you need to work the bones for the calcium to be absorbed.

It did not surprise me that she did not know these things about strength training, because up until recent years I didn’t know them either. While fitness fans learn such fun facts early on Joe Six Pack and the rest of us typically are clueless. Fortunately I began learning the score after taking a “Healthy Lifestyle and Weight Loss” program several years ago.

After I showed my client how to use the weight machines and discussed the various benefits of strength training, she seemed determined to make weight training part of her regular fitness routine. Yeah!

When it comes to strength training, for best results work all your body’s major muscles and bones. Use the full range of weight machines vs. just a few and/or learn other ways of working your muscles including using your body weight, dumbbells and bands. The American Council of Exercise has a great exercise library that includes video and written break downs of exercises for the entire body. Of course if you have health issues or are highly deconditioned, please check with your physician before starting an exercise program.