Great article on the web today: Is Your Workout a Metabolism Killer? The author lists three mistakes people make with their workouts and corrective strategies for those mistakes. The first is don’t get in a rut with your exercise. The second is believing that cardio work is all you need. The third is only working out in your “fat-burning zone”. If all you do is your treadmill you could be making all three of these mistakes. All of this is great advise and those of you working out at Forza! have been doing recomended interval and weight resistance training as well as keeping bodies from getting too used to any given activity. The one caveat that I would add from my experience is that, even though I also recommend interval training and in my classes we are always working against resistance, whether with a kettlebell or our bodies, for some of us, it is still important not to work out too intensely if fat burning is your goal. The reason I say this is that if you work out so hard that your appetite increases and you consume extra calories after your workout, you will be exercising to maintain weight, not to lose weight. So, pay attention to your body. Notice your appetite after different types of workouts. And, as with everything in life it seems, moderation is the key!
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There was another article recently in the New York Times, that caught my attention. It was entitled “Staying on Balance, With the Help of Exercises” by John Hanc. As we age, not only do we lose muscle strength, but our balance gets worse as well. Here is an interesting statistic, “Unintentional falls among those 65 and older are responsible for more than 18,000 deaths and nearly 450,000 hospitalizations annually in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Most of these falls are caused by a decline in that complex and multidimensional human skill known as balance.” The article goes on to quote Dr. David Thurman, a CDCP neurologist. He states that much of the research “shows fairly convincingly that strength and balance training can reduce the rate of falls by up to about 50 percent.”  Shon and Vicki working on core strength and balance. I am not aware of any studies done on how core training reduces the severity of falls when they do occur, but I am confident that a combination of strength training of all muscles, including the core, together with balance training decreases the number and severity of falls. Let’s face it, we all take tumbles once in a while. It’s great to be able to pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off and go on with our lives! See you in class.
Sarcopenia means age-related muscle wasting and was discussed in yesterday’s Star Tribune Variety section in an article entitled “Strong Arm Tactics”. Here is an interesting statistic from that article.
The article also refers to a study published in JAMA whose test subjects (nursing home residents over the age of 90) were given a strength training regimen for 8 weeks and made major improvements in muscle mass and strength. So no matter what your age, you need vigorous strength training three times a week to maintain (and gain – when you push yourself) muscle mass and strength.
My father has had both a hip and a knee replaced, and although he is feeling less pain now, it has not been an easy road and things are not as good as they once were. After his hip replacement, he ended up with an even shorter leg than he had prior to surgery (a contributing factor to the deteriorating hip joint in the first place) and now has to wear a lift in one shoe or have one heal built up (an added expense) and can’t go barefoot for any length of time. As for the knee replacement, it was complicated and extremely painful. Now I’m not saying don’t have joint replacement surgery if you need it, but think how much better it would be not to need it!  Aching Knees? The article mentions several ways to avoid the cost and pain of osteoarthritis, one of the main reasons people get a joint replaced. The first is controlling your weight. As your weight increases, so does your risk for osteoarthritis, particularly of the knee joint and even more in women than men. A woman’s risk of osteoarthritis of the knee drops in half if she loses just 10 pounds! Another suggestion is to get fit with a low impact form of exercise. The muscle you build up around joints act as shock absorbers and decrease the likely hood of injury. Finally, they say don’t waste your money on specialized nutrients like shark cartilage and glucosamine and choindroitin as they are expensive and of limited benefit. I would add to that, though, that high quality Omega 3 supplements are the exception and will give you a good bang for your buck.  The Kettlebell Swing So here is my plug: swinging a kettlebell is a great form of low impact exercise that strengthens the muscles across both the knee and hip joints and will burn a lot of calories to help you get excess weight off. If you don’t have a kettlebell at home, I recommend getting one or get in to Forza! three times a week. Take your fish oil supplements! Care for your joints now, avoid expensive and painful surgeries. Your joints will feel better and you will be doing your part to lower the national health bill! |
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Using Kettlebells, TRX Suspension Training, Resistance Stretching, and Body Weight Exercises, Forza! classes provide the following:
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Within a month of returning, I heard from two of my Forza! clients who also took recent tumbles. Both of them expressed gratitude for their stronger cores and believed they could have been hurt much worse had they not had the body awareness and core strength that comes from all the work we do in class.
