Declining fitness was once expected at about age 35 – now we know it doesn’t have to.
Why grow old gracefully? Even though Ponce de Leon’s efforts to find the fountain of youth were futile, may individuals have continued his crusade.
Aging is a fact of life, and surprisingly, scientists do not know a great deal about this process. For most individuals, the celebration of their 35 birthday begins to mark the decline of physiological functions.
So you’ve slacked off a bit and avoided exercise.
Maybe your job demands too much of your time or you simply fell out of the routine. I have news for you. Whether you’ve taken off one year, ten years or haven’t exercised a day in your life – it’s never too late to start.
You see there are problems with living a life devoid of exercise. Big problems. Your weight rises along with your blood pressure and cholesterol. Your muscles and joints degenerate at an astounding rate leaving you with daily aches and pains. Your body becomes weak, making you susceptible to all kinds of medical issues. Your body stores more fat, time to react lengthens, endurance weakens, osteoporosis sets in, flexibility decreases and joint bones crush. But, with exercise, change how you age.
How Your Body Changes
- Increase in your fat storage with a reduction in muscle and bone mass results in an elevation in percentage of body fat. A large part of these changes can be accounted for by a less active lifestyle and exercise, and a drop in basal metabolism. This means that fewer calories are required to maintain body weight, while at the same time, fewer calories are expended.
- Decreases in reaction time can be observed under laboratory conditions, but you probably won’t notice this unless you are in your 50’s. This slowing is a result of decreases in nerve conduction velocities and an increase in the time required for the brain to process the information and to select the appropriate response.
- The amount of blood your heart can pump per minute also declines along with an individual’s maximum breathing capacity. These factors explain why endurance capacity decreases.
Women are particularly prone to osteoporosis or the thinning of bones. This problem can begin as early as age 25, and speeds up as menopause is approached. It is during the first few years after menopause that the rate at which bone density is lost is tremendously accelerated.- Decreases in flexibility result from a loss of elasticity in the connective tissue. That’s one of the main reasons which explains why a person will experience initial joint stiffness after being idle or remaining in a set position for a relatively short period of time.
- The wearing away of the cartilage which attaches to the ends of the bones, will affect everyone sooner or later. Some evidence suggests that activities which demand repeated pounding, or those which require extremely heavy loads to be moved, place tremendous stress on the joints and ten to accelerate this process.
Exercise For Youth
Before you give up all hope and flood the personnel department with requests information about early retirement, results of studies which compare sedentary and active people whose ages from 40-80 years old are encouraging.
The research suggests that you use it or lose it. Exercise strengthens the heart and reduces your risks of cardiovascular disease, as well as osteoporosis. Information does suggest that exercise can postpone the onset of normal age-related deterioration. Exercise improves blood flow to the brain.
Well-designed exercise programs are important for all individuals, but they take on even greater emphasis as one ages. The body is less forgiving when over-used and requires a longer period of time to fully recover from work.
Why Should I Start Now?
You’ve heard about the benefits that consistent exercise bring, but what if you haven’t been consistent? Should you even start at all? This has been the subject of many medical studies and the results are unanimous:
Exercise helps improve your quality of life, even if you start late.
Researchers are constantly finding new benefits to consistent exercise. It’s no wonder that Dr. Robert Butler, of the National Institute on Aging, once said “If exercise could be put into a pill, it would be the single most prescribed medicine in the world.”
Imagine if a pill could offer all of these benefits (without harmful side effects):
Substantially reduces the risk of coronary heart disease and osteoporosis- Decreases the risk for stroke, colon cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure
- Helps to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight
- Contributes to healthy bones, muscles and joints
- Helps relieve anxiety and depression
- Promotes well-being and reduces stress
- Is associated with fewer doctor visits, hospitalizations and medications
- Helps prevent and treat chronic medical conditions associated with old age
- Increases energy levels and promotes sound sleep
- Strengthens immune system
I know that I would take that pill – wouldn’t you? Exercise may not be something that you can gulp down with a glass of water, but it will offer you all of the above benefits that can greatly enhance your quality of life.
Excuses, excuses, excuses…
I know what you are thinking. Those benefits sound great, but I can’t exercise because:
- Exercise is painful. Not if you do the type most suitable for you.
- Exercise is boring. Most people who exercise find it to be quite enjoyable.
- Exercise takes too long. It only takes 30-60 minutes a day.
- Exercise is confusing. Not when you work with a trained professional (me).
- Exercise if for young people. Studies have shown that exercise if for all ages.
Get Started the Right Way
Many people have started an exercise program only to quit days later. Now that you have decided that exercise may be worth your time after all, ensure your success with the following tips:
Make a Commitment
You know the meaning and value of a solid commitment. It’s in your blood. So don’t view exercise as something you will merely try. You will only reap the true benefits of exercise when you stick with it.
A great way to reinforce your commitment is to solicit the support of your friends and family. Tell them how you plan to improve your health and quality of life through exercise – who knows, they may join you.
Set Reachable Goals
This is an immensely important ingredient to your success. Don’t start your exercise program with unreasonable expectations. If you expect to lose all of your unwanted pounds and fat, drop your blood pressure and cure your joint pain all in one week then you will be sorely disappointed. Remember that it took years for your body to fall out of shape so it makes sense that it will take some time to regain it. The key to unlocking all of the benefits of exercise lies in one word: consistency. Only then will your body be transformed.
Rearrange Your Schedule
They say that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. This may be because his schedule simply didn’t allow for it. The truth is that as we age there is a tendency to become ‘stuck in our ways.’ The thought of rearranging your schedule may leave you a bit squeamish.
Remind yourself that exercise is worth your time and then think long and hard about your daily schedule. The fact is that you do have time to lend toward exercise – you simply need to find it. Set aside 30-60 minutes for exercise and then stick with it.
Increase the Challenge
You should start your exercise program with the thought of easing into it. Since you haven’t exercised in awhile your body will need to build up strength and endurance. Consider a car that has been sitting in your garage for years. You wouldn’t turn it on and instantly slam down on the gas would you? You need to warm it up.
However, this warm up period should not last forever. Your body has an amazing ability to adapt to new challenges and will grow complacent when asked to do the same exercises over and over. When your routine begins to feel easy take that as a hint to increase the challenge.
Don’t let another day pass you by. You deserve the good life. Take action now.
Nordine Zouareg is a former Mr. Universe, an International Fitness Coach, Speaker and Author of the book Mind Over Body: The Key to Lasting Weight Loss is All in Your Head! He offers world-class advice on health and fitness, inner balance and stress management, and achieving one’s full potential the inner keys to extraordinary performance. An inspiring message of hope and achievement, based on his own extraordinary story. For more information, visit: www.NordineZ.com
You get one morning and discover your arms and legs are full of unexplained itchy welts and rashes. This is unfortunate news. You have just been attacked by the enemy at your most unaware moment. The welts are proof that a bed bug has crawled all over you for a snack. If you wake up welts all over your torso, it could signify that you are now sharing living quarters with a bed bug (or an army of bed bugs), who lurk in the dark crannies of your room and stand by until you are deep in slumber to crawl out and dine on your blood.
4) Organic locally-grown vegetables: Grow your own or purchase them from a local farmers market. Another alternative is Community Supported Agriculture. Go to 
Roger Asmus entered a fitness competition and won the Mr. Teenage Colorado in 1991. He was later named Mr. Mile High in 1996 and achieved his dream when he was proudly awarded the title of Mr. Natural Colorado in 1998. Roger has been highly sought after as a model and authority in the fitness world, appearing in national news and magazines sources. Roger is currently one of the top personal trainers in the country and is president of Core Health Innovations™.
Everything you see around you was first an idea in the mind of one individual who got his mind, body and spirit involved in the process of giving life to his idea. There are universal laws we must abide to in order to manifest whatever it is we want to do, have or be. Here are two things you must start doing to trigger the law of attraction. It’s a matter of Mind Over Body.
You already know this move as a terrific leg and butt toner, but did you know that it can also get the blood flowing to the places that may energize your libido? “Sometimes your heart might be there, but you don’t feel anything in the ‘southern hemisphere,’” explains Debbie Mandel, MA, a stress and fitness expert and the author of Addicted to Stress: A Woman’s 7-Step Program to Reclaim Joy and Spontaneity in Life. “Many women need a little physical help with arousal to get blood flowing to the genitalia.” She suggests squats. With your feet spread shoulder-width apart, “make sure your heels stay on the floor as you ‘sit’ on an imaginary chair,” she explains. “The lower you squat, the more you recruit your glutes and reap the benefits. Push off from your heels and hold your abdominals in tightly [as you return to standing position].” Do them slowly, aiming for 15 to 30 reps.
Limberness goes hand in hand with great sex—after all, who wants to deal with aching legs or a stiff lower back while in the heat of the moment? That’s why Marta Montenegro, MF, MS, CSCS, NSCA-CPT, a fitness expert and the creator of the fitness DVD series Montenegro Method, suggests certain stretches to prepare you for intercourse agility between the sheets. “One of the most common reasons for lower back pain is tight hamstrings and hip flexors,” she says. “Also, after spending eight hours asleep, there is a natural inflammation of the spinal discs due to the increase of the homeostatic pressure.”
Pelvic Tilts
Biceps Curls
When it comes to fitness, Kegels count too! These pelvic-floor-strengthening exercises that your ob-gyn is always encouraging you to do can have big payoffs when it comes to sexual enjoyment, says Tone It Up cofounder Karena Dawn, a certified personal trainer in Los Angeles. “Kegels consist of contracting and relaxing the muscles in your pelvic floor,” she explains. “Improving the strength of these vaginal muscles is beneficial for greater sexual satisfaction and stronger orgasms, as well as preventing urinary or bowel incontinence and pelvic prolapse in women.” To do a proper Kegel, tighten your pelvic muscles (the ones that control the start and stop of urine). Hold for about 5 seconds, relax and then repeat. Dawn recommends doing Kegels for at least 5 minutes every day. (Psst! You can do them anywhere—even right now—and no one will know but you!)
The core is compromised of more than 20 muscles, and working them “will give you the strength to support your man’s weight without hyperextending your back,” says Montenegro. “A great exercise that works both the core and the muscles of the upper body is the roll-in, roll-out on a stability ball.” Start with your hands fully extended on the floor in a push-up-like position. Place your shins on a stability ball, keeping your back straight. Roll the ball in toward your chest and back out, using the abdominals to drag your knees toward your chest and to push your feet back out. Keep your back flat and hips tight, and don’t move your upper body. Do three sets of 10 reps.
Is there one move that can make you more sexually confident, daring and strong? Yes: the plank, a core-building exercise popular in yoga, says Madeleine Castellanos, MD, a psychiatrist who specializes in sexual medicine and sex therapy in New York City. “This exercise works upper arms, abdominals, obliques, thighs and buttocks,” she says. “These are important muscles that help stabilize you when you are engaged in intercourse on all fours, any sex position where the woman is on top, or in transition from one position to another while maintaining close genital contact with your partner.” Lay facedown with the palms of your hands flat on the floor on each side of your shoulders. In this position, your forearms should also be flat on the floor and will act as your support when you raise your body. Push your weight to the balls of your feet as you push up onto your forearms and palms so that your entire body is suspended in the air. Be careful to keep your body as straight and flat as possible, and avoid lifting your hips in the air. Hold this position for 10 seconds, then relax for a few seconds before repeating; do three sets of 10 reps.
Another yoga pose that can improve your sexual enjoyment is the bridge pose. “This exercise helps strengthen the lower back, gluteus muscles and hamstrings,” says Dr. Castellanos. “It helps enhance a woman’s sexual experience because it increases her strength and endurance in these muscles, which are used to create resistance during a man’s thrusting, thereby increasing the intensity of the thrust.” Start out lying flat on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Lay your arms to the side of your body, lift your hips up in the air and squeeze your gluteus muscles. Continue to press upward until just your upper back/shoulders, arms and feet are touching the floor. Hold this position for 10 seconds, breathing normally, then slowly lower back down to the floor and relax for a few seconds before repeating again. Aim for three sets of 10 reps each.
Do your thighs quiver during orgasm and after sex—but not in a good way? “The large muscles of the thighs are often used during sex and can get fatigued quickly since they are such a large muscle group,” says Dr. Castellanos. The solution: seated leg extensions. “Find a stable chair in which you can sit up straight and have your knees bent at a 90-degree angle with your feet flat on the floor,” she says. “While keeping your thigh and knee as steady as possible, lift one foot up to straighten your leg slowly, then bring it back down to the floor. Do three sets of 10 reps for each leg.
It’s that time of year again – holiday season! Here’s something to look forward to: between Turkey day and the New Year the average person will gain between 7 and 10 pounds. The good news is that you can avoid these additional pounds with a little know how.
“What fits your extremely busy schedule better, exercising one hour a day or being dead twenty four hours a day?”
Most of us are under the misconception that fit people work hard and spend most of their lives deprived in order to achieve their amazing bodies. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Your Fitness Boundaries
