Reducing Disabilities in 60-somethings!

A recent study revealed that more people are entering their sixties with disabilities.

The study from UCLA looked at basic activities of daily living such as walking throughout the house, climbing stairs, mobility, and simple household tasks.  It appears that those in this age group are seeing an increase in disabilities related to these activities.

Besides the obvious advice to remain physically active to help reduce this occurrence, I would offer some specific recommendations:

Getting up from a chair or getting out of bed - practice bodyweight squats to keep your lower body both strong and flexible.  Hold onto something for support if necessary - assisted squats with a suspension trainer like the TRX will work.

The same goes for the typical loss of mobility that may occur with aging - Move it or Lose it!  Don't spend all your time sitting.

If you can't go anywhere to walk than walk up and down the stairs several times throughout the day.  Remember, exercise doesn't have to be 30 minutes of continuous activity to be effective, according to recent guidelines set forth by the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association.

Doing step up exercises with your own bodyweight or dumbbells will help maintain leg strength and balance - both are crucial to maintaining mobility and preventing falls.  Resistance (strength) training is also key to maintaining joint stability and bone health.

Most strength programs for those over 50 involve exercises in a seated or lying position.  There are a couple of problems with this:  One, these positions don't require you to develop coordination or balance in a standing position, which is where most activities of daily living occur.

Two, exercise done while seated places more stress on your back, according to spine studies done in the '70's.  Seated exercises in positions of poor posture places even more stress on the spine.  Since most people in this age group have had postural changes, I think you can see the risk  potential here.

The first step is to maintain an active lifestyle, including some form of resistance training.  For those who have already lost some mobility and strength, you would be advised to work with a professional who can guide you safely through some type of program.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

Potent Combo for Osteoporosis and Fall Prevention:

In order to keep your bone mass as you age, you have to put adequate stress on your skeletal system, which means some type of resistance training.

Resistance (strength) training can build and maintain lean muscle tissue, as well as maintain your mobility as you age.  This also helps with fall prevention, especially if you build strength in a standing position.

Whole body vibration platforms have been shown to be a legitimate method for building or maintaining bone density in post-menopausal women.  In one study, two groups of women did conventional strength training or vibration training to determine the effects.

The group using vibration training increased their bone density 1.5% at the hip and maintained their bone mass at the spine in a 24 week period.  The conventional training group had no significant increase. 

Oftentimes, we see those 50 and older exercising on weight machines that have them sitting or lying down.  For fall prevention, this doesn't have as much carryover as exercises done in a standing position.  Exercises done in a standing position require multiple joints and muscles to work together, increasing coordination.

In my opinion, this also provides greater stress to the bones, which can help prevent osteoporosis or osteopenia.  Exercises on a whole body vibration platform can include single and double leg exercises to challenge balance and build coordination.  They create a hyper-gravity state, where the force of gravity going through your body is increased.

This is typically done in a static (still) position and then you can add in squats and stepup exercises on the ground to build dynamic strength.  This combination offers the best of both worlds.




A third component could include stepping exercise done on the X-iser.  This involves burst training which simulates sprinting, without the impact.  Besides putting positive stress on the bones, this type of exercise increases balance and naturally increases levels of growth hormone, which decreases with age.

Muscle power decreases with aging and needs to be trained.  How fast your muscles contract (react) can be the difference between falling and maintaining your balance.  You also need some specific exercises to keep the density in your upper back.

Strength Training for Baby Boomers:

Why is strength training important for Baby Boomers? A couple reasons...... one, keeping your metabolism from slowing down too much.

Remember when you were back in your twenties and possibly even your thirties, when you didn't have to do that much to stay looking young? Well, your metabolism probably started slowing down in your mid to late 30's, and now it takes some work to keep your metabolism elevated.

This is where strength (resistance) training comes into play. Building lean muscle tissue with resistance training is key to lowering your bodyfat levels. You naturally lose muscle as you get older, so to keep as much as possible takes some work.

Strength training is also crucial to fat loss. Cardiovascular exercise is usually promoted as necessary for burning fat, but it is not the "end all, be all" to fat loss. You can burn plenty of fat with interval strength training.

This is where you would go from one exercise to the next with little to no rest in between exercises. For example, you would go from an upper body exercise to a lower body exercise and repeating this type of sequence.

By using exercises that involve multiple muscles - such as pushups, assisted pullups, squats, and lunges - you burn more calories. This also enables you to get a cardiovascular effect, because your heart rate is elevated the entire session. This is a little different than routines that isolate different bodyparts on different days.

With my clients, I combine bodyweight exercises, with dumbbells and resistance bands, along with the Power Plate. A Power Plate is a whole body vibration platform that causes reflex muscle contractions to occur, from 25-50 muscle contractions a second, depending on the frequency.

This type of workout allows you to work the entire body in about 25 minutes, making it pretty efficient. It also allows you to get fat loss results in 2-3 sessions per week, when combined with some walking or bike riding on the other days. These routines also involve plenty of core training, which is important for preventing low back injuries.

Another reason to do some resistance training is for joint strength and bone mass. Its no secret that women are prone to osteoporosis after menopause, but men can also lose some bone mass if they are too sedentary. Strength training is needed for maintaining maximal bone density, as well as keeping their joints strong and stable.

Strength is also a big reason for loss of mobility as you age. Getting up from a chair, going up stairs, and keeping your balance as you walk is mostly about how strong your muscles are. Again, if you don't do anything to prevent this, you are taking an unnecessary risk.

This is also where a Power Plate comes into play, as it builds strength, stability, and coordination into your lower body. It does this without spending hours and hours at a gym or healthclub.




If you want to read about resistance training slowing down the aging process, click here.

Walking is Good for Your Health:

After a looong Winter, today's temperatures of 60 degrees here in the Midwest felt like I was in the Tropics. Many people were outside enjoying the Sun and after lounging on the couch all afternoon, I went down to the bike path next to the Mighty Mississippi.

The path had a lot of water in various places, which should be expected with all the snow we've had. Just being outside and walking in decent weather more than made up for the puddles, mud, and goose crap. I think these geese have forgotten that they are Canadian and spend most of their time down here.

I like to use walking as my "cardio" activity. I also do a lot of joint mobility movements, which are like a Westernized version of Tai Chi. Since I weigh 240 lbs. walking is pretty good exercise for me. I usually walk at a fairly quick pace but I don't worry about monitoring my heart rate or anything like that.

At my size walking is a great way to get my daily movement quota and enjoy the outdoors at the same time. Somebody of my weight would run the risk of overuse injuries to their muscles and joints by jogging too much.

Just to give you an example, if I took a walk with someone who weighed 120 pounds and we walked the same pace for the same length of time, I would be doing twice as much work. My calorie burn might not be exactly double - I'd have to break out my old college text books - but I would definitely burn significantly more calories.

In case you're not familiar with my writing, I'm not a big advocate of doing regular cardio activity. Steady state cardio is fine if you are preparing for endurance competition, but is overrated for fat loss in my opinion. Yes, you can find many runners who are very lean, but you can also find many people who do cardio only workouts who are not that lean. Some have a downright "soft" appearance.

If you are walking or doing the elliptical machine because that is all your joints can handle, than that is fine. I believe most people with physical limitations should still do light walking or some type of water exercise to keep their muscles and joints from getting even stiffer. If this is your case, start out with mild walking for 10-15 minutes and slowly build up your exercise endurance.

Any movement should help you feel better and give some health benefits. If you are currently doing nothing, 15 minutes of daily movement can still benefit you. It increases the circulation to your muscles and joints, lubricating your joints in synovial fluid. This movement will also increase the circulation of your lymphatic system, which unlike the blood, is totally dependent on motion to push lymphatic fluid through your body, helping remove toxins.

I actually get most of my cardio from my strength training workouts. By choosing exercises that involve several muscles such as pushups, pullups, squats, and lunges, I can get my heart rate up fairly easily. I combine these exercises into a circuit where I go from one exercise to the next with little rest in between. By doing this I get a lot of work done in about 30 minutes, with my heart rate elevated the entire time.

This way I get cardiovascular benefits at the same time I strengthen my muscles.....and bones. Don't forget about bone mass. Baby Boomers should be concerned as much about keeping their bone mass as they should about keeping their hearts healthy. This efficient exercise, known as interval training, allows me to get a lot of work done in a short amount of time, ensuring that lack of time is no excuse for not exercising.

So if not planning on running half marathons or triathlons, interval training and interval cardio exercise is more efficient and more manageable for most busy people, provided you are healthy enough for this more intense activity.

Then, you can take nice enjoyable walks to add in a little extra calorie burning. You can also use this time to relax and spend time with someone else or just clear your own mind and reduce your stress levels, something we all could use in this fast-paced world of ours.

Strengthening Muscles Will Reduce Falls:

This is the title of a syndicated article that appeared in the paper this week. You may recall the article on Balance 101 that I did last week. Interesting timing. I'm not the only one that finds this topic interesting.

Someone wrote the authors of this article with a question about osteoporosis. She is 53 and recently diagnosed with this loss of bone mass and her 80 year old mother had fallen and broken a hip.

Did you know that for people 65 and older, fall related injuries are the leading cause of accidental death?

Osteoporosis is related to bone fractures in this population. Slowed reflexes, decreased balance, and weak muscles also play a role. The authors advise strength training to help reduce this risk of falls. Sound familiar?

They also point out that those with sore joints should keep moving to keep things from getting worse. I couldn't agree more. Movement is medicine, in my mind. You may have to choose activities that don't place a lot of stress on your joints, such as swimming or water exercise.

They mention things that can affect your balance, such as poor eyesight, poor posture and medications. I guess I'm not the only one who thinks that poor posture needs to be worked on.

Muscle weakness, balance and reflex issues can all be prevented in most cases with regular strength training. If you do regular strength training before you reach your 50's, you will reduce the chance of having problems with osteoporosis and falling in the first place.

If you already have some issues you can start with gradual exercises that involve your bodyweight, such as step-ups, squats, and bridges. If you don't already have these problems, don't wait until you do, to try and fix them. Try a little prevention.

Click here to read my article on Balance 101 - fall prevention.

Golf Fitness - Chasing Tiger:

You may never play golf like Tiger Woods but you can play better by focusing on your fitness levels. Yesterday, while flipping channels on the TV and occasionally napping, I caught some golf action. Phil Mickelson ended up winning this particular tournament.

One of the commentators noticed a much slimmer Mickelson and also said that his playing partner had lost weight. Its no secret that Tiger Woods is the best golfer in the world. Its also no secret that he works hard to stay in shape.

Yes, he works hard on his golf game and is highly skilled and also highly driven. This hard work carries over to his fitness workouts. You can take one look at his physique to see that this is the case. While many golfers have less than impressive physiques - John Daly comes to mind - staying fit has definitely helped Tiger.

Besides adding some power to your swing, doing some strength training will help support your lower back, an area vulnerable to injury. Between the speed of the golf swing and all the twisting, your low back is at risk of injury.

So if you aren't looking to take on Tiger or any of the PGA players you can still benefit from some off the course training. Flexibility is definitely needed and often lost as you get older. Strength is also gradually lost without specific training. Baby Boomers and Seniors looking to play golf as long as possible should consider a golf fitness program.

This would include core training to support and strengthen your back. Simple exercises with dumbbells and/or bodyweight will help with your strength and also help your muscles from getting too stiff. You don't have to start a bodybuilding program and you don't have to spend hours at the gym, either.

You should be doing something to stay healthy and fight the aging process anyway, but if that isn't your priority for whatever reason, it will definitely improve your golf game and reduce your risk of injury. Let's face it.... you can't play much golf if your back is sore.

For more info check out these articles:

joint mobility training, golf fitness, core training for a strong back and abs

Neck Pain and Strength Training:

A recent article reported in Science Daily looked at the effects of specific strength training for the neck, in regards to reducing pain. Neck pain has been increasing steadily in the last two decades, making it second only to back pain as far as muscular problems.

Women are more likely than men to suffer from persistent neck pain. The seated workplace setting is getting some of the blame. Time spent in front of the computer can put pressure on the neck and back, as you lean forward to do your work.

The study was done in Denmark and looked at assembly line and office workers. 79% of these used a keyboard for more than 75% of their work. The exercisers were put into two groups - one that did specific strengthening for the neck and shoulders and a group that did general fitness workouts.

The group that did specific neck work saw significantly greater results, but the other group did see some reduction in pain, although to a lesser degree. The researchers noted that even a temporary reduction in pain is beneficial and the increased fitness levels from general exercise would have overall health benefits.

This would seem to back up my assertion of the importance of posture in preventing pain and injury. When sitting at a desk for long periods of time it's near impossible to sit up straight the entire time, especially when leaning forward to work on a computer (as I am doing right now as I write this).

When you lean forward for long periods of time, whether sitting or standing, you put extra stress on the joints of your neck and back. If this is part of your work requirements than you should understand this and try to make your work space as ergonomically efficient as possible. You may need some type of lumbar support or roll for your low back.

You also have to realize that maintenance work for your body is a must! This would include basic strengthening exercises, as well as posture and mobility training to balance out your body. Our bodies are pretty amazing, but they aren't maintenance free.

Chiropractic care and/or massage therapy can certainly help, but you need to do some movement on your own for optimal joint health. For the neck, simple movements such as joint mobility can help reduce tension in your muscles and move fluids in your joints and muscles, keeping them from getting too stiff.

I'm finishing up my DVD on joint mobility movements and will have several movements to help stretch and strengthen your neck.

Strength Training and Fat Loss:

What's the best way? Or is there more than one way to achieve fat loss through strength (resistance) training? Let's take a look.

There is more than one way to strength train for fat loss. First, let me say that if fat loss is your goal, you really need to be doing some type of resistance training. This will build your lean muscle tissue, keeping your metabolism elevated throughout the day, even after you are done exercising.

I've had more than a few people, mostly women, tell me that they didn't want to get too big. I'm here to tell 'ya, it just ain't that easy to build muscle. If it were, you wouldn't have so many athletes using or being accused of using anabolic steroids, growth hormone, and testosterone.

If it was so easy to build muscle, none of these things would matter. But they are being used, so obviously it takes a lot of hard work and occasionally some extra help - whether it's legal or healthy is another story.

Anyway, what equipment works best for fat loss? It's all up to you. You can use weight machines, either at a healthclub or at home, dumbbells, resistance bands, your own bodyweight, or even sandbags. Yes that's right, I said sandbags. The reality is you are working your muscles against some type of resistance, doing more work than your body is used to.

It will adapt by increasing your lean muscle tissue, elevating your metabolism, and burning more fat in the process. Also, you will see inches drop from your body, as muscle tissue is denser than fat.

So there is more than one way to achieve this and fancy equipment isn't necessary, as long as you are willing to work hard. I realize not everyone can do this because of past injury or disease, and that is where whole body vibration platforms, such as a Powerplate come into play.

For another look at using weight machines versus simple equipment that strengthens your body in a standing position, check out my new article. By the way, strength training done in a standing position might be safer for your back.

Why Women Need Strength Training

A recent article in the paper talked about a couple of women who were pumping iron for their health. One of these women recently competed in a national weightlifting competition, in the 65-69 age group. The other, 59, also competed in this national event. The older of the two lost about 80 pounds after getting into an exercise program that included strength training.

Strength training is important as you age, both to keep your mobility and to keep bones strong. It is also important for keeping your metabolism elevated and losing weight. Whether using weights, tubing, or just the weight of your own body as resistance, strength or resistance training is necessary to help fight anti-aging.

This is important for both men and women. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons recommends strength training with weight-bearing and resistive exercise for all age groups. If you want to reduce your chances of falling or losing your mobility as you get older, you need proper strength. You definitely need to work on your mobility and flexibility to keep your muscles and joints from getting stiff.

Strength training is also important in staying lean. Your muscles burn calories all day long and can keep your metabolism from slowing down too much as you age. You will lose some muscle tissue no matter what, but if nothing is done, you will lose more than necessary.

I remember seeing a report on aging a while back that featured a woman who was 101 years old. She exercised on a regular basis, including strength training. She was very mobile, independent, and energetic, still singing in her church choir. She led a busy life and appeared no older than 80. So is exercise and proper strength training a good way to fight the aging process? Maybe you should ask 92 year old fitness pioneer Jack LaLanne. The guy looks pretty healthy to me.

While the two women mentioned earlier were involved in weightlifting competitions, that isn't necessary. Working your muscles against some form of resistance that challenges them is what's important. That could be dumbbells or just your own bodyweight. It doesn't require expensive equipment.

Ideally, at least half of your training should occur in a standing position, because this is where movement occurs, on your feet. By standing you work on your balance at the same time you build strength. Only working on machines where you lie or sit down takes away the balance aspect, which is important to avoiding falls, no matter what your age

Strength training will make it easier to go up stairs, get up from a chair, or bend over and pick something up, things that give some seniors problems. Problems that can be avoided by most with just a little work on their part. Remember, the focus should be on prevention!