How do you adjust your exercises as you get older?
Let’s face it, as we get older things get harder to do. Running a mile may feel like 6 miles, an hour long workout leaves you breathless and even pushing the lawn mower is harder to do than it was years ago. But just because we are getting older, doesn’t mean we should stop exercising. As a matter of fact, the opposite is true. It is important to keeping moving as we get older!
We envy the youthful, but age is mind over matter. Of course, it is true that we lose muscle and bone and that our heart becomes stiffer (causing shortness of breath when physically active). But even though physically we can’t lift as much weight as we used to or dance the night away like we did in our 20s, there are certainly activities to keep you feeling and looking good.
Physical activity becomes increasingly important as we age. As we lose muscle over time, our metabolism slows down when we get older, so burning off calories becomes more of a challenge. Plus with age we discover our years of bad habits have caught up with us….too much salt, sugary drinks, smoking, etc all now take a toll on the “adult” us. We can’t get in a time machine but we can try to make good on our future. Withering leg muscles (due to combined effect of muscle loss with aging and physical inactivity) means inability to walk and loss of independence.
Many organizations have activities for seniors: churches, YMCA, and other groups encourage older adults to keep moving and in a fun way. Zumba Gold is specifically designed for older adults. Even senior living centers have exercises for the elderly, sometime just Wii (video game) bowling offers a way to move about and keep the blood flowing.
The American Diabetes Association says aging is the most universal contributor to the onset of disease such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke. Insulin resistance is a major component of metabolic syndrome and is commonly seen in older adults.
Bone density begins to diminish as early as age 30-40 and loss of bone density means your bones are more fragile and likely to break. Your blood vessels and arteries also become stiffer making your heart work harder to pump blood through them. High blood pressure is a result of this. As we age muscles lose strength and flexibility .
So this all sounds like terrible news, right? Wrong. Although aging is a fact of life, you can still enjoy your senior years. Your diet is important in maintaining a healthy lifestyle: increase your calcium, vitamin D and eat a healthy diet. Getting enough sleep and managing stress will also help. And move! Yes, physical activity is important. You may not be able to run a marathon anymore, but taking walks certainly will help. Swimming is a fantastic exercise that is easy on joints. Yoga and Pilates are also easy on joints and non-cardio types of exercise. They may help with balance and flexibility as well, preventing the risk of a fall. Take a dance class...you will burn calories, get the heart pumping and probably have fun while doing it! If you can’t find a class, just stretch at home, or find a video to help you get started. A walking club in the neighborhood could also be a fun social activity and a healthy endeavor.
It doesn’t have to be fancy or cost a lot of money, but the key is to keep moving! Once you slow down, it is harder to get back on track. Talk to your physician for more ideas, he or she will be happy to hear you are not going to let age keep you down! Jack LaLane was 96 when he died and his family says he had been performing his daily workout routine the day before his death. We all have to pass from this life at some point, but going through life happy and HEALTHY is a much better way to live.
To your health!
Dr. Anthony
Top Must Have Ideas to Exercise at Work!
Just because you have to sit at a desk all day long at work, it doesn’t mean you can’t sneak in some exercise. Many employers have long been encouraging their staff to stay healthy. And some new office furniture may look like it is from the future - but this future, be sure, is coming very soon! Not only is it useful to get some exercise during your workday, it is a MUST! It is actually a surprise that for so long we have been wasting the longest part of our wakefulness (while working) sitting and expecting that when we return home after an exhaustive day of work and faced with home chores we will be spending an hour on treadmill! The “sitting disease” is bound to suffer a serious blow at the workplace.
So, now the entire world needs to respond aggressively and effectively to the obesity-diabetes epidemic. Creating opportunities for physical activity during our working daily schedule is one of the most untapped opportunities for increasing our daily physical activity. Replacing sitting at the workplace is becoming probably the most significant development in our fight against the health challenges of our time. We can no longer sit for 8 – 10 hours a day!
Let’s start with the easiest and most traditional way to get in some exercise at work...use your lunch break to get moving. Form a group of workers who want to walk during their lunch hour. Maybe you take 30 minutes to eat and the other 30 is spent walking outside. Not only will the fresh air and movement do you good, but it is a chance to catch up with friends. Furthermore, some offices offer gyms in their building which is a perk but only if you take advantage of it. Yet another idea is to take a 3 minute “exercise break” a few times during the day. If you have an area you can go to, take 3 minutes to get in jumping jacks, squats and jogging in place. What about, wall squats or calf raises while waiting at the copy machine, dips using your desk, leg lifts and even squeezing and tightening your buttocks while you sit. And if you have the choice of the elevator or stairs, take the stairs.
And then there is the “new kid in town” - Pieces of office furniture that allow you to work out while you are doing your job! Here are just a few examples:
A treadmill desk; it can briefly challenge your balance but have no worries; once you get used to it will run smooth and will not disrupt at all your job; you will be able to remain focus on the project and hand while shedding lots of calories
Standing desks, walking mats, and exercise balls in place of chairs are all new and available ways to use at work, a win-win situation for your employer who wants to promote the health of his employees and yourself who are desperately looking for those 40 minutes of exercise a day your doctor has been advising you for so long.
A bike desk is a unique way to work also. It looks like a stationary bike, with a desk attached. Elliptical work desks and ab-focused workout chairs are good choices too for sneaking in exercise at work.
As all this is new and there is, of course, resistance to change, it is possible that your employer has not incorporated any type of exercise equipment or furniture. Once they get over the unconventional, but great new workplace environment, they are likely to embrace it, some sooner than others. Rest assure, this new look and functionality in the workplace will soon become standard practice. After all, your employer knows all too well that a healthy employee is a happy and more productive employee!
To your health!
Dr. Anthony
Fitness Trackers … Are they worth it?
The newest rage in fitness is the fitness tracker. They range in price from around $30.00 to several hundred dollars. Do they work? Are they worth the money? And what exactly are they “tracking”?
The fitness tracker is a wearable device that will track everything from your steps, your sleep, your heart rate, blood pressure or oxygen level and even your sweat. It may reveal that you need to “step it up” (pun intended) or that you are on track to your fitness goals. It is available in app form as well and/or will work in conjunction with an app or your smart device. For most people, it is a reminder that you need to do more, and to some a surprise, that they have not been doing enough!
The fitness trackers are usually in the form of a band (usually worn on your wrist, ankle or neck) and they track your progress. One brand will light up to show your progress, another will display a red move bar after one hour of inactivity acting like a personal coach. A sweat tracking wearable is attached to the skin of your leg.
Shape magazine reported a recent survey by the NPD Group showed 58 percent of women who were asked intend to buy one of these devices. The most sought after features: counting calories and tracking the number of steps taken in a day.
I believe that the most important benefit of a fitness tracker is that it signals your determination to be directly involved in your own health and to start monitoring it. This is a much bigger step than most people would think. A great example is the number of steps you take in a day; taking at least 10,00 steps a day means that you meet or exceed the minimum exercise requirements of 150 minutes per week, an important milestone in healthy living. The 10,000 steps a day is also part of the “Step Diet”, a relatively straightford combination of physical activity and diet to help you lose weight. Exercise can also help you reduce your blood pressure (which can also be monitored by some wearables) and, thus, reduce the chances of heart attack, stroke and kidney disease.
Tracking your fitness is valuable; it can bring you back to reality. Maybe walking down the hall for that cup of coffee at work is not walking enough even though you pat yourself on the back for getting up and moving. Fitness trackers or apps can be the extra kick in the pants to help get you on the right path, but only YOU can make the changes you need.
There are a few issues that come along with the benefits of the fitness trackers. One is that they are not always very accurate. They can miss the number of steps you took and can tell you that you did not get enough sleep even if you did. Their data may also be too much to handle and can cause some confusion. There are technical improvements on the way that can improve the accuracy of these devices. And you don’t have to get caught up in the entire amount of information the tracker is telling you. You body, body weight and waist circumference, are good indicators of your health report card and complements the information from your wearable.
In Abdobesity, I write that “diagnosis is extremely important in medical care because it reveals the seriousness of the illness and suggests those treatments that are most likely to help the sick person.” While a tracker or app or device cannot diagnose a problem, they may be able to indicate if there is an issue with something such as blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, etc. If this is the case, discuss it with your physician. Your doctor can delve deeper to uncover what the issue is and what can be done to help with the problem at hand.
As always, be your own health advocate. Choose wisely. A fitness tracker is definitely an important step forward, but you may not need to pay too much for all the bells and whistles. Use your wearable to keep you in check, get moving or “coach” you to a healthy lifestyle. Just don’t rely on it as the end-all-be-all to good health.
To your health!
Dr. Anthony