Tag Archive for: exercise

Excuses for Avoiding the Gym

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The New Year is upon us and with that, a commitment by many to exercise regularly. No matter where you live, that may involve joining a gym, but all gyms are not created equal. What you need, besides a convenient location and reasonable price, is a facility that provides you with the equipment you need to accomplish your goals and short-circuits your excuses.

“I don’t know what to do.”
I’m going to challenge conventional thinking in how you solve that problem: once you have clearance from your physician to exercise, ask for a referral to a physical therapist. He or she will work with you to determine the best exercises for your body and your history, especially the more years you have in your body. Broken bones, sprains, strains, injuries, gaining weight, losing weight—we all have a physical history. If you have a problem with the mechanics of your body or reinjure yourself, that will impact your ability to exercise, so begin with a physical therapist if possible.

Paula and I both have done that. Once we worked with our physical therapist to find what exercises to do on which machines or weights or tubes, we selected a gym which had the resistance and aerobic equipment most suited to our needs. I still do the exercises I was shown and I’ve been running for close to a year with no time off for injuries. That’s the longest I haven’t been forced to take time off.

You may even find out you don’t need a gym; walking or running plus exercises you can do at home may be all you need. Your physical therapist will get you headed in the right direction. The downside: if you’re exercising at home you can do it anytime, and that may lead to eternal procrastination. If you’re letting exercise slide day after day, maybe you need a more formal workout setting.

“I just don’t feel comfortable there.”
Think about how your social needs may affect your adherence to your workout plan as well. Paula reads while she bikes and I listen to podcasts on the treadmill so a big gym works for us, but you may need a more social environment with friends to keep you honest and engaged.

“It’s too far.”
Another factor is location. When Paula worked out on the way home from her job, she found that the farther the gym was from work, the less likely she was to get there; it was too easy to run errands on the way and never quite make it to the gym.

“I got hurt and I’m too sore, so I can’t exercise.”
Besides getting input from your physical therapist, here’s the most important advice I can give you: start slow. If you begin by doing too much, you’ll be sore or injured and you’ll be out. Your objective is to keep going—it’s a marathon, not a sprint—so an easy start is your best plan.

It turned out that Planet Fitness works for Paula and me: plenty of resistance equipment and all the aerobic machines we could want at a very reasonable price. I also must add that there are more really overweight people working out at the Planet than anywhere I’ve ever been, which I love to see.

For you, it may be someplace different; maybe you’ll do better with swimming and workout classes at the Y. The important point is to select your gym by what you need and you might find it becomes a lifetime habit.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

2018 Health Goals: Part 2

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Now that you’ve written it down your health goal or goals for 2018, I have a question for you. Were your health goals really what you’d like to change about your health or was it limited by your thought process?

Here’s what I mean. Did you write down your goals or did you start to analyze your goal? You might think I’m talking about the what of the goal. I’m not; I’m talking about the how of your goal. It might go something like this:

“I really want to lose weight and finally get rid of the extra pounds I’ve gained. But to do that, I’ve got to be able to exercise and my knee is so bad, I can’t. Maybe I should see about getting my knee fixed first. But I don’t have any health coverage right now so I can’t afford it. I guess I’ll have to start by losing the weight, but how am I going to do that? There are so many diets, and I don’t know which to choose. Some of them are expensive, and I can’t afford that either. Maybe I’ll check out some programs online that don’t cost very much.”

You go from the goal—what you really want—to something that may be standing in your way that you have to do first. Instead of focusing on your goal, and you very well may have to address some of these issues, you pick something else you have to do first.

Let’s use the exercise obstacle to weight loss. My example picked the most complicated way of dealing with the issue, getting the knee repaired, instead of finding what you can do to exercise right now. You can do upper body exercise, swimming, or pool walking to relieve the pressure on your knee. Where there’s a goal, there’s a way, but you start with the what, not the how.

Now take another look at your health goals. If you allowed your thinking to get in your way, write down what you really want. You’ll figure out the how later, but it shouldn’t affect your goal setting.

Saturday I’ll focus on one goal that concerns many of us: keeping our brains as healthy and functional as we can for as long as we can.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Let’s Go!

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Riley, my pretend grandson, is learning to talk; he’s taking his time about it, but he’s got a few things down pat. Paula says he’s the only child she’s ever known who used verbs before he used nouns, and his favorite verb is go.

Whenever he hears anything that sounds like “shoes,” he perks up and asks, “Shoes?” If I tell him, “Go get your shoes,” he’s off like a rocket to find them. Then he brings them to me and wants me to put them on him. As soon as I do, he runs to the front door and starts saying, “Let’s go!”

RileysWalk2I’ll admit there are times I’m not crazy about going out in 85-degree muggy weather, but I can’t look into those big blue eyes and say no. So off we go! I’m teaching him boundaries because he wants to go everywhere and get there fast; he’d barely learned to walk when he started running. He’s learning stop and if he doesn’t, he has to hold my hand. But it’s a joy to see a toddler, or anyone really, who wants to move so much.

Whether you’re a parent or a grandparent, getting kids to move early in life is important. But you have to be able to keep up with them, and that means you have to be fit as well. Do you really want to say Daddy or Grandma is too tired? Of course that will happen sometimes, but it should be rare. By the way, going with them counts as exercise for you, too.

That means you have to take care of you first. If you do, when you hear, “Let’s go!” you’ll be ready to go.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

How to Live to Your 90s

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Today’s message is based on my father-in-law, Don Jones, or Joner as most of us knew him. As I said Wednesday, he passed away last Sunday. He lived to 94 years and six months; Peggy, the sister he was closest to, died at the exact same age. How was he able to live that long? I’ll give you my observations based on his life.

  • Genetics: it pays to have the right genes and Dad certainly did. Several of his siblings lived into their 90s.
  • Quit smoking: he quit smoking before he turned 21 years old. That’s probably the single most important thing he did. His father and siblings who smoked all died much younger. He never drank alcohol after that either.
  • Love: he loved his wife of over 70 years deeply, and as I said Wednesday, he longed to be with Ruth again. That’s a love that transcends life itself.
  • Humor: he had a great sense of humor. He gave it and was able to take it as well. My big ears were a frequent target. Once after we came in from a run together on a cold day, he said, “I know why you wear that headband: reduce wind resistance.”
  • Demeanor: he was almost always calm and pleasant and rarely showed any anger. Paula said when she was a kid and acted up, he’d just hang his head and sigh, and that hurt worse than any spanking. Once when he was mad at me, he showed it by leaving the newspaper at the top of the steps instead of putting it on the counter. He never stayed mad long.
  • Faith: he believed in God and lived his faith.
  • Exercise: he worked physical jobs most of his life. Then he began running when he was 70 and continued until he was in his mid-80s, hitting 700 miles for 2002. No doubt that helped him live longer than he might have with a genetic tendency toward stroke. He was never very fast but once you’re over 70, there’s not a lot of competition and he enjoyed picking up trophies at many of his 5Ks. I’m sure that competitive spirit added zest to his life.
  • Body weight: he was never fat for his height. That reduced any additional stress on his joints.

Those are my observations on how Joner lived into his 90s. While you can’t change your genes, you can certainly make the most of what you’ve got; his lifestyle and approach to life certainly helped my father-in-law.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Should You Exercise During Pregnancy?

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While everyone wants a healthy baby, many women would like to control their weight gain and avoid gestational diabetes during pregnancy. That’s why I noticed one more article in the Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise issue I read; in addition, I’ve recording the updated Healthy Babies: From Conception to Breastfeeding audio and want to include the latest research.

Researchers examined data from three studies on the effects of exercise on pregnant women. The first study included land-based exercises, the second was water-based exercises, and the third was a combination. They were compared with a control group of pregnant women who didn’t exercise. Here’s what researchers discovered:

  • Women who exercise in any way gained less weight; while it’s necessary to gain some weight while you grow a little person inside you, exercise helped women keep their weight from exceeding desirable levels.
  • Women who performed water exercises or a combination of water and land exercise had fewer cases of gestational diabetes. The authors theorized that because of the buoyancy factor of the water, women perceived water exercise as being less strenuous on the back and other joints and were able to exercise more.

The message is clear, ladies: it’s important to keep moving while you’re pregnant, under the guidance of your physician, of course. And it seems you can get even more benefits if you can work out in a pool. It’s a great investment in yourself and your life with your little one. And men, it wouldn’t hurt you to get in the pool, too—now that I have a two-year-old grandson, I have a new respect for the physical demands of fatherhood and you need to be ready.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: MSSE. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001234

 

Does Exercise Reduce Libido?

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A recent health headline said that strenuous exercise reduces a man’s libido. I would propose that nothing gets men’s attention—and probably quite a few women—more than sex. Should you be worried?

Researchers conducted an online survey targeting men that included questions about demographics, exercise habits, and sexual libido. What they found was that as exercise training increased, male libido decreased. The amount of exercise per week, the intensity of the exercise, and the number of years in serious training all seemed to play a factor in libido levels. The more serious their training for longer periods of time, the more affect on their libido.

Here’s the thing: this really applies only to serious marathoners or triathletes that spend over an hour training every day. What should have made headlines is that if men exercise at low or moderate levels, their libido is normal. What they didn’t even hint at was this: moderate exercise can increase energy and the all-important blood flow as well as making men and women feel better about themselves, all positives when we’re talking about libido. There’s nothing sexy about a couch potato.

This headline was based on just a survey with no hormonal measures, but it seems that a brisk walk or jog an hour a day is about right. It all comes down to this:

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet
Reference: MSSE. 2017 Feb 13. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001235

How Exercise Affects Menopause: Heart and Brain

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In the last post, I talked about the effects of menopause on the muscles and bones; in short, the changes in the muscles reduce physical abilities, and exercise can help that. But there’s another factor when it comes to physical performance: the heart and cardiovascular system. Once a women passes 30, her aerobic capacity declines every decade. That means oxygen doesn’t reach the muscles and brain as often. Her physical reserves wane.

Exercise can have a positive impact on the heart . . .

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How Exercise Affects Menopause: Muscle and Bone

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In Tuesday’s post, we looked at how menopause affects exercise. Today and Saturday we’ll look at the reverse because exercise can have powerful effects on the changes we associate with menopause.

As a woman ages, she loses bone mineral content due to decreasing hormone levels. Her muscles change as well; fast-twitch muscle fibers become more like slow-twitch fibers. Women can’t run as fast . . .

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How Menopause Affects Exercise: Thirst

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Dr. Peggy Whitson is an astronaut on her third extended mission on the International Space Station. If her current mission ends as planned, she will be the astronaut with more time in space than any other. She just completed her 7th spacewalk to install three new lithium-ion batteries. This is nothing like changing the batteries in the remote; each battery is about the size of half of a refrigerator and takes hours to install. And, oh, by the way, Dr. Watson is 56 years old.

By all accounts, she is fit, with an avid interest in weight training and . . .

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Rule 3: Move More

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While I absolutely believe that we need to eat less and eat better, the one thing that can help you faster than anything else is exercise. Changes in how your body responds to insulin happen within three days. Your heart rate and blood pressure start to decrease within a week. Even your digestive system will work better.

To help you out, there are two papers I wrote in the Health Info section of my website. Interval . . .

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