Improve Your Balance and Have Some Fun

As we age our muscles get weaker if they don’t get challenged. As a lifelong fitness buff I have always done conventional weights and cardio. The more I work with seniors the more I see the need to work the muscles that effect our balance.

The first place to start is with the feet and then the ankles. After that we can work on the legs and hips. The good news is that many of the exercises that help one area will also build strength in other areas as well.

A good example is standing on one foot. Go to the corner of a room or stand by something you can grab when you need to steady yourself. Lift one foot and count so you can access tangibly how well you’re doing. You may only last five seconds but don’t worry improvement is guaranteed as you practice.

 

The surprise for many is how hard this is on the feet and ankles. Every time you sway corrections are made by tiny movements, from the feet all the way up to the hips. This is one way you can work multiple muscle groups by just doing one move.

The next thing is to try various things while standing on one foot. Swing your arms over your head like “The Wave” at sporting events. Lift your arms out to the sides up to your ears. Do some curls while alternating hands. If you do this in front of a clock with a second hand you can keep track of how well you’re progressing.

If you want to have some fun, get a Swiss Ball. These come in various sizes and colors and only cost about $20. You can do a whole workout while seated on these balls and when that gets easy, try lifting one foot while doing the exercises. One of my favorites is to lay on the ball with the ball under you stomach. Start with the feet and hands touching the ground. Lift the right arm and the left leg at the same time and hold for a

second or two then switch. This will not only improve your balance but work more muscles than almost any other exercise you can think of.

Finally for the advanced: get a Bosu Ball. These are the blue half dome balls that you can stand on. Without exception this is the best piece of exercise equipment for the advanced fitness buff who want a challenge. They cost about $100 but you can do about 50-60 real tough and effective exercise that you can’t do with anything else. Look forward to more info on the Bosu Ball in future blog entries.

The Best Reason to Exercise You've Never Heard

Most people who call a personal trainer are looking to lose weight and tone up. There are lots of people who want to look younger. If you want to beat depression you may also look to start an exercise program. In a nut shell most of the reasons for exercise come under the category of wanting to look and feel better.

One of the best reasons to start your fitness program may be staying healthy. A little known fact to most: even moderate exercise helps bolster the immune system. After every session, people who workout experience a heightened T-Cell count. T-Cells are the tiny elements in the body that fight infection. They basically attack little things that grow up to become big things. One the small scale this means the cold and flu. The bigger problems include cancer and other terrible disabling diseases.

I’ve worked with cancer patients who have come to me by way of Doctor's suggestion. Other clients have contracted cancer and tripled their medical prognosis in terms of longevity. Many of my clients have beaten the odds and are in total remission. They live lives like nothing has ever happened. Google “exercise and cancer” and you’ll find a limitless source of reinforcing data.

If you don’t worry about cancer, exercise can just help protect you from getting sick. If you talk to a lifelong fitness enthusiast, ask them: when was the last time you got sick? I once heard a simple analogy that made a dramatic impression on me. After a workout, think of a cleaning lady going through your body for four hours and cleaning out all the garbage. What this references is the increased immune response that takes place after every exercise session for about four hours. Like the expression goes “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

Drink More Water to Feel Healthy and Lose Weight

If you want to lose weight and be healthier, you may have heard to drink more water. The first reason you may have already heard. Our bodies are composed mostly of water and enough water helps us stay hydrated and makes everything run more efficiently. There are a variety of other reasons so I’ll bring up one you may not have heard of.

Our liver and kidneys only function at full capacity if we drink lots of water. There are various opinions but most stress eight to ten glasses a day. If we make an effort and do these two things happen. Our liver functions at full capacity and our kidneys don’t have to help the liver clean the blood supply. This frees up the liver to help remove fat and cholesterol from our bodies. In short drinking lots of water will make us lose weight!

If you already know you should be drinking more water, I have some tips that may help you fit more water into your daily routine. 1) Find a container that hold about 16ozs. Bring it in the bathroom as you get ready in the morning and you’ll see how easy it is to finish it. You will already have achieved 25% of your daily quota.

Second, fill a glass pitcher with the remainder of the six to eight glasses. Glass I find is helpful because it makes the water look more appealing than plastic containers. In addition you may want to cuts some lemon or lime slices or even add some fresh mint to the pitcher. When the pitcher is empty you know you’ve hit you goal.

Third, drink your water when your home out of a nice glass tumbler. Plastic bottles are fine on the run but seem silly to me if your at home. One of my clients told me she used a champagne glass to make the water seem special. If you like your water cold put your pitcher in the fridge. If not keep the pitcher where you’ll see it during the day.

If you work at an office try to have a water container on your desk. Having a big glass before all your meals is also a good way to not only get your water but also make you feel full and eat less.

Bust Through That Weight Loss Plateau

There is a large group of people who do everything right and still have a hard time making weight loss progress. I have little sympathy for people who want to look better and lose weight but don’t eat right or attempt to increase their activity. There are a few solutions I can share that may help people break through their weight loss plateau.

 

The first thing makes perfect sense, modify your diet. If you eat low cal. all the time you can be slowing down your metabolism. Most people eat the same thing every day. If you have 1500 calories a day, switch to 1200 one day and 1800 the next. Go really strict with only 1000 calories and the next day have 2000.  Try adding more protein and more veggies and cut out the starchy carbs. It’s hard to believe but sometimes it’s more than just math.

Like the first tip of modifying your diet, you can also change up the times you eat. You can actually reset your metabolism by changing your eating schedule. The one exception is breakfast. Eat as soon as you wake up. This will give your body a nice jump start to begin the day. Also you can make your snack more like a meal and your meal more like a snack. It may be hard to switch your times during the weekdays, so try different eating times on the weekend.

For people who already exercise, change your workouts. It has been proven for years that the body respond better when challenged. If you do the same thing for over a month it begins to get easier. Advanced workout buffs change their workouts daily. Most people need something new at least every few weeks. Change the exercises, speed, order, pairing and even frequency of workouts. You will not only get stronger and more fit but will also avoid injury.

The last tip is to assess your diet. If what you’re doing doesn’t work, it may need to be modified. The biggest mistake people make is portion size. Most food manufactures make servings smaller than what an average person would usually have. If you get a food scale you will be amazed at what an ounce of cereal looks like. Buy a book on food calorie counts and keep a food diary. Information is power, so get informed and get the scale moving in the right direction.

Lose Weight and Keep It Off

Most of the people who come to a personal trainer don’t have trouble losing weight. Many of the people I work with have lost hundreds of pounds. The trouble is that most have regained all the weight back and then some. There are a few things I can share that will help people from making the common mistakes.

The best and most effective thing you can do is to keep a food diary. You don’t have to carry around a notebook either. At the end of the day most people can remember every meal and even the snacks they’ve eaten. The amazing thing to me is this one fact: You double your chance of permanent weight loss success by adding this one behavior. 

The second no-brainer is to plan ahead. If you get home from work and there’s nothing to eat, what do you do? Most people eat out or pick up some delicious food to go. The problem is that most places keep you coming back by giving you food that tastes great. A restaurant’s main priority is repeat business, not your weight loss goals. If you’re off Sunday, go shopping for the week and bring a list. Plan your meals and shop when you’re not hungry. It may take more time in the beginning but it gets easier after a while.

You’ll love this one. Allow yourself to cheat once in a while. When I had my promo pictures done 20 plus years ago, I followed this strategy. It was football season. After six days of being really good, I went to Sunday Brunch. I had everything I wanted, watched the first half and then had a smart dinner. I have never looked better. The occasional feast lets your body avoid starvation mode efficiency and rewards your hard work during the week. A word of caution: Eat pretty well all week and feast for one day and you’ll gain weight. A more moderate option is eat with discipline most the time so you can splurge once in a while.

Finally, try to boost your metabolism by sticking to an activity you like. If you hate to do something, you probably won’t adopt it as a lifestyle. Most people don’t exercise because the last time they did it they hated it. Walk the dog, take a hike in our beautiful foothills or pick up those dumb bells you have in the closet or under the bed. In a few hours I can show anyone how much better they’ll feel by spending an hour or two a week moving in the right direction.

For more tips visit us at body-mastery.net.

Taper 0ff Carbs and Lose Weight

I want to share something I saw on Dr. Oz this morning. We train in a closed private studio and I often prefer music or informational programming to straight news. I feel what ever makes the time go more quickly is best. The guest put very simply what many other like myself have said for years. I have heard: Eat like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch and a pauper for dinner. Unfortunately this is opposite to the way most people eat.

What I heard today put this cliché into straight percentages and had solid logic to back up this radical reform. If we eat a 40% of our breakfast in the form of carbs it will help fuel our daily energy needs. When lunch comes around we can scale that percentage down to 25 and then for dinner beef up the protein and scale down the carbo’s to 15%.

What is important to note is the quality of the food should remain the same. Sorry but a high carb breakfast is not pancakes with syrup. You can have some whole wheat toast, a small bagel, oatmeal or even smart potatoes (vs. hash browns). Make sure you also have a protein source with it that has at least 20-30 grams of protein. What I find nice is the fact that we Americans like a lot of protein for dinner anyway. You can have broiled fish, chicken, pork tenderloin (even red meat once in a while) but have it with veggies instead of rice, rolls, potatoes and starchy carbs.

What I like best about this program is that all the meals are good size. You may actually be eating more but finally starting to lose weight. One note of caution: If you do all this but have a few drinks and some snacks while you watch TV, you’ll add back all the carbs you just subtracted.

If you live in La Crescenta, La Canada, Sunland or Tujunga you can stop by for a free consultation.

Improve Your Posture and Balance

Here is a good way to improve your balance and posture with one move. The first thing you’ll need is a Swiss Ball. If you want more info on Swiss Balls go to my website and look at older posts (body-mastery.net). Basically all you need to do is read the box to find which size is right for your height.

Sit on the ball and make sure your thighs are parallel to the floor. Make sure your knees are not pointed up and your legs form a right angle. For the beginners, just sitting and balancing will be a good place to start. When you feel this is too easy try to raise one foot off the floor. The higher you raise the foot the harder the exercise. For the advance, try to raise one foot straight and hold it for a few seconds and then lower it up and down ten times.

The above “ball sitting” will help your balance. If you want to improve your posture at the same time try this. Put you hands up as if to surrender or make the “field goal” sign in football. Next press your hands over your head to the middle. This is called a dumbbell press. Start with just your arms and then add a few pounds. This is not only one of the best exercises for the shoulders but if will do wonders for your posture. 

To kill two birds as they say combine the first “ball sit” with the second dumbbell press. The first thing is to do both moves with both feet on the floor. This will become easy at some point and then you can try lifting the weight while holding one leg up.

As I continue to train seniors in their 70’s, 80’s and 90’s I notice one common problem. Forward head posture seems to force people to lift the arms in front of the forehead instead of over the top of the head. You may have a hard time in the beginning raising your arms over your head to the middle. As you continue to perform this exercise you will be amazed at how you can correct the way you sit, stand and walk.

For more info visit us at body-mastery.net