Fitness For Older Adults

Even if you’ve never been active, it’s never too late to reap the many health benefits of regular exercise. Regular cardiovascular exercise, such as brisk walking, bicycling or swimming strengthens the heart and muscles, boosts energy and endurance. It also helps control blood sugar and cholesterol levels and works as a natural mood elevator.

Being sedentary raises the risk for developing such serious health conditions as diabetes and heart disease. Strength exercise, or resistance training, helps preserve muscle tissue and bone health. It’ll help you stay strong, so you can go about your normal daily activities.

Always consult with your health care provider before starting an exercise program. Ask about precautions specific to your condition and which exercises are beneficial and safe for you. Regular exercise helps manage health conditions and can speed up the recovery process of serious illnesses, including heart attack, stroke and joint-replacement surgery. Your doctor may recommend that you start exercising in a medically-supervised setting before you exercise on your own.

Water exercises (swimming, water walking) or non weight-bearing exercises (bicycling, rowing, elliptical machines) are easier on the joints and often recommended for people with joint issues. However, your health care provider may recommend some weight-bearing exercises (walking, jogging) to protect and strengthen your bones.

Start with 5 minutes or whatever you can manage, then gradually work up to 30 minutes a day of cardiovascular exercise most days of the week. You should notice a difference in how you feel within 6-8 weeks. Perform muscle-strengthening exercises twice weekly with at least 24 hours in between sessions.

Even if your weight is in a healthy range, regular exercise is key for maintaining good health and to reduce health risks. One study showed that physically fit overweight people had significantly lower health risks than thin, sedentary people. An inactive lifestyle raises your risk for developing serious health conditions, including metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and heart disease.

Strength-training is critical for older adults. Adults lose 4-6 lbs. of muscle tissue per decade, which means a significant loss of body strength and a lower resting metabolism.  Older adults who undergo a structured strength-training program have shown to regain lost muscle mass, increase their strength, metabolism, bone density and balance and improve their quality of life. 

One study linked muscular strength to reduced stiffness in the aorta, the major artery carrying blood from the heart to the rest of the body, which can reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular events, independent of current aerobic fitness levels.

However, if calorie intake isn’t also reduced, fat weight increases.

250 Calories, forfeit or jog?

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/12/16/if-250-calorie-label-doesnt-stop-50-minute-jog-label-might/

How to slim down abdominal fat

Pummeling your stomach with hundreds of repetitions of abdominal exercises doesn’t achieve what you think it should.  By doing hundreds 0f repetitions of an abdominal exercise, you gain muscles which are rock solid, but the fat is obscuring it. And all those abdominal moves won’t touch the fat. So, many people blast away at their abs thinking that the burn that they feel is zapping off fat. It’s not.  One classic study at the University of Massachusetts found that men who did 5,000 sit-ups a day did not decrease the size of the fat cells in the torso and they did not reduce waist size.

You should see more fat loss by rearranging your routine to do more cardio. A larger accumulated calorie burn will make the biggest dents in your fat stores.  You should aim for at least 30 minutes or more of any cardio exercise three times per week.  There is always a chance that you are simply genetically predisposed to store much of your excess body fat in your stomach, and you may be able to only whittle it down so much. It’s easy to gain weight with age in today’s environment. And in women, when estrogen levels start to lower, more abdominal fat comes on. Certain dietary habits like excess alcohol and eating foods high in saturated and trans- fats may also encourage abdominal fat.

Ideally, you should be doing 60 minutes of cardio exercises per day, on most days. If 60 minutes a day sounds like a lot of exercise, it is. But you can spread it out: little 15-minute bouts of walking throughout your day count, too. If you are regularly active and take the stairs instead of the escalator or pick a farther spot in the parking lot, for example, you can easily accumulate an hour of more of low- to moderate-intensity activity. Of course, if most of your activity involves sitting on a couch or in front of your computer, unless you are making a concerted effort to get up and move every hour, it may be hard to fit in a full 60 minutes per day.

Theoretically, 3,500 calories equals 1 pound of fat. So if you walk around 60 minutes per day, you can lose 30 pounds in about seven months. You can speed up the weight loss by making small calorie reductions in your diet (for example, saying “no” to regular desserts or using skim instead of whole milk). If you are not yet fit enough to do a lot of exercise, take it one step at a time. Start with 10-minute sessions and add a few minutes per week.  These efforts should help whittle away body fat, and hopefully in the abdominal area.

Please ask me to design an exercise program just for you:etrainer1@gmail.com

Muscle Strengthening For Seniors

For most older adults, the primary goal is to maintain as much independence as possible. While you can’t control every factor that affects your independence, you can do some simple exercises that will make a big difference.

If you are doing no exercise right now, your first activity should be muscle strengthening. For those of you who are staying active by walking, biking or other activities, making your muscles stronger will not only keep you doing the activities you love, it will help you do them better! Many people, young and older, are reluctant to strength train. Some may fear the development of big muscles while others may be intimidated by all the different equipment available. The good news is that you don’t need expensive equipment or complex routines to reap the benefits of strength training.

No matter how old you are, your body can still increase its strength and muscle mass. And muscles are more important than you may realize. For diabetics, more muscle means better control of blood sugar. If osteoporosis is a concern, strength training will not only preserve bone density, it will increase it.
If your health problems are made more serious by excess weight, adding lean muscle to your body will increase the number of calories your body burns, even while you are resting, and will make it less convenient for you to store body fat. That’s just a sample of the reasons why strength training should be at the foundation of any exercise program.

There are many exercise programs available for seniors that specifically teach strength training.  Before you begin, there are a few basic rules you need to remember:

Always get your doctor’s permission to start any new exercise program and follow his/her recommendations. Listen to your body. If a movement causes you pain, stop and consult your physician. Breathe out on the hardest part of the movement - never hold your breath! Always move slowly and in control - not only to prevent injury, but to help you perform the exercises more efficiently and see the results.

Need An Incentive To Work Out?

According to a study found in the Annals of Behavior Medicine, the more you exercise, the better you feel about your body.  Increases in physical activity were associated with having a better body image.  The longer or more frequent you exercise, the more satisfied the participants became.

Energize Your Life With Strength Training

     Is a decrease in your physical strength and energy getting in the way of enjoying your favorite activities? Regular cardiovascular exercise is a well-known way to preserve stamina and to prevent chronic disease that can slow you down. But an increasing number of older adults practice strength training (using resistance bands, weight machines, body weight, or lifting weights) as an effective health-boosting strategy.

     Men and women of any age can benefit from strength training. Having a chronic medical condition doesn’t mean you can’t do strength exercises. If you’re living with heart disease, arthritis or diabetes, strength training may even help improve your condition.

     Experts point out that many of the changes associated with getting older are actually due to becoming less active with age. Unless you regularly engage in activities to strengthen your muscles, you’ll lose about a half a pound of muscle a year in your 30s and 40s, and that rate can double once you turn 50. As you lose muscle, you lose strength, and that compromises your ability to do even simple things, such as carrying your groceries, getting up from a seated position or gardening. Your metabolism also slows down as you lose muscle, so your body will need fewer calories to maintain your weight, and you’re likely to gain excess body fat, unless you eat less.  Excess fat contributes to a multitude of health problems: heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

     It doesn’t matter, if you’re 50 years old or 80, studies show that strength training can help to maintain your independence as you get older, improve your quality of life, allow you to do the things you enjoy with less effort, strengthen your bones, improve control of blood sugar, elevate your mood, and reduce your resting blood pressure.

     

Training Abdominal Muscles

I have heard many people ask me if training abdominal muscles everyday is necessary for a strong and flat stomach.  You should treat your abdominal muscles like any other muscle group, which means you shouldn't train them every day. Your abdominals, like all of your other muscle groups, need recovery time between workouts. Not only that, but your abdominals are used for just about any movement you do.

As with any resistance training exercise, you ideally want the last few repetitions to be difficult to complete.  Performed correctly, 10 to 25 repetitions for one to three sets of abdominal exercises provide a more than adequate training stimulus. If you can perform more than 25 repetitions of an abdominal exercise, you are most likely performing the repetitions too rapidly or with improper form.  After awhile, you may also need a more intense abdominal exercise to perform.

You can increase the challenge and intensity of abdominal exercises by using added resistance, moving more slowly, and performing the exercises on a slant board or exercise ball so that your head is at a lower elevation than your legs.  A tougher way would be performing a seated version of an abdominal exercise.  Please ask me for the correct and proper form in performing any abdominal exercise.

Exercise and Diabetes

The latest research has shown that exercise is very helpful in the prevention, control and treatment of diabetes because it decreases insulin resistance. Following regular exercise training, cells can better respond to insulin and effectively take glucose out of the blood and into the cell. Exercise also helps to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease by decreasing blood pressure, cholesterol levels and body fat.

Exercise Recommendations

If you have type II diabetes, you should adhere to the following exercise guidelines:

·         Always consult with your physician before starting any exercise program to determine the potential risks associated with exercise.

·         Cardiovascular exercise—Strive to accumulate a minimum of 1,000 kcal expended through physical activity each week. Pending current conditioning levels, this may require three to seven days per week of low-to-moderate intensity exercise for 20 to 60 minutes (walking and other non-weight bearing activities such as water aerobics and cycling are good choices). Daily exercise is highly recommended.

·         Resistance training—Perform resistance-training activities at least two days per week, targeting the major muscle groups. Complete a minimum of one set of 10 to 15 repetitions of each exercise at a low-to-moderate intensity.

·         Flexibility—Perform stretching exercises at least two to three days per week, stretching major muscle groups to the point of tension (not pain) for 15 to 30 seconds. Complete two to four repetitions of each stretch.

·         The ultimate goal is to expend a minimum of 1,000 calories per week via physical activity for health benefits, or 2,000 calories per week for weight loss. Keep in mind that these are goals that you should work up to gradually over time.

What are the precautions?

If you have type II diabetes, you must monitor your glucose before and after exercise to understand how you respond to certain types of activities.  Finally, don’t forget to check with your physician prior to beginning a physical-activity program and return regularly to assess the diabetic complications. If complications of the eyes, kidney or heart are present, your physician should provide you with clear boundaries regarding the intensity of any physical activity.

Cross Training

Cross-training is simply a way of adding variety to your exercise program. You can vary your aerobic routine and incorporate some muscular strength and flexibility training as well.

Athletes have been cross-training since the days of the Olympic decathlons and pentathlons of ancient Greece. The past decade has seen the popularity of the triathlon reach international proportions, introducing the concept of cross-training to even the most recreational athletes.

The benefits of cross-training are numerous. It reduces the risk of injury because the same muscles, bones and joints are not continuously subjected to the stresses of the same activity.

Cross-training also adds variety to your workouts, making your routine more interesting and easier to stick with. For the athlete, it provides a break from the rigors and stresses of single-sport training. Cross-training will improve your overall fitness and, over an extended period of time, may ultimately lead to improved performance.

Whether you are new to exercise or you are a competitive athlete, the essentials of cross-training are the same. You can choose to vary your routine from workout to workout, or simply add a new component to your existing exercise program.

One of the easiest ways to start cross-training is to alternate between activities—walking one day and swimming or bicycling the next. Or, you can alternate these activities within a single workout, spending five minutes on a treadmill, five minutes on a stationary cycle, and so on for a total of 30 minutes.

More experienced exercisers might begin an hour-long workout with a 15-minute jog to a nearby pool. After a 20-minute swim and perhaps a few minutes of calisthenics, they can finish off their workout with a 15-minute jog back home and several minutes of flexibility exercises.

If you’re looking to increase your endurance level, try alternating low-level aerobic activities, such as 20 minutes of stationary cycling, with 10 minutes of higher-intensity exercise, such as stair-stepping or jumping rope. Gradually increase the amount of time you spend on the more intense activity.

These formulas can be used with just about any type of activity—as long as you enjoy it. Combining a group of aerobic activities into one workout at steady or varying intensities is an excellent way to fight the boredom that comes from performing the same daily workout routine.

All exercise sessions, whether they involve cross-training or not, should begin and end with low-level aerobic exercise and stretching to effectively warm up and cool down. And remember, it’s always a good idea to check with your doctor before beginning a new exercise program. 

Benefits of Strength Training

Anyone can benefit from strength training. A well-designed strength-training program can provide the following benefits:

Increased strength of bones, muscles and connective tissues (the tendons and ligaments), this increased strength decreases the risk of injury.

Increased muscle mass—most adults lose about one-half pound of muscle per year after the age of 25, largely due to decreased activity. Muscle tissue is partly responsible for the number of calories burned at rest. As muscle mass increases, it will be easier to maintain a healthy body weight.

Enhanced quality of life—as general strength increases, the performance of daily routines (carrying groceries, working in the garden) will be easier to perform.

Many exercises can be combined into a program that works all the major muscle groups. Neglecting certain groups can lead to strength imbalances and postural difficulties. I can help you develop a safe, effective program. One set of 8 to 12 repetitions, working the muscles to the point of fatigue, is usually sufficient.  When you are able to perform 12 repetitions of an exercise correctly (without cheating), increase the amount of resistance by 5 to 10% to continue making safe progress.

An encouraging aspect of strength training is the fact that you’ll likely experience rapid improvements in strength and muscle tone right from the start of your program. Don’t be discouraged, however, if visible improvements begin to taper off after a few weeks.

It’s only natural that, as your fitness level improves, improvements in strength and appearance will come at a slightly slower pace. To help keep your motivation up, find a partner to train with you.

Aim to exercise each muscle group at least two times per week, with a minimum of two days of rest between workouts. Training more frequently or adding more sets may lead to slightly greater gains, but the minimal added benefit may not be worth the extra time and effort (not to mention the added risk of injury).

Four Exercise Myths

Myth 1: Stretch first.

Many of us were taught to perform stretching before a cardiovascular or strength-training workout. It was part of the warm-up and believed to help prevent injuries. Yet, there’s no scientific evidence linking reduced risk of injury or post-workout soreness with a regular stretching routine. Recent studies indicate that pre-event stretching can actually impair performance in sports requiring explosive power, like jumping or sprinting. While flexibility training helps maintain a full range of motion around joints, for optimal results, stretch after your workout.

Myth 2: Don’t let your knees go past your toes while doing a squat or lunge.

Avoiding excessive forward movement of the knee during a squat or lunge is important. However, in everyday activities such as climbing stairs, the knee and torso naturally move forward slightly in parallel with each other for balance — and to propel the body forward and upward. Restricting this movement when performing squats and lunges increases hip stress and could increase the load on your lower back.

Myth 3: To burn fat, exercise at a lower intensity.

Forget the “fat-burning zone”, or low intensity zone. Just get out there and move. Your body burns both fat and carbohydrate calories to meet the demands of exercise. The proportion of fat or carbohydrate burned in a given workout depends on exercise intensity and duration, but when it comes to weight control, the type of calories burned with exercise doesn't really matter. If you burn more calories than you consume, you’ll lose weight. If you don’t, you won’t.

Low-to-moderate intensity exercise can be sustained for longer periods than higher-intensity exercise, which burns more calories per minute. Base your exercise intensity on your goals, your fitness level, health status and how it makes you feel. Don’t worry about whether you’re burning fat or carbohydrates. For weight control, the key is to choose an intensity level that makes your exercise program sustainable.

Myth 4: Strength training will make you gain weight.

If you’re concerned about preventing weight gain, strength training is actually something you should be doing. On average, adults who don’t engage in any strength training exercises lose about 4-6 lbs. of muscle tissue per decade, silently chipping away at their resting metabolic rates. Unless caloric intake is also reduced, fat weight tends to increase.

Belly Fat

A new study reports that even normal-weight people with belly fat and heart disease have an increased risk of death compared to folks whose fat is concentrated elsewhere.

Belly fat is as significant a risk factor as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day or having very high blood cholesterol, the study said. And the risk is greater for men.

That spare tire is even more significant than your overall body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) in predicting risk of death, the researchers said, noting their findings discount a puzzling theory known as the "obesity paradox." That surprising finding from earlier studies linked a higher BMI and coronary artery disease with better survival chances than normal-weight people.

BMI is just a measure of weight in proportion to height. What seems to be more important is how the fat is distributed on the body," she said in a clinic news release.

The study is published in the May 10 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The researchers looked at data from five studies conducted around the world, involving almost 16,000 people with coronary artery disease. The risk of death was nearly doubled for people with coronary artery disease and central obesity, which was determined by waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio, the study found.

What exactly is the difference between belly fat and thigh fat, for instance?

"Visceral [belly] fat has been found to be more metabolically active," Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, the study's lead investigator and director of Mayo's Cardiometabolic Program, explained in the news release. "It produces more changes in cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar. However, people who have fat mostly in other locations in the body, specifically the legs and buttocks, don't show this increased risk."

http://www.acefitness.org/findanacepro/acecertifiedprofessionalprofile.aspx?acecp=282388

Balance Exercises

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWuKEt96Jjs

Exercising Vigorously

Exercising vigorously may boost calorie burn for hours afterward. The calorie-burning benefits of exercise do not stop after the treadmill does. A study finds that after exercising vigorously, a substantial calorie burn may follow.

The small study involved 10 healthy men, age 22 to 33, of various body mass indexes and aerobic fitness levels. Their calorie expenditure was measured after they exercised vigorously for 45 minutes, as well as on a rest day. Activity, rest, plus eating meals and snacks were all done under carefully controlled conditions so researchers could get an accurate assessment of calories taken in and burned.

The 45-minute exercise session (done on a cycle ergo meter) burned an average 519 calories -- not bad for a workout. But the big news is what came afterward. In 14.2 hours following the exercise bout, calorie expenditure was elevated, resulting in about 190 extra calories burned.

While that may not seem like much, think of it as being able to eat about three Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies with no consequences, or getting the calorie burn of a 30-minute walk at 4 mph for free.

The authors wrote that the calorie burn could be substantial if two or three of those high-intensity bouts of exercise are done a week, and eating is kept under control.

The study appears online in the journal of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

Strength Training for Osteoporosis Prevention

Some middle-aged women can lose up to 20-30% of their peak bone mass during their menopausal years. Especially if they are inactive, not taking calcium or utilizing hormone replacement therapy. This can increase their risk of fracture by 40% over their lifespan. The best program (Bone, Estrogen, and Strength Training study) began in 1995 to see how strength training may affect bone density.

While weight-bearing exercises are said to have the best value for bone density, strength training is often overlooked. The best program's main objective was to explore a high load, low repetition approach to strength training. Over 260 women ranging in age from 45-65 who were postmenopausal for 3-10 years were used in the study. These women completed 2 sets of 6-8 repetitions at 70% of 1 RM, two days per week or 80% 1 day per week.

The study found that women who lifted weights 2 or more times per week had greater bone density effects. It is important to remember that this program was designed to prevent osteoporosis, not to treat it, since the best treatment is prevention. Therefore, strength training is extremely important for those women who have a family history or medical condition that could lead to osteoporosis in order to decrease the loss of bone density. Not to say, that, if you do have osteoporosis, there is no need to strength train. Lifting weights and walking should help to keep the condition from worsening.

Core Workout

http://www.acefitness.org/workouts/5/

Less Stress, Better Sleep

If you're looking to lose those extra pounds, you should probably add reducing stress and getting the right amount of sleep to the list, say researchers from Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research in Portland.

In fact, although diet and exercise are the usual prescription for dropping pounds, high stress and too little sleep (or too much of it) can hinder weight loss even when people are on a diet, the researchers report.
It was found that people who got more than six but less than eight hours of sleep, and who reported the lowest levels of stress, had the most success in a weight-loss program.

Dr. Elder, who studied this, speculates if you are sleeping less or more than recommended and if your stress levels are high, you will not be able to focus on making behavioral changes.

These factors may also have a biological impact, he added.

"If you want to lose weight, things that will help you include reducing stress and getting the right amount of sleep," Elder said.

The report, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is published in the March 29 online edition of the International Journal of Obesity

How to lose 1 pound of fat.

To lose one pound of fat, you need to create a 3500 calorie deficit.  You can cut 500 calories per day for a week to lose it.  You can combine it with exercise or with more activity, too. Some people think you need to consume less than 1000 calories per day to lose weight. Keeping your intake to only 1000 calories per day is not a healthy amount of calories to consume, especially when one is exercising.   Some people think that eating a little amount of carbs would help.  Most of the carbs consumed should come from complex carbs, such as grains, fruits and veggies.  25% carbs is barely enough to keep your body functioning properly. Eat closer to 60-65%.  Protein helps build muscle. Excess protein is stored as fat. The body uses carbs to function, digest and burn first. You dont want to put the body into Ketosis with excess protein. Also, by severely cutting your calories to 1000 or under, it puts the body into starvation mode, and actually slows down the metabolism. In reality, it is not a sustainable way to function.  Usually, that triggers more of an appetite and therefore, you will tend to eat much more. Eating in moderation and an increase in activity will help you sustain a healthy lifestyle for life!

Insulin Resistance

What is insulin resistance? It’s when insulin is not able to lower blood glucose as it should primarily because the receptors in the muscle and fat cells for insulin are no longer sensitive to the insulin. This can lead to metabolic syndrome which is categorized as having triglycerides above 150 mg/dL, HDL cholesterol below 40 mg/dL, blood pressure above 130 mm Hg for systolic or 85 mm Hg for diastolic, a fasting glucose greater than 100 mg/dL and BMI greater than 30. Therefore, it's not just about glucose.

Many studies have shown that exercise is the key to preventing or controlling Type 2 diabetes, but that can be challenging to squeeze that in during the day or night for some people. Strong evidence has also found that "unplanned" activity is also very helpful, especially for those who have sedentary jobs. This type of activity can be taking the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator, or park your car further away from the store. One study done on a university hospital setting found employees who took the stairs, increased maximal aerobic capacity by 9% while lowering their LDL cholesterol (the healthy kind), BMI, and blood pressure. A little exercise really can go a long way.

If you have any questions, or if you are interested in setting up a customized exercise program with your time frame in mind, please email:  etrainer1@hotmail.

12 Foods That Lower Cholesterol Naturally

1. Oats

If you're looking to lower your cholesterol, the key may be simply changing your morning meal. Switching up your breakfast to contain two servings of oats can lower LDL cholesterol by 5.3% in only 6 weeks. The key to this cholesterol buster is beta-glucan, a substance in oats that absorbs LDL, which your body then excretes.

2. Red Wine

It turns out that high-fiber Tempranillo red grapes, used to make red wine like Rioja, may actually have a significant effect on cholesterol levels. A study conducted by the department of metabolism and nutrition at Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain found that when individuals consumed the same grape supplement found in red wine, their LDL levels decreased by 9%. In addition, those who had high cholesterol going into the study saw a 12% drop in LDL.

3. Salmon & Fatty Fish

Omega-3 fats, such as salmon, sardines, and herring, are one of the natural health wonders of the world and have been shown to ward off heart disease, dementia, and many other diseases. Now these fatty acids can add yet another health benefit to their repertoire: lowering cholesterol.

 4. Nuts

In a study published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people who noshed on 1.5 ounces of whole walnuts 6 days a week for 1 month lowered their total cholesterol by 5.4% and LDL cholesterol by 9.3%. Almonds and cashews are other good options. However, while nuts are heart healthy, they're also high in calories, so practice portion control.

5. Beans

 Researchers at Arizona State University Polytechnic found that adding ½ cup of beans to soup lowers total cholesterol, including LDL, by up to 8%. The key to this heart-healthy food is its abundance of fiber, which has been shown to slow the rate and amount of absorption of cholesterol in certain foods. Try black, kidney, or pinto beans; each supplies about one-third of your day's fiber needs.

6. Tea

While tea has become well known for its cancer-fighting antioxidants, it is also a great defense against LDL cholesterol levels. According to research conducted with the USDA, black tea has been shown to reduce blood lipids by up to 10% in only 3 weeks.

7. Chocolate

 This powerful antioxidant helps build HDL cholesterol levels. In a 2007 study published in AJCN, participants who were given cocoa powder had a 24% increase in HDL levels over 12 weeks, compared with a 5% increase in the control group. Remember to choose the dark or bittersweet kind.

8. Margarine

Switch to a margarine with plant sterols, such as Promise activ or Benecol, to help lower cholesterol. Plant sterols are compounds that reduce cholesterol absorption. In April 2008, AJCN published a study that found that women who had a higher plant sterol–based diet were able to lower total cholesterol by 3.5%.

9. Spinach

This popular green contains lots of lutein, the sunshine-yellow pigment found in dark green leafy vegetables and egg yolks.  Now research suggests that just ½ cup of a lutein-rich food daily also guards against heart attacks. Look for bags of baby spinach leaves that you can use for salads or pop in the microwave for a quick side dish.

10. Avocado

Avocados are a great source of heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, a type of fat that may actually help raise HDL cholesterol while lowering LDL.

11. Garlic

 Garlic has been found to lower cholesterol, prevent blood clots, reduce blood pressure, and protect against infections.

12. Olive Oil

 Olive oil is full of heart-healthy monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), which lower LDL cholesterol—and have the welcome side effect of trimming belly fat! Use it to make your own salad dressings, marinate chicken and fish, or roast vegetables.

Target Abs with a Stability Ball

The stability ball is designed to improve balance while targeting specific muscle groups.  It has grown in popularity since its mainstream introduction in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The stability ball can be adapted for many uses, including developing core strength, improving posture and facilitating stretching, among others. Its application is particularly widespread in the physical therapy industry, where it was first put to use in the 1960s.

Running and cycling, focuses on the lower body. Not much attention is paid to the trunk, or core, of the body. It is the muscles of the core—the abdomen, chest and back—that stabilize the rest of the body.

It is important when you are strengthening the core that you create balance between the muscles of the abdomen and the back. Many people will naturally have an imbalance between the strength of their abdominal muscles and the lower-back muscles. Exercising with stability balls helps to develop and strengthen those muscles.

Besides providing balance training, stability balls work the trunk in almost every exercise that is performed. By concentrating on the abdominal section, your posture will improve and you will find that you are generally more balanced and aware of your body movements. Your core will be more prepared to support the rest of your body in whatever activity you choose to do.

It is important to buy the right size ball and maintain the proper air pressure. The firmer the ball, the more difficult the exercise will be. The softer the ball, the less difficult the exercise will be.

If you are just beginning to exercise, are overweight, or you are generally deconditioned, you may want to consider using a larger, softer ball.  When sitting on the ball, your knees and hips should align at a 90-degree angle.

Stop by the gym, and I can show you the exercises that can be performed on the stability ball.

Working Out

You don't need an expensive gym membership to get fit. Choosing the right at-home workout equipment will maximize your exercise routine so you get the weight loss, strength training, and fat-burning results you want.
Exercise bands are useful for beginners and advanced exercisers alike. They come in different resistance levels, which are usually represented by different colors, so you can choose what you need depending on your ability and what type of moves you’re doing. Rubberized resistance helps you build muscle just like hand weights, and these bands are easy to store and handy for traveling.
Exercise balls can be used alone for ab workouts and stretches, or used in conjunction with hand weights as a balance-challenging weight bench. When you sit on or lie across a stability ball, you engage all the muscles in your core to keep yourself supported.
Dumbbells, or hand weights, are great for building muscle and sculpting your body. One pair each of 3-pound and -5 pound weights will be enough to get you going on a beginning strength-training regimen. As your strength improves, add 8-pound and 10-pound weights.
Walking on a treadmill or outside will help burn calories and improve your fitness level.
Exercising too hard can lead to injury, exhaustion or burn out. Not working hard enough can be ineffective and leave you seeing little to no results.
Feel free to email me or call to get any of your questions or concerns answered.
Ellen
516 606-0870
etrainer1@hotmail.com

The Benefits of Drinking Water

Water makes up more than half of your total body weight. In fact, every function and system in your body depends on water. It flushes out toxins, aids digestion, makes up your mucous membranes and carries nutrients to cells. According to the Institute of Medicine, healthy women should drink about 9 cups of water (or fluids) a day, and men require 13 cups.

If you're not drinking enough water (you're adequately hydrated if your urine is pale yellow to clear), you're functioning below par both physically and mentally.

Drink water before meals and you'll be ahead of the weight-loss game, according to new research. Participants who drank two 8-oz. glasses of water before each meal lost about five more pounds than those who did not drink water, according to a study from the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise conducted by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech. Drinking water before meals helps you feel full without adding calories, which researchers believe accounts, in part, for the weight loss.

"Many times, headaches are the direct result of dehydration," says Dr. Andersen. "So, before you take that acetaminophen, drink four, 8-oz. glasses of water." Thin blood vessels in the brain respond quickly to hydration levels. Dehydrated blood vessels can go into spasms that create headaches ranging from dull aches to full-blown migraines. Instead of treating headache symptoms with medicine, try drinking water to address the root cause. 

Lack of water can dehydrate the skin, making it dry and flaky and compromising its barrier function, says Kenneth Beer, M.D., dermatologist and owner of ScientificSkin.com. "Once you've broken down the barrier function it takes very little to create a problem. People with a family history of psoriasis or eczema can easily have a flare up."

Dry skin can also cause an increased risk of bacterial infection that you would normally be able to fight off. "When your skin is dry, the mucous membrane cracks and allows bacteria to enter," says Dr. Beer. "You have to constantly stay ahead of it by drinking enough water, especially if you live in a dry environment."

"Memory and mental clarity suffer when you're dehydrated," says Sasson E. Moulavi (Dr. Sass), M.D., board certified bariatric physician and the medical director of Smart for Life Weight Management Centers in Florida. Your body is approximately 75 percent water, but the brain contains 85 percent water, making it particularly sensitive to changes in water levels, notes Dr. Sass. "Your cerebral spinal fluid is mostly water. So when you don't drink enough, your cerebral fluid decreases and you don't function as well mentally." Plus, drinking a cup of coffee to "wake up" only adds to the problem as the caffeine acts as a diuretic. Drink plenty of plain water to keep a clear head.

Keeping hydrated by drinking water helps your body fight off infection by boosting your immune system, says Dr. Andersen. "Water helps move fluid throughout the body and influences the hydration of the lymphatics, also known as our second circulatory system," says Andersen. "The lymphatics help remove toxins and dysfunctional cells out of the system, thereby cleansing the body. I call it your immunological surveillance system." Keep your immune system in optimal condition with plenty of water.

The next time you feel your energy lag during the day, down a couple glasses of water instead of reaching for that candy bar. "Drinking 8 to 12 ounces of cold water picks up your energy within a few minutes.

Exercise and Arthritis

Arthritis is becoming a more prevalent health problem. More than 40 million people have arthritis, including 33% of individuals over the age of 65. The good news is that a program of moderate exercise can offset the pain associated with this indiscriminate disease.

Arthritis means “inflammation of a joint.” Osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, is characterized by a progressive loss of cartilage, typically in the hands, shoulders, hips or knees. Common symptoms include joint pain, limited range of motion and swelling. Rheumatoid arthritis, which is far less common, causes the inner linings of the joints to become inflamed.

For many years, doctors have recommended that patients with arthritis engage in flexibility training to help improve range of motion and reduce some of the stiffness in their afflicted joints. In recent years, doctors have also begun to recognize the benefits of cardiovascular exercise and strength training. Not only does a well-rounded exercise program preserve joint range of motion and flexibility, but it also reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, increases joint stability and lessens the physical and psychological pain that often accompanies a diagnosis of arthritis.

Start your exercise program with a goal to improve flexibility. Try to move your joints through their full range of motion at least once per day, holding the stretch for at least 10 seconds working up to 30 seconds. Take your time with these exercises and never stretch to the point of pain or discomfort. By focusing on flexibility, you reduce your risk of injury and limber up the joints that have been stiffened by arthritis. Your physical therapist or trainer can help you to choose the most effective stretches for you.

Progress to strengthening exercises to improve muscular endurance. Once you’ve developed a flexibility and resistance-training routine, incorporate aerobic activity. Cardiovascular exercise programs reduce pain and morning stiffness and improve walking speed and balance. Aim for participating in cardiovascular exercise such as walking, swimming or bicycling three to five times per week. As with strength training, start aerobic exercise slowly and progress gradually.

Before beginning any type of exercise program, talk it over with your physician.  Once you begin a program, the primary goal is to improve functional capacity to help reduce pain and fatigue associated with activities of daily living. A secondary focus is to improve physical fitness.

Advice on Stretching

Advice on Stretching

By Ellen Cohen

Certifed Personal Trainer/Nutrition Consultant

Stretching (before exercise) could actually be counterproductive,” says Cedric Bryant, chief exercise physiologist for San Diego-based American Council on Exercise (ACE). “The static stretching approach (holding a stretch for an extended period) can have detrimental effects on your strength and muscular power if done before a sports activity, and you may end up having impaired abilities.”  Performing the proper stretching at the proper time can help maintain flexibility and joint range of motion that will diminish over time as we age,” Bryant says. “We still need to do purposeful stretching, but it’s (safest) to stretch during the cool-down (after activity) period because the muscles and tissues are warm.”

The problem with old-school pre-workout static stretching of cold, tight muscles and tissues is that it produces microscopic tears of muscle fibers and does nothing to prevent injury, according to the CDC study. Research from the University of Sydney showed that stretching before exercise doesn’t eliminate muscle soreness or prevent sports injuries, and University of Nevada researchers found that long, static stretching can actually decrease strength, power and performance.

 Here are some suggestions for dynamic warm-up movements before an activity:

Running: Spend about 10 minutes marching in place, progressing to a medium-paced walk, then a slow jog, before finally reaching your running pace. You can also break up the walk and jog with some walking lunges and straight-leg kicks.

Cycling: March in place, lifting the legs high. Walking lunges will help warm up the legs. Shoulder rolls and torso twists will help loosen the shoulders and back. Begin cycling at an easy, flat pace for the first 10 minutes and gradually get up to your normal speed.

Racket sports: Perform easy movement, mimicking the motions of tennis or racquetball. Swing your arms in large windmill circles forward and back. Walk, shuffle and jog in different directions, forward, sideways and backward. Do some torso twists to loosen the back and hips.

Golf: Simulate your golf swing with slow, controlled rotating movements using a light club or no club at all. Perform windmill exercises, with arms outstretched twisting the torso from side to side. Walking lunges will help loosen the hips and legs.

Weight Training: Get the entire body warmed up by marching in place or walk on the treadmill at a fairly slow speed for 5 minutes. Gradually increase  the speed and incline for the second 5 minutes. Move the arms in large circles, perform windmill movements and rotate the torso side to side to loosen back muscles. Start with lighter weights before moving on to lifting heavier weights.

The following tips can help make your stretching routine safe and effective:

• Make sure your body and muscles are warmed up before performing any static stretching.

• Stretch to the point of mild discomfort or a slight pulling sensation. There should be no pain.

• Move slowly. Don’t rush the stretch.

• Remember to breathe while stretching, because oxygen is vital to muscular function.

• Hold a static stretch between 15 and 30 seconds, until the muscle relaxes slightly. It’s not necessary to hold it much longer than that.

• Don’t worry about how flexible you are. It’s not a competition. Everyone is different.

• Don’t bounce during a stretch. This ballistic stretching is risky, because it can cause small tears in your muscle, leaving scar tissue that tightens muscles and reduces flexibility. . Move slowly into each stretch and hold each one for 15 to 30 seconds

Activity and Exercise

Activity and Exercise

Both regular exercise and increased physical activity add years to your life and life to your years. Health benefits are obtained from increasing the amount of any physical activity you do. The more you do, the greater the benefits. Physical activity is any movement that uses energy. Exercise is physical activity that is structured and is done at a certain intensity for a certain length of time. We engage in physical activity for health benefits if we wish to avoid disease and delay death. We engage in physical activity for fitness benefits in order to improve some components of physical fitness (cardio respiratory endurance, muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility, and body composition).

Long-Term Benefits

Decreases Risk of Heart Disease Inactive people are 2x more likely to develop coronary artery disease (CAD) then active people.
Decreases Blood PressureHigh blood pressure increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease. Inactive people are 2x more likely to develop high blood pressure then active people.
Decreases Body FatRegular physical activity helps maintain optimal body weight. High blood pressure increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.
Decreases Cholesterol LevelA high blood cholesterol level increases the risk of heart disease. Regular exercise raises the level of "good" cholesterol and lowers the level of the "bad" cholesterol.
Decreases Risk of DiabetesPhysical activity lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes and increases glucose uptake for those who already have diabetes. Fit women have diabetes 66% less often than unfit women.
Decreases Risk of CancerPhysical activity lowers the risk of colon and breast cancer.
Decreases Risk of OsteoporosisRegular exercise delays bone loss and promotes bone formation.
Decreases Arthritis SymptomsRegular exercise helps keep joints flexible and helps build strong muscles.

Exercise is FUN!

Yes, I did say, “fun”. It’s a new year and so many people have made the pledge to get fit. Many of them will go to a gym only to find they're bored with the monotony of cardio equipment and weight training routines.

But exercise shouldn't be drudgery. Plenty of pleasurable activities deliver a legitimate workout. Surfing, kayaking, ballroom dancing, trail running and self-defense classes are just a few ways to avoid a fitness rut or supplement a regular gym workout. Some offer other benefits too, such as being outside, expanding one's social network and building confidence by mastering a new skill. Exercise doesn't have to be boring. It can be fun and addictive in a good way.

For the beginner, calculating cardiovascular benefits or measuring muscle strength shouldn't be the priority. Just get out and do something if you don’t want to work out in the gym. Try to incorporate at least 10 - 15 minutes of some activity. Don't worry so much about what you're doing. Going from nothing to 10 - 15 minutes is a success. Then start to increase that gradually.

As stamina and strength build, activities should vary to target different muscle groups and switch off from aerobic (moderately paced endurance exercise) and anaerobic (short bursts of high-intensity exercise) workouts.

For more experienced exercisers, get an inexpensive heart rate monitor to gauge workout levels. You can also gauge how hard your body is working based on how hard you're breathing and how much you're sweating (what fitness experts called rate of perceived exertion). Keep in mind that the more fit you become, the more efficiently your body will work.

Workouts with mental components can be great stress-relievers. Concentrating on exercise is excellent for reducing stress and anxiety too.
So what's the best way to get started? Fitness experts recommend trying a smorgasbord of activities to see what's enjoyable. You may want to revisit fun childhood pursuits, such as ice skating or roller skating. Don't think you've outgrown something. Just use your imagination and get moving!