The Halloween candy has been in the stores for weeks, now, and if you've resisted temptation so far, congratulations! But you know that the season of temptation is just beginning, and you've got weeks of holiday parties and treats to endure. Between the parties, the family dinners and the crazy hectic schedule, it's not surprising that so many of us gain a few (or a few too many) pounds between October and January.
Tags: lifestyle habits, exercise, weight loss, motivation, diet
Staying (or getting) fit over 40 isn't the walk in the park it was in your 20s. Chances are your metabolism has started to slow down a bit, the demands on your time are overwhelming, and you may be facing injuries or illnesses that make exercise a challenge.
Tags: Baby Boomer, lifestyle habits, exercise, weight loss, motivation
Making the decision to work with a personal trainer is a big one. You know you'll be in for a challenge, it's a significant financial commitment, and it's a lot of time to spend with one person. And chances are, if you're making the choice to work with a trainer, you have some very specific physical and perhaps emotional needs that you hope to address.
Tags: personal training, motivation
I know, I know. You don't want to bulk up, you just want to "tone." If you think another hour on the treadmill or elliptical is going to do that for you, think again. There's only one way to tone muscle and that's to use it. You build muscle by contracting it to overcome the resistance of some force: gravity, your body weight or a dumbbell, for example. The work of overcoming that resistance causes microtrauma in the fibers, and it's the repairing of that microtrauma that builds muscle.
Tags: Baby Boomer, exercise, bone density, weight training, weight bearing exercise
Clients and potential clients often have questions for me about how they can burn more calories, get more out of their workouts or exercise within the limitations of an injury or illness. I love to get these questions, because I love to be able to provide good, common-sense fitness information (in case you haven't noticed, there's a lot of garbage out there).
Tags: personal training
If you're not a natural athlete or fitness buff, getting motivated to start exercising can be the hardest part of the process. It's natural to want to do things that you're good at, but can you learn to love something that you're not yet good at?
Tags: lifestyle habits, exercise, motivation
For me, one of the best things about getting older is getting your priorities straight. You begin to know from experience what you really value and how important it is to act on those values. When it comes to my fitness routines, I'm happy to report that the older I get, the less I care about the size of my clothes, the number on the scale or how hot I look (I'm afraid that horse has left the barn).
Tags: Baby Boomer, body image, functional fitness, cardiovascular exercise, endurance
Why do people exercise? Well, once it's a habit, people exercise because it feels good, but a lot of people begin an exercise program because they want to lose weight. If you're overweight, losing even a few pounds is a good thing, but there are lots of other reasons to exercise. If you're a Baby Boomer or Senior (heck, even if you're a twentysomething), regular exercise offers many benefits that will improve the quality of your life.
Tags: Baby Boomer, exercise, weight loss, body image, osteoporosis, bone density, senior exercise, cardiovascular exercise, flexibility, Type 2 diabetes
The 206 bones in your body make up the structural infrastructure that supports your soft tissue. Bones are also storehouses for calcium and phosphorus, and bone tissue is continously being broken down and repaired within your body. Approximately every ten years, your entire skeleton will be replaced with new cells. Stressful forces on the bone, such as you experience when you exercise, cause the bones to create more new bone tissue, while a sedentary lifestyle results in greater loss of bone tissue than generation of new tissue. Your challenge, as you age, is to keep the pace of cell regeneration ahead of the pace of degeneration.
Tags: exercise, osteoporosis, bone density, weight bearing exercise
You may have heard about functional fitness, a relatively new trend in fitness training, but you likely still have questions. Here’s a round-up of all the essential information you need to understand this fitness trend and determine if it’s a good choice for you.
Tags: balance, Baby Boomer, exercise, strength, senior exercise, functional fitness
