Fitness Over 40

Functional Fitness is a term you hear more often in recent years, especially in reference to fitness training for older adults. But don't worry, just because it's a new term, doesn't mean it's one more thing you have to make time for in your day. Functional fitness is all about training your body for life, rather than for a specific sport or for a certain esthetic appearance. It's especially helpful for older adults because it addresses muscle imbalances and asymmetries, and it trains your body to move in the ways we move in everyday life.

Show of hands, ladies. How many of you are less than 100% happy with the gal you see looking back at you from the mirror? If you’re like many American women (and a few guys), you have grown up your whole life with body image issues. My chest is too flat, my rear end is too big, my ears stick out. The woman you think you see in the mirror is actually distorted by years of self-talk, family expectations, schoolyard teasing and a barrage of airbrushed images in the media.

As if losing weight weren’t hard enough, keeping it off is often even harder. If you don’t want to spend the rest of your life yo-yo dieting, you’ll need to develop good, long-term lifestyle habits. Luckily, there has been a lot of good research done to help you know what works and what doesn’t.

A friend asked me the other day, “What’s the one biggest mistake people make with their exercise?” Unfortunately, I couldn’t come up with just one answer, because I see so many different mistakes. Sadly, there are a lot of exercise myths and misinformation floating around out there. I thought it was a great question, though, so I gave it some thought, and came up with the seven mistakes I see most often.

Are you getting enough exercise, and the right kinds of exercise? Almost any type and quantity of activity is better than sitting, but if you want to maximize your health, be sure you’re getting enough daily exercise, and the right kinds of exercise. The American College of Sports Medicine released a new position paper this week that makes exercise recommendations for generally healthy adults based on the best current scientific evidence.

If your exercise program hasn't moved beyond the “thinking about it” stage, you're not alone! Lots of people think they should start exercising, but they just can't take that first step. Here are seven simple tips to motivate you to get off the couch and get moving!

According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, 10 million Americans have osteoporosis, and an additional 34 million have low bone density. If you’ve been diagnosed with osteopenia or osteoporosis, you know that you have an increased risk of broken bones. Once you’ve been diagnosed, your doctor will give you instructions on how to slow the bone loss with diet, supplements, exercises, and perhaps medication. But you can also manage a number of other factors to prevent dangerous falls.

If you’re approaching or in the thick of menopause, you’ve probably already discovered that managing your weight is not as easy as it used to be. You may be seeing that your lovely curvy shape now looks more like a round apple. So which is better for weight management in menopause: exercise or diet? In a word, both!

According to the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet, almost 26 million Americans have diabetes. Of those, it's estimated that 90-95% have Type 2 diabetes, the type in which your body becomes resistant to the insulin it produces and can no longer efficiently manage your blood sugar levels.

Everybody wants to know, what's the best exercise for me? If you're a Baby Boomer, you're at that age where your body doesn't work quite the same way it did 15 or 20 years ago. So what's the best exercise to keep Baby Boomers fit and healthy?