Newsletter July 2008

This month we are looking at Exercise.

Exercise ! Arrrggghhhh.....run away! Is that the front door or your joints I hear creaking as you stretch? Yeah I know you're not "getting any younger," but before you make that reservation for the 'old folk's home', start to think about exercise in a whole new way .......... FUN !

Regrets of yesterday and the fear of tomorrow are twin thieves that rob you of today.  

Why Dread Exercise? We were Born to Move !

Remember when you were a kid in school?

You sat at your desk all morning with one eye on your teacher & the other on the clock, watching the second-hand tick, anticipating, waiting, readying yourself for .... recess!

Before the bell even finished ringing you were out the door, running, playing, making
sure you got your favourite swing. Then, all too soon, recess was over, and you had to go back in the building – you couldn’t wait for the next opportunity to play.

After school was much the same. You played from the time you got home ‘til the latest time you could. Sometimes your parents had to practically drag you in the house for dinner, homework or sleep.

What happened?

Sitting around doing nothing used to be torture for us. Now, we sit around far too much. WE call it work and relaxation. At what time in our lives did ‘recess’ become this arduous, dreadful task known as exercise?

When did playing become such a hindrance to our ‘busy’ lives ?

It seems as though we’ve spent most of our adult lives convincing ourselves that exercise is a chore, when really from the time we’re born we are meant to move!

YES – We were born to move. Our bodies were designed for it. Think about it for a moment. When we’re born we immediately start to develop our motor skills. Our arms & legs are being thrust randomly, strengthening our muscles & improving coordination. As we grow, we move almost continuously. Sitting still is nearly impossible. We want to look around, explore our new world, & discover what it has to offer ... we want to play !

We then graduate to crawling, & any of you who are parents know how hard it can be to keep a crawler from getting into everything. Then our momentous first steps. If we were born to be sedentary, why is it that one of the crowning achievements of our lives is to walk? Because ... we weren’t meant to sit. Our muscles, joints, ligaments, and tendons are designed to keep our body in motion. We were meant to stand, run, move, and play. Like it or not we were designed to exercise.

I don’t have as much energy as I used to .... I know, I know you’re not a kid anymore. But, whose fault is that? How do you suppose you had so much energy as a kid ... on half the calories? Maybe it was some sort of secret energy reserve that you lose when you turn 18. Or maybe it’s because you were always playing!

One of the biggest misconceptions that we’ve taught ourselves about exercise is that it is the opposite of energy. Movement creates energy. Your body is an incredibly adaptive piece of machinery, if you don’t use it, it gets rusty. If you condition your body to require little energy to move you throughout the day, that’s exactly what you’ll get .... little energy.

However, if you start to remind your body what it is like to move and to play, it will adapt very quickly and provide you with the energy needed. Have you ever been around children and found yourself wondering “where do they get all that energy?” The answer is quite simple. Their body is conditioned to move, so it is constantly working to provide the energy they need to play. Just as reversing your eating habits will train your body to adapt to whole food, reversing your exercise habits will train your body to give you more energy.

How do I start to exercise?

The topic of exercise is, in many ways, just as confusing as nutrition. There are lots of articles, books, and websites designed to tell you how to exercise. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Just get out and start moving. ...

• Taking a walk in the morning, or at lunch, is an excellent way to start out.
• Tee it up with a friend, or join a walking group. Get out and enjoy the sun-shine and fresh air.
• Take the dog for a walk; play ‘fetch’ with the dog, or throw a ball around with your kids.

Grant yourself the permission to return to your youth. Your adult life is full of responsibility, headache, and the like. It may be for only 20 minutes or a half-hour a day, but imagine how good “recess” would feel & how much fun it would be. The first change has to come from the shoulders up. Once you change your attitude about exercise & start to play, your body will quickly fall in line. Are you in the game?

So, stop an old person moving into your body .....

If you don’t use it, you will lose it!” What a wise old saying!

This is very relevant to the aging process when we suffer significant loss of muscle tissue, bone density, strength, ability to function with vitality, and a general decline in health.

This decline is directly related to a decline in activity levels; but this can be counteracted by strength and weight training!

Strength training will help you to:-

• Build muscle
• Increase bone density
• Improve immunity
• Combat diabetes
• Relieve arthritis
• Decrease blood pressure
• Boost fat loss
• Increase strength
• Increase cardiac efficiency

This is the only training that will do the above and help stop your body from getting older! “Huffy-puffy” exercise is great, but it is not enough to prevent the degeneration of your muscles, joints and bones. So, if you have a goal to “stay young”, it is imperative that you include strength training in your lifestyle.

You only need 1 or 2 sessions each week, for as little as 30 minutes per session.

Do you know the best ways to tone up?
by George Cheeke from Nature & Health Aug/Sep 2003

Strength training not only builds muscle & burns kilojoules, it also strengthens bones.  

What are the most effective ways to firm up?

1:What is the most important component of decreasing body fat?
A: Increasing metabolism will burn more body fat than any other single component.

2:Will eating less decrease body fat?
A: Generally, reducing calories will decrease metabolism unless energy intake dramatically exceeds energy expenditure.

3: What are the most important components of increasing metabolism?
A: Eating more often, increasing muscle mass, and cardiovascular fitness.

4:What will strengthen & improve your muscles?
A: To work your muscles & to feel & see improvement, fatigue must happen in the muscle
through overload. Overload is essential for fast improvement in the muscle.

5:What contributes to cardiovascular fitness?
A: For base cardiovascular fitness, the heart rate must stay in the target heart rate zone during 30 minutes of exercise. After this time you can increase intensity to overload the cardiovascular system, therefore increasing fitness level.

6: Even with hard work, can females achieve the same growth in the muscles (hypertrophy) as males can?
A: Females on the average produce 40 times less testosterone, which is the major factor in the hypertrophy of muscle. Maximum female hypertrophy is genetically predetermined, so blame your parents! Levels may also vary with age.

7 : What is the fastest way to build lean muscle mass through resistance training?
A: Research suggests that this is the fastest way to achieve lean muscle mass. 30seconds of work can be converted into 12 repetitions, 1 second exertion, and 2 seconds controlled release.

8:What will show your muscle’s definition?
A: Too much body fat will cover the definition of the muscles’ striated appearance, even if the muscle is well developed under the body fat, therefore decreasing body fat is the answer.

9:What diet is the best and healthiest way to decrease body fat while exercising?
A: Preferably with the carbohydrate in the low G.I. form (e.g. legumes & pasta), and the fats in the unsaturated form (e.g. deep sea fish oil & cold pressed olive oil).

10: Which is the more efficient & effective form of resistance training?
A: Compound exercises will save time by efficiently overloading more muscle at the one time.

11 : Given the exact same training & diet, will people obtain the same results in the same amount of time?
A: Due to genetic factors, everyone will react differently to a given workload, and/or eating program.

12: How often should you resistance train to get maximum benefit?
A: Generally speaking, the larger the muscle group worked, the longer the rest needed between workouts for repair of muscles. This is when overload has been achieved. Five days rest is needed for a leg work-out, whereas three days for a smaller muscle group like the chest, would be recommended. If you have a whole body program, the maximum of five days’ rest is needed.

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Please Note:
This newsletter is intended for informational purposes only and nothing contained in it should be
construed as Medical, Legal or Financial advice.

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