The reason most people go to the doctor is to find relief for a symptom. Most times the doctor will only give you what you need for that symptom. Going to the gym has the potential to fix most of the problems that you are experiencing. Exercising is the most natural, sustainable, efficient, and longest lasting medicine with no side effects.

I do respect doctors and you should go to them

I may talk quite a bit of smack about doctors but I do respect them and their opinions. They do possess far more knowledge and have been through the trenches compared to me. They are helpful in diagnosing an issue and pointing you in the right direction in terms of medications to solve your problem.

Your doctor is your most valuable resource to see exactly how healthy you are. You should have regular physicals and blood tests, because these are the most important numbers to judge your health. Getting that firm sexy body that you want can be a plus, but your blood work really tells you how healthy you are.

Tests like this can help you reach your goals faster too! Sometimes we have an underlying condition that is causing us to react differently than we should. If we have a condition that is preventing us from consuming certain foods or just not digesting properly then you will run into some issues. If you don’t have issues then your progress may be just a little slower than normal.

Where I think doctors fall short

Doctors fall short with the experience of working with the general population to lose weight by exercising and dieting. Everyone knows that eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly is good for them and they should do this regularly. However, there are so many questions around dieting and exercise that no one knows how to start.

Can you define a healthy diet?

Can you describe what exercises you should be doing?

With so much conflicting information on the internet now it is impossible to determine the right path for yourself. Not to mention, you have habits that have been cemented into you around diet that will be difficult to break. Creating that behavior change is a difficult process and takes a nutrition coach to really recognize those patterns and help you create those wins.

This is how you create sustainable change that can heavily impact your health. Medications will offer short term relief, and after prolonged use they will require you to increase the dosage over time. Sometimes there are also side effects that force you to take more medications to deal with those side effects. It becomes a vicious cycle.

I think that all doctors should have a background in personal training, nutrition, and behavior change. This way they can at least make some recommendations in terms of bettering someone’s health. If they don’t desire to do anything of the sort then they should have professionals in the field that they can refer them to. This way there can be real lasting change and the patient can live a more normal life.

How exercise shines

Exercise is going to be your all natural medication without any side effects. Exercise will promote a healthier weight which takes an enormous amount of stress off the body. Studies will show that being a healthier weight drastically lowers your chances of diseases. This includes issues like heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and many other problems. Instead of being chained by medications you can put in the some work now that will decrease your time waiting in your doctors lobby.

Cardio

Cardiovascular exercise will promote a stronger heart, lungs, and circulatory system. You can only imagine what this does for your health, especially if you are at risk for heart disease. A stronger heart and circulatory system you will have better nutrient delivery throughout your body. The only way for some things like hormones to travel throughout your body is through your arteries and capillaries. So if your circulation is good your body will recover faster and more efficiently.

Cardio doesn’t have to be intense running. If you can start with 10-30 minutes 2-5 days a week of walking you stepping your way to better health. (sorry for the corny pun)

Resistance

Resistance training will manually pump those vessels to create more blood flow as well. However, resistance training will strengthen your joints and this means every joint in your spine as well. A stronger body will keep your body aligned and allow you to move more efficiently and pain free. If you keep strength in your body, especially in your end range of motion, then you won’t have to rely on pain medication just to get your through the day.

This doesn’t have to be intense either. One to three sets that work the major muscle groups is enough to get your started.

Exercise will have the longest effect

If you consider small doses of exercise like your prescription then you will have much longer effects. Some meds have to be taken multiple times a day up to once a week. Let’s be honest, if you worked out twice a day you would most likely be in phenomenal shape and your chances of requiring meds would be slim. Even if you worked out once a week you would still make progress. Become healthier with movement not meds.

Think about exercise like a prescription

Let’s dive a little deeper into how to implement exercise into your daily life. I’m sure you have been very diligent about your medications, am I right? You have stayed diligent with the time of day, how many times a day, with or without food, and whatever other crazy parameters you have to follow. If you consider exercise like your medication then this can be an easier process.

Start with a schedule

What days of the week are preferable for you to exercise? As human beings we work better on a routine. Find some days and times that are best for you to workout. For resistance training it is preferable for you to do twice a week. So maybe 10am on Tuesday and Thursday is best for you. Maybe afternoons work better for you because you aren’t an early riser. The point is to find a schedule that allows you to be the most consistent.

Find the “prescription” that works best for you. Here are some samples in order from most difficult to least.

1. Resistance training 2X per week and cardio 3X
2. Resistance training once and cardio 3X
3. 4 days of cardio 30-60min
4. 5-7 days of walking 10-30 minutes

If one doesn’t work that is ok. Reevaluate and try again. Don’t force something just because you heard that it’s the best. You can never fit a square block into a circle hole.

Don’t depend on the doctor to determine your health

There is no magic pill and even diet and exercise has its limitations. However, actively pursuing a healthy lifestyle will give you the greatest chance of warding off lots of illnesses. You can’t depend on a pill or shot to constantly save you, this is only putting a band aid on the problem. You are in control of yourself so you have to do the things that make you feel better. Yes, it is hard work and there will be a lot of times that you don’t want to do it. But, if you get started now I promise that yourself 10 years from now will thank you.

The post Stop Going to Your Doctor and Start Exercising appeared first on The Super Senior.

We often focus a lot on the list of things we are supposed to do to be healthy. We think that just because we are doing everything on this list that we should be the epitome of healthy. However, we often forget what we feel on the inside. Stress plays such a huge role in our health and it can take many different forms. For example, we can put so much emphasis on our health that it stresses us out. Stress can cause unnecessary inflammation, make our hormones go crazy, and cause a myriad of other issues that typically afflict older adults. We need to lower our stress levels by focusing on our happiness and loving ourselves and our body. Shifting our focus allows us to be more at peace with ourselves which makes us healthier without even realizing it.

You might be stressed and not realize it

Stress has become a normal part of our life in some way, shape, or form. The drive we often have to get ahead causes us to stretch ourselves incredibly thin. I always find myself in this type of situation. Even as I write this article it is almost eleven o’clock at night, I work part-time as a valet, part-time as a personal trainer at a YMCA, part-time as a Realtor, and I have 2 kids at home under 5 years old. I’m doing everything I can to get ahead and create a future or legacy to leave behind for my kids. We find this drive in ourselves and keep moving forward without realizing the stress that we put on ourselves.

Our minds are crazy and it always finds a way to drive us crazy. We have thousands of thoughts a day that is normally a mixture of both positive and negative thoughts. However, we have a tendency to focus on the negative. The negative is what gets all the attention these days, and when it bombards us from every angle we can’t help but think about it. There are events from our past that sometimes pop back into our thoughts for no reason as well. We can suddenly miss loved ones that we lost earlier in life. We start to focus on all the negative thoughts and how we wish we could change things, regrets that we may have, or events that we could have done differently. There are so many ways that we stress ourselves out and we don’t even realize that we’re doing it. So what does this stress do to our body?

The Effects of Stress

When we are constantly under a state of stress our bodies will respond accordingly. The most common response to stress is the fight or flight system. Our hormones are one of the biggest variables that messes with our body. Hormones are the signaling cells of our body. They tell us whether we are hungry, full, absorb or release water, and whether or not we need to uptake glucose into our system for energy. You can see that if our hormones aren’t working properly then our bodies won’t work efficiently.

The effects of stress is something that is sometimes so common that we can’t recognize it as symptoms of being under stress. You see how stress effects the hormones of our body so it’s only natural that we will have symptoms. Decreased sleep quality is probably one of the most important symptoms of stress. Bad sleep really sets us up for failure for the rest of the day. The obvious effect of a bad night of sleep is feeling tired. Our inhibitions go out the window when we feel tired. Every drive that we have to make conscious decisions is put on the back burner and we lose sight of our priorities. We start turning to food for comfort (normally not healthy options) and doing less activity to preserve our strength. Instead of exercising or doing chores around the house we decide to binge watch something off Netflix instead. You can see how this can suddenly spiral out of control. It’s unfortunate that the symptoms of stress can cause more stress.

Stress also decreases your immune system, headaches, gastrointestinal distress, lethargy, depression, aches and pains. These are just some of the symptoms that one can experience when you are constantly under stress. Now I’m not saying that there aren’t other factors that can contribute too many of these symptoms. If you have any concerns then absolutely go see a doctor, but don’t forget to look at yourself and determine if maybe your stress levels have been too high for too long.

How to lower Stress

We need to first find the main source of your stress. Without finding the problem it will be difficult to come up with a solution. This is where we need to dig deeper and heighten our self-awareness to really find the issue. For example, you start really noticing the normal symptoms of stress and try to take a look at your day to day life. Nothing appears to be out of the ordinary. You have a similar routine every single day. All your close relationships give you joy, no one in your immediate family is sick, and you are retired so there is no work to stress you out. What can be the problem? You have had a stubborn 10 pounds that you desperately want to see gone. The result has been an extremely strict diet, and you go to the gym a full 7 days a week. Your obsession with losing this 10 pounds has created dysfunctional “healthy” habits. This obsession has now created an immense amount of stress on your mind and body.

Meditation

Meditation and breathing are going to be your best friends in terms of immediately removing some stress. The breathe work that you practice helps to slow down the heart rate, relax your body, and clear your mind. Meditation can sound a little ridiculous at times. Honestly, I never imagined myself such a big fan of this exercise. I was not a believer until I opened myself up to try new things.

I am not proficient enough at meditation to do it on my own. I need guidance and instructions from an app to follow and help put me into the zone. But when I do meditation I always feel a sense of relief when the session is over. My body always feels lighter, my brain is clearer, and the relaxation helps me sleep better at night.

You can find guided meditations just about anywhere even on Youtube. There are some apps that charge a monthly fee like Calm. Personally I like Deep Meditate, because the free version has good sleep meditations, and the paid version isn’t nearly as expensive as the other apps.

Love yourself to change your perspective

I can’t say it enough, your mind is powerful. When we change our mindset or our perspective we change the way that we view everything. It’s a difficult concept to explain so let us just go over a couple examples. “I have to lose weight to look better” compared to “I only have one body so I want to take care of it”. “I ate like shit so now I have to punish myself by going to the gym” compared to “I had an amazing time with my family”. This second example shows how your focus and your priorities can create stress. If you attend a family event and you feel that you are getting fat by just looking at the food or menu then you need to change your mindset. Unless you are training and getting ready to compete in a bodybuilding or physique competition then you have no reason to think like this.  Food and exercise should not cause you stress. The fact that you want to work out and eat healthy is to take care of your body. You understand that if you take care of your body then you will live a longer life free of medications and walkers. You can live your life fully independent so that you can do what you want to do without limitations.

The way you can do this is by loving yourself. The simple fact is that we will never be perfect in our own eyes. We will always find something that we feel that we need to work on. The more that you hate your belly fat, the wings off your arms, or your double chin the more you feel the need to punish yourself to look better. So we need to switch our mindset so that we are happy with our body and accept exercise as a tool that has many health benefits. The less that we focus on punishing ourselves to look better, and switch to taking care of ourselves for longevity we reduce the stress of “I HAVE TO GET TO THE GYM TODAY”. Life always throws us curveballs and we can’t always plan each day perfectly. With the wrong mindset you will give up your workout and your diet if the day doesn’t go as planned. With a healthy mindset you will still get a quick walk and maybe some light dumbbell work at home for 30 minutes, and still make healthier decisions for dinner.

Actively Reduce Stress

Stress is a silent killer. By taking the steps to reduce your stress levels you become much healthier without working out. Depending on how much and the type of stress that afflicts you will determine how actively you need to combat that stress. Some of us might need to utilize these techniques multiple times a day, and some might need to use them only when we feel we need to. Either way we need to become more self-aware of how we feel and our perspectives regularly. The more self-aware we are of our thoughts the more we can control what stresses us out and take actions to prevent or lower the stress.

The post The #1 Secret That Effects Your Health (Not Your Diet or Exercise) appeared first on The Super Senior.

There are thousands of exercises and you can get a workout from doing all of them. However, some exercises definitely rank above others. The best exercises to start with should mimic daily activities that we all experience. This also means that the exercise should work more muscles than just one. There are not a lot of situations where you will have to bicep curl something throughout the day. So, the best exercises to start with are the sit-to-stand, bridge, wall push up, row, arm circles, and suitcase carry. This workout will work the entire body to help lay the foundation for a fully functional body.

Sit to Stand

This will be the first exercise that you begin that will get you to full blown squats. The sit-to-stand will be a great exercise to start building the legs. With your legs being your main mode of transportation, it would be best to keep them strong. Remember, walking is great, but your legs will still lose some strength year after year unless you start doing some strength training. So, keep your legs strong and never lose the ability to get up from the floor or couch.

Technique

Starting position:

• Stand in front of a chair or anything that you can sit on. If it’s too low then try something a little higher such as maybe your bed.
• Place your feet about shoulder width apart. Play around with the feet position, because some people will feel better with the feet wider or narrower.

Movement

• Begin by pushing your hips backward and pushing your knees outward. You do not want to bend at the knees first because it will put a lot of forward pressure on the knee. Pushing the knees outward will help to strengthen your glutes and the outside leg muscles.
• Feel free to raise your hands in front of you to help with the balance.
• Maintain a flat back. Try to not overextend your back to the point that there is a visible arch.
• Continue the downward motion slow and controlled until your butt touches the chair. Then feel free to lean back into a full sitting position.
• Start the upward motion by leaning forward with a flat back until you feel tension in your glutes. This should be about the same position as when you sat down.
• Push your feet into the ground and push the hips forward to return to the starting position.

Tips

• Keep the knees driving outward will typically help with knee pain if you experience any.
• Take a big breath and brace the core on the way down and maintain a nice slow exhale as you go back up.

Bridge

Our butts are one of the most powerful muscles that we have in our bodies. They are also one of the most neglected muscles. The main action of our glutes is hip extension which basically helps us stay upright. A stronger butt definitely adds to our stability as a whole. You will feel a massive difference in your ability to walk and your overall movement will improve with a stronger butt.

Technique

Starting Position

• Start by lying on the ground with your knees bent so that your feet are about a foot away from your butt.
• Your feet should be about shoulder width apart.
• Allow your arms to lay comfortably at your side

Movement

• Begin by pulling your bellybutton in.  Imagine bringing your bellybutton to your spine
• Push through the feet and drive your hips up to the ceiling.
• Squeeze everything at the top for at least one second before dropping the hips back to the starting position.

Tips

• You should feel this in your butt, but if you do not try to move your feet out a little wider.
• Your back should not be arching too much. Really focus on just your hips moving to the ceiling.

Wall Push ups

Let us start building the chest. This is another big muscle that needs to be developed. As a senior this muscle will be essential to catching yourself if you happen to fall. You also want to keep the ability to be able to push yourself off the ground. This is the first exercise to begin developing that strong chest. If the wall is too easy then feel free to use a counter. The goal is to keep using lower and lower surfaces until you are down on the ground.

Technique

Starting position

• Stand only a couple feet away from a wall. Basically, you should still be leaning slightly towards the wall with your arms fully extended
• Place your hands on the wall so that they are about shoulder height and a little outside shoulder width.

Movement

• Pull your shoulders back and down. Imagine putting your shoulders in your back pocket. This will ensure most of the tension is put into your chest. MAINTAIN YOUR SHOULDERS IN THIS POSITION THROUGHOUT THE EXERCISE.
• Bend the elbows until your forehead is about to hit the wall. Let your upper arm drop slightly so that your elbows can come backwards. Do not let your elbows flare out so that it looks like a chicken wing.
• Push against the wall until you return to the starting position.

Tips

• Really focus on the elbows coming back instead of out to the side. This protects the shoulder, puts more focus on the chest, and lets you work more of the range-of-motion of the chest.

Rows

Time to work on your back! Building a strong back is always the focus of my training. We focus so intently on all the things in front of us that we forget what is behind us. A strong back will have one obvious benefit, and that is improve our posture. Our back plays more of a role than most would think. Anytime that you are pulling something or holding something that is relatively heavy you are using your back muscles. Maintaining posture while doing daily tasks, and carrying heavy items is the epitome of functionality.

Technique

Starting Position

• Stand in the middle of a doorway. Standing a little behind the doorway will be easier and standing a little in front will be a little harder.
• Place your hands on the door jamb that’s slightly below nipple height and get a good comfortable grip.

Movement

• Lean backwards until your arms are at full extension. Please watch your feet and use proper footwear if necessary, so that you do not slip.
• From full extension pull yourself back to the starting position. Imagine there is a string on your elbow and that string is pulling your elbow back as you return to the starting position.

Arm Circles

Your shoulders can move through the largest range-of-motion in comparison to any other joint. This also means that it is the most prone to injury. We can protect these joints by strengthening all the muscles around it. Now there are a lot of muscles that move your shoulder through its entire ROM which means there are a lot of muscles to strengthen.

Technique

This exercise is relatively simple and self-explanatory. You can perform this exercise from a standing or sitting position. Stick your arms straight out to the side and begin making circles with your arms. You will be doing small, medium, and large circles both forward and backward. Each circle will be slow and controlled so that you can feel the different muscles really start to burn. The large circles will be the most important to perform slowly, specifically the back half of the circle. Really pull your muscles into the furthest ROM possible. You should only feel the burn from the exercise and some discomfort from pulling into a new ROM. IF YOU FEEL PAIN STOP!

Suitcase Carry

This last exercise is really a bonus. The ability to walk while carrying a load will give you huge improvements on your functional movement. If you can walk while carrying a load then normal walking will just become so much easier. Now this exercise will challenge your ability to keep good perfect posture walking while carrying a heavy load on one side. This will challenge your core and stability throughout your entire body to counterbalance the load on one side. Use some sort of bag with a good stable comfortable handle. I’d say a plastic bag or any sort of grocery bag probably won’t work, because the bag can break and the handle probably won’t be very comfortable to hold for a long period of time. The weight should be on the heavier side. You do not want it so light that you can barely feel the weight, and you do not want it so heavy that you have a hard time stabilizing the weight. Play around and find a weight that is heavier and you can walk with good control.

Technique

• From a normal standing position, bend over and pick up your chosen weight in one hand. Make sure you brace your core, maintain a flat back, and use your legs to pick up the weight. Even if the weight seems like something easy to handle take the extra precaution. We often hurt ourselves over the stupidest reasons.
• Put your shoulders in your back pocket and maintain that stability.
• Walk slowly and move as smoothly as possible. Your body should not sway and your head should maintain the same height.
• Walk a short distance, drop the weight, pick it up with the other hand, and repeat.

Programming this workout

You can do this workout 1-3 times a week. If you do this work out more than once a week then allow for 1-2 days of rest or recovery between workouts. Try aiming for one set of 8-12 repetitions (reps) of each exercise. Start with one set and as you get stronger start trying to work in 2-3 sets. Progressive overload is the only way to get stronger. Keep everything slow and controlled so that you really focus on the technique of the exercise. If you rush the exercise you will increase your chances of getting hurt. Also make sure that you pull that bellybutton in to brace and stabilize your core to further protect yourself.

You will hit the legs, chest, back, shoulders, and core with this full body work out. This will be one of the best ways to build a strong foundation for your body. Even as an older adult you can build a solid body that is fully functional and ready to take on the stresses of the day (or year this is the year 2020).

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The post Top 4 Strength Exercises for Beginner Active Older Adults (From Home) appeared first on The Super Senior.

Better posture to alleviate your pain

I am not a doctor nor do I have x-ray vision, but a lot of times our chronic pain comes from weak muscles and muscle imbalances. Without muscles our body wouldn’t be able to move, we would simply be a skeleton that lays on the ground doing nothing. We often forget that the muscles are involved with the simplest tasks such as standing or sitting on the ground. Many of our muscles are used just to stabilize our bodies and keep us sitting with no support or standing with good posture. So if our back muscles become too weak from sitting or lying down then we won’t be able to maintain these positions with good posture. The cliche saying “if you don’t use it you lose it” is definitely applicable to muscles. If you have ever been in a cast after a broken arm you can easily see the difference in muscle size to the arm that wasn’t in a cast.

Posture is a big term that gets thrown around quite often. As you have probably seen, our muscles play a major role in how we maintain our posture. The combination of weak muscles and imbalanced muscles can lead to our bones and joints getting pulled into inefficient positions. For example, someone that has a very strong chest and weak back muscles can lead to a posture deviation called “forward shoulder”. Forward shoulder can lead to all other types of problems such as, shoulder impingement, decreased shoulder mobility, and shoulder instability. This is all because the strong chest muscles are pulling the shoulder into a sub-optimal position. You can feel this with a simple test. Hunch your shoulders forward, keep your arm straight and try to raise it up as high as possible. Now bring yourself into good posture with your shoulders back and down (imagine putting them into your back pocket) and repeat the test. You should feel a difference in your shoulder’s range of motion (ROM).

So developing a balance of strength throughout your entire body will alleviate pain, because your body won’t be compensating for weak muscles by using inefficient movement patterns. Stronger muscles keep your back erect with less effort. They help your joints by creating more stability within the joint. Finally, allowing your body to use the right muscles at the right time allows it to run much more efficiently with less effort. This is guaranteed to help alleviate pain that has no specific source.

Bigger stronger muscles need more energy to maintain

We always hear that in order to lose weight we need to burn more calories and consume less. In the case of losing body fat this is indeed the formula that will lead to a reduction in body fat. However, let’s take a look at this from a different perspective.

Let’s say for example that the amount of calories that your body needs just to stay alive is 2000 calories. This is also called your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). What if we increased your BMR to burn more calories throughout the day? Resistance training does not only make you much stronger, but it also increases your metabolism. This makes losing body fat a much easier process, and makes maintaining your physic so much easier. Stay with me now there may be a little math involved with this concept.

Continuing with the example of the person that has a BMR of 2000 Calories. Let’s say this person is a female that is 150 pounds and about 30% body fat and has an initial goal of losing 30 pounds. After 6 solid months of resistance training she has gotten significantly stronger. She would have lost possibly 10-15 pounds and 5% in the process, but her lean body mass has increased dramatically. Her new BMR is 2500 Calories. This new higher metabolism makes losing the rest of the weight easier because she can consume 2000 calories and still lose 1 pound of body fat a week instead of consuming 1500. Of course she could stick with the 1500 Calories to drop weight faster, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Doing so for too long would reverse all the work that she put in for the last 6 months. Also when she loses the weight and hits her goal, then the act of maintaining becomes that much easier because she can eat 2500 Calories to keep her weight.

The most obvious reason BE STRONGER!

There is definitely nothing wrong with being stronger. Being stronger just makes EVERYTHING EASIER. Difficult tasks like moving around furniture, gardening, and lots of groceries become so much easier since it all becomes lighter. Everyday tasks become easier too such as cooking, cleaning, and most importantly playing with grandchildren. Sometimes these tasks can take up 50% or more of your strength. So if some of these tasks can take up only 10-20 percent of your strength wouldn’t you have a lot more energy to spare? Studies have shown that the ability to do daily tasks has a direct link to your happiness. There is a great deal of frustration that we feel when we can’t do tasks that we could easily do before. This is due to a loss of independence. When something that used to cause you pain and discomfort becomes effortless you will feel empowered to do more.

You will start to lose strength (atrophy) after 3 days of not using muscles. However, muscles still take much more time to atrophy in comparison to cardiovascular abilities. Cardio is great and should be incorporated as well into your menu of healthy activities. However, cardio takes a long time and can be sooo boring. There have been studies that showed that even the most intense chronic aerobic athletes will lose strength every year they don’t do strength training. So strength will give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Let’s hit the weights!

There are a plethora of benefits when it comes to strength training. Far more than I could possibly list here. It’s even great for other chronic conditions such as diabetes, sarcopenia, and joint afflictions. Your body will thank you as you turn back the clock on your body and feel decades younger again.

YOU’RE NOT TOO OLD!! You absolutely have the ability to lifts weights and build a stronger body. There is no such thing as being too old. You absolutely have the ability to work on your body and build your strength to keep your independence. Feel better with better posture and a bullet proof body (not literally please don’t test this) that can withstand the tests of life. With that being said don’t jump into weights blind. Get with a personal trainer to learn proper technique and lifts that fit your weight training experience.

The post Why Strength Training is the Best Modality for Seniors appeared first on The Super Senior.