The 50's are a sandwich generation of fitness; we don't want to work out like we did 15, 10 or even 5 years ago, yet we aren't ready for the "senior" classes either. I'm revamping this blog to be a blend of health and fitness tips that I hope all of you "fiftysomethings" will find helpful.
***I am not a doctor or nutritionist.
Please consult your physician before performing any exercises or following any tips shown on this blog.
In this video, she demonstrates how you can easily test the flexibility in your chest, shoulders, calves, obliques, lower back, hamstrings inner thighs and hips. She also provides stretches for each of these areas.
On her website, she provides scores for good (3), fair (2) and poor (1). Add up your points at the end to see how you are doing--what areas are good, and what areas need improving. Follow the link provided to see how you rate.
Make sure you are warmed up before doing these tests and stretches. They can easily be done after a workout, or alone after you've warmed up your muscles for a few minutes.
The article is written by Jeffrey A. Kleim, PhD., associate professor in the Arizona State University School of Biological Health Systems Engineering.
He writes:
"Exercise Improves Cognitive Function
A sedentary lifestyle affects the brain—and in turn lessens mental capacity. Sibley and Etnier (2003) found a clear connection between how much schoolchildren exercised and their cognitive performance: the more aerobic exercise the children engaged in, the better they performed on verbal, perceptual and mathematical tests. The same pattern of results was found in older adults: aerobic training improved cognitive performance (Colcombe & Kramer 2003), and active lifestyles decreased age-related risks for cognitive impairment and dementia (Yaffe et al. 2009). Not surprisingly, these cognitive effects were accompanied by clear changes in brain structure and function.
Exercise Changes Brain Function
Research shows that exercise changes brain function in a lasting manner. For example, the reduced cognitive capacity in sedentary individuals is associated with different patterns of brain activity—both at rest and while performing mentally challenging tasks—than those observed in active subjects.
Plus, compared with sedentary people, active individuals show greater baseline levels of cortical activity (Dustman et al. 1990). (The cerebral cortex helps with complex cognitive tasks.)
Exercise Changes Brain Structure
The structure of the brain can be broken down into two general components. Gray matter contains the neurons and supporting cells, while white matter consists of the axons of these neurons (nerve cell fibers) that carry signals from one area to another.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows for the measurement of gray and white matter. MRI scans have shown that exercise boosts overall brain volume (Colcombe et al. 2006), increasing both gray matter (Colcombe et al. 2006) and white matter (Gordon et al. 2008). These changes can occur over relatively short periods of time. After learning to juggle for only a few weeks, for example, study subjects showed increases in gray matter within regions of the brain concerned with integrating visual and motor information (Draganski et al. 2004)."
Today's workout comes from jessicasmithtv. It is a two part workout that is done entirely on a chair. This is great program for beginners and those of you with joint issues or injuries--especially knees. For a bit more core challenge, this workout could also be done on a stability ball.
You will need a sturdy chair or a stability ball for more challenge, a towel and a set of dumbbells.
You will see that you don't have to be standing to get a great cardio and strength workout.
I've also included a stretch video that completes this workout.
Today's workout comes from LiveExercise. It is a total body workout that is split into several parts. It starts off with 3 rounds of 4 exercises. The exercises are split into static holds and 15 reps moving through your range of motion.
Next, a timer gets set for 40 seconds and you perform 4 exercises for 10 seconds each doing as many reps as you can during that 10 seconds repeating this for 3 rounds without any rest in between for a total of 2 minutes of HIIT training.
Next, a ladder workout is done with wall ups and pushups. If the wall ups are too intense, hold a plank instead or put your feet up on and down on a bottom step or up on a coffee table or couch. You start with 10 reps and work down to 1, they work pretty fast-- (if this is too intense, start with 5 and go down from there).
Next, you will do some gluteal work. Doing 3 different exercises that target these muscles, 10 reps each, 2 rounds.
Finally, you will end with some core work--get ups--these are hard, but he breaks them down into steps (5 reps each) to make them easier--if you've never done these before, don't use any weight, just concentrate on keeping your arm and shoulder elevated.
Equipment used: optional mat, 2 heavy weights or heavy objects of the same weight, an optional resistance band, they give some other options to use things from around the house.
This is an intense workout. Work at your own speed and pace paying attention to your form. Modify when necessary. The video is 52 minutes, but the workout itself is only around 30.
The warm up they do is pretty minimal with some unnecessary static stretching. You're better off doing a longer warm up and skip the shoulder stretches (do arm circles instead) and make sure to warm up your back--squat down and roll up one vertebra at a time--do this a few times.
Do NOT do the the hurdler stretch they do at the end--really bad for your knees. Instead of bending the knee to bring the foot under you, bend it to the inside so the foot is toward the opposite inner thigh and lean forward with a flat back to stretch your hamstrings. To stretch your quads, go to your side and grab your foot, pushing your foot into your hand, flex your foot and pull your entire leg back until you get a good stretch to the front of your thigh (quads), switch sides. This was a full body workout, so make sure to stretch your chest, lower back, shoulders and arms as well.
I'm posting it again because that's what challenges are all about, to see how much stronger you've gotten. Now, if you didn't do the challenge back in July, no sweat, make today challenge number one and do the challenge again in a month or two.
The challenge itself is a great core workout that can be done alone or along with another workout.
Remember, if doing it alone, warm up for a few minutes first and stretch after.
Good luck! p.s. go at your own pace--you don't have to keep up with her...maybe you'll be faster, but with great form, of course! ;)
Today's upper body workout comes from Jackie Warner, and is done in a pyramid style. Two exercises are done together starting with 1 rep each, then 2 reps and on up to 10 reps each.
You will need a set of dumbbells.
The warm up is very short, I'd recommend doing a longer one. She does a great job of cuing for proper form.
I love pumpkin! For me, besides cozy sweaters and the beautiful colors, it's one of my favorite things about Fall, and there's so much more than just pumpkin pie....
All the recipes I'm sharing fit into my Paleo way of eating. Feel free to make substitutions at your own risk to the recipe's outcome.
These next two are similar, if you don't have an ice cream maker and leave it in the fridge, the coconut milk will still thicken up and it will be more mousse-like (I'd use all coconut milk if you aren't making it into ice cream).
