If you want to improve your walking, running, swimming, golf, or any physical activity, then you need to think about about how important your core is.

If you want to look younger and actually feel better, then core exercises are critical. Many older people are afraid of falling and injuring themselves. Working to improve your balance through core exercises can prevent a dangerous fall, and the resulting injuries. That's how important your core is!

Strengthening your core through core exercises can help make the daily tasks like bending, turning, reaching out easier so that working around the house, and cleaning your yard, shovelling your driveway stay within your realm of possible activities? Your core will determine your participation in these activities, and help you to deal with many types of back pain.

What Is "The Core"?

The core is the entire group of muscles around our mid-sections. It is not just the six pack, which we all have by the way, though some of us just hide it wi...

Common sense tells us that being overweight might not be in our best interests.

I think we all agree with that, right? But, is being a little bit overweight bad for you? And how much is a little bit? Is it 5 lbs., 15 lbs., 20 lbs., more? So, what is the cut-off point? And would the cut-off point be the same for everyone?

 We are seeing an increasing number of articles in magazines and newspapers these days about managing your weight! They make it sound like being overweight is ok, it’s normal, and they offer suggestions to help you ‘Manage Your Weight’. Which of course you can do by following whatever diet or exercise program they are peddling at the moment.

 The truth is, “it is not healthy to be overweight”.

 And Managing your excess weight is not the best way to handle this problem.

This is just making the situation seem normal, rather than solving the problem.

 Trying to make general health rules that apply to everyone is extremely difficult. As we age we become increasingly ...

• Most falls can be/or could have been prevented!

• Fall prevention is something you can do yourself!

We have grown up watching and hearing about older people falling and suffering broken wrists, forearms, and hip fractures and then require long-term care and a lifetime of complex medications. These are common injuries from falling. We have seen so many injuries we often think it is normal for older people. 

However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Read on to find out more and ensure you stay injury-free for years to come by reducing the risk factor with injury prevention.

Myths

1. Many people believe that falls just happen and they cannot do anything about it.
2. They also believe that falls are more likely to happen as they age.

Facts

1. Falls are not part of the aging process, but they do often happen to older people! Ever Wonder Why?
2. Falls are the leading cause of serious injuries in older adults.
3. Adults over the age of 65 have a greater chance for fall injuries than
...

Author:  Alissa Hamilton
Publisher:  William Morrow
Year: 2016
Edition:  Kindle, ibooks
Price: $17.72

I bought it on Amazon Prime.

Introduction

My interest in nutrition gave me the desire to read this book because I wanted to be aware of the questions asked. And to see if there are valid reference sources backing up the claims made. The book deals with the question, "Is milk good for you?"

The author’s purpose is to discuss how milk has come to occupy its position in our world today. She also wants to have us question our own position on this product and its place in our food supply.

Questions Raised

1. Why has there been so much government support for the dairy industry?
2. How did the facts get so twisted? Did they get twisted?
3. Does milk really contribute to a healthy lifestyle?
4. Are dairy industry claims about nutrients in milk true?
5. Can those same nutrients be more readily obtained elsewhere?
6. Are those same nutrients more economically available elsewhere?
7. We need calcium, but co
...

As you begin this program, you will become very familiar with 'DOMS', delayed onset of muscle soreness. It happens when we use muscles we haven't used in a long time or we use them in a different way.

Doms is caused by some degree of muscle damage that becomes noticeable approximately 8 hours after exercise and can last 2-3 days in my experience. The exercising has caused microscopic tears in muscle cells, (perfectly natural as the result of working muscles).

The inflammation is your body’s healing response which results in some swelling, thus the pain.

This is part of the mechanism of muscle adaptation to training.

It is also why we exercise different muscle groups on alternate days. It gives what you worked yesterday a chance to adapt and heal. That is how muscles grow stronger. In addition as your body get used to the increased activity level, Doms should lessen.

There is a concept called ‘hard-easy’ that refers to following a hard workout with an easy one. That’s one way to re...

Blood Pressure

Blood Pressure is the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your arteries every time your heart pumps. Each pump creates a wave that you feel as your pulse. But this is not the same as blood pressure. The pressure against your arteries is greater when the heart pumps than it is between pumps. Both are measured because both are important. The blood the heart pumps out is oxygenated and full of nutrients for your body.

How Is It Measured?

Blood Pressure is measured at it's highest and lowest points. The highest is when the heart pumps and is called the systolic blood pressure (pronounced sis-tall-ic). This is the top number or the largest number in a blood pressure reading. The lowest blood pressure is when your heart relaxes between pumps and the pressure drops. This is called diastolic blood pressure (pronounced die-as-tolic). This is the bottom number in your blood pressure reading.

A reading is normally stated as 120/80 or 120 over 80. 

Any elevation in...

Functional Fitness relates to the basic human movements of daily living. All day long we bend, lift, push, pull and twist.

 Young people do it as part of playing and they enjoy all of it. However; too many older people have an increasing amount of difficulty with the basic functional movements of daily living.

 Most gyms and fitness programs are based on body building programs with which we all grew up. We were sold all kinds of exercise equipment and training programs that claimed to help us become more fit. That has meant “build bigger muscles”, with the body builder image in mind.

 Did it work?

 I often wonder how many millions of pieces of equipment are sitting unused in basements, closets, and under beds, completely useless. Most of it owned by people that are overweight and unhealthy.

 In spite of all that equipment, many of those people are still experiencing:

1. A loss of muscle mass
2. A loss of strength
3. An increase in body fat percentage
4. A loss of aerobic capacity
5. An in
...

If Your Lifestyle Does Not Control Your Body, .......

Then Your Body Will Control Your Lifestyle!

 Living independently is not something we ever think about until we are faced with losing it...then it becomes a monstrous problem!

 You know what you think when you see or hear about someone being moved into a seniors home? Or having to give up their drivers license?

 That's not going to happen to me!

 Keeping your independence means if you take care of your body, you will maintain control and enjoy the benefit of living independently as long as possible. That is what you get from exercising and eating well. This site is intended for baby boomers and seniors, that is people born between 1946 and 1964. I was born in 1946 and I know that exercising is different now than when I was younger.

 Just being able to do the normal daily tasks becomes harder. Keeping your ability to function on your own becomes quite a challenge. Energy levels are nowhere near the same.

 Reaching up in the ki...

 

This is an illustration I developed over several years.

The Aging Curve is a graph showing our lifeline from independence in our early years through the acquisition of functional abilities and the loss of these same functional abilities later in life. 

The black arrows (rising from birth on the left in the graph and declining on the right) show a normal Aging Curve and how it may sink below the dependency threshold later in life. 

We age in two ways: Primary Aging, which is the number of years lived and Secondary Aging, which is the impact of diseases, accidents, injuries and our environment. These secondary impacts all push downward on our Aging Curve. I work hard to push back upward. I want my Aging Curve to remain as high as possible, as long as possible. 

I am doing that with my Lifestyle. My tools are exercise 🏃🏻‍♂️and nutrition🍓. These are the two components of Fitness.  I insist on my lifestyle controlling my body; I will not let a body, that I am able  control, take c...

My Background

How fast can you lose your fitness level?  What? Not me! That could happen to other people...but not me!

Exercise and heart disease were always mutually exclusive in my mind! It never occurred to me that I would have to learn to exercise with heart disease.

Although I was born with a slight heart murmur I never once thought I had heart disease. In my case it was a leaky Mitral Valve. It was never a problem nor was it serious, but in January 2016 I had a bad lung infection which turned into my third bout of pneumonia. This dragged on and on and seemed to last for months. My energy levels dropped so low I pretty much stopped doing any significant work outs.

Sleep became something I used to do. My shortness of breath and my cough had become extremely bad, and I had less than zero energy.

Fitness routines were always a part of my life so working out had always been part of who I am. When I couldn't exercise and didn't even want to, I knew something serious was wrong. I h...