The Come Alive Project

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  • Energy Bite 312 – New “Things” for 2020

    Welcome to 2020!

    I am re-starting these Energy Bites after a couple weeks off. These weekly messages are intended to be a refreshing and no-hype look at Health, Fitness and Personal Energy for Active Seniors. They are meant to be a wake-up call to some and an action plan for others. Regardless of your age, you should find the commentary and the messages in these Energy Bites to be useful.

    There have been lots of new people at the gym – even at 5:30 in the morning. I wonder how long they will last — I hope for a long time. In previous years the drop off starts in early February.

    How about you? Any resolutions that include Health and Fitness? Physical movement? Eating better? Taking care of yourself and taking responsibility for your own health and fitness? Have you started yet, or are you continuing?

    Coming up in 2020: 

    You’ll be seeing some video. In fact I may include some video shorts called SeniorFlow Moments as part of these Energy Bites. You can let me know if they work. You can also expect to see some Guest Posts from experts in their respective fields related to your Health, Fitness and Personal Energy. These will be written by experts who work with seniors on a day-to-day basis.

    You will begin to see more seminars, workshops and talks in 2020, particularly in the Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland areas. I may also set up some “Meet-ups” in these area for those who might be interested. I’ll keep you informed about new events on my websites which are currently being upgraded.

    As for exercise, you can expect a new program coming out later in the year called the SeniorFlow Experience designed to help the sedentary and less active senior men and women. It will emphasize moderate physical movement for strength, flexibility (muscles), mobility (joints) and stamina/endurance (ability to hang in there for a while). A more advanced program will come later for more advanced seniors.

    You will soon see upgraded websites to reflect all the new programs.

    All the above is with the goal of helping you and others like you, to have a healthier, more fit, fun, purposeful, sustainable and independent lifestyle as you get older. It’s also intended to spread the message of health, fitness and physical energy, and how to achieve it, to an ever growing group of active senior men and women.

    These things will not pop up all at once. They will take place over a number of months. You can follow the progress of these new “things” at www.thecomealiveproject.com and a sister site at www.seniorflow.net.

    2020 is here. It’s a new year and a new decade. I hope you have a happy, healthy and independent future.

    Thank you for reading.

  • Energy Bite 311 – A Reminder for the New Year: MOVE!

    I wrote this brief and to the point article as a guest blog for the Rise Well Being Center in the Washington, DC suburbs, where I had done a mini-workshop a while ago. If you’re in the DC area, living or visiting, check them out. I’m re-issuing the article (with permission) below:

    “To restore life to your life, to defeat aging, to regain the youth you still possess, get your body in motion”

    — from Act Your Age, an essay by George Sheehan.

    The author of that quote is right of course. If you don’t move your body the way nature intended it to move, your muscles will shrink and lose their strength, your bones will get brittle and become easy to break, and your blood will pool like a a stagnate pond. Your joints will get rusty and squeak like ancient hinges and your breathing will become shallow and weak as your lungs lose their elasticity.

    But when you do move your body, and take care of yourself like nature intended, your muscles will fill out and gain strength, your bones will get stronger, and you will move with the power, fluidity and grace of a well maintained race car . . . A jungle cat on the prowl . . . A thoroughbred playing in a “horse country” pasture.

    That’s what you need to come alive, feel alive and stay alive. That’s what Health, Fitness and Personal Energy is all about. That’s how you stave off chronic illness and stay independent as you get older. That’s how you awaken the Fountain of Youth within you and energize the Flow of Life.

    So, whether it’s yoga, dance, pilates, weights, running, walking, or whatever your choice of movement may be, you must get your body in motion.

    Your well-being depends on it.

    Thank you for reading.

    ______________________

    Bob McMillan is a Senior Fitness Specialist (NASD), blogger and workshop leader. He is a strong voice for Seniors in the area of Health, Fitness and Personal Energy.

  • Energy Bite 310 – Overtraining, How Much Exercise is Too Much?

    Most of what I have written involves the importance of exercise and making sure you get enough of it to grow and function as you get older.

    It’s true. You need a lot of exercise of various types and amounts to really get the most from your body, no matter what your age. Physical movement is critical in providing the personal energy you need to remain independent.

    BUT . . .

    Can you do too much exercise? You bet you can. You can overtrain your body by doing too much, by repeating your sessions too soon or too often, and by not giving your body enough time to recover. What happens then?

    You can overtrain your body.

    OK. So what. What will happen to my body if I exercise too much and overtrain? Your muscles, joints and system become overly fatigued. Your energy level goes way down. You become more susceptible to injuries and infections. Your immune response declines.

    As a senior who is new to exercise, or is planning to get back to exercise on January 1, there is a greater chance you will do too much, too often at too high an intensity. That’s natural. So why is that a bad thing? Because your body takes longer to recover the older you get. With sensible exercise, your body is far better prepared for an occasional overtraining response. But age, genetics, your current fitness level and what you eat will determine what your body can handle.

    That’s also why seniors are encouraged to start slowly without heavy resistance to allow your body to slowly increase the capacity for exercise. Any good training program will have scaled intensity levels built into it to prevent doing too much, too often. That same program will also provide for adequate recovery time for your body to adapt.

    So, as we approach the season of “new intentions” for fitness and weight loss, by all means get started with a good, solid exercise program. Just be careful at the beginning not to overdo it. That’s one of the main reasons people stop exercising after a month or two into a new year.

    Thank you for reading.