Category: Senior Fitness

Which is more important, being able to stand on one foot and balance yourself, or to be able to recover when you lose your balance?

When I was in flight training to become a Marine Corps Officer and Pilot back in the early 1960s, part of the ongoing medical evaluations was to determine how well you could maintain and recover your equilibrium. The test wasn’t about how well you could balance. It was about how you reacted when you got slightly off balance. The medical officer would ask you to close your eyes while standing on one leg and then nudge you off balance to see how you responded. Some of the student pilots didn’t recognize being off balance and were subsequently dropped from flight status.

I believe that the ability to recover from being off balance is more important than doing exercises for balance. Both are important. It’s nice to be able to balance on one foot, but it is more important to be able to “catch yourself” when you recognize you are losing your balance.

What muscles need to be strengthened? Legs, abdominal muscles and ankles primarily. When you are able to stop a major fall you may end up with a twisted ankle. But better to have a twisted ankle than a broken hip. Of course the benefit of “ankle and foot stability” from standing on one foot and maintaining your balance is important. That will help you keep your balance. But I believe it is more important is to be able to recognize when you are off balance and to stop a fall before you lose control.

So yes, by all means, find a support and practice balancing on one foot, and maybe ask someone to carefully nudge you while you are on one foot to see how well you catch yourself. But more importantly, do those leg raises, twisting crunches and partial knee bends to strengthen your legs and core. That may keep you out of a long term stay in rehab while recovering from a broken hip.

Thank you for reading.

The gyms are full again. And the produce aisles at the grocery stores are full of people looking for healthy foods. It’s the same every year.

I saw the term “January People” used to describe those who start their new Health and Fitness Resolutions with their own “quick start” effort, usually on January 2nd, and who continue with the enthusiasm of a hungry tiger until their new found ardor and enthusiasm diminish after just a few weeks of fervent effort.

Actually, gyms have reported over the years that new memberships start increasing in late December with the new members exercising diligently at the beginning of the year. Peak attendance starts to drop off in mid-February, falling back to normal about the middle of March.

What happens? Typically, people’s expectations are too high, and they don’t see those incredible results they expected right away. So they lose motivation and stop. But if you exercise dutifully and with some sort of plan for intermittent successes, you should see some positive results after the first week and continuing at a slow pace until the first plateau in about a month and a half after starting.

It’s that plateau that is devastating to most new exercisers. They expect the improvement and good feeling they experienced at the start, to continue forever without any sort of leveling off. When the real world plateau comes along, they lose the M&M factor —  Momentum and Motivation — and simply give up. That ends it. No more gym. Oh, they keep their new gym membership, but they stop using the facilities. Of course the gyms love it, even count on it. More memberships but no more people cluttering up the place after the mid-March drop off. That keeps the old members happy too.

A desire for Instant gratification is the norm today. But that’s not the reality of the gym. You will see plateaus and will experience them the rest of your time of movement and exercise. You will experience plateaus in muscular development and in weight loss. Expect it. Knowing that plateaus are a reality of the fitness experience will allow you to mentally expect that pause in the M&M Factor, and to understand that as you continue with your Health and Fitness program, you will build and develop your body, and lose the weight you want if that is your goal.

Start. And whether you join a gym or exercise at home,  just keep doing it. Expect the plateaus and work through them. You’ll look better, feel better and experience a feeling of personal energy and enthusiasm for life that you may have never experienced before. You might just live a little longer, too.

Thank you for reading.

It’s time to talk about New Year’s Resolutions and the challenges seniors face with exercise and eating right. Of course, it’s not just seniors who have these challenges. It’s pretty much everyone on the planet except for the few die hard exercisers who are aware of our bodies and how they need to be moved, twisted and stretched if we are to grow old gracefully.  Here are some thoughts:

Most seniors don’t want to exercise, go to the gym, sweat, or do anything that takes that kind of effort.

Most seniors seek to avoid any chance of pain, injury and other negative possibilities associated with moving their bodies in a way they haven’t done for a long time, if ever.

Most seniors are pretty well set in their ways.

Most seniors are resigned to stress as a condition of life.

Most seniors don’t want to change their eating habits. Sugar tastes good — it doesn’t much matter if it is bad for us and causes all sorts of physical and even mental problems — it tastes good. Broccoli doesn’t.

Most seniors also know what they need to do to stay healthy, feel good and live longer. They are totally aware that exercise, good eating habits, deep breathing and lots of rest and sleep will provide the solution they want: That is to look good, feel good, live longer and enjoy the life they are living.

How do you reconcile the two contrasting attitudes? Good question. Is the answer self-discipline? Is the answer deprivation at the food trough? Is the answer hours and hours in the gym sweating and risking injury?

Does the answer include eating broccoli and Brussels sprouts the rest of your life? Is a permanent lunch of green smoothies in your future?

Is the answer to stress to stop reading newspapers and to stop watching cable news? Maybe even go to bed a little earlier?

The answer to all of the above is yes and no.

No, you don’t have to radically alter your overall lifestyle to where you are living a life of stoic deprivation. No you don’t have to become a performance athlete or even a weekend warrior.  No, you don’t have to make steamed broccoli and carrots the mainstay of your eating and no, you don’t have to forgo ice cream on the weekends.

But YES, you do have to make some extra effort to move your body through simple exercises and movements. And yes broccoli, carrots, and other colorful veggies should at least play a part in your eating habits.

Yes you should give up being a BAD NEWS JUNKIE and Cable News Addict if you want to maintain your mental stability.

And yes, you must move out of your personal comfort zone and establish some new habits if you want that newly minted good looking body, less protrusion of your mid-section, that attitude of excitement for life, that feeling of vigor and health, and that vision of personal energy that will keep you going for the years to come.

The New Year, 2017, is upon us in just a couple of days. Should you make radical New Year’s Resolutions about your health, fitness and personal energy? Yes, you should. You’re not getting any younger chronologically, but you can get a younger looking body, a younger feeling body, and a dynamic and energetic attitude about life in general. You can feel good about yourself and you can improve the way those close to you feel about you. You can look and feel  better almost instantly through exercise, movement, posture control, putting high octane fuel in your body for massive amounts of personal energy and vitality, by filling your lungs with the oxygen of life, and by getting the rest and sleep you need to recover from the activities and the stresses of your daily life.

New Year’s resolutions about health and fitness have almost become a joke because we break them so easily. But so many seniors need that kick-start that gets us started. When we see real progress toward improvement of our own health, fitness and personal energy; when we see the weight dropping off and our muscles developing, then we are building momentum to a point where we won’t want to break those well intentioned resolutions.

For those already on the path to Health, Fitness and Personal Energy, congratulations. May 2017 be a continuation of your effort. For those new to the concept of Health and Fitness, start now down that path and you will enjoy life to the fullest as you look and feel better to yourself and those around you. I have posted two short ebooks in previous blogs that will help you get started. One is on The first 10 minutes and you can get it right here. The other is on Beginning Core and Abs which you can get right here . Both are attachments to previous blog posts. And yes they are FREE! Oh, and don’t forget the Isometric Exercises for strength that I included in the last article.

I wish everyone reading this, a Happy and Prosperous New Year, 2017.

Thank you for reading.

Bob McMillan is a blogger, writer and speaker on Health, Fitness and Personal Energy for Active Seniors. He is a Certified Personal Trainer and Senior Fitness Specialist. This blog is published weekly at www.thecomealiveproject.com. Contact bob@thecomealiveproject.com.