MORE THAN JUST A WALK IN THE PARK – NEVER SAY “PHOOEY” TO FITNESS

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Walk in the Park

Some people think exercise couldn’t be more boring than just walking or getting on a treadmill going nowhere. Well, exercise is nowhere like that. You’ve got choices. More choices than a Taj Mahal of ice cream flavors or the bizarre choices of donuts today. Below are just some of the alternatives:

  • Tai Chi or yoga
  • Zumba or dance. Street up your moves with a hip hop class. No one is watching you anyway.
  • Skating- blades or wheels…whichever
  • Water skiing
  • Baseball, football, any kind of ball including kettle. Just have a ball.
  • Tennis or racquet sports (run to avoid being hit by flying racquets of poor sports
  • Hills, mountains, inclines
  • Canoeing, kayaking, rowing
  • Skiing /snowboarding
  • Hockey
  • Soccer
  • Biking
  • Sword fighting (preferably non-lethal)
  • Martial arts (black belt optional)
  • Running
  • Boxing
  • Any kind of “athalons”
  • Exercise bands
  • Jump-like-crazy Mick Jagger moves

Be creative. Fitness involves increased focus and imagination. And yes, even fun.

THE GYM WHIM

Of course, if it’s not walking, the first thing people think is “I’ll join a gym and go 20 times a week and a trainer will guide me through the machines and give me a schedule for the 100 different classes they offer and they’ll convince me that shelling out as much as $5000 a year is the very best thing for my health and I’ll lose weight and get glutes and perk up my posterior and save myself from dropping dead from a heart attack all in a funky fun environment with      sonic soundtracks attacking my senses.  Fact is, January hits, and gym memberships soar. People will pay top prices, thinking the more they pay, the greater the chance they’ll stick with it. No chance. Gung-ho quickly skids into “oh no” by mid-February. But you’re stuck in a contract. Total consumers joining gyms top 63 million. More than 34,000 U.S. clubs generate $24.2 billion in revenue. Close to 67% of people with gym memberships never use them. It’s what gym owners count on, insanely salivating over their extreme good fortune.

And then there are the one-on-one personal trainers who promise one-on-one results (they’ll even come to your house) They get paid the price of buying a small country, too. And guess what? Surprise. People start…then stop, still left to foot the bill.

Oh, and how could we forget? Home gyms. People turning their man or woman caves into sanctuaries of health. They don’t go to the gyms. They bring the gyms to them. Along with the machines they won’t use there, either. Stop and recognize the red flags flying before you sign anything.

FUN BARRE NONE

Every day a new kind of class is popping up across the country. Gym owner brainchildren are pumping up their how-can-I keep-workout-masochists coming minds and coming up with some classes you wouldn’t believe. Here’s a few:

POUND–  a full-body cardio workout that uses lightly weighted “drumsticks” called ripstix (probably with the promise of ripped abs)

ANIMAL FLOW– this taps into your primal instincts to get your body moving in ways you’ve never imagined before-expect a lot of growling and howling

POLE CONTROL– those hip-to-strip poles have come back from the dead years after Demi Moore in Striptease

ROPES GONE WILD– this involves creating wave-like patterns in long ropes with your body

SURFSET CLASSIC– pop up beach-like pain on the RipSurfer X, a machine that looks like a real surfboard –at least no sharks

DEEP EXTREME– yoga mixed with tribal dance

BARRE BRAWL– kickboxing-meets-barre routine that will earn you a knockout body if you can stand long enough for it not to knock you out first

BOKWA– based on the alphabet. You’ll draw letters and numbers with your feet while performing a calorie-torching cardio routine

PILOXING– blends standing Pilates with boxing and dance moves (can a body bend that way?)

BODY BLADE– a futuristic looking tool using vibration

PARKOUR–  basically the fitness equivalent of those gravity-defying movie stunts when the hero leaps between buildings, runs through alleyways, and scales up walls

“No…” you’re thinking. “Yes”.  There’s nothing to think about. Fitness has moved light years beyond funk. And fitness is far flung. You’ll find feisty foreigners and locals working out as much as we do in Tokyo, Thailand, Ukraine, Uganda, Milan, Peru, Rio de Janeiro, Edinburgh, Philippines… spin a virtual globe, stop anywhere and follow the heavy breathing.  It’s there.

HOME BODIES CAN BE HOT

Dumping the home gym option in the dust, there are other ways to fit fitness into your life in the absence of sweat and spandex

  • Set up a circuit training route in front of your TV
  • Do lunges while you watch TV. You can do lunges in place or walking lunges around the room while your shows are on
  • Walk in place as you catch up on your favorite show
  • See how many squats you can do
  • Watch exercise shows on TV and move along with them. UTube has gobs of them.

Switch it up and the real switch just might be you sticking with it.

EXERCISE TIPS AND TIDBITS                                                    

  • The point of joining a gym is to show up
  • Diddly squats don’t count as exercise
  • Kim K’s booty is not a rational goal
  • When it comes to 6-packs, even a half is an improvement
  • Ripping open the mail doesn’t count as getting ripped
  • “Strenuous” doesn’t mean thinking hard about whether to exercise
  • Think buns of steel vs cinnamon buns
  • You don’t need a body capable of posting naked selfies
  • Stomach crunches trump the crunching of a mouthful of chips going down
  • If you aim to get in shape, that shape shouldn’t be round and fluffy
  • Heavy breathing shouldn’t be confined to sex
  • Lifts don’t refer to beers
  • If machines scare you, you’ve watched the Matrix too many times
  • Consider bikes life cycles
  • Clothes don’t make the athlete

REPS DON’T MEAN REPEATEDLY GIVING UP

How hard is it to put one foot in front of the other? (Standing.)

Finding the right workout starts with the right mindset. If you want to stoke the fat-burning and health-inducing fires, you have to light a fire under yourself. Excuse is not an exercise. You have to get a program and be active sticking to it or getting stuck. (You’d be amazed at the amount of quicksand hiding around). Who hasn’t heard “Just Do It?” Well don’t “Just Over-Do it.” Take it a bit further and “Just Do It more.”

Exercise…reeeeee-peat. And reeeeee-peat. And, oh you probably get it by now.

PUT SOME MUSCLE IN YOUR HORMONES

RESEARCHERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY GIVE A LOT OF WEIGHT TO THE DAMAGE UNBALANCED HORMONES CAN DO TO YOUR BODY. BUT DON’T SWEAT IT. NO ONE CAN COMPETE WITH DR. STEPHEN A. GOLDSTEIN, M.D, F.A.C.S. AT DENVER HORMONE HEALTH IN HELPING RESTORE YOUR HORMONE BALANCE TO PRIME CONDITION. WITH YEARS OF EXPERIENCE HE’S EXPERT AT DIAGNOSING WHAT’S BRINGING YOU DOWN AND CREATES A UNIQUE TREATMENT PROGRAM TO GET YOUR BODY (AND PEACE OF MIND) AT PEAK PERFORMANCE.

CALL FOR AN APPOINTMENT NOW. AND MAKE YOUR WORKOUTS WORK FOR YOU.

THE FITNESS BIGGIES – NEVER SAY “PHOOEY” TO FITNESS

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Fitness Biggies

Researchers have grouped the type of exercise we all need into four major groups:

ENDURANCE

Endurance, or aerobic  activities increase your breathing and heart rate. They keep your heart, lungs, and circulatory system healthy and improve your overall fitness. Building your endurance makes it easier to carry out many of your everyday activities.

STRENGTH

Strength exercises make your muscles stronger. Even small increases in strength can make a big difference in your ability to stay independent and carry out everyday activities, such as climbing stairs and carrying groceries. These exercises also are called “strength training” or “resistance training.”

BALANCE

Balance exercises help prevent falls, a common problem in older adults. Many lower-body strength exercises also will improve your balance.

FLEXIBILITY

Flexibility exercises stretch your muscles and can help your body stay limber. Being flexible gives you more freedom of movement for other exercises as well as for your everyday activities.

TAKE NO PRISONERS

OK, so here’s the big question. Too little? Too Much?  Exercising is sort of like Goldilocks with her “This one’s too big…this one’s not enough.” Finding your “this is just perfect” should be the goal. The current broad guidelines from governmental and health organizations call for 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week to build and maintain health and fitness. 150 minutes? Sounds like a lifetime. According to The Mayo Clinic it seems much less mind boggling to break it down. As a general goal, aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day. Even brief bouts of activity offer benefits. For instance, if you can’t fit in one 30-minute walk, try three 10-minute walks instead. Or put on your animal hides. A growing body of clinical research maintains that the ideal fitness regimen is one that mimics our gatherer ancestors, which included short bursts of high-intensity activities. Run after buffalo, stop and take down buffalo, get 1400 lb. beast back to village.  Forage, scavenge, get those arrows soaring. All guaranteed to up your fitness factor. These ancestors didn’t suffer from many of the diseases that plague us today. They were, however, motivated by the downside of being eaten first. Intensity is important, but “strenuous” doesn’t mean thinking hard about whether to exercise. No one says you have to do “marathon” anything.

OBSESSION ISN’T SPORTING

We’ve created a cult-like mass of fitness maniacs who believe if it doesn’t hurt like hell, it’s not worth doing. Sweat, grunt, push, scream, lose enough fluids to make you too weak to hit the wall, let along get close to it. A blond woman in a hot pink spandex tank hoists a sledgehammer over her shoulders, then slams it down with a dull thud onto the big tire in front of her. Beside her, another woman swings her sledgehammer even higher, grimacing and groaning with the effort. Why not join a roofing crew for a few hours instead? Surely, there’s a tunnel somewhere that needs digging, or at least some hot tar that needs pouring. We don’t have to pump up like Roman Spartans or Gladiators. We don’t have to work Thor-like to keep an empire alive. Yet we watch obsessed by shows like American Ninja Warrior and punish ourselves because we can’t capture the zealot-like performance they demonstrate.  Accept it with rational grace: your max isn’t the other guy’s max. You can’t be expected to waltz (Aerobic Tango would be more appropriate) in anywhere and compete this way. Sometimes going for the burn ends up “going to the emergency room. There are injuries galore on Dancing with the Stars. Now that’s real pain.

HORMONES GONE ROGUE

A “DO OR DIE” WORKOUT ATTITUDE CAN TAKE A REAL HIT ON YOUR HORMONES.

EXERCISE IS A STRESS ON THE BODY OFTEN CAUSING A DEBILITATING HORMONE IMBALANCE. WHEN YOUR HORMONES ARE IMBALANCED IT CAN ACTUALLY CAUSE YOUR BODY TO BREAK DOWN. THE SUREST WAY TO LIFT YOURSELF BACK UP IS WITH A VISIT TO DENVER HORMONE HEALTH. DR. STEPHEN A. GOLDSTEIN, M.D, F.A.C.S. CAN HELP YOU GET BACK IN GREAT SHAPE WITH AN ASSESMENT OF YOUR PROBLEMS AND AN INDIVIDUALIZED PROGRAM THAT WILL RESTORE YOUR PERFORMANCE HELPING YOU REACH THE MOST IMPORTANT GOAL OF FEELING GREAT.

TAKE A TIME OUT TO CALL RIGHT NOW. AND UP YOUR GAME.

LIFE POTATO? NEVER SAY “PHOOEY” TO FITNESS

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Couch Potato, Fitness“Exercise. Ugh, who needs it?”

Uh, let’s see…hmm…like everyone. And yes, you, eyes glued to your tablet watching an obscene number of reruns of “Empire”, that includes you. So this isn’t the point in this post where you want to exit the page.  This is where you face the need to stay fit. Always. Chronic sitting is the new smoking. Not moving is a bad move. Period. Studies suggest that the sedentary lifestyle so common in our culture is more deadly than smoking (any brand). They also believe that 6-10% of the world’s non-communicable diseases (such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain kinds of cancer) are caused by physical inactivity.  On the positive side, according to the Centers for Disease Control, exercise can reduce your risk of:

  • Heart disease
  • Stroke
  • High blood pressure
  • Arthritis
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Obesity
  • Depression
  • Breast and colon cancer
  • Osteoporosis

Paying more attention now? So get up, get out there and get going.

There is so much you can do to do so much for your health. Mind, body, inside and out. Any way you look at it, it’s a win-win. The biggest losers are the ones who never try.

GET THE SKINNY ON IT

When it comes to all the information here we’re hopefully opening your eyes to, it’s fact. And it effects everyone at every age. According to the Centers for Disease Control, only 60% of Americans get the recommended amount of physical fitness each day. Only 35 – 44% of adults 75 years or older are physically active, and 28-34% of adults ages 65-74 are physically active. Which takes a lot of them beyond chunky to obese. About one-third of U.S. adults (33.8%) are obese (and no matter how much 370-pound women are trending and being lauded in the media right now— “you go girl-just be yourself!”) obesity is bad and unhealthy in every way.

No kidding.

Which brings us to kids, which is intensely bad news no matter how you look at it.

More facts:

Only one in three children are physically active every day. More than 80% of adolescents do not do enough aerobic physical activity to meet the guidelines for youth (who in the heck is guiding, or rather not guiding them when it comes to their overall health?) Approximately 17% (or 12.5 millions) of children and adolescents (aged 2-19 years) are obese. Oh boy… children and adolescents who are obese are likely to be obese as adults. And this is the killer (or could be at some point)- obesity, even in kids, can contribute to liver disease, diabetes, hormonal imbalance, asthma, depression, cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure…we could keep going here.  Not to the mention the humiliation of the “non fatties” (hate these despicable “fat related monikers) out there taunting and trashing “Hey Lardo…sure you can get through the door?” That’ll cause a spiraling tumble to self-esteem.

In the effort to be fit, eating less and better is a big part of the equation. But rather than filling our fridges with veggies and fruit, we’ve become a nation of super-sizing everything that goes into our voracious mouths. We lunch at “Tubway” on 6-foot-long subs (turkey, of course, counting as hunks of healthiness) slurping down vatfuls of soda. But nutrition and eating balanced meals aren’t the Holy Grail. We’ve become a nation of the device-addicted, spending 8+ hours a day on them.

Mama Media!

BEING FIT NEVER GETS OLD

Millennials think that people over 50 are ready for the elephant graveyard, a place where according to legend, older elephants instinctively direct themselves to when they reach a certain age. Boomer hell.  Well, hell, have they got it wrong.  And while these self-absorbed (we didn’t make up that description…it’s everywhere) Millennials don’t want to think of it, the years go by just as quickly for them.  Entertainment Tonight loves to highlight celeb birthdays just before signing off. Celebs getting very close to the age the under-forties can’t believe is coming at them.

Which gets us to “seniors”. First of all, we desperately need to find a word to replace it. It’s the name that’s ancient, not the people clumped in its claws. You’ll be amazed at how far and fast seniors are flying.

In 1985, the National Senior Olympic Games were established, covered by the New York Times, ESPN and Good Morning America. A growing number of seniors are competing at major athletic events like marathons, and some are outperforming athletes half their age. And speaking of age…

WORLDS OLDEST FEMALE BODYBUIDLER-74

NASCAR DRIVER -69

LONG DISTANCE CYCLIST- 62

LONG DISTANCE RUNNER -89

OLYMPIC BASKETBALL PLAYER

ALL STAR TENNIS PLAYER-84

YOGA INSTRUCTOR-93

It’s like the Energizer Bunny meets the Timex Watch.

As you age, regular exercise is more important than ever to your overall health. In fact, a recent Swedish study found that exercise was the number one contributor to longevity, adding extra years to your life—even if you don’t start exercising until your senior (there’s that irritating word again) years. But it’s not just about adding years to your life, it’s about adding life to your years. Being fit can increase metabolism and build muscle mass.  It can improve immune function, lower blood lower pressure, maintain bone density and have a positive effect on digestive functioning. It can lower risk of Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers. It improves strength and flexibility and balance. Falls are the pits and hips don’t heal well with complications that can be life-threatening.  Studies show that approximately 20% of elderly people who fracture a hip die within 1 year. “Hit the ground running” shouldn’t ever just become “hit the ground”.

BLOOD, SWEAT AND BALANCED HORMONES

HORMONE IMBALANCES ARE LITERALLY BECOMING EPIDEMIC WITH CERTAIN ILLNESSES AND ISSUES ALMOST COMMONPLACE. THESE HORMONE IMBALANCES CAN DISRUPT YOUR LIFE AND ATTACK YOUR STATE OF OVERALL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING. AT DENVER HORMONE HEALTH, DR. STEPHEN A. GOLDSTEIN, M.D, F.A.C.S. HAS YEARS OF INTENSE TRAINING HELPING PEOPLE WORK OUT ANY HORMONE IMBALANCES THAT ARE TAKING THEM OUT OF THE GAME. WITH SIMPLE TESTS, HE CAN TELL WHAT’S DRAGGING YOU DOWN AND CREATE AN INDIVIDUALIZE PROGRAM THAT WILL MAKE YOU A PLAYER AGAIN.

CALL NOW FOR AN APPOINTMENT. SMART GAME PLAN.