Why you should exercise MORE as you age, NOT less
Where do we start? Why should YOU include exercise into your daily life?
The benefits of moving your body everyday is extensive. We all know it increases well being and its “healthy” and “good for you”…….but in what way is it really? There are plenty of studies. Let's go to a small list of what some have shown.
National Cancer Institute finds exercise, anytime and level , can extend your life by up to 4.5 years. Even low intensity exercises got a life extension, although those moderate to high intensity and frequency gained the longest time.
Exercise lowers mortality in this study. It lessens mobility problems and stops tendon breakdown in older adults. It also lowers or prevents joint problems in later life.
This study found that exercise can protect against neural dysfunction, particularly the deterioration associated with aging.
HIIT and weight lifting increases mitochondria by up to 69% in older adults and in some cases actually reversing the aging of muscle mitochondria
"Sedentary aging can lead to a stiffening of the muscle in the heart's left ventricle, the chamber that pumps oxygen-rich blood back out to the body”
Exercise is very cardio protective and can even reverse damage in the heart cells, preventing future heart failure. This study showed this is particularly the case if started before the age of 65 and done 4-5 x a week for 30 mins
Now the thing with exercise is that it is a broad and vague term. Exercise is not just walking. To get the full health and longevity benefits of it you need to address the following several times a week:
Strength
Mobility
Flexibility
No Excuses
“But it hurts my back/ knees/ hands/ (insert body part) if I try to do that .."
Oh yes! Absolutely, and who wants to move and lift things and stretch the way this young 40 something (cough, cough) woman is telling me I should.
Let's think to the things you do everyday that.
Everyday you sit down and stand up …..
thats a squat,
thats a squat with a fair bit of body weight.
If you squat like this with weak muscles and let the knees and back try to perform it for you, its going to hurt. Do it several times a day with poor form and it becomes a daily chronic painful issue.…. You carry shopping bags, your own bags daily, or at least you SHOULD be able to do that. Thats 3-8 kilos right there. You may lift luggage into overhead compartments, shopping into the car, jars onto high shelves and here we have an overhead press. Shoulder muscles that should be performing their duty and not the unsupported joint which will hurt. We drop things, we should be able to pick it up with out looking at it for a while deciding whether its worth it. We want to be able to bend down and pick up kids and grandkids. Many play golf or other sports, even walking, gardening and would like to be able to do this pain free….a fair thing I think!
Most of these movements we are going to perform everyday regardless of our fitness status, so why not do some strength and mobility work and be able to breeze through those movements and not let them restrict you and take your brain power that can now be used for other more interesting things.
The thing is, most aches, pains and injuries are the result of poor posture and poor movement patterns. Add years and years of moving and lifting and carrying this way and you have chronic patterns that aren’t serving you in anyway. What is fantastic about our bodies is that it wants to be healthy and strong. Start correcting posture and rebuilding poor movement patterns and the body will almost immediately give you positive feedback with a flood of wellbeing and less pain. You sleep better, move easier and suddenly you find you have the brain space to want to do more things in life and the energy to do them. It really only takes a little bit of time out of everyday. 30 mins everyday is not a big amount of time when the payoff is so profound.
Things you can do right now
Try to do:
Grab a broomstick and use it to circle the head and open your posture up every morning (broom stick video)
30 mins of exercise everyday
10, 000 steps a day
Include big movements for your legs like squatting and step ups, for improved brain cognition, all over strength and weight control
Try a group session for the social benefit (study showing greater benefits in older adults when working out in a group)
The beauty of exercise is that it is cost free. Out you go and walk, deeply breathe in that fresh air and take a look up, see that beautiful blue sky and tree tops. Or at least I hope thats what you can see :-). In my suburb there are still trees and birds. Walk around the city, again glancing up and notice the details on the top of these buildings. This reminds me when I’m in the middle of Adelaide, Melbourne or Sydney…..Above the trendy new facades there is still the imprint of the old buildings originally built. Fascinating to see….just look down occasionally and mind the cracks!
Having a good look at the blue sky does many things, Its great for the posture and perfect to set the circadian rhythm of your body. Certain neural processes happen when we look at the sky, particularly first thing in the morning. As long as there is nothing in the way of your gaze and the sky, such as glasses and windows, the body sets up a certain sun protection for your skin and also activates melatonin production for that night. Producing melatonin is essential for sleep, glucose control and brain health.
More free things.
As you are walking, sit and stand at every bench you find, 10 times.
Set yourself a daily routine. Move while the coffee is boiling, stretch while you brush your teeth. Set yourself a squatting goal of 100 for the day and bit by bit knock it off, grab a friend and walk to and from a coffee shop.
*bonus - a 20 min walk after eating while increase your insulin sensitivity and therefore blood glucose control. Increase that = fat burning, also the glucose control has a cascading series of benefits to reduce obesity, activate our immune system, increase brain health
These are examples of things you can do when you do not have a routine and are nervous about beginning one. Just start, just do. The only exercise that works is the one you do, not the one you think about. Get a coach/trainer (let me help you. We can set a day to day routine for you.) Coaches are great. You can use us for workout sessions or if you are shy or strapped for cash, just ask for a routine that you can do on your own. Have a look at my youtube channel or website for some short easy ideas to mobilise the body.
All the very best,
Vash :-)
Spotlight: Interview with John, 71 yrs
“One of the things with old age setting in is how all the natural body movements one has taken for granted all ones life are now either missing or just plan hard work to get functioning.”
How long have you been doing exercise classes?
About three years now
What made you start?
i was finding i was very limited in what I could do without being too weak, to sore, or out of breath. If I wanted to do any normal activities such as walking or gardening I would unwittingly injure myself and cause more pain and discomfort. It seemed that I was forever in some sort of pain.
Tell me about your youth, were you active? Did you ever get injured?
The fact is I have always been a physically active person. Played a lot of tennis, surfing, swimming and regular running.
Have you gone through any health issues in the last 20 or so years that impact you now?
Generally I have been healthy. A lot of early age jumping and tennis resulted in torn cartilage to both knees with one having most of the cartilage removed.
That and then going for runs at least 3 times a week caused a lot of knee pain. A ski accident resulted in a knee reconstruction with torn cruciate ligaments. This all lead up to me only being able to walk a hundred meters without severe pain in one knee. Having that knee joint replaced 2 years ago has enabled me to stand straight and walk again. Prior to that if I sat at a table for a coffee then stood up to go I would have to stand for a minute or two to ease the pain in the leg and actually be able to move away without limping.
Sounds extreme but it was. Also my grand daughter jumped up in an excited greeting one cold morning and as I had a bag in one arm I caught her with my other arm and that caused the bicep tendon in that arm to snap! A funny feeling and no real pain but forever now I can't bend my arm and ‘make a muscle’. Thinking about it I also had a lower back injury, I received in my lower spine in my late 20’s, that ensured I would forever have pain issues in my back. I have found darling ‘rolling’ and soft stretching exercises you have given me have made those problems fade away.
What difference to the quality of your life are you feeling since including purposeful, regular exercises in it?
The daily exercises you have given me for stretching including hip raises, side stretching, down dog etc and shoulder stretching rotator cuff exercises are keeping me pain free, I have better posture and don’t stoop and wobble like an old man when i walk. Also I can now sit and stand on my surf paddle board.
“My overall stability muscles are getting stronger and I feel better and confident with body movement”
One of the things with old age setting in is how all the natural body movements one has taken for granted all ones life are now either missing or just plan hard work to get functioning.
Doing the simple group of mobility exercises you have given us to do daily - which only take say ten minutes - is still something we have to motivate ourselves into doing. It is so much easier to sit and have another nice cup of coffee and read.
Can you give me more specifics how you are able to incorporate healthy eating into your life?
I really like Museli mixed with fruit, yogurt and whey powder for Breakfast. The fruits are nearly always Blueberries and Banana.
We grow our own strawberries so if they are available i will include a couple in the mix. That and a cup of coffee before and after starts my day.
Mind you i drink water when I wake up and only have coffee and breakfast after 9.00am. I like to have at least 12 hours plus from when I last had food the previous day. That 12 hour fasting break has helped me control my eating habits. Especially in the evening after dinner. When i am very tempted to snack; particularly on any available sweet thing! So between 8.00 and 8.30 is ‘end of eating’ time for me each day.
That said i look forward to eggs and bacon or something similar for breakfast once a week. Often Sunday breakfast is the time when i want to chill out, sit on the porch and look at the ocean. Life doesn’t get much better than that.
Lunch is usually a raid of the refrigerator and a reheat of yesterdays Leftovers. Not a big meal. Sort of Sandwich size.
Afternoon tea and biscuits gets me through to dinner.
Now Dinner. Totally in the hands of my wife. She is the Menu-maker. The chef and 'Keeper of the gate’ that ensures i receive a nutritious and tasty meal once a day. How lucky am I! Left to my own devices, dinner is usually solved by takeaway. Not a pretty solution or one I like and fortunately it is fairly rare. I am not that interested in food. Especially for dinner. I just want to stop feeling hungry so whatever is available goes down. Without getting to serious about the meal, my wife always wants a delicious tasting dinner and scours her cook book library for something ’different’ each night. So I am spoilt for taste healthy meals!!
By the way I do like to Barbecue and take much care and pride in cooking meats and roasting veggies etc during the summer months.
The secret - my Weber! Gas fired. No Heatbeads or Charcoal. Use those fuels regularly and you have a never ending filthy mess to clean up after each cook, which for me destroys the effort and pleasure of preparing the meal.
Do you have any tricks to hep you include exercise in your life?
I like physical activity. In my younger years that translated to playing various sports and building activities.
The body is too sore and achey now for anything more strenuous than paddling or golf. So to get the day off I go for a walk then bounce on a mini tramp to shake things up and lubricate the joints. This then brings on the idea that some stretching and light weights will help too.
I do not want to feel that I am going to spend much time on all of this because the sheer thought sends me back to bed to rest.
If I think it is all just a couple of these and a few of those then i can go off and have a cup of coffee and a read - I am good to ‘exercise’.
Usually all this movement just spurs things along and I think of more parts to stretch or ’train’. Before I know it I have done most if not all the exercises on my list and am good to head off and enjoy the day.
Finally, any advice you would give your 40 year old self
The message I would give to my 40 year old self is to:-
- Do all mobility stretches everyday no matter how easy they feel because that is what you want to keep going.
- Combined with it - Rolling as required.
- The other thing is not to do daily running. Take up rowing or cycling instead. (non impact) I believe my knees would have lasted the distance if I did.
- Wear sunglasses when out and apply suncream.
- Watch your diet to maintain a healthy weight.
Thanks so much for sharing with us John :-)
Fascia - Your invaluable body stocking
Who’s heard of fascia? Its either a totally foreign word to you, or one you hear mentioned by trainers all the time or you massage therapist.
So what is it?
Do you really need to care?
Lets first get to know fascia a little bit more…….
Simply put, the fascia is similar to a body stocking that wraps around the body, like a single piece of material, that holds the bones, tissue, muscles….everything together and in the shape we all know and love. Not only does it wrap around the body but it also extends into the body. So imagine a honeycomb weblike structure extending from the skin through the muscles and tissues, and some even conjecture, the bones, not unlike the way the juices of an orange are held together with that web like structure of the fibrous pulp.
Fasica. Note the stringy webbing
See how stringy it looks in the picture. This stringy web protects, cushions and surrounds organs and vertebrae and permeates tissue, allowing the muscle fibres and tissues to gently slide against each other and contract and flex as we move through the day. Now if we don’t move a spot this web will deposit more of these collagen fibres through it and a build up occurs. If you move (stretch, massage, exercise) and drink plenty of water, this will break down the collagen and move it through the body for use, absorption or expulsion. If you don’t, more of this will accumulate.
Think back to an injury that you or someone else had and it pained you or them to move it properly afterwards. I’ve seen many people (and myself) not want to move properly or at all and as a result the area stays still. So a build up of this collagen occurs again and again and isn’t flushed out of the system in the usual manner. This build up gets sticky and gums whatever its attached to together. You know when someone might touch an area to rub and it hurts….thats the build up. Healthy fascia, healthy tissue won’t hurt. The more you avoid that hurt, the more the build up and more pain and so on. A nasty cycle.
So healthy fascia is juicy and hydrated, like a wet sponge, but as collagen accumulates, if our dietary intake and exercise is poor it becomes brittle. You can imagine how pliable a wet sponge is as opposed to a dried out sponge. Bending a wet sponge and it just straightens back. Bending a dried out sponge and it breaks. Water is so important to the efficiency of this system
Going back to the body stocking visual. Fascia is one piece. When you have one piece and you tighten an area, another area further along is inevitably changed. Part gets tight and it pulls and tugs other areas, that will correspondingly impact further areas. Not inconceivable to imagine tight shoulders for example, impacting further down to promote back pain, hamstring tension and so on….and of course head in the other direction to perhaps an achy head.
If you are stiff, tight, in pain, you can be proactive and do something about this right now. If you are not any of those things, then lucky you, but you will definitely benefit from a daily protocol to keep yourself healthy and keep pain away.
So what do you do?
Stretch, kneed , or roll yourself out everyday and include good hydration, 8 glasses of water a day really is the minimum. Gradually the pain will abate and over weeks of regular attention will go away.
Everyday fascia health protocol.
- Consume a couple of large glasses of water, preferably with minerals in it, like a good quality rock or sea salt, lemon is also a great additive.
- Do some form of fascial movement, like:
- Foam roll your body
- Jump on a mini trampoline
- Shaking movements
- Kettlebell swings
- Tai chi
Painfree? Is it possible? My experience with turmeric
This year has been a year of many firsts for me. Probably the most relevant one is the onset of peri menopause, hmmmm....trying to embrace that one, and the other is the recognition that I am suffering from arthritis, damn!
Okay, okay, I get it now. I have always tried to deal compassionately/ empathise with all of my clients, and I have been able to embrace the trials of my life (kicking and screaming sometimes) the last few years as it has made me a much better trainer and person, but I have never appreciated the pain of arthritis. My goodness! Its horrible, it keeps you awake. Mine's in my big toe and makes movement painful and often I struggled to walk because it just hurt too much. I see and feel my body compensating for the lack of movement from that side of my body and my mind races to all the repercussions that will have to my mobility if I allow myself to be pushed around by this 'thing'.
Panadol didn't cut it, voltaren, nope. I've tried MSM in the past (not for arthritis admittedly), did nothing. Being me, I thought straight to my diet. I am not that strict currently and the processed foods and alcohol would be adding a fair bit of inflammation to my body. So wrestling with myself, half of me wants medication, the other half says sternly ,"now, come on. You tell others not to complain if they feel pain and their diet is a mess. Don't be hypocritical. Suck it up and do something........Nooo drugs! now!" and so on
Then, as happens when you buy a blue car, and suddenly everyone is driving a blue car too, I happened across several information sources regarding turmeric. I have been a little dismissive of turmeric, I know the theory, buuttt eh. However, some people are having anecdotally great success with high dose turmeric, up to 30 gms a day. Cool, worth a go, its certainly not hurting me.
So for the last 3 months I've been having between 15 and 30 gms a day (Trying to cut costs a little), after a week, far less pain. 3 months later...seriously...I will not stop this. Not only is the turmeric having a wonderful anti-inflammatory effect on my brain and the rest of the body, but its pretty much painfree arthritis wise. I can feel the arthritis lump there, but I can walk normally and run , jump if I am so inclined and it doesn't pain me just putting my shoes on or having a tissue fall on it. Heaven!
Let me know if you try the high dose as well and what result it had to your pain. Full disclosure, I also have hip pain caused by me overworking my muscles and not stretching and it hasn't touched that ache so much, but Know what I need to do there....stretch damn it Vashti. Just do it!
All the best :-) x
PS - An important disclaimer! If at all unsure consult your doctor before you try extra turmeric, as I am no doctor! Also it is possible to have ill effects from too much. It will thin the blood, so if you are on blood thinners such as warfarin, please do not try this. It can lower the blood sugar so if you are on medication that lowers blood sugar be aware that this can lower it further and that can be quite dangerous.
Places to get it:
- Healthfood stores
- https://www.iherb.com/pr/Dr-Mercola-Fermented-Turmeric-60-Capsules/82238
- The one I use currently: https://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/buy/84676/Wagner-Turmeric-3333-2b-100-Capsules