Does All the Walking Nurses Do Count As Aerobic Exercise?
Ever wonder if the tens of thousands of steps that a nurse walks every day should count as an aerobic workout, that she doesn’t need to train on a treadmill, take step classes or jog in the park? (more…)
If Age Slows Metabolism, Why Are Some Old Ladies So Thin?
Ever wonder why some elderly women are frightfully thin, when old age is supposed to slow metabolism and make fat gain easier?
Is there some magic reversal of this process?
If a woman has not been strength training, then by the time she’s 30, she begins losing muscle mass.
With that loss of muscle mass comes an increase in weight—in the form of fat.
This is why, as women (and men) get older, the general rule is that they gain weight.
It’s not that suddenly, at age 30, their appetite increases and keeps swelling as each birthday passes.
Rather, it’s the muscle loss that causes fat gain, because muscle is the body’s most metabolically active tissue, burning more calories per hour — just for sustenance — than any other tissue.
So if you lose muscle, your resting metabolism slows down…and you put on unwanted fat pounds.
Why are so many elderly women too thin?
If a woman never takes up strength training, she will lose about five pounds of muscle per decade beginning at around age 30.
She may still be able to fit into her size 8 wedding dress on her 60th birthday, but her body composition will be much different.
There will be a higher fat to muscle ratio, and she’ll look softer and flabbier though still a size 8.
But for most formerly size 8 or 6 women, they will now be a 10, 12 or even 14 or 16, by age 60—thanks to a stunted resting metabolic rate due to lost muscle mass.
So why do we see so many sickly-skinny elderly women?
They not only lack muscle mass, but where the devil is the fat that they were supposed to have gained since age 30?
“As we age, one thing that happens to our bodies is the loss of subcutaneous fat,” says Susan L. Besser, MD, with Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore; Diplomate, American Board of Obesity Medicine and board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine.
“Without that connective tissue the skin thins — tears more easily and wrinkles more — all giving a thinner appearance.
“Additionally, because the elderly as a rule are less active, they tend to lose muscle mass, again increasing the thin appearance.
“This also increases frailty, they become weaker, with poorer balance, which causes them to move less, so more muscle loss and the cycle continues.
“Since activity decreases, appetite decreases. Also, digestion slows down — so less hunger.”
Scary Skinny Senior Lady
Shutterstock/Creative Family
When you see a scary skinny old lady, she has very little muscle mass — much of it has withered away in her sedentary life.
This should cause a gain in body fat, right? Why isn’t she plump? Some elderly women ARE plump; some are even obese.
In the case of that scary skinny elderly woman, she hardly eats. It’s that simple.
She has lost her appetite as she ventures deeper into the golden years.
The loss of appetite may be related to a medical condition (particularly dementia, points out Dr. Besser), or, it could be nature’s way of paring back as her body’s energy needs decline.
The bones are frail, muscles and joints weak and stiff — there’s not much need for generous portions of food.
So to adjust to this, the appetite declines along with everything else.
You won’t be going out on a limb by assuming that the two elderly women in this article’s images eat like birds.
My elderly mother used to weigh 145. She’s now 120, and I’m trying so hard to get her up to 125.
She’s not as thin as the women featured here…and I’m doing everything possible to keep her above 119.
She’s had some illnesses and medical situations over the years, and every single time, her weight gets into the mid one-teens.
It’s crucial she have a reserve by getting up to 125, so that if she gets pneumonia again, she’ll drop to 120 instead of 115.
Her appetite isn’t what it used to be. She eats much less these days.
Though she can still fit into her wedding dress, her body composition is drastically different.
As is the case of many elderly women, much of her muscle mass is gone, and most of her body fat is concentrated in her midsection. Her arms and legs have a too-thin appearance.
Ironically, she reports that many of the elderly women at her bridge clubs are quite overweight — and that they eat giant portions of food. “They go at it like vultures,” she says.
An elderly woman who is scary thin has not been consistently and passionately strength training throughout the years, nor does she have a so-called healthy appetite.
Bones have shrunk.
Muscles have whittled away.
Their body’s energy needs are very low.
Their appetite has taken a dive.
The result is a skin-and-bones thin body in these elderly women.
Swim, lift weights, hike hard, hit the yoga mat — muscle is more precious than gold. Credit: Shutterstock/wavebreakmedia
When you see a painfully skinny senior age woman, there IS a very slight chance—very slight—that she has been struggling with anorexia nervosa for decades.
However, anorexia nervosa severely depletes one’s body of health and fitness, and hence, few women with untreated anorexia nervosa make it into elderly age.
Dr. Besser provides comprehensive family care, treating common and acute primary conditions like diabetes and hypertension. Her ongoing approach allows her the opportunity to provide accurate and critical diagnoses of more complex conditions and disorders.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
Can Older Adults Safely Do Intense Workouts?
Intense exercise is one of the best things an older person can do for his or her “aging” body.
“Taking it easy” and sitting around all day will cause far more harm to the aged body than will a good set of dumbbell exercises and other forms of intense training.
There is nothing about being old that inherently bars a person from intense exercise.
The problem is when a person has a long history of sedentary living (especially combined with smoking or obesity), such that by the time they’re of senior age — they have mobility and/or stamina impairments.
Cardio-based Intense Exercise
“High intensity interval training can be safe for older adults who are already in shape,” says Monica Charlton, a senior exercise specialist and certified Silver Sneakers/personal trainer out of New Orleans.
Depositphotos.com
“Those who are new to the practice will need to work up to high intensity training.
“As far as cardio goes, it is generally recommended that seniors perform moderate to vigorous cardio exercise for 20-30 minutes 3-5 days a week.”
High intensity interval training (HIIT) involves very brief, high efforts alternating with a few to several minutes of a recovery pace.
An example would be pedaling like a mad demon for 30 seconds on a stationary bike, then pedaling leisurely for three minutes.
Weight-bearing Intense Exercise
There term “intense” can mean different things. For some, it means lifting very heavy weight with long rests in between — causing one to be winded — but there’s no “muscle burn.”
Shuttersotck/Halfpoint
For others it means 10 to 15 challenging repetitions with only one minute in between, creating a fiery “muscle burn,” but the person isn’t breathing too hard, either.
An elderly person may be able to deadlift or bench press a lot of weight, yet struggle with walking inclines.
Others can sprint 100 yards in the hot sun yet struggle with barbell squats.
Find the type of workout that works best for you, but ideally you’ll want to do both aerobic and strength training routines — with some intensity tossed into both forms.
Elderly people should get a full physical to make sure that it’s okay to do any kind of high effort activity. Even if you’re healthy, you should start out gradually.
If you’re healthy, then age is truly JUST A NUMBER when it comes to intense workouts.
Start Out Slowly
Older people who are brand new to structured exercise will need to take things slowly and make sure they don’t have medical conditions (such as spinal stenosis) that can be worsened with certain forms of exercise.
Shutterstock/MilanMarkovic78
Older people who’ve been regularly exercising, however, can step it up a notch, or two.
Most don’t because they don’t believe older people should exercise intensely.
Or, they think they’re exercising intensely when they’re actually not; or, they don’t think intense exercise will benefit them. They are so wrong on that last point.
If you’re concerned about the safety of intense exercise, get a thorough exam with a cardiologist and orthopedic specialist — not just from your primary care physician.
Older people should not fear intense exercise.
Scientists at the Neuromuscular Research and Rehabilitation Laboratory at the University of Missouri stated in the Dec. 2010 Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research:
“High speed power training improved speed-related muscle performance characteristics compared to traditional slow-speed resistance training, particularly at lower external resistances. . . based on these findings, we recommend including a resistance training protocol in older adults that emphasizes high-speed movements at low external resistance.”
An older person should never back down from intense exercise just because a family member says, “You’re too old for that.”
Monica Charlton’s personal training services include fitness/body composition assessments, nutrition planning, running programs and customized programs for clients with disabilities or injuries, as well as older and mainstream clients.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
.
Top image: Freepik.com
Source: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21068681
Walking Speed Is Linked to Cognitive Decline and Dementia
Slow walking does your brain bad.
Though you may think that a “relaxed” walk is healthy, it can damage your brain in the long run. (more…)
How to Use Olive Oil to Help Prevent a Stroke
Want to prevent stroke? Include olive oil in your diet; dip bread in it and enjoy, and so many other ways to use this versatile “healthy fat.”
Stroke can leave your body permanently maimed; do whatever it takes to help prevent this cruel No. 1 cause of disability in the U.S.
Olive oil is linked to significantly lower risk of stroke in older people. (online Neurology, June 15, 2011).
Fight Stroke with a Good Fat
Prajakta Apte, RDN, owner and founder of Right Nutrition Works who helps people create a healthier lifestyle, offers the following tips on how to include olive oil into your diet as part of stroke prevention.
• Use olive oil as marinades or as a base for sauces and gravies for meat, poultry and fish.
• Sauté or roast your vegetables in olive oil.
• Olive oil can be a great alternative to butter and margarine to dip your breads.
• Drizzle flavored olive oils such as lemon olive oil, orange olive oil or grapefruit olive oil on salads.
• Olive oil can be used as a salad dressing as well.
• Drizzle over cooked pasta and spaghetti.
“Our research suggests that a new set of dietary recommendations should be issued to prevent stroke in people 65 and older,” says lead study author, Cecilia Samieri, PhD, in the Neurology report.
“Stroke is so common in older people and olive oil would be an inexpensive and easy way to help prevent it.”
- Every year in America, 800,000 people suffer a stroke.
- Stroke is the third leading cause of disease-driven deaths.
Three More Tips on Using Olive Oil
- You may already know that adding olive oil to the water that you cook rice and pasta in will not impose upon the taste.
- One part olive oil to one part vinegar will make a tasty salad dressing.
- Another way to eat olive oil is to add a tablespoon to a fruit smoothie. You will not even detect it’s there.
More About the Stroke Study
For the French study, the records of 7,625 people, who had no stroke history, were reviewed.
There were three groups:
1) no olive oil use
2) moderate use: such as in cooking, or with bread or as a dressing, or
3) intensive use: olive oil for both cooking and with bread or as a dressing.
After about five years, 148 strokes occurred. People in group #3 had a 41 percent lower stroke risk, compared to people in group #1.
Other variables that affect stroke risk, such as body mass index, exercise habits and overall diet, were adjusted for in this study.
So could this mean that olive oil has a direct effect on a person’s risk of stroke, or could there be some indirect effect going on?
Whether the issue was cause-and-effect, or indirectly, is not clear. And to this day, it is not clear, either.
For example, if you smoke, have uncontrolled high blood pressure, never exercise and are obese — olive oil isn’t going to save you from a stroke.
However, using olive oil can increase consumption of other healthy foods by making them tastier, and this increased consumption of more healthy foods will lower stroke risk.
The Calories in Olive Oil
If you’re concerned about calories and weight gain, then cut back or eliminate the gravies and sugary sodas; replace French fries with boiled potatoes; fried potato chips with baked; fried fish with broiled; and big fast-food cheeseburgers with tuna and chicken salad sandwiches.
Prajakta Apte is the author of the eBook “Overcoming Nutrition Roadblocks.” Her personalized approach to nutrition therapies helps treat root causes of conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, GI disorders, hypertension and many more.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Source: sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110615161749.htm
If You Shouldn’t Hold Onto a Treadmill Why Are the Rails There?
Just because the rails are there doesn’t mean you should hold onto the treadmill when walking.
Holding on defeats the purpose and will prevent you from reaching your fitness or weight loss goals.
So why, then, are the rails there in the first place? There are several reasons.
Liability. Every modern society is very litigious.
The manufacturer wants to protect itself from liability should someone fall off a treadmill.
Imagine if there were no rails, and a user fell and got injured. He decides to sue the manufacturer.
The company would have little defense. Their defense attorney would not be able to say, “The treadmill had rails; the plaintiff chose not to hold on; therefore we are not at fault for his injuries.”
But if there are no rails, what defense does the manufacturer have? Thus, we have the first reason all treadmills have side rails.
Other Reasons Treadmills Have Side Rails
The rails should be there, even though you shouldn’t use them for sustained support. But what about transient support?
If you need to drink some water or pat the sweat near your temple, you should hold onto a rail.
If you’re turning around while still using the machine, you should put a hand on the rail to keep steady.
Sometimes, after a blistering though brief sprint on the machine, you get so breathless that after you return the speed to a recovery pace, you just have to hold onto the side rails for several breaths — but then you let go.
The side rails are there, then, for those moments where you may lose your balance.
But to keep your hands on them for sustained support? This will sabotage your goals.
Another reason treadmills have side rails is because this makes the product look complete to the potential buyer.
The manufacturer knows that many potential buyers might be the type of people who’ll grip the rails and never let go. This is a huge demographic.
If they see a treadmill at the store or online with no rails, they will hunt elsewhere for their purchase.
So those are the reasons a treadmill has side rails.
But remember this: Just because the rails are there does not mean that using them in a prolonged way is the best way to achieve your fitness or weight loss goals.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
.
Top image: Freepik.com, jcomp
Best Seated Exercise for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
What kinds of seated exercises are best for COPD?
People with COPD should definitely exercise, and if you have COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), you’re most likely wondering if certain types of exercise, including seated, are better than others.
And the answer to that question is definitely yes.
First of all, be assured that if you have COPD, this does not mean you should avoid exercise.
Exercise is one of the best things for COPD, and one of the best kinds of seated activity is that of using a stationary bicycle — but not the way you’re now perhaps thinking.
The disease makes it difficult to exhale completely. This discourages physical activity, and more inertia will only make the disease worse.
You can improve your fitness, however, by using one leg at a time on a stationary bike, say studies from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), headed by Professor Jan Helgerud.
When someone with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease works out, oxygen saturation in the blood may drop beneath 88 percent.
One way to get around this is with supplemental oxygen. However, availability of supplemental oxygen to every COPD patient is not realistic.
The solution? One-legged stationary cycling, either seated upright or recumbant.
Freepik.com
You pedal with one leg while the other leg rests. One-legged cycling greatly improves fitness in people with COPD, says a study from the NTNU Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging.
Oxygen supply to muscles is maximized with the one-legged approach, and the effects of reduced lung capacity are minimized.
In late 2010, the European Journal of Applied Physiology reported the benefits to lung capacity to COPD patients pedaling with one leg at a time.
Stationary bikes at gyms and recreation centers usually come with straps that can be attached to the pedals.
Have a seat, and get pedaling. The free leg can be propped up on the bike’s centerpiece.
You can pedal very swiftly at a light resistance, or slower at a harder resistance, or some combination in between; mix things up for variety.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained clients of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
.
Source: The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) (2010, January 25). Cycling to better health, one leg at a time. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 6, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2010/01/100120085502.htm
Belly Fat Is Independent Risk Factor for Colon Cancer
Now you have more motivation than ever to get rid of your dangerous belly fat: colon cancer.
Even if you take other measures to prevent this disease, a big belly is bad news. (more…)
Why Women Stay in Abusive Relationships: Not Stockholm Syndrome
Women stay in abusive relationships for several reasons, but Stockholm syndrome is far from the only reason.
Stockholm syndrome means you bond with your captor after he abducts you; usually a hostage-taker is a stranger to the victim.
In an abusive relationship, a woman has a history with the man that usually started out in a fairy tale way: At first, the man seemed like Prince Charming.
The woman falls in love with this charming man, or, at least, develops a strong bond with him, but at this point, it’s not a Stockholm syndrome bond, because there’s been no abuse yet.
It’s the Prince Charming phase. The abuse comes to the woman AFTER she has bonded to the man.
The bond is already there, before the abuse. In Stockholm syndrome, a bond develops after the abuse, after the hostage-taking, after the threats — after the fact.
Mary Jo Fay, RN, MSN, is author of When Your Perfect Partner Goes Perfectly Wrong.
She says: “I agree that Stockholm syndrome is one of the largest reasons why women (and abused men) may stay in crappy relationships, but I also believe there are other reasons as well.”
One reason women stay in abusive relationships is fearing the shame and humiliation should anybody find out.
Shutterstock/ARegina
“Maybe the family warned the woman to begin with that this guy wasn’t healthy for her, but she wouldn’t listen and now she can’t let them be right,” says Fay.
A more overwhelming reason women stay in abusive relationships is that they “fell in love with Dr. Jekyll, but the violent, angry, abusive Mr. Hyde seemed to replace the kind, romantic one,” says Fay.
“At this point the victim usually believes she somehow caused the wonderful Dr. Jekyll to disappear and actually caused the abusive Mr. Hyde to show up.
“She frequently believes if ONLY she could figure out what she did to make him switch like that, then she could turn things back around to what they were like in the beginning. So she stays.”
Thus, Stockholm syndrome isn’t necessarily the key reason women stay in abusive relationships. Instead, it literally can come down to low self-esteem.
Fay explains: “In interviewing the number of (mostly) women I have in this situation, they all seem to share at least some form of low self-esteem … many, while looking outwardly strong and as if they have the world by the tail. Yep – that would have been me!
“But, they may have felt not good enough for most of their lives … at least when it came to relationships.”
Abusive men are part of the equation.
Freepik.com, cookie_studio
“The predator is able to sniff these victims out of the masses quite easily,” says Fay.
“Then, he gobs on the charm … something our poor victim has dreamed of all her life and has yet to find.
“The sudden attention, the flowers, the romantic evenings sweep her off her feet, and for the first time she feels that someone finally ‘gets her!’
“She’s easily convinced that the odds of anyone else coming along who ‘gets her’ are slim to none.”
As you can see, this is not how Stockholm syndrome develops. “Once her predator has his claws tightly sunk into her psyche, he can then gradually start switching to almost any behavior he wants, as he knows she’s hooked.”
The next mechanism that keeps a woman staying in an abusive relationship is intermittent reinforcement of rewards in the abusive relationship.
Shutterstock/Andy Dean Photography
“As the predator starts behaving badly and the victim starts to consider leaving, the predator knows just exactly how to throw in the treat just often enough to make her stay.
“Thus a big fight might be followed with flowers, sincere apologies, promises to seek counseling, wonderful lovemaking, etc. The victim remembers Prince Charming … she knows he’s in there.
“He knows just how to time these reinforcements to keep her in the game.”
The next reason women stay in an abusive relationship is fear of being alone.
Women with kids, especially, may fear the absence of a man who can support them.
“Many women marry a man whom they know is a bad match, because the thought of being alone was so much more frightening than the idea of maybe having a rocky marriage.”
Finally, a reason women stay in abusive relationships is the brainwashing.
“The abusers seem to be able to convince their victims of many things … that no one else could possibly want them, that he will win any custody battle for the children and that she will never see them again, that he can murder her,” etc.
Stockholm syndrome applies more to a situation involving a stranger-to-stranger kidnapping, with threats of, “I’ll kill you if you try to leave.”
Though abusive men have threatened the lives of their women, and though the women have stayed in abusive relationships out of fear for their life, this does not mean that the women actually have an emotional bond to their violent husband or boyfriend.
Some women do, yes, but as you’ve just read, you can see that Stockholm syndrome doesn’t explain her “love” for him.
And fear of being alone has nothing to do with feeling an emotional bond with a violent man.
The woman may hate him to high heaven, but the fear of being alone, or of breaking her parents’ heart with the truth, wins hands-down.
And don’t forget intermittent reinforcements: “He’s so incredibly loving and kind when he’s sober.”
An abusive relationship often develops insidiously, starting off with just verbal slights, and ultimately evolving into regular physical beatings.
Fay uses this analogy: “If we throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, of course he’ll jump out immediately.
“However, if we throw him in a cold pot of water, then slowly turn up the heat, he won’t notice just how hot it’s getting until it’s too late and he can’t get out. Thus are the lives of many abused victims – women or men.”
I asked Fay for details about her background in the area of women in violent relationships, and she replied:
“My own experiences, combined with interviewing and consulting with hundreds of folks across the U.S. and beyond … let me assure you, I’ve heard it all.
“(And interestingly enough, it’s nearly always the same story, simply with different names and players. But the underlying ‘dis-ease’ is all the same. It’s only the level of intensity that seems to vary.)”
Fay’s book-cover jackets describe her as: A survivor of several difficult relationships who speaks with the voice of one who’s overcome childhood sexual abuse, survived a difficult divorce, worked for some nasty bosses, struggled with a few manipulative friends, and even nearly took her own life due to a depression that felt endless.
After coming through the darkness she finally found her own pathway to healing and discovered healthy relationships instead.
She now consults with individuals across the globe as they too seek the answers to escaping their abusive relationships, discover ways to make better choices in future mates, and instead learn how to love “healthy.”
Although Fay’s marriage was not physically abusive, she explains: “When you’re involved with someone who is not a healthy match for you your own low self-esteem issues are pretty huge, the damage that can be done is still substantial … as evidenced by my near suicide.
“As I like to remind my clients, MY baggage, combined with HIS baggage, is what made that relationship unhealthy for me.”
Mary Jo Fay is a speaker, author and consultant who specializes in relationships.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
.
Top image: Shutterstock/Antonio Guillem
How to Maximize Calorie Burn Using a Treadmill Incline
If you hold onto the treadmill while using the incline, you’re burning far fewer calories than what the display says.
Holding on cancels out the incline and causes many other problems. (more…)
