HOW’S YOUR FUNCTIONAL FITNESS? There are a variety of different workouts in which you can partake. Some are for strength training, some for aerobic (cardio), others for flexibility and balance like yoga & tai chi. And then there are workouts for what is called functional fitness. These exercises focus on your ability to perform everyday-life activities such as carrying groceries, getting up from the floor, walking up and down stairs, or opening heavy doors. Functional fitness exercises train your muscles to work together as in daily tasks at home or work or play. Examples of these are: A Squat, because...
THE TOP 12 FITNESS TRENDS FOR 2019 The most popular fitness trends change every year as you can see comparing this survey with last year’s post The Top 10 Fitness Trends for 2018. Here are excerpts from the new annual survey from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) published in its Health & Fitness Journal, Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2019. For the survey, the authors identified 39 possible fitness trends for 2019 and received responses from more than 2,000 fitness professionals who ranked them on a 10-point scale, with 10 meaning it was most likely to be...
SHOULD YOU USE A HEART RATE MONITOR? These days there’s a profusion of technology available that tracks your health, from counting steps to counting calories to letting you know how well you slept. But the most valuable fitness device is a heart monitor, which tells you how many times a minute your heart beats. I have a Fitbit Charge 2 wristband that continually monitors my heart rate. Most of the time I don’t much care what it reads, but when I jog I refer to it all the time to make sure I’m exercising at the right intensity. Using it,...
WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW YOUR “FITNESS AGE”? You know your chronological age, but how about your “fitness age”? Studies of fitness and lifespan suggest that a person’s fitness age, which is primarily a measure of cardiovascular endurance, might be a better predictor of longevity than chronological age. Your body’s capacity to transport and use oxygen during exercise is based on the concept of VO2 max, which is the most precise measure of overall cardiovascular fitness. Here’s more information on how your fitness age is measured and what it says about your lifespan excerpted from the July 17, 2015 issue...
FIT! SENIOR FITNESS CLUB For the past year I’ve gathered background knowledge on a variety of different fitness gyms and programs. I’ve been a member of several larger California gyms over the years including the Channel Islands YMCA in Ventura and recently 24 Hour Fitness in Oxnard. These facilities are open to all ages and, of course, include seniors as members. Especially at the Y, certain aqua classes, Golden Zumba, Silver Sneakers and core & balance classes are aimed at seniors. BodyPump and tai chi classes also attract a large number of older members. As part of my research into...
STRENGTH TRAINING—GROWING STRONG & LOOKING GOOD I’m certain you know that as us seniors put on the years, we need both aerobic (cardio) activity and strength training. With aerobic exercise you breathe faster and deeper and your heart beats at a higher rate. The better your aerobic fitness, the more efficiently your heart, lungs and blood vessels transport oxygen throughout your body. Aerobic activities include walking, running, jogging, biking, dancing, swimming (and other aqua exercises). It’s recommended we get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity per week. Strength training is the...
ORANGETHEORY FITNESS: NOT YOUR ORDINARY GYM I attended my first Orangetheory® Fitness class today. It was an intense—but enjoyable—one hour workout. I had read enough about it online to pretty much know what to expect. Still, it was quicker paced and more challenging than I had anticipated—especially for this older guy. I’d been hearing about Orangetheory for a while as an alternative to a regular gym and regular gym group classes. Doing a bit of research, I found that Orangetheory Fitness is a privately owned fitness franchise based in South Florida. It has grown rapidly since beginning in 2010 to...
CROSSFIT—A GREAT FIT FOR ANY AGE I’ve wanted to try out CrossFit, the famous fitness training program, for a couple of years. But I kept hesitating because I thought it would be way beyond my capabilities—especially being 70+ years old. Finally I decided to chance it. I checked out the websites of the 4 CrossFit facilities in Ventura. C Street CrossFit looked the best for me—one, they were the closest to my house, two they had a special $198 deal for a 2-month membership and three, once I signed up I’d get a 2-hour private session covering the essentials. On...
INJURIES: DEALING WITH OUR EMOTIONS & STRESS A week ago last Tuesday I went for a morning 12-mile run on the bike path near my house in Ventura. About mile 10 I felt my right knee “slip” and then again about mile 11. But I just ran through it and finished my workout without further pain. But later that afternoon, walking down stairs, I began to feel a burning pain in that knee. First I cursed, then I told myself, “I should have stopped running when I first felt my knee give way. Now, I have ‘runner’s knee’.” Over the...
THE TOP 10 FITNESS TRENDS FOR 2018 I’m away on vacation for another week. Instead of writing my regular weekly feature, I’m taking this chance to post this article and list from a January 4, 2018 Men’s Health article by Alisa Hrustic, The top 10 Fitness Trends You’ll See Everywhere this Year citing a survey from Health & Fitness Journal. From HIIT to yoga, here’s what the fitness pros are eyeing in 2018 Fitness trends come and go every year, but we’re going back to the basics in 2018, according to a new annual survey from the American College of Sports...
