Never Grow Old Fitness Program

NEVER GROW OLD FITNESS PROGRAM

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I attended the 35^th Annual Idea World Convention in Las Vegas for five days in July. My most fulfilling experience at the convention was an all-day workshop titled “Functional Aging Specialist Certification Course.” This interactive workshop gave me an introduction to the tools and skills necessary to implement functional training techniques, strategies and movements important to seniors.

Cody Sipe, PhD, gave the workshop. Cody is an award winning, 20-year veteran of the fitness industry, a professor of Physical Therapy at Harding University, exercise specialist in exercise for mature adults and recognized author. He received his PhD in Exercise Science from Purdue University. With Dan Ritchie, PhD, Cody is co-owner of Miracles Fitness, a successful small group and personal training facility specializing in mature adults and co-founder of the Functional Aging Institute www.functionalaginginstitute.com

This article will discuss an important segment of the workshop I attended: The Never Grow Old Fitness Program (NGO), which was created by Sipe and Ritchie. I’ll include instruction I took from the workshop plus information from their NGO Functional Fitness EBook. Much of the copy this article is directly from them, so I haven’t used quotation marks.

Our Core Principle—Cody Sipe, PhD & Dan Ritchie, PhD

We Believe:

• Aging is mandatory…but growing old is optional
• Improving functional fitness is critical to living a long, healthy and enjoyable life
• Traditional resistance training does NOT maximize function
• It is NEVER too late to begin a fitness program and reap its benefits
• If you move better you will fell better. If you feel better you will move more. If you move more you will look better.
• Fitness is one of the best investments of time, money and effort that a mature adult can make and it will yield huge benefits
• All exercise programs are NOT created equal!

You probably don’t get excited about exercise and could probably list 20 things you’d rather be doing. But many of those 20 things you’d do better if you had more strength, more endurance, more balance and more energy.

Cody and Dan believe that many senior fitness programs are simply not well designed and are often dysfunctional. The programs that most older adults follow are primarily designed to improve muscle size and strength. The techniques come from the world of bodybuilding in which bigger muscles are the top priority. Our youth-centric culture dictates to us that these aesthetic characteristics are of utmost importance so the vast majority of gyms are built from this bodybuilding model. In fact, the fitness industry has been doggedly slow in realizing that the 50+ population is not only huge but also has different priorities and needs. Therefore the industry continues to teach fitness programs to clients as if they were all aspiring to be Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Many seniors use the weight-lifting machines that are common in most gyms. They’re easy to use and isolate the muscle group that is being worked. Since that one muscle is doing all of the work, then it is going to increase its size and strength quicker. However, the evidence is clear from various studies and from the thousands of people Cody and Dan have worked with that stronger is not always better. Traditional muscle-isolation type resistance exercise programs will significantly improve strength but will probably NOT significantly improve physical function.

 Improve Your “Doability” (aka Functional Ability)

Cody & Dan call this “doability” because you’ll be able to do the things you already do even better. Your ability to work in the yard, hike a mountain trail, hit a tennis ball, ski down a mountain, carry heavy luggage, clean the house with greater ease and less discomfort will improve. Plus you’ll hit the tennis ball harder, ski longer and carry heavier luggage. The Never Grow Old Fitness Program will provide the strength, energy, stamina and flexibility necessary for all of life’s physical tasks. You will even find yourself doing thing you haven’t done in years because you couldn’t do them anymore or trying new things you never thought you could do “at your age.” You will develop functional strength that is useful for life rather than isolated muscle strength, which is useful for show.

Two key pillars form the core of the Never Grow Old system. These pillars are the concepts of specificity and progressive overload. (Many other programs miss these entirely.)

The Pillar of Specificity states that how a person trains determines the type of gains they make. Cody tells his students “How you train is how you gain.” In other words, the kinds of exercises you perform, and how you perform them, will determine the type and magnitude of results you’ll accomplish.

The Pillar of Progressive Overload states that the body must continually be challenged with more difficult tasks or exercises for it to continue to adapt and grow. This could be lifting heavier weights, completing more repetitions, performing the exercise for a longer period of time (say jogging 30 minutes instead of 20), increasing the intensity, or making the movement more complex. Cody says he’s seen hundreds of people who have missed this principle completely. They either think that what they are doing is “good enough” for a person their age or believe that working out harder will be dangerous for them. Cody says he has many times found persons working out for several months only to find out that they haven’t changed their program at all since day one. Their program was kind of tough the first couple of weeks and then it became pretty easy after that point because their body adapted. Sometime this can go on for years or even decades!

The Never Grow Old Program

 Cody and Dan have developed exercise strategies to challenge individuals at all levels of fitness and functional ability. Everything in them has a purpose and the program manipulates variables such as body position, stance, arm position, arm movement patterns, direction, distance, depth, velocity, equipment and complexity in a purposeful manner in order to create exercise movements that accomplish the goal of improving physical function. These exercises are further “tweaked” by mixing up the variables in a highly ordered process to ensure that you are progressively challenged as you improve your functional fitness. These tweaks allow you to create a continuum of functional challenge. The great news for you is that the programs will never get boring or routine!

About the Workouts

A complete exercise session consists of a Dynamic Warm-Up, Functional Fitness Workout and Functional Flexibility Routine. The warm-ups take about 4 minutes; the workouts about 20 minutes; and the functional flexibility about 8 minutes. So a total of 30-35 minutes three times per week is all it takes to obtain great results.

The workouts include an assortment of exercises including Bridge, Bird Dog, Squats, a variety of Planks, a variety of Lunges and much more. You’ll need to look at the videos or the manual (ordering information below) to properly practice these.

Equipment is kept to a minimum and may include resistance tubing, dumbbells, a stability ball, a step (or stair), and an exercise mat. Many exercises only utilize body weight.

Following the exercise sessions you have the option of performing some light to moderate cardiovascular exercise of your choosing for 20-45 minutes.

For two additional days per week you’ll be performing a Cardio Warm-Up, High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) program, and the Functional Flexibility Routine. HIIT training simply involves periods of higher-intensity exercise (exercise intervals) altered with periods of lower-intensity exercise (recovery periods) within the same exercise session. How challenging and how long these periods last vary depending on your goals and abilities. Typically they are prescribed as a ratio such as 3:1 (3 minutes of higher-intensity followed by 1 minute of recovery) or 2:1 (60 seconds of higher-intensity followed by 30 seconds of recovery). The more intense the exercise is the shorter it needs to be (because you cannot sustain intense exercise for very long) and the longer the rest period needs to be. The HIIT portion of these twice-a-week workouts will take about 15-20 minutes. The total time is 30-35 minutes.

The program is divided into four levels so that people of all ages and abilities can jump into it and be challenged appropriately. Cody & Dan recommend that everyone try either a Level I or Level II workout first. (And, of course, be sure to get an okay from your medical practitioner before trying any of them.)

Level I—Beginners Best suited for inactive people who have never exercised or haven’t exercised in a while and would consider themselves to have a low overall level of fitness.

Level II—Advanced Beginners Best suited for people who are active and have an average level of fitness for their age. This includes those who walk on a regular basis or who exercise at a gym using traditional exercise machines at a rather modest level of effort.

Level III—Intermediate This is the level that most healthy, active adults without any significant health concerns or physical limitations and consider themselves to be relatively fit fall into.

Level IV—Advanced Designed for the active person who is an experienced exerciser. If you are fitter than average and ready for a fun, exciting and fast-paced program to improve your functional fitness then Level IV is for you.

The above is only a brief overview of the Cody Sipe, PhD & Dan Ritchie, PhD Never Grow Old Fitness Program. The complete workouts are ultra effective as long as you put in the time, effort and consistency that is required. All you need now are the Never Grow Old Manual (PDF) and Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced Videos. There are two very inexpensive options: The Download Option Only for $20 and the Downloads + DVDs shipped to you Option for only $45.

Visit www.functionalfitnesssolution.com for more information and to order what you need.