On my recent hike at Pt.Lobos, I saw this saying on a guy’s tee shirt. It happened to be the day before the Big Sur Marathon, and he and his wife were visiting from Philadelphia to run it, and were sightseeing at Pt Lobos. They were both fit and healthy looking. I grew up about … Continue reading No Goals, No Glory
Category: Fitness
Balance Training
A neglected aspect of fitness that becomes more important with aging is balance. This is another area where decline occurs with age, and makes older people more likely to fall. Young people can stand on one foot with their eyes closed easily for a minute. I can do it for about 10 seconds. I knew … Continue reading Balance Training
Monitoring Exercise Intensity
Perceived Exertion What I’ve described previously for monitoring intensity of aerobic exercise using your breath is a simplified version of judging intensity by "perceived level of exertion" (also called “rating of perceived exertion”). Recently RPE has been shown to correlate very well with heart rate [1]. I think it's possible to make too big a … Continue reading Monitoring Exercise Intensity
Motivation- Why Healthy Aging?
Dr. Chistine Rosenbloom interviewed me for her great website yesterday, and her last question was did I have any final words of wisdom. What popped into my head was "don't give up". That planted the seed for this post. I get a bit discouraged by some people I see around me who seem to have … Continue reading Motivation- Why Healthy Aging?
Other Aspects of Fitness -Meditation
This is a continuation of a post the other day about the “Four Pillars” of Healthy Aging, specifically about stress management. Sitting meditation is the most powerful method of stress relief I have found. Think of a time when you have spontaneously relaxed completely and gotten lost in the moment, your thoughts fading away as … Continue reading Other Aspects of Fitness -Meditation
Challenge Yourself (But Choose Your Challenge Wisely)
I got this idea from Clarence Bass, in his book Challenge Yourself. It can be much easier to motivate yourself to be physically active if there is some challenge you’re pointing towards. But we can tend to have a “bigger is better” mentality and choose tests like marathons, century rides, or climbing Mt. Whitney. These … Continue reading Challenge Yourself (But Choose Your Challenge Wisely)
Other Aspects of Fitness- The “Four Pillars” of Healthy Aging
In my opinion, there are four components or “pillars” of healthy aging. Staying active is one of them, healthy eating is the second, and the others are social support and stress management. There is a lot of emphasis on the first two on this site but I consider the others equally important. In this post … Continue reading Other Aspects of Fitness- The “Four Pillars” of Healthy Aging
Physical Activity and Weight Loss
One of the big debates you’ll see is whether physical activity is beneficial for weight loss. The reasoning is usually based on calories in vs. calories out: “if you walk for half an hour you might burn 150 calories. You take in more than that by eating one doughnut”. My first thought is “Uh, don’t … Continue reading Physical Activity and Weight Loss
On Pacing: LISS and HIIT But Don’t MISS Too Much
Anything done predominantly aerobically is low intensity steady state (LISS). Higher intensity activity exceeds the capacity of the cardiovascular system and the mitochondria in the cells to provide oxygen, so anaerobic glycolysis has to occur: Fuel in the form of muscle glycogen has to be broken without oxygen, a more inefficient process that produces byproducts … Continue reading On Pacing: LISS and HIIT But Don’t MISS Too Much
Getting Started With Resistance Training
As I mentioned in previous posts, resistance training is vital to preserve muscle and bone mass as we age, and it also helps keep our metabolisms from slowing down with age quite so much. I’ve already discussed ways to make it enjoyable, and promised there to give a short program that hits the high notes. … Continue reading Getting Started With Resistance Training
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