MyPranaRX

Wake Up Right! Do Some Morning Yoga While You are Still in Bed

Tara Stiles shows us how to wake up and feel great! 

Lack of Exercise Can Literally Kill You

Exercise is so powerful; a lack of exercise can be used to predict death. 

Researchers at Stanford University studied 6213 men (average age 59) who were referred for exercise testing.  Each man was hooked to an electrocardiogram (ECG) machine to monitor their heart’s activity while they walked and ran on a treadmill.  Based on their blood pressure, heart rate, exercise capacity and medical records the men were classified as having cardiovascular disease or not. 

Six years later, the researchers used the Social Security Death index to determine which of the men had died.  They discovered the men with the lowest exercise capacity were more than 4 times likely to die than the men with the highest.  This was true even if they had cardiovascular disease. 

Exercise capacity was the strongest predictor of death in men and actually outranked smoking and history of chronic disease.  But this study just involved men, you may have noticed.  What about women? 

Exercise is also linked to a reduction in the risk of colon, prostate, and breast cancer—a 14 year study of 25,624 Norwegian women found breast cancer was reduced 37% among those exercising 7 days a week.

Study after study has shown the beneficial effect of exercise in treating mild to moderate depression.  Approximately 19 million Americans suffer from depressive orders; very few realize that a jog around the block will make them feel better.  Even more amazing are the studies that show seniors who engage in exercise at least three times a week can cut their risk of developing Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia by as much as 40%. 

If you want to die early, just sit on your butt all day.  However, you don’t have to get old the way you might think—you can become a radically new person.  Over 50% of all illnesses and injuries over the last 1/3 of your life can be eliminated!  Instead of succumbing to the normal decay associated with aging—the sore joints, lack of energy, weakness, irritability, etc., you can get stronger and feel younger.   In fact, in a biological sense—you can be younger.

To find out if exercise testing could predict mortality in women, scientists tested 2,994 women between 30 and 80 years of age using the “Bruce treadmill protocol,” which measures the amount of oxygen a person can consume and utilize. 

Not too surprisingly, the results were similar to men—an increase in mortality among women with the least amount of endurance.  Women in the test who were below the median of all those tested had a 3.5-fold increased risk of cardiovascular death.

YOU are NEVER Too OLD to PUMP IRON!

You’re never too old to pump iron.  Even if you are in your 90’s you can become stronger—a good “resistance” training program will increase your strength by 25 to 100 percent or more within one year!  For comparison, a good aerobic exercise program will increase your aerobic fitness by only 15 to 25 percent. 

Resistance training increases muscle strength by pitting the muscles against a force, usually a dumbbell or barbell.  Body weight itself can provide the resistance: pull-ups, sit-ups, and push-ups are a form of resistance training.  Isometric exercises, where you push your hands against a doorway or against the opposing limb of an exercise partner, are another example.  The use of free weights or resistance machines is by the far the better method.

As anyone who belongs to a gym or walked by a gym window knows, there is a vast variety of resistance machines.  The most common use weight plates to vary the resistance but others use hydraulic or air cylinder engineering.  The biggest advantage these machines have over free weights is they are safer—you are much less likely to drop a weight on your foot or pull a muscle.  Free weights, however, will increase your sense of balance and coordination.

The “Bowflex” machine you see advertised on late night TV uses yet another system based on “resistance rods.”  We’re not opposed to home solutions like this, but most people are more likely to get into a habit of regular exercise if they go to a gym.  There are too many distractions at home.  And why should you have to bother with maintaining sports equipment when someone else can do it for you?

How does resistance training work?   Basically, the cells in your muscles adapt to the extra workload by enlarging (thus the term, “pumped up,”) and by subsequently recruiting nerve cells to contract themselves.  After a muscle has been subjected to intense stress through maximal force contractions over a moderate repetition range, hormones begin the growth process and muscle remodeling.  

Both testosterone and growth hormone levels can be increased through resistance training.  When this happens, a cascade of highly beneficial events occurs, including an increase in glucose utilization, improved amino acid transport across cell membranes, improved protein synthesis and utilization of fatty acids, faster rate of fat breakdown, and enhanced immune function. 

When using free weights or resistance machines, use a weight that allows 8-12 repetitions before “maximum voluntary contraction” (MVC) sets in.  This means your muscle has contracted to its peak.  If fact, you should feel a burning sensation in your arm as you do the final rep—this is good.  If you do three sets of 8-12 reps using the maximum amount of weight and you only rest for 60 seconds or less between sets, your muscles will release the maximum amount of hormones.   They will grow in size and capacity (strength).  This is so amazingly simply—I wonder why so many people at the gym where I work out don’t do this.  They often sit around for five minutes or more between sets and fiddle with their iPods.

If you don’t want to increase the production of hormones in your body because you are afraid you might start looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger, just do more reps with a lighter weight.   High repetitions (15 to 30 or even more) won’t give you bulging muscles and are best for building up endurance. 

The most important message about resistance training is, “You’ve got to get it right!”  This means a program of exercises that work your upper body, lower body and your core.  And it is vitally important to do them correctly.  If you’re not already pumping iron, we strongly advise a body building class or hire the trainer at your gym.  If these options aren’t available, find a friend to help you or buy a book.  Don’t “just do it.” 

The two most common mistakes I observe in the gym:  trying to lift too much weight, and using your body’s “momentum” to lift.  These often go hand-in-hand.  For example, if someone tries to perform a bicep curl with too much weight, they find they can’t lift the weight without rocking their shoulders and elbows and jerking the weight up.  You don’t really exercise you bicep and you leave yourself open to injury. 

Young men who think they are impressing people are most prone to this—us older folks stick to the basics.

Warming UP is Not so Hard to Do

My observation is that too many of us don’t warm-up before we exercise. At the pool where I swim I see this all the time: a middle-aged person jumps or dives into the water and immediately starts vigorous lap swimming.

And I see it at the gym where I work out: someone walks in and sits at the lat pull-down machine and starts jerking a much too heavy weight up-and-down, thereby risking a serious shoulder injury.

Same thing at the tennis court: an elderly couple strolls out onto the court and without so much as doing a single stretch they starts banging the ball back and forth from the baseline(my elbow hurts just thinking about this.) And I could go on.

Why is this? Are most people in too big a hurry to warm-up or are they too lazy or just plan ignorant of the importance of warming up?

Warming-up prevents injuries and it makes for a better workout. It lubricates your joints, warms the connective tissues, activates your nervous system and charges up your circulatory system. You should always do some simple stretches before you do any type of exercise. And you should always start out slowly and increase your speed over time.

Riding an exercise bike or running on a treadmill will get your heart pumping and cause you to sweat but it won’t properly warm you up for resistance training or weight-lifting. The reason is the related joints and connective tissues you use for most resistance exercise (your elbow or shoulder, for example) are not activated during the aerobic exercise.

So if you immediately try to do some “bicep hammer curls” with a heavy weight you are risking a muscle strain that could keep you out of the gym for a few weeks or more.

When doing resistance training start with a low weight or resistance that allows you to do 30 or more reps so that the specific muscles and joints that are being exercised can warm-up. Do this first and then increase the weight or resistance so that you can do about 15 reps. Increase it again so that you can do 10 or fewer. Gym instructors or personal trainers who tell you otherwise are idiots, stay away from them.

When swimming, do a set of stretches (in or out of the water) that includes warming up your shoulders and stretching the muscles in your arms and legs as well as your lower back. Begin your swim with a couple slow laps and then increase the pace.

In tennis, after stretching you should warm up by hitting the ball inside the service box for a few minutes. This is not only a safe way of getting your heart and lungs, muscles and joints going--it is a good exercise in racket control.

Whatever the sport or activity, stretch first and start slowly. When you finish, don’t just stop, let your body cool down gradually. Swim a couple slow laps, hit a few lobs, do some more stretches. Think of your body as a machine that will function better when properly cared for.

For a great collection of stretches for 20 different sports: click here.

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