Students Of Success

There are hundreds and maybe thousands of physical fitness guru’s all claiming to have the perfect answer, the “magic bullet” for physical fitness and a solution to a healthier body and lifestyle. Well, I’m not going to claim to have the perfect answer! However, I do have a few tips on an easy to use piece of exercise equipment that may be one of the best for all ages and is particularly suitable for those of us who are either baby boomers or a bit more seasoned. It’s the Bowflex…any version but a basic machine such as the Bowflex Sport is a perfect place to start.

So what’s the catch here? Absolutely no catch whatsoever….. just an enthusiasm to share some ideas on perhaps one of the most efficient, versatile and affordable exercise machines available for home use. The Bowflex combines aerobic and strength training with a smooth pulley and power rod resistance system that’s easy set up. You can easily switch resistance with the power rods through a wide range of motions for a complete strength and aerobic workout. Now don’t get me wrong on the expected results. The Bowflex ads show smiling, well muscled young people whom we all would like to look like, no matter what age. Well, now you may just want to get back some muscle tone and some of that past strength and endurance you once had. At any rate, here we are at 55, 60, 65 or older and card carrying members of AARP. Most of us simply want to maintain or improve our strength, muscle tone and respiratory efficiency. Today many doctors and physical fitness experts are espousing weight training and especially the use of free weights as we age. Everyone now acknowledges that maintaining and / or building our strength is critical in later years. We will certainly function with greater confidence and renewed strength but we will also be less likely to fall and if we do, less likely to suffer fractures since strength training adds to our bone mass. What we don’t hear talked about too frequently is the potential of injury with free weights if not properly supervised. Added to the injury possibility, there is also the need for other pieces of equipment such as various benches and supports in order to get a full range of activity with free weights.

So, let’s talk about the Bowflex. Perhaps you’ve seen the infomercials and watched as the group of well muscled young men and women gathered around a Bowflex machine and marveled at how easy it works and the quality of the workout it provides. So, how does this apply to you…at 55, 60, 65 years or older?

First, you can safely use the Bowflex without needing a partner. However before staring a program check with your physician to insure that you have no physical ailments that would preclude vigorous exercise. The Bowflex is a home device and since it’s in your home, it’s available at anytime. I must caution you on the hype of “now you can use it anytime of your choosing”. That may be correct, but to be successful you must establish a set time every day for your workout. Once you start slipping or changing times, you run the very real danger of skipping days and then a week or more and then suddenly you have no set program and you’re back to being a couch potato.

The Bowflex machine comes with a very nice manual of exercises and instructions and most will also have an instructional DVD. Let’s walk through some Bowflex 101 in the real world and set some realistic goals and simple to follow instructions:

1.Maintain a set time schedule either daily or every other day. Many prefer early morning exercise routines so that it doesn’t get cancelled out later in the day by unexpected events…..or lost will power. Early workouts also tend to set a positive, go get ‘em attitude when those endorphins kick in from good prolonged vigorous exercise. Many experts say that the most effective time for the body to exercise is mid-afternoon and the least effective is at night. Working out late in the evening may also cause some sleep disruption.

2.Review the exercise manual that Bowflex provides but don’t become a slave to the described routines. While the programs were developed by experts, let your own sense of what’s working be your guide.

3.After reviewing the manual, establish your beginning program routine and stick to it for at least two full weeks or longer without deviation. Maintaining a consistent pattern will allow you to assess whether the program you’ve selected is comfortable for you and not too boring. It’s important to make the workout interesting as well as challenging. Boredom can lead to you dropping out so don’t let that happen!

4.Design your program to include aerobic as well as strength activities. While the Bowflex will greatly assist in developing strength, the aerobic exercises are terrific and important.

5.Start off with easy resistance power rods. Remember, this is going to be a lifestyle addition and not a quick fix so there is no reason to use too much weight resistance at the beginning. It is best to get comfortable with how the Bowflex operates using lower resistance and then gradually increase the weight / resistance.

6.Don’t feel compelled to “do the manual”. Select the exercises that work well with your strength and flexibility and rotate through them. Make sure, though, that you balance upper body, arms, legs and abdominals in your program.

7.Make sure you take advantage of the aerobic rowing motion. The seat glides easily and the resistance power rods and pulleys are exceptionally smooth in operation.

8.Be Creative! In a short time, you’ll be totally at ease and be able to handle any of the Bowflex routines. When that happens, you’re now ready to mix and match and create new routines on your own.

So, while this is an exercise machine for all ages, the Bowflex from my experience is exceptionally well suited for the great generation of Baby Boomers and beyond. It’s simplicity of set up, easy switching process from one exercise routine to another, wide range of weight resistance and easy fluid motion give this machine an A++ rating in my book!. While this is not an advertisement, you may want to check out the Bowflex website or other websites that offer exercise equipment. At any rate, get started on a healthier life style.

Be active, be healthy and be happy!

Mike Coll is recently retired and a lifetime fitness enthusiast and is a contributing author to http://retirement.divinfo.com and http://health.divinfo.com.

When you exercise for a long time, your muscles start to burn and feel sore. This forces you to slow down, because keeping up the pace will make your muscles burn and hurt even more. You call this fatigue and tiredness, but a recent study from Japan shows that muscle fatigue is caused by damage to the muscle itself (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, July 2005). This also explains why exercising long and hard enough to feel the burn for an extended period leaves your muscles sore for one or more days afterwards. Athletes call this Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and they learn that they have to have this next day soreness to improve for competition.

That’s why running is so much more fatiguing than cycling. When you run, your heel hits the ground and stops your leg from moving. This sudden stopping with each foot strike stretches your contracting muscles and tears them to cause a lot of muscle damage. It’s called eccentric contractions of muscle and occurs with far less force in cycling. You pedal with a smooth rotary motion and do not stop suddenly. The eccentric contractions during running cause a high degree of muscle injuries, limit how far person can run fast, and require far more rest days or easy days than cyclists use in their training programs.

Since muscle fatigue during endurance competitions is caused by muscle damage, anything that strengthens muscles will improve performance in endurance events. The only way to make a muscle stronger is to damage the muscle with hard exercise, feel sore on the next day, exercise more easily on as many days as it takes for the soreness to go away, and then exercise vigorously again. Athletes in competitive sports must exercise on the days that their muscles feel sore. This makes muscles more fibrous and resistant to injury so that muscles can withstand greater forces when athletes exercise on their hard days. Since muscle fatigue during vigorous exercise in endurance sports causes fatigue and slows them down, athletes in endurance sports have to train for their sports by making their muscles stronger by following a stress and recover program.

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Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com

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Okay…okay…okay! Enough already!!! It seems like with every new term, every new invention or just about anything that is seemingly not “Everyday” that we all become flustered and assume we know nothing, which is both a testament to our lack of faith in ourselves and also a reflection of our ever-growing dependence on externals to give us a little reassurance where our natural instincts should be in high gear.

My intention with this article is not to offend anyone especially those that whom, without their continual support I would surely be seeking a new line of work, and yes I am referring to my clients, so please don’t feel like I’m bashing “you” if I ever refer to any particular individuals or events, no names will be mentioned though. Okay so…a while back, a client that I really respect and admire as a person had a dilemma that caused quite a bit of frustration for him and the other party that was involved…his daughter, also a client. What happened (an avoidable sport related injury) was tough on all involved, including myself, which, for me was my integrity as a fitness professional, something that I don’t take lightly and also a profession where in today’s world either has a negative connotation or if viewed positively, “we” are all equally educated and equipped to handle all aspects of fitness when it comes to the customers specific and infinite diversities; be it post-rehabilitation, specificity of sport, special populations or general fitness concerns or needs… All fitness trainers are not “professionals” (imagine that!) nor are they equal in their abilities and hardly ever do you find a fitness trainer with expertise in a variety of different specialties! It takes many years of education, study, application with thousands of delicate intricacies (people are complex) that make us all, well…‘us”, minutely distinct. It also requires an understanding of unique differences in personalities and the ability to cope with a multitude of unknown, potential disasters; not to mention…likes, dislikes, opinions, lifestyles, cultures, beliefs and so on… And it’s not just a general understanding of anatomy, physiology, exercise-science or athleticism… It also includes an aptitude in psychology, communication and a deep desire to help others and to serve your fellow man with all that propels you forward…or at least that is what it is to me!

I’m a pretty sensitive guy especially when it comes to my client’s needs and the fulfillment of their needs and when something strikes to the bone such as this particular incident, I become so absorbent of their concerns it usually drives me to really dig deep into myself and hopefully I become a better resource for my clients out of these situations, which ironically if you read on is why I am writing this piece in the first place. The previously mentioned sport related injury of a talented young athlete is what motivated me to put pen to paper, she is very gifted and posses the kind of personality that we desperately need as role models in modern day athletics. But she was injured by a degreed professional and it seemed like there wasn’t anyone around that could see ‘the picture’ clearly: The “DIAGNOSIS”…rehab-therapy mingled with the rigors of hard-core team training…this boggled me; rehab always precedes specificity (sport) training, build, repair and then if recovery is attained, hit the hard-core stuff, plain and simple because re-injury will surely squelch the spirit and possible prevent true talent from ever recognizing it’s infinite potential.

This article is actually on core training or as I’ll title it… Kore-Training, but what is really functional training and not just abdominal/tummy training or training the body from it’s core center of gravity or even training the body beginning with it’s proximal musculature moving outward toward the distal focal point. The big misconception with core training is that it is just mid-section training and all you have to do is some quick crunches or even worse hyperextensions and your “core” will be stronger and leaner. I hear this all the time and it still puzzles me, its one thing for the customer seeking fitness to not be 100% sure what core training is, but a professional should know better! Guess what? Too many fitness trainers, sports and conditioning coaches and other so-called “professionals” have no idea what core training is! In essence it is just functional training and ‘functional’ simply translates to the training of function/daily uses of the body or just training our bodies as they were designed to move. This obviously varies from person to person, athlete to athlete and the specific uses of each and every individual. Now, for a little tech-talk…

If you wanna get down to nuts and bolts, the primary vicinity of the core is called the…are you ready for this? Lumbo-Pelvic-Hip-Complex and in order to enhance the integrity of the core, what we are really doing is developing better dynamic postural control, increasing muscular balance, a greater degree of neuromuscular and bio-mechanic efficiency and building or rebuilding structural endurance and stabilization strength and power. And that’s core training… What does this mean to the layman? Crunches? Sit-ups? No! It means something different to each and every one of us. Are, ab exercises part of core training? Perhaps, if the lumbar region is strong enough to endure these exercises, but usually crunches are performed so poorly that a greater potential for injury will nullify what positive effects the crunches might possibly provide. So, the answer is both yes and no, depends on who is asking and your particular conditioning level, however rather than sticking our bodies in odd looking machines we should use movements that are relative to our activities or our sport or more specifically we should just use movements that keep our bodies free to move through space as we target various muscle groups, and if pondered, it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. The truth is both the Greeks and Romans trained for competition like this thousands of years ago, not to mention the fact that our bodies have not changed that much biologically, biochemically or physiologically, we are made of the same material as they were then.

Common sense is the key, move our bodies as they were designed to function and allow them to improve through progression and repetition. If we are looking to rehabilitate, repair or strengthen debilitations or genetically pre-disposed weaknesses then my advise would be…consult a qualified professional and by professional I mean someone who has a back-ground in this specific area of ‘application’ or applied expertise: this “expert” should give an assessment and then a prescription of a detailed movement protocol for the individual, what you should be weary of is the “professional” that eagerly dispenses a standardized penciled-in work-out sheet that resembles your…‘Free-Introductory-Work-Out’ card at “Jack’s Work-Out Shack”. Also, if any of these “professionals” hurt you… Then, they simply are not “PROFESSIONALS”! Final note, I am adamantly opposed to “knocking” hard working, well intended others of my particular profession as well as those of the medical community, but when injuries are concerned, we should always do our selves justice and seek more than one (1) ‘professional’ opinion…degrees, credentials and “leg-up” opportunities aside…and I know you don’t need me to tell you that.
I, applaud each and every one of you that chooses the right choice, because the right is merely an echo of truth!

-Kurt Lee Hurley, Veritas

Kurt’s website http://www.kreatefitness.com, as well as his Provo Utah Private Fitness Facility Synergy Fitness Systems, specializes in in providing leading edge exercise and nutrition programs and a super premium supplement line. All of these superior products offer superior results.

If you’re trying to decide between an elliptical trainer and another piece of exercise equipment, consider the workout advantages an elliptical provides. What’s so special about an elliptical workout? Here are 3 unique advantages of using your elliptical trainer to workout:

#1) Forward & Back Motions Provide Better Workout Results

Almost all elliptical trainers offer both forward and back motion (also called dual action motion). This allows you to work different sets of muscle groups in your legs (hamstrings vs quads) which adds up to more calories burned, more muscles toned and an overall better body workout.

You can’t walk backwards on a treadmill (ok, you can but that might be difficult. And peddling backwards on a bike might not be so helpful. The dual action ability of your elliptical trainer helps you work more muscles. Plus you have the potential to burn more calories

#2) You Get A Lower Impact Workout

A properly designed elliptical trainer mimics your body’s natural stride - the way your foot moves elliptically when walking, running, or jogging. You stand upright striding in a forward or reverse motion. Your feet never leave the pedals.

Because of this, impact is basically eliminated and there is much less overall stress on your knees, hips and back, joints and back. (Just make sure you get a properly designed elliptical trainer - not one of the cheaper department store versions!)

Because of the lower impact of an elliptical workout, the elliptical machine is becoming very popular with the older population or those who are more easily prone to sports injury.

#3) Upper Body Arm Bars Help You Burn More Calories & Get A Superior Overall Body Workout

Many elliptical trainers offer moveable upper body arm bars. By working both legs and arms, your heart rate elevates more quickly which encourages your body to burn calories faster and more efficiently.

It also results in a lower perceived rate of exertion (basically you don’t feel like you worked as hard as you really did). This may mean that you end up burning more calories, even without feeling like you did much of a workout.

By offering upper body arms, an elliptical trainer workout also helps you tone your arms, shoulders and back for better definition.

An elliptical trainer workout has many advantages over other exercise machines.

Kathryn O’Neill is the chief editor for Elliptical Trainer Reviews, a consumer oriented website focusing on the home elliptical trainer market.

For the latest elliptical trainer Best Buys visit Elliptical Best Buys 2006