REAL AGE
Cholesterol: The Facts Behind the Hype
Remember when almost every health story featured cholesterol as its subject, and everyone you knew was rushing out to have his or her cholesterol levels checked? Even as recently as a few years ago, we thought that having a low cholesterol level ensured long-term arterial health. We now know the story is more complex. Sure, it's generally good to have a low total cholesterol level, but many other factors are more important to ageing than cholesterol. In fact, most people who have cardiovascular disease have cholesterol levels below the 'high' marker of 240 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter). Although high levels of total cholesterol and/or LDL (lousy) cholesterol can contribute to arterial ageing, other factors contribute even more: high blood pressure; cigar, cigarette, or passive smoking; not exercising; high levels of homocysteine; diabetes; and a diet that is heavy in fats and and poor in nutrients. Nevertheless, you should keep in mind that high cholesterol levels can affect your rate of ageing.
What Does 'High Cholesterol' Mean?
Cholesterol is a type of lipid (a fat soluble molecule) found in three places: in our cells, in our food ('dietary' cholesterol), and in our blood. As much as we fear cholesterol, it is a vital component of our bodies. Cholesterol is required for the body to manufacture hormones, build cell walls, and produce bile acids, which are essential for the breakdown and digestion of fats. In some areas of the body, cholesterol levels are high. For example, skin cells contain a lot of cholesterol, making them highly water resistant. This water resistance protects the body from dehydration by reducing the evaporation of water. The brain also has high concentrations of cholesterol.
When we measure cholesterol, we measure the amount of cholesterol circulating in the blood. Problems develop not from having cholesterol in the blood, but from having too much cholesterol and too much of the wrong type of cholesterol in our blood, where it can cause damage to our arteries. In general, having a high total cholesterol level is bad: Excess cholesterol can promote arterial ageing. However, even among such high-risk populations as middle-aged men, only 9-12 percent of those with total cholesterol readings of over 240 mg/dl will actually have symptomatic cardiovascular disease as a direct result of cholesterol. For each 1 percent increase in the overall cholesterol reading in middle-aged men (for example, for 202 versus 200 mg/dl), the risk of developing cardiovascular disease increases by 2 percent. High cholesterol levels affect different population groups disproportionately. For example, high cholesterol seems to have a significant ageing effect on young and middle-aged men, but a much less significant effect on older men and women of all ages. The female sex hormone oestrogen generally decreases the presence of cholesterol in the blood, whereas androgens—the male sex hormones—increase blood cholesterol. Premenopausal women rarely have to worry about their cholesterol levels.
The Ratio of LDL to HDL
Far more important than a person's total cholesterol reading is the ratio of his or her LDL to HDL. There are three basic types of cholesterol in your body: low-density lipoproteins (LDL), high-density lipoproteins (HDL), and very-low-derisity lipoproteins (VLDL). Because the VLDL level is rarely measured directly, in general, cholesterol tests measure total cholesterol, LDL, and HDL cholesterol. (LDL is calculated by subtracting HDL from total cholesterol.) LDL cholesterol causes ageing of the arteries; HDL cholesterol prevents it. (Recall that I remember the 'L' of LDL as 'lousy' and the 'H' of HDL as 'healthy.')
In general, a total cholesterol reading of 240 mg/dl is too high and can cause arterial ageing. In the most rigorous study on cholesterol, the Framingham Study, individuals with a cholesterol reading lower than 200 mg/dl had a 10 percent risk of coronary artery disease over a twenty-year period. Those with a total cholesterol reading above 240 mg/dl had about twice as much chance (20 percent) of developing the disease.
Most people who have high cholesterol also have high levels of LDL cholesterol, which causes arterial ageing. LDL molecules deliver cholesterol to the cells in the body. When cholesterol rises, excess LDL molecules in the bloodstream can attach to small ruptures or lesions in the arterial wall, the endothelium, and trigger a process that can lead to the development of arterial plaques and cardiovascular ageing.
It is interesting to note that some people with very high cholesterol levels have arteries that are in better condition than those of other individuals who have low cholesterol levels. These lucky people have high levels of HDL cholesterol and low levels of LDL cholesterol. Since HDL molecules remove excess cholesterol from the arteries, the more HDL you have, the less excess LDL cholesterol you have and the less arterial ageing you will undergo. Unfortunately, these people are the exception, not the rule.
When you get your cholesterol levels tested, make sure to ask not just for your total cholesterol level but for your total/HDL ratio. The lower the ratio, the better. The average ratio for middle-aged Americans is 5. It is calculated by dividing the number for total cholesterol by the number for HDL. For example, if you have a total blood cholesterol of 200 and your HDL is 40, the ratio is 5 (200/40). On the other hand, if your total blood cholesterol is 200 but your HDL is 57, your ratio is 3.5. A fifty-five-year-old man with a ratio of 3.5 would have only about half the risk of arterial ageing as the average man in his age group; his RealAge would be eight years younger. In contrast, if that man had a ratio of 9 (for example, 270 total/30 HDL), he would have more than five times the risk of arterial ageing as the average man in his age group; his RealAge would be twelve years older than average. Similarly, having either high LDL or a high LDL/HDL ratio can cause arterial ageing.
As mentioned, having a total cholesterol of over 240 mg/dl suggests a high risk of ageing. Likewise, a level of LDL cholesterol above 160 mg/dl or an HDL reading below 35 mg/dl correlates with an increased rate of arterial ageing. If your total cholesterol is more than 240, if your LDL cholesterol is higher than 160, or if your HDL cholesterol is lower than 35, you should talk seriously with your doctor about improving your cholesterol levels to retard arterial ageing. Having either high LDL levels or low HDL levels can make your RealAge anywhere from three to six years older. Having both high total LDL and a high LDL-to-HDL ratio can make your RealAge anywhere from six to eighteen years older, depending on the ratio. Even if your cholesterol status is more moderate—LDL levels above 100 but below 160 or HDL levels less than 55 but above 36—you should also consider taking steps to reduce your LDL cholesterol and increase your HDL levels.
Despite all the buzz about cholesterol-free foods, cholesterol is one factor that is largely determined by genetics. Genetics determine whether you have a tendency toward high LDL levels, and genetics largely determine your LDL-to-HDL ratio. That means that genetic factors gready determine how seriously you will be affected by arterial ageing caused by elevated LDL cholesterol levels if you don't adopt Age Reduction activities that are specifically targeted toward preventing arterial ageing. For example, if you are a man with a high LDL cholesterol level or a high LDL-to-HDL ratio and a number of your close male relatives died early from heart disease, you are at a high risk of the premature onset of cardiovascular disease (see Table 8.2).
As I mentioned, an HDL level above 60 mg/dl appears to provide tremendous protection against arterial ageing. Although some medications will help increase HDL levels, drugs are not the most effective way of improving your cholesterol ratio. In fact, no techniques have been proven to work for everyone. Exercise is one of the best ways to improve your HDL reading. Women tend to have higher HDL levels than men, and women are able to improve their HDL levels with exercise to a greater extent than men. A recent North Carolina study found that aerobic exercise increased HDL by 20 percent in female patients but by only 5 percent in male patients. Also, a glass of alcohol a night (half a glass for women) may increase your HDL level. For many people, losing excess weight improves their HDL readouts. Although the interaction between weight gain and cholesterol levels is still not well understood, the correlation between the two is strong.
In contrast, if you have low LDL cholesterol, your genetics are protecting you from arterial ageing. Finally, there are a lucky few who have high total
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[Soybeans as Youth Beans - Recent studies have linked soy protein to a reduction in levels of LDL cholesterol. People who regularly consume soy products—soy milk, tofu, and soy beans (and that doesn't mean soy sauce!)—have LDL cholesterol levels that are, on average, 13 percent lower than those who don't. Try substituting soy-based products for animal protein in your diet. The consumption of soy products may have a particularly big impact on those with very high cholesterol levels. It is not clearly understood why or how soy protein helps reduce cholesterol levels, although some experts theorize that the soy works as an antioxidant on cholesterol. Others think that soy may interfere with the formation of plaque. To make a substantial difference in cholesterol, you would need 31 to 47 grams of soy protein a day. Soy also contains a natural oestrogen that has been shown to reduce the risk of both breast and prostate cancers and to provide extra protection for ageing of the bones]
The very important fact is you have to make sure the soy product is organic and not GM - genetically modified in any way - Keith Hunt
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cholesterol and high HDL cholesterol. These people have a genetic trump. All that HDL cholesterol helps protect them from arterial ageing. They can have a RealAge as much as twenty-six years younger than their cohorts.
How to Reduce Cholesterol Levels
Since there has been so much focus in the media on eating a 'low-cholesterol' diet, it is surprising to learn that eating a low-cholesterol diet is not an especially effective way to reduce LDL cholesterol. Cholesterol consumed in food will cause a rise in cholesterol levels for some people and will have no effect on other people. Only 15 percent (one in seven individuals) who try a low-cholesterol diet get a significant antiageing effect from doing so. Again, genetics play a role: Genetic factors largely determine your sensitivity to dietary cholesterol, and people can range from extreme sensitivity to complete insensitivity. A person who has a genetic insensitivity may consume as much as 1,000 mg of cholesterol daily without negative consequences. In general, though, it is recommended that you consume less than 300 mg of cholesterol a day. People who show a particular sensitivity to dietary cholesterol should eat even less than that to retard or reverse arterial ageing. How do you know your responsiveness to dietary restriction of cholesterol? Only by measuring blood levels before and after restricting dietary cholesterol. A dramatic decline suggests that you are sensitive. A more modest decrease of 10-15 percent suggests that you are not.
For most of us, consumption of fat influences our levels of cholesterol in the blood far more than consumption of cholesterol itself. Unless you are especially sensitive to dietary cholesterol, your body produces almost all the cholesterol that exists in the bloodstream. The liver manufactures cholesterol from the saturated and trans fats you consume. This is yet another reason why it is important to eat a diet low in saturated and trans fats.
The best way to reduce high LDL cholesterol is to choose foods that are low in cholesterol, saturated fat, and trans fat. If you have high LDL cholesterol, you may want to consider taking medicine to reduce those levels. Talk to your doctor about getting a more extensive lipid evaluation and about the pros and cons of medication for improving either your overall cholesterol level or your LDL-to-HDL ratio......
Triglyceride Levels
Triglycerides are lipids (fats) that circulate in the bloodstream. Triglyceride measurements are usually taken after an overnight fast and when cholesterol levels are analyzed. The average fasting triglyceride level is 120-125 mg/dl. Levels above 200 mg/dl are associated with significant arterial ageing, especially with plaque buildup along the arterial wall. Since triglyceride levels fluctuate a fair amount, people with high levels (above 190 mg/dl) will want to have their blood analyzed several times to get an accurate estimate. If your fasting triglyceride level is above 200 mg/dl, reduce total fat intake. Cutting saturated and trans fats to less than 7 percent of your total caloric intake, eating fish rich in omega-3 fish oils at least three times a week or more, and increasing your physical activity are all actions to choose before considering possible drug therapies
Low Cholesterol Levels
With all this talk about high LDL cholesterol, do we have to worry about the other side of the spectrum? Can your cholesterol level dip too low?Apparently, yes, although we know far less about ultra-low cholesterol than high cholesterol, as very few people without an acute disease or chronic malnutrition have cholesterol levels low enough to be of concern. In a few but not all studies, people with low total cholesterol levels appeared to have a higher incidence of cancers and, curious to note, suicides. Although very few studies have been done on this subject, and we still cannot say with any certainty how low 'too low' is, it appears there is some risk. A possible explanation for the relationship to cancer may be that cholesterols are necessary components of vitamin D3, a proven cancer fighter. As for the suicides, no one really knows. Cholesterols are important in the functioning of brain cells and the production of hormones, so an ultra-low level of cholesterol may affect these two functions.
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TO BE CONTINUED
Slimming Down
How Shedding Pounds Amounts to Shedding Years
Perhaps no health issue is more emotionally charged than weight gain. We need only to look at the plethora of diet books and the news stories about eating disorders to sense the concern. Ironically, in spite of the abundance of information on diet, nutrition, and the health problems associated with being overweight, the American population has been getting progressively heavier.
Being overweight can provoke many conditions that age your body. It causes high blood pressure, inhibits exercise, and promotes chronic diseases like diabetes. Excess weight is associated with accelerated arterial ageing and the onset of cardiovascular disease; ageing of the bones and joints; diseases of ageing, such as gallbladder disease and gout; increased levels of depression; and increased incidence of cancers, especially breast, uterine, and prostate cancers. Being overweight can make your RealAge as much as ten years older.
Fad diets are not the solution. Losing weight—and keeping it off—is no easy trick. The only way to do it is to change behaviors at the most fundamental level: Weight loss and maintenance of the ideal weight are always tied to healthy eating and exercise behaviors that are practiced for a lifetime. Repeatedly losing weight and gaining it back stresses your body and actually accelerates ageing.
The customary way of calculating your ideal weight is to determine your body mass index (BMI), or your weight-to-height ratio. The BMI reading is one of the best tools for assessing whether a person weighs too much because it accounts for variances in body size, giving a standard for evaluating people at a range of heights. (Although BMI is not the best measure of body fat, for most people, it provides a good general estimate and can easily be calculated at home.)
The average BMI for Americans is 26.3 kg/m2 (kilograms per meter' squared). In terms of Age Reduction, the ideal BMI is 23 or less. As long as your weight is not abnormally low because of some health complication, such as a chronic disease, if you have a BMI of 23 or less, you can expect your RealAge to be as much as eight years younger than if your BMI were at the national average of 26.3.
If your BMI is over 25, you will probably want to consider a moderate weight-loss program that includes boosting exercise and cutting caloric intake. If your BMI is over 27, excess weight is causing unnecessary ageing, and, again, you should consider a safe and gradual weight-loss plan involving exercise and cutting calories. People with BMIs over 30 should consult a physician or weight-loss professional before beginning any diet, to establish a safe and practical weight-loss plan.
Despite the well-publicized health problems from obesity, more than 40 percent of all men over age fifty are significantly overweight. That is, they are 20 percent or more above their desirable weight and have a BMI over 27.8. Fifty-two percent of women in their fifties and 41 percent of women age sixty and over are significantly overweight: they are 20 percent or more above their desirable weight and have a BMI over 27.3. In 1960, fewer than one-quarter of all Americans were significantly overweight; now more than one-third are. From 1980 to 1990, the weight (adjusted for height) of the average American increased by eight pounds.
What is the major factor causing this increase in weight? Some scientists argue that obesity stems largely from our food choices. We choose to eat a calorically dense diet, one that is high in saturated fats and trans fats, rich in sugar, and low in both fiber and nutrients. Others argue that we are genetically predisposed to obesity. Yet others believe that in our sedentary society, obesity is due to the abundance, variety, availability, and palatability of the food we can eat. That is, we overeat. I say it's double trouble; even when genetic factors are taken into account, we eat too much, and we eat the wrong things. In addition, we don't get enough exercise, especially strength-building exercise.
The best way to lose weight and to get younger by doing so is to eat less food and get more exercise. Approximately three hundred thousand people die a year because of weight-related illnesses. Indeed, our society's tendency to correlate thinness with beauty has done incredible harm. Instead of learning healthy eating practices, we crash diet to lose pounds and, in the process, do incredible damage to our bodies. Or else we give up, thinking that because we will never be supermodel thin, we may as well not bother losing weight at all.
How to Spot a Fad Diet
Every year there are new diet plans and lots of hype accompanying them. One year it is the grapefruit diet, the next year the cabbage soup diet. Some of these plans contain reasonable and healthful information. Others encourage bad diet habits or contain information that is just plain wrong—information that can either do nothing for you or, in some cases, cause real harm. The Food and Nutrition Science Alliance gives good advice on how to spot a bad diet fad:
1. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
2 .Don't believe in the quick fix. When it comes to food, there are no overnight miracles.
3. Dire warnings—or raves-—-about one ingredient or regimen are not the answer. The all-tofu diet isn't going to keep your weight down.
4. Don't be tricked by simplistic conclusions drawn from complex studies. View what you read with a critical eye. Look for informed commentary in the health-minded press.
5. Recommendations based on single studies should not be believed. Wait for confirmation.
6. Dramatic claims that are disputed by other experts in the field are a clear warning sign. Try to evaluate who is correct.
In most of the discussions about weight, what is forgotten is the relationship between weight maintenance and good health. The point is not to be the skinniest person around, but to be the right weight for your height and build. So far, there are no good and lasting quick fixes. If you are just a bit overweight, you can probably increase your exercise levels or reduce your caloric intake and lose the weight.
Recent studies, such as one just completed at the University of Chicago, have found that the best way to lose weight is to increase exercise. In the University of Chicago's research on overweight women, not only did exercise burn calories, it also boosted the overall metabolic rate. When you exercise regularly, the body burns more calories per minute even when you are not exercising. Strength exercises are especially important because they build muscle, which burns more calories per minute than other kinds of body tissue (see Chapter 9).
New evidence shows that weight gain between the ages of eighteen (for women) or twenty-one (for men) and forty is particularly dangerous. Weight gain during these years can make your RealAge six months to one year older for every 10 percent gain in the BMI. Furthermore every 10 percent increase in relative weight is associated with a 6.5 mm rise in systolic blood pressure, and high blood pressure is one of the major factors affecting ageing.
Why are some people more prone to being overweight than others? Two factors that contribute are genetics and behaviors.
Certainly, one key factor is heredity. Some of us are born thin, and some of us aren't. Our genes determine all kinds of influences on height, body weight, and metabolic rate, and these influences vary widely from person to person. The study of genetic factors affecting weight gain is a burgeoning field, and scientists have already discovered some genes and gene products that are tied to weight gain. For example, in 1994 and 1995, one of the first hormones tied to fat regulation—leptin—was characterized in the now-famous studies of 'fat mice': Mice with genetically caused obesity were given injections of leptin and lost weight! Despite the initial belief that a magical new weight-loss drug had been found, the discovery of leptin proved how complicated the genetics of food metabolism and weight gain are. Subsequent investigations showed that leptin is just one hormone of many involved in a complicated metabolic pathway. Some people with genetically caused weight problems have leptin-related disorders, but-others don't. Weight regulation is a complex genetic trait: Many different genes and proteins interact to determine body size. We are still years from understanding the interactions. Fortunately, heredity isn't everything.
What should you do to shed extra pounds? First, review this chapter, which contains tips on eating an Age Reduction diet. Then read the next chapter, in which you will learn how to develop an Age Reduction physical activity plan.
Second, don't torture yourself. The dieter's mentality of sacrifice and denial leads to failure. Don't punish yourself for occasional slipups. Instead, try to establish good eating behaviors that will last a lifetime. It makes no sense to go oh a diet for six weeks. Instead, you need to establish routines that will help you keep the weight off for the long term. Don't do anything dramatic or extreme. Use common sense and talk to your doctor. Remember, your food choices are for life: You can keep young by choosing to eat well.
Third, don't go it alone. It's too easy to lose your willpower. Find someone who has a common goal and try to lose weight together. Encourage your spouse or partner, friends, and colleagues to support you or join you. Although a diet sounds like the least entertaining thing imaginable, there are ways of making weight loss fun. For eleven years, I had a running bet with a group of friends. We agreed to lose two to three pounds a month—an achievable goal. Once a month we met for a weigh-in. Anyone who weighed in higher than his or her goal had to pay each of the others a hundred dollars for every pound he or she was over the target weight. Having the penalty be that high gave all of us an extra incentive to meet our goal. In eleven years and 132 weigh-ins, only one of us ever missed our target weight.
Fourth, if you're on a diet, reward yourself. When you lose the pounds you want, treat yourself to a new outfit, a night on the town, exercise clothes, a massage, or whatever makes you feel good—anything except an ice cream sundae! If you know a dieter, help celebrate when his or her weight-loss goal is reached.
Finally, you may want to have professional support. Joining a responsible weight-loss clinic or participating in a program such as Weight Watchers can help you lose extra pounds. These diet clinics and programs can teach you simple tricks for eating healthier, choosing foods that are good for you, and consuming fewer calories. They provide handy tips like what to order in a restaurant when no low-fat options are obvious and how to avoid empty-calorie foods. Also, the social environment really appears to pay off. It encourages a 'we're-all-in-this-together' kind of attitude as you leam how to motivate each other and make healthy food choices together. These groups help you celebrate those pounds-off victories.
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TO BE CONTINUED
REAL AGE continued
Fit for Youth
AGE REDUCTION EXERCISE MADE EASY
So you think you don't have time to exercise? You don't have time not to. Time spent exercising actually gives you more time. It not only increases longevity, making your RealAge years younger, but it also gives you more energy so that (like other Age Reduction choices) you actually feel years younger, too. By adopting a three-pronged approach for boosting your physical activity, you can reduce your RealAge by 8.1 years. A moderate and balanced exercise routine is an integral piece of your overall Age Reduction Plan, and it's easier than you think to integrate into your everyday life.
• Boost physical activity. You don't have to run marathons to benefit from exercise. Just taking a twenty-minute walk every day can reduce your risk of a heart attack or stroke by 15-30 percent in just twenty weeks. And it makes your RealAge one year younger. Make physical activity-—-walking to work, taking an evening stroll, or pedaling the exercise bike while watching the evening news-—part of your daily life, slowly building up to a goal of expending 3,500 kcal (kilocalories) a week. It will make your RealAge 3.2 years younger.
Difficulty rating: Moderately difficult
• Build stamina. Through vigorous exercise-—-whether it's aerobics classes, swimming, jogging, tennis, or anything else that makes you break into a sweat and causes your heart to beat faster—you can reduce your RealAge. Exercise strengthens your heart, arteries, and lungs and delays-—and may even reverse—arterial and immune system ageing. Exercises that cause you to sweat have a double benefit: They not only count toward the sixty minutes of stamina exercise required per week for optimum Age Reduction, but also burn extra calories toward your 3,500-kcal-per-week goal. Stamina exercises can make your RealAge as much as 6.4 years younger.
Difficulty rating: Moderately difficult
Build strength and flexibility. Keeping your body strong and flexible helps fend off the wear and tear that make us older. Doing strength and flexibility exercises three times a week keeps your muscles supple and strong. Stretching, weight lifting, and yoga all promote a younger body. You don't need to invest that much time to benefit: Lifting weights for ten minutes just three times a week makes you 1.7 years younger.
Difficulty rating: Moderately difficult
When it comes to fitness, remember the number three. There are three basic types of physical activity that make you younger-—general physical activity, starmina-building activities, and strength and flexibility exercises-—-and each affects your ageing process differently. To get the maximum Age Reduction effect from your fitness plan, you need all three.
First, there is just general physical activity-—walking, gardening, bringing in the groceries—anything that uses your muscles, no matter what it is. Just boosting your overall activity level—not even breaking a sweat—can earn you 40 percent of the Age Reducing effect normally attributed to exercise. Raising your overall caloric expenditure to 3,500 kcal a week makes your RealAge 3.2 years younger. A kcal is the same amount of energy as a calorie, except that, for some reason, the custom is to use the term calories when we're talking about food and kcal for the same amount of energy when we're talking about exercise. Therefore, a donut is said to contain about 400 calories, and swimming is said to bum 400 to 600 kcal an hour.
Second, there are activities that raise your heart rate—the so-called stamina activities. This is what most of us think of when we think 'exercise'—jogging, biking, swimming, aerobics, a 'workout.' This kind of exercise contributes another 40 percent to the Age Reduction that can be tied to physical fitness.
Third, there are strength and flexibility exercises. Building and strengthening muscles and keeping them in top form through weight lifting, stretching exercises, or other activities contribute just 20 percent to the overall Age Reduction effect of exercise. But don't be fooled; it's a critical 20 percent. These activities provide a kind of insurance policy for the body, helping you to avoid injury and skeletal weakening and allowing you to continue your overall exercise routine without the disruptions caused by pulled muscles or broken bones. Strengthening exercises are especially important for women. To protect bone mass and density, women need to lift weights even more than men. Lifting weights for just thirty minutes a week makes your RealAge 1.7 years younger.
The best fitness plan is one that builds on all three components. One without the other two will provide some, but not the maximum, Age Reduction effect.
Exercise and Longevity: The Basic Facts
How many times have you told yourself, 'I will start exercising'? How many times have you finished that sentence with 'tomorrow'? Although more than 90 percent of Americans agree that exercise is an important part of healthy living, only 15 percent get as much exercise as they should. More than 76 percent fail to do even one vigorous activity a week. Over two hundred fifty thousand deaths a year, 12 percent of the national total, are attributable to the lack of regular physical activity. Despite the sports fashion boom of the 1980s, Americans seem to be exercising less and less. As a nation, our fitness level is declining. Fewer people are fit in the 1990s than they were in the 1980s, and fewer people in the 1980s were fit than in the 1970s. Although Americans spent more than $40 billion on fitness equipment in 1995, much of that equipment is gathering dust in the basement.
Even modest physical activity can make your RealAge younger—substantially younger. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that one of the key reasons Americans don't exercise is the common misconception that a person needs to do taxing and rigorous workouts to reap benefits. That's simply not true. Almost all of us would benefit greatly by just boosting our overall physical activity. In fact, a recent policy statement from the Centers for Disease Control and the American College of Sports Medicine suggested that getting just half an hour a day of moderately intense activity, such as walking, gardening, or housecleaning—-that is, burning just 200 kcal a day (or 1,400 kcal a week) beyond the 'resting metabolic rate'—can provide many of the health benefits attributed to exercise. Even getting just 750 kcal a week of physical activity—that means about two ten-minute walks a day—-makes your RealAge 0.9 to 1.7 years younger than if you did nothing. If you get an hour's worth of physical activity a day—and that includes such things as walking up the stairs or taking a couple often-minute strolls—you can reduce your RealAge two to five years. That doesn't mean hard-sweat exercise, just anything that uses your muscles. In fact, I often don't even use the term exercise, preferring the term physical activity. Physical activity—just boosting your overall activity level—is a key component of Age Reduction.
Who should exercise? Everyone. Who can exercise? Everyone who is not seriously incapacitated. Just two decades ago, many doctors and scientists believed that heredity determined your ability to do exercise and to benefit from it. More recent studies have indicated that choices and habits—-that is, your own desire and resolve to stay in shape—determine, by more than 70 percent, your ability to achieve and maintain physical fitness. The first step is changing your frame of mind.
Even if you have a health problem—especially if you have a health problem—you should integrate exercise into your life. Exercise makes the RealAge of those who are at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses disproportionately younger. You get the biggest benefit if you begin exercising before you have a major health problem or, as I like to think of it, an ageing event.
People who start exercising or doing even moderate physical activity in midlife have a decreased rate of ageing. In fact, you are never too old to begin. Fitness researchers have even found that encourageing the frailest nursing home residents—people already in their nineties and even as old as one hundred—-to lift weights actually makes an astounding difference in the quality of their lives, enabling some to move out of their wheelchairs and back on their feet. In fact, I've been told that the nursing home where these studies were done had to close a wing after the studies were finished because so many of their residents got well enough to go back home. No matter what your age or physical condition, exercise almost always makes you younger. What is most important about fitness is that you continue to exercise. Studies have found that within five years of giving up their sports and exercise, college athletes were no more fit—and no younger-—-than those who had never exercised. Exercise keeps you young only as long as you keep doing it.
Exercise and Disease: Lowering Risk, Getting Younger
Exercise is a whole-body phenomenon. It doesn't just make your muscles stronger, it slows down the ageing of your entire body. Exercise affects everything: your cardiovascular system, your immune system, your musculoskeletal system, and your emotional well-being. It affects you all the way down to your cells. Let's consider the scientific research on exercise as it pertains to various health conditions.
Coronary and arterial ageing. People who exercise regularly have significantly less cardiovascular ageing and are at a far lower risk of heart attacks and strokes, regardless of their genetic background. Exercise lowers blood pressure, raises the levels of protective HDL cholesterol, stimulates weight loss, and helps prevent blood clots. The Harvard Alumni Study found that the incidence of heart attack was inversely proportional to the amount of exercise performed: Men who exercised less than 2,000 kcal a week had a 64 percent higher risk of heart attack than those who exercised more than that. Studies have also shown that a three-month period of intensive activity, like that experienced by military recruits, can result in an increase in HDL ('healthy') cholesterol of as much as 33 percent and a decrease in LDL ('lousy') cholesterol of 9 percent. Even moderate amounts of physical activity are shown to lower total cholesterol rates and to lower LDL/HDL ratios, although the results are not as dramatic. Exercise is a-way to control cholesterol without medication and to make your RealAge younger.
Immune system ageing. Physical activity affects you even at the cellular level. It reduces the rate at which your cells age, meaning that you are less likely to develop cancers and that microscopic cancers that do exist are less likely to spread. Exercise also improves the overall functioning of the immune system, increasing the production of 'watchdog' cells that seek and destroy invading disease cells and cancer cells. Those who are physically fit have fewer colds and other illnesses.
Colon cancer. The rate of colon cancer is significantly higher in highly industrialized, affluent societies. Why? Researchers blame our fatty diets and sedentary lifestyles. Several studies have shown that individuals who are physically active have much lower rates of colon cancers; a study in Sweden found that those with low levels of activity were three times more likely to get colon cancer.
Breast cancer. Preliminary studies show that women who exercise regularly have an incidence of breast cancer that is almost one-third lower than that of women who do not exercise regularly. One Norwegian study found that among women who exercised, the risk was reduced by 37 percent. Unfortunately, many questions still exist about the relationship between breast cancer and exercise. Some scientists hypothesize that women who exercise more have lower fat stores and, hence, less long-term exposure to impurities stored in fat cells. Others hypothesize that endurance training helps increase the number of immune system cells that are known to kill off potential cancer cells.
Prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is linked to elevated testosterone levels, and regular vigorous exercise reduces such levels. Men who exercise consistently have much lower rates of prostate cancer. The Harvard Alumni Study found a significantly reduced risk of prostate cancer among men who exercised more than 4,000 kcal a week and an increased risk for men who expended less than 1,000 kcal a week. The risk was nearly 50 percent lower for men over age seventy and more than 80 percent lower for men under age seventy. Although other studies have confirmed the link, there is still debate over the exact relationship between exercise and prostate cancer.
Arthritis. Practically everyone over age sixty-five begins to show some sort of arthritic symptoms. A study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that people who had osteoarthritis can and should exercise. Moderate to vigorous exercise, in conjunction with strengthening exercise, eliminated many of their symptoms and made their joints younger.
Weight management. By burning calories and increasing your metabolic rate, exercise helps you lose weight and replace fat with muscle. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even when you're not exercising. Strengthening exercises are particularly important because they build muscle.
Diabetes. Exercise helps increase the body's sensitivity to insulin. This increased sensitivity to insulin, in turn, lowers blood sugar levels and decreases insulin production. Active people, even if they have a genetic predisposition to the disease, are much less likely to develop adult-onset (Type H) diabetes. Furthermore, if symptoms do occur, exercise helps diminish their ageing effect.
Osteoporosis and loss of bone density. Any resistance activity—walking up a hill or lifting groceries—-strengthens muscles and, just as important, increases bone density, making bones stronger and less likely to fracture. Indeed, resistance activity actually increases the calcium content of bones. Although strengthening-—or weight-bearing—exercises are the best for improving bone strength, new evidence shows that exercises such as riding a stationary bicycle and water aerobics may also increase bone density. Take note, however: Some new studies warn that people who exercise vigorously need to get proper amounts of calcium—1,000 to 1,200 mg a day-—to ensure that enough calcium is available for the bones to build density. During intense training, large amounts of calcium are lost through perspiration.
Falls and broken bones. Each year, approximately 30 percent of people over age sixty-five fall down, and 15 percent of those who fall suffer serious injuries. More than 6 percent of all medical care dollars spent on people over age sixty-five involve fall-related injuries. Hip fractures and other bone breaks age a person significantly. It's not just the bone breaks that age, but the long periods of immobility that often follow. Studies of the elderly population have found that those who exercised, particularly those who did balance-building exercises, such as tai chi chuan, were much less likely to fall or to sustain fall-related injuries.
Sleep-related disorders. Studies done at both Stanford and Emory Universities found that adults who exercised fell asleep more quickly and slept better than their sedentary counterparts.
Depression and anxiety. Exercise has significant emotional benefits: It helps ease depression, anxiety, and other psychological disorders. Depression is a widespread, though often undiagnosed, problem among older people. Doctors have known for years that exercise, particularly when done in a social environment, helps relieve clinical depression. Exercise also reduces anxiety disorders and improves mental health in other ways. Even for those who have not been diagnosed as having a psychological illness, exercise is a known mood lifter, helping them feel happier and more upbeat.
Stress management. Regular exercise decreases the stress response, meaning that you are more relaxed, feel better, and are better prepared to cope with life's stressful events. We all have stresses, but by staying fit, we are better equipped to avoid their ageing effects.
Long-term memory. Exercise helps improve long-term memory and brain function. It helps prevent the arterial ageing that contributes to the early onset of Alzheimer's disease.
Tobacco use. Increasing exercise levels helps people quit smoking. Regular exercise diminishes nicotine cravings.
As this list shows, exercise clearly helps us stay young. But how are we to motivate ourselves to take on a real exercise regimen?
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TO BE CONTINUED
The Exercise Basics
Cynthia W. was forty-three when she became my patient. At 5 feet 5 inches, she was eighty pounds heavier than she had been at age eighteen. Her body mass index was 38, well over the cutoff point for being considered overweight. The managing editor of a business magazine, she had a high-stress job. She spent every day sleuthing stories, answering phone calls, and making sure that the news got out on time. When deadlines neared, she worked around the clock, living on take-out food. By the time she became my patient, she had had a heart scare that brought her in for an electrocardiogram. She realized it was time to start taking care of herself.
When I tried gently to bring up the matter of her weight, she said, 'Dr. Roizen, don't beat around the bush. I know I need to lose weight. And,' she smiled, 'you're the one who's going to help me do it' After fighting with issues of body image and beauty for a long time, her recent heart scare made Cynthia realize that weight loss wasn't about looking good—it was about being healthy.
She told me, 'All of sudden, I woke up one day, and I was five times the size I always thought I was. I just never made the time to take care of myself. But I don't want to haul all this weight around anymore. Tell me what I can do?
'Eat less and,' I paused, 'exercise.'
'Damn. I thought you'd say that'
'Sorry, but what else can I say? Let's develop a plan you can stick to.'
Cynthia started her first 'workout' that day. She walked from her house to the end of the block and back. That was it: short, sweet and slow. The next day, she did it again. By the end of the next week, she was walking all the way around the block. Within three weeks, she was walking eight city blocks—the equivalent of a mile—each day. Then she began timing herself, increasing her pace a little bit each time. Within three months, she was walking half an hour each day. On weekends she would walk for a full hour. "Mike," she said to me one day, "I never thought I'd say this, but I actually find myself craving my daily walk. Me, the living paperweight actually wanting to exercise! I'll be at the office, the phones will be ringing off the hook, and all I can think is, Gee, I really want to take a walk.''
She had discovered that exercise doesn't have to be painful or exhausting. It can be something to look forward to, a reward. Soon Cynthia set a goal to walk in a five-kilometer walk-run race, just over three miles. And she did it, even jogging part of the way.
Within two years, she has lost more than forty-five pounds. Her blood pressure has dropped, and she feels a whole lot better. "I have more energy, and I actually like the way my body looks and feels," she laughed. Cynthia still hasn't reached her goal of getting back to the weight she was at eighteen, but she's getting closer every day.
Cynthia's doing it the easy way, remembering that health should play an important part of every day. She's working up gradually, aiming to meet her own goal of eight years younger. Cynthia started with the goal of just boosting her overall level of physical activity, aiming to get half an hour a day of moderate activity. Then she moved on to building up stamina, strengthening her heart, lungs, and arteries and to increasing her overall endurance. She has gone from getting less than 500 kcal of activity a week to reaching the ideal goal of 3,500 kcal a week. She still isn't doing lots of vigorous exercise, but she did buy an exercise bike and, on it, she reaches her goal of 65 percent of her maximum heart rate for twenty minutes or so at least three times a week. She is aiming to bring it up to 80 percent of the maximum. She still needs to do some strengthening and flexibility exercises, especially as she builds more stamina, to prevent injuries.
If you want to start exercising, how should you start?
Like Cynthia, you should start slowly. A behavior change that can last a lifetime takes effort. Don't try to fit a year's worth of workouts into the first week. You'll just get discouraged.
The most common reason for not exercising is "I don't have the time." Yet, exercising doesn't use up time; it makes more of it if you invest a little time each day, you will become younger in the here and now. In just ninety days, the effects will be measurable. You will feel better and more energetic, and your body will be healthier and more efficient. When people say they don't have time to exercise, I remember a clearly out-of-shape comedian who said, "All the time I gain from exercising, I spend exercising." Funny but, thankfully, not true. Just twenty minutes a day of physical activity will make your body younger and more efficient for all the other minutes of the day. In fact, most of my patients who have adopted the three-pronged RealAge physical activity plan tell me that they save more than an hour a day when they exercise. They are more energetic and more efficient in all the other things they do. No wonder. They are 8.1 years younger.
Physical Activity: The Antiager
The first goal of any fitness plan is to figure out how to boost your overall level of activity. Most of us lead sedentary lives. We sit at desks all day at work, watch TV when we get home, and drive too much. Future archeologists will label us "The-Sit-Around-and-Get-Round-Society." The decision to get in shape is a big decision, but it's the small steps that really matter. Like deciding to walk to the neighborhood grocery instead of driving. Pedaling an exercise bike while watching the football game. Lifting weights instead of chips during the commercials. Actually walking the dog, instead of just tossing or shoving him out into the backyard. Every movement you make improves your physical fitness level. Housework, gardening, and mowing the lawn—not to mention fun things, like dancing and sex—are all activities that burn extra calories. The point is to get your muscles moving. The more active you are, the younger you are.
At rest, your body burns 1,400 to 1,900 kcal a day. This is your 'resting metabolic rate.' This is the energy your body spends just keeping you alive— the energy it uses to keep your heart beating, to keep your blood flowing, to digest your food, and to breathe. Your resting metabolic rate is approximately 1 kcal per kilogram of body weight per hour. (To get your weight in kilograms, divide your weight in pounds by 2.2.) If you weigh 132 pounds, or 60 kilograms, you will burn 60. kcal an hour. Then multiply this hourly number by 24 hours to get your expenditure per day. A person weighing 60 kilograms would burn 1,440 kcal a day even doing nothing. Likewise, a person weighing 90 kilograms, just about 200 pounds, would burn 90 kcal an hour and 2,160 kcal a day. Ideally, you should expend 3,500 kcal of energy a week in exercise above and beyond your resting metabolic rate. Getting that much physical activity gives you the maximum health benefit with none of the drawbacks of overexercising. Just as examples, brisk walking bums 300 kcal an hour, and jogging bums 400 to 500 kcal an hour.
Think about your daily routine
How and where can you integrate more activity into your routine? At work, take the stairs instead of the elevator (each flight burns 5 kcal). Take a walk at lunchtime, or ride your bike to work instead of driving. In the middle of the afternoon, take a ten-minute break and, instead of having another coffee, walk around the block. It will give you an energy burst without the caffeine. You can even plan a meeting around a walk. I call it the 'walk-and-talk.' Walking a city block bums up 9 kcal. Walk short distances instead of driving. Instead of spending ten minutes looking for the perfect parking spot, park a bit farther and use those ten minutes to walk to your destination. Buy a stationary bicycle, treadmill, or rowing machine and put it in front of your TV. That way, you can catch the evening news, expand your mind, and burn 300 to 600 kcal in an hour.
Getting just thirty minutes of physical activity a day, done in eight-to-ten-minute bursts, not only leads to measurable changes in physical fitness levels but has positive emotional effects. It makes you feel younger and more vigorous. Exercise provides a 'dose-response' relationship. The more exercise you get, the better you feel. The benefit of exercise reaches its maximum at about 3,500 kcal a week. Above that, the benefit is more or less the same until you reach 6,400 kcal a week, at which point you may be overexercising and causing ageing.
Some good news: Every little bit of physical activity matters. Studies have found that people who begin exercise programs doing several small segments in a day are more likely to stay with the program than those who try to do an extensive workout all at once. If you are now relatively sedentary, burning just 750 kcal a week beyond your daily average can make you one year younger.
Although everyone needs exercise, exercise is even more important for those already at elevated risk of cardiovascular disease and other kinds of chronic disease. A famous study done by fitness researcher Steven Blair at the Cooper Center in Dallas showed that people who were physically fit, and even those who achieved physical fitness later in life, had significantly lower death rates no matter what the cause of death and regardless of any other risk factors, such as a family history of cardiovascular disease or previous heart attacks. The Harvard Alumni Study found that people who smoked, had high blood pressure, and didn't exercise had more than seven times the chance of having a heart attack. Having two of these three factors meant that a person's risk was only twice as high as the norm. If you are a smoker, have high blood pressure, or any other major risk factor that ages your arteries, exercise is especially important to retard or reverse ageing.
Family support is an important part of being able to maintain an exercise routine. Talk to your spouse or partner about the need to get in shape and about how important it is for both of you. Each of you should set exercise goals. "When one of you reaches a goal, have the other one cook a special saturated-fat-free celebratory meal or give some other reward. It may be corny, but encouraging someone to stay in shape is the best way to say 'I love you.' It means you want to have that person around for a long time. Use exercise as a way to find time in your busy schedules to get together. You can fill each other in about the day's events just as easily when you're on exercise bikes at the gym as you can in front of the TV at home.
Another problem many of us face when beginning an exercise plan is that we're literally fair-weather friends. Many people begin an exercise regimen in the spring, work out in the summer, reach their fitness peak in the fall, and then give up altogether as winter approaches,. Then they start from scratch all over again the next spring. Instead, plan for the cold weather. Join a gym or a club with an indoor pool. Even shopping malls provide indoor walking routes. More than 3 million Americans over calendar age sixty-five now mall-walk.
Starting to Exercise
Here's how I recommend that my patients start Age Reduction exercising:
Start slowly. Don't overdo it. Just go for five or ten minutes at the beginning. Even a walk around the block is a place to begin.
Do a bit more each week. Try to build your workout by a couple of minutes each week. Aim to increase your workout by 10 percent a week.
Warm up first, then stretch, and stretch again afterward. Save your muscles from pulls and tears and notice how good your body feels when your muscles are warm and stretched.
Visualize. Imagine yourself doing your sport. Make a picture in your mind of hitting the perfect shot or running in perfect form. Imagine how your body would move.
Treat yourself right. If it hurts, slow down. If it feels good, do more than you planned.
Cross-train. Try to plan your workout schedule around a number of different activities, such as walking, biking, and, swimming. Rotate your activities on different days.
Reward yourself. Set goals and when you achieve them, treat yourself. Buy a new pair of shoes or get a massage. Celebrate your Age Reduction!
Drink water. Don't let yourself get dehydrated.
Find an accomplice. Exercise with a friend. You'll encourage each other and push yourselves to meet your goals. Get the whole family involved.
Take a lesson. Even if you don't normally work out with a trainer or a pro, treat yourself to an hour with an expert who can show you how to maximize your workout and avoid needless injuries. It's a great way to get started.
Vary your workout pace. Do more on some days and less on others.
Consider whether you need a pre-exercise medical exam. Most adults do not need to talk to a doctor before beginning an exercise plan of moderate intensity. If you have a chronic disease or some other kind of health problem, you should talk to your doctor. Also, if you are a man over forty or a woman over fifty and are planning to start an intensive fitness program, you might also want to ask your physician to help you design a workout routine. If you don't have a regular doctor, ask your clinic or health maintenance organization (HMO) if anyone on its staff specializes in fitness.
If you really like being outdoors but get stopped cold by winter, learn how to dress for the weather. Wearing the proper gear can mean the difference between suffering through your workout and enjoying it. You can keep running right through the winter if you wear a hat and gloves. The advances in exercise wear in the past ten years have produced new fabrics, such as fleece and Lycra, that make exercise clothing both warm and lightweight. To make the most of the cold weather, learn a winter sport. There are few sports that provide the complete body workout of cross-country skiing. Ice skating, downhill skiing, and snowshoeing are all sports that can turn those gray winter months into something you actually look forward to.
Some people find that they miss their exercise routine when they travel or go on vacation. Plan for exercise. For example, I do a lot of traveling for work, and I always try to stay at hotels that offer fitness facilities. I find it's a great way to unwind after a long day of meetings or to start the morning off right. If I can't find a hotel with a gym, I pack a jump rope (some of my friends pack exercise bands). Twenty minutes of jumping rope—done in the right shoes and on a low-impact surface—is a great workout that you can do anywhere with a little bit of room. The ceilings in most hotel rooms are high enough. I often wonder what the person in the room below me thinks, but I know that I am not letting being way from home get in the way of keeping myself young.
(THE CHARLES ATLAS COURSE [STILL OBTAINABLE] HAS ALL KINDS OF EXERCISES YOU CAN DO ANYWHERE, NOTHING BUT YOURSELF NEEDED - Keith Hunt)
Boosting your physical activity levels should be a starting point. It provides the first 40 percent of the Age Reduction benefit attributable to fitness (see Table 9.2). To get the next 40 percent, you have to move to the second phase: stamina exercise.
Building Stamina: Getting Fit for the Long Run
The second element of any exercise routine should be aerobic (stamina-building) exercises. These are exercises that raise your heart rate and make you sweat. Activities like jogging, swimming, biking, and even brisk walking provide a fundamental piece of your Age Reduction exercise plan. Realistically, if you plan to get 3,500 kcal of activity a week, you will need to do something that really gets you moving.
You will want to start slowly and work your way up. Stamina building is a RealAge 'two-for-one' special: Stamina exercises give you double RealAge credit benefits for boosting your overall physical activity—burning kcalories— plus additional Age Reduction benefits for building stamina and aerobic capacity. In the Harvard Alumni Study of ten thousand subjects, those who expended 3,500 kcal a week had half the rate of ageing for the period studied as the least active people. In RealAge terms, individuals who were fit— those who reached overall activity levels of 3,500 kcal a week and included stamina-building exercises in their weekly routines—were 6.4 years younger than those who were completely unfit.
Aerobic exercise increases the body's uptake of oxygen and boosts your overall metabolic rate, meaning that the more you exercise, the more calories you burn, even when you're sitting still. Elevating your heart rate to 60-90 percent of its maximum for twenty minutes or more three times a week will give you a stronger heart, arterial system, and lungs and will help your body attain a higher resting metabolic rate. You also will reach your 3,500-kcal-a-week goal in half the time.
In contrast to your overall fitness level, the goal of stamina exercises is not the expenditure of kilocalories, but an increase in 'metabolic equivalent units,' or METs—-that is, a change in your metabolic rate, or the amount of oxygen that your muscles consume during exercise. One MET represents your metabolic rate at rest; 10 or 11 METs is the goal you should strive for when doing a vigorous workout. You will want to boost your metabolic rate to ten times its normal rate. Whereas kilocalories measure the total amount of energy burned, METs measure the intensity, or rate, at which you burn that energy. That is, the higher your metabolic rate (the higher your METs), the more kilocalories you burn in a shorter period. The goal of the second prong of your exercise plan-—-the stamina-building prong—should be to reach 10 METs for sixty minutes a week if you are a woman and 11 METs for sixty minutes a week if you are a man.
Now that you know what you're aiming for, how can you measure METs? Unfortunately, you can't, or at least not easily. METs can be measured accurately only at a sports medicine clinic or some other place equipped to monitor METs. There are three good substitute guidelines for measuring your metabolic rate: estimating the kilocalories burned per hour, estimating 'sweat time,' and determining your heart rate. Use these guidelines for measuring the intensity of your workouts. Look at 'calories-per-hour rates' to get a rough guideline for your MET level. If you walk briskly (300 kcal per hour), you will reach a metabolic rate of six to seven METs. If you do something that burns more than 600 kcal an hour, then you are somewhere close to 10 METs. You should try to exercise at this rate for at least twenty minutes three times a week. Another good way to estimate METs is by sweat time—try to sweat for twenty minutes or more three times a week. The amount of time you actually spend sweating is a relatively reliable indication you have reached 70 percent of your maximum heart rate and metabolic rate. The third way to estimate METs is by measuring your heart rate—the number of times your heart beats per minute. During bouts of vigorous exercise, your heart rate should get within 65-80 percent of the maximum.
How many beats per minute is that? First you need to calculate your maximum heart rate (the number of times your heart beats per minute when pushed to the limit). Calculate this by subtracting your calendar age from the number 220. If you are forty, your maximum heart rate should be about 180 beats per minute. If you are sixty, your ideal should be about 160 beats per minute. As I've gotten more fit, I challenge myself by subtracting my RealAge from 220. When you first start on your exercise program, the goal is to raise your heart rate to at least 65 percent of the maximum for twenty consecutive minutes at least three times a week. As you get in better shape, you should try to reach 80 percent of that number. For example, if you are forty, you should try to raise your heart rate to 117 beats a minute for twenty consecutive minutes each time you do a stamina-building exercise. As you progress, try to increase that number to 144 beats a minute. If you are sixty and just beginning to exercise, you should raise your heart rate to 104 beats a minute and subsequently aim for 128 beats a minute.
These are general guidelines that describe ideal heart rates for the average person in a particular age range. Remember, however, that there are individual variations in heart rate.
How do you measure your heart rate? When you are well into your workout, stop your exercise for a few seconds. Place the finger of one hand on your opposite wrist and search for the pulse point. It lies on the spot of your wrist just below the base of your thumb. Feel around for it. Make sure to use a finger, not your thumb, to feel for the pulse, as the thumb itself has a pulse point that can distort your reading. Then count the number of heartbeats in fifteen seconds, subtract one, and multiply by four to get your heart rate for a minute. Remember, a heartbeat has two parts to it—an 'in' and an 'out.' You should feel both. If you find it difficult to get this down, or if you want a more exact measure of your heart rate, buy a heart-rate monitor. These monitors are easily found at sporting goods stores but can be expensive. You can even get watches that have a heart-rate monitor in them.
As you start your new exercise program, begin slowly and build. Do as Cynthia did: Start with slow walks and gradually increase your workout each week by 10 percent. Soon you will start to sweat. When you begin a sport, it is more important to build stamina than intensity. Run farther but at a slower pace. Bike farther, rather than go all out for a short distance. Quantity matters most. Space your workouts during the week. Exercise every other day or switch between sports.
Forget the statement 'No pain, no gain.' Exercise shouldn't be painful. True pain is your body's way of telling you to back off. If you hurt, slow down or try a different regimen. The most common kind of pain you feel when you first start exercising is a slow, burning ache in the muscles and being out of breath. This feeling is normal because you are reaching your anaerobic threshold and are at the limit of your endurance. The pain is caused by the buildup of lactic acid in your muscles, which occurs when your muscles are not getting enough oxygen. This is not an indication of an injury but of reaching your fitness limit. The more you work out, the higher your anaerobic threshold will go, and soon you will be able to work out for longer periods and at a more vigorous rate.
If you feel sore after a workout, especially the next day, don't worry. Unless something really hurts, it will probably go away within a day or two—eventually producing lean muscle where there used to be flab. That's why you should space your workouts and rotate between activities-—-so that different muscle groups are worked on different days, getting a day off in between.
As you do more of your workout, set new goals and try to meet them. Try to increase the length and intensity of your workouts. Start small but be consistent, and you will do wonders. Stamina-building exercise can give you 6.4 years of youth.
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TO BE CONTINUED
SOUNDS SOMEWHAT COMPLICATED. WELL IF YOU ARE IN THE UN-FIT SITUATION, YES START OUT SLOW FOR SURE. IF IN THE FIT CATEGORY, THEN DIFFERENT VARIETIES WITHIN YOUR FITNESS PROGRAM IS A MAJOR KEY TO BEING ABLE TO STICK WITH YOUR OVERALL PROGRAM. HAVE A VARIETY OF THINGS YOU DO TO KEEP YOU FIT.
ONE IMPORTANT RECENTLY NEW DISCOVERY IS THAT "HARD AND FAST" TRAINING WITH RESTS IN-BETWEEN FOR 1/2 AN HOUR DOES WONDERS FOR YOUR BODY.
MY EXAMPLE IS WHEN I'M SWIMMING…..I DO A FAST AS POSSIBLE LAP SWIM, REST, RELAX, 30-60 SECONDS, THEN ANOTHER FAST AS POSSIBLE LAP, AND SO ON. THIS NOT ONLY GETS YOUR MUSCLES WORKING HARDER BUT ALSO YOUR HEART, LUNGS AND ETC.
YES PARK AT THE FAR END OF THE SUPER-MALL PARKING, WHEN GOING SHOPPING AND BRISKLY WALK TO THE SUPER-MALL OR GROCERY STORE.
IF YOU GET THE CHARLES ATLAS HEALTH AND STRENGTH COURSE, YOU'LL BE GIVEN ALL KINDS OF STRENGTH AND STRETCHING EXERCISES, THAT DO WONDERS FOR YOUR BODY, NO GADGETS REQUIRE.
I ALSO HAVE DUMB-BELL WEIGHTS, ONES THAT ADJUST REAL EASY FROM 5 POUNDS TO 50 POUNDS.
I HAVE A BIKE. AND I AM A HORSEMAN WITH MY OWN HORSE.
I SWIM AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK.
SO THERE IS MY VARIETY OF EXERCISING ROUTINES IN ANY GIVEN WEEK.
AND I WORK PART TIME AS CARETAKER FOR A COMMUNITY CENTER…..MANY THINGS REQUIRE EXTENDING ENERGY AND MUSCLES.
I DO ALL OF THIS AT A BIRTH CERTIFICATE AGE OF 71 - 72 SEPTEMBER 11TH 2014. PEOPLE THINK AND GUESS MY AGE AT ABOUT 50.
Keith Hunt [June 2014]
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REAL AGE - exercise
continued
Hitting the Maximum: Can You Overdo It?
How much exercise is enough? How much is too much? The odds are that you are not getting too much exercise. Since fewer than 15 percent of Americans exceed the 3,500-kcal mark that is the RealAge goal, most of us need not worry that we are overdoing it. As rare as it is, however, there is the possibility of too much of a good thing, and you can get older from exercising too much. For example, one of my patients, Mary, took up jogging in her early thirties. "Within a few years, she was running road races and had even run several marathons. Her times were good. She often finished in the top twenty, and she began to take her training more seriously. Her goal was no longer to run a marathon but to win one. Soon she was running three ten-mile runs a week and a fifteen-mile run on Sundays. She was in fabulous aerobic shape. Yet the longer her runs, the more pressed she got for time. To run in the morning and still get to work on time, she began to shorten her warm-up time. She quit stretching and limbering up. And she did no strengthening exercises. (Running on a straight course—no hills—is an aerobic exercise but not a strength-building one.) Then the inevitable happened: She tore a ligament in her leg. She was on crutches for months and was never able to run seriously again. In the end, she gave up exercising altogether. Whereas at forty-five her RealAge had been close to thirty, one year later her RealAge was over forty. Needlessly.
Exercise fiends can make themselves older, particularly if they are not careful to maintain a well-balanced workout routine. Exercising too vigorously-— that is, more than four hours a week at a top rate—can produce three major problems: antioxidant buildup and subsequent ageing, destruction of muscle tissue, and injuries from overuse of tissues.
If you exercise more than 6,500 kcal a week or exert more than 800 kcal an hour for two hours in any one workout, you are overdoing it. This amount of exercise overwhelms your system and causes your metabolism to become less efficient during the workout. The body cannot dispose of free radicals fast enough, and they build up in your tissues. As I mentioned in the first chapter, the buildup of free radicals appears to be linked to accelerated ageing. That is, exercise increases cellular metabolism and, hence, oxidation. And the buildup of oxidants can cause cellular damage, particularly to the DNA. Small-scale studies have shown that oxidation damage, and the ageing it causes, is lessened in those who take vitamins C and E regularly. Although the findings are still preliminary, I recommend taking those two vitamins about an hour to two hours before you exercise, just as a precautionary measure. You should be taking C and E anyway.
A second risk of overexercising is muscle damage. Overexercising usually means that certain muscle groups are getting used too much; they don't have time to repair themselves and rebuild after the workout. Optimal Age Reduction includes resting between workouts, plus cross-training (switching between activities on different days).
The third and most obvious problem associated with exercising is injury from the overuse of muscles and joints. The wear and tear that results can cause real problems.
Avoiding Injuries: Basic Guidelines
What should, you do to avoid exercise-related injuries? If you pull a muscle, don't stop exercising altogether. By staying in shape, you are more likely to avoid future injuries. Just lay off the sore muscle for a while. Try a different exercise that doesn't stress the pulled muscle. For example, if you injure a muscle in your leg, consider swimming, relying mainly on your arms to do the work. If your ankles or knees ache, try something with no impact—like a cross-country ski machine, an elliptical exercise machine, or a stationary bicycle. If your aerobics class has you hurting, consider taking a water aerobics class; you'll get the same workout with none of the impact.
If you tear a muscle or do something particularly damaging, you will know it. The pain will make it obvious. If you feel intense pain or notice swelling, remember 'RICE'—rest, ice, compression, and elevation. In other words, don't use the muscle; ice the injury for twenty minutes every eight hours for forty-eight hours; wrap (and slightly compress) the injury with an Ace or similar bandage; and keep the injury elevated to reduce swelling. If the pain doesn't begin to subside or if you suspect a more significant injury, call your doctor.
Other sports injuries are more subtle: The tendon in your elbow aches or burns, but you keep on playing tennis every day anyway. You feel the throb in one knee, and so favor the other leg—upsetting your balance and doing more long-term damage. You keep running, despite the shin splints or the dull ache of the stress fracture. For any injury that bothers you for more than a few days or so, consult your doctor. Most clinics and health maintenance organizations now have doctors who specialize in sports medicine. Such doctors, in conjunction with the organization's team of physical therapists and other injury-rehabilitation staff, can help you when you do get injured, or when you want to devise a workout plan to stay in shape and keep from getting injured in the future.
If you haven't exercised in a long time, or if you are starting a new sport, consider having a session with a personal trainer or professional instructor— just a little time with someone who can teach you how to do the proper movements. Knowing what to do and what not to do, so as to get the most out of your workouts and to avoid injury-provoking mistakes, can save you days, if not weeks, of pain and grief.
Again, I cannot say it enough: If you are planning to make exercise part of your life—-that is, if you plan to adopt an active lifestyle—there is no need to rush into it. You have time to work into it gradually. That way, you'll be less likely to have an injury and more likely to make it a manageable lifelong routine.
Here are some general guidelines to avoid getting hurt and to get the maximum Age Reducing benefits:
1. Vary your exercise pattern. Don't do the same activity every single day, and certainly not more than two days in a row. If you go jogging three days a week, consider swimming on the other two. Or rotate between the different aerobic machines at the gym: Do the StairMaster one day, the Treadmill the next, and then the Bicycle. Try to use all your muscles, working both the upper and lower body.
2. Also, it is often better to do a variety of different exercises that complement a training routine, rather than just one activity. For example, when I trained to play in competitive squash tournaments, it took me years to learn that my squash game actually improved and that I was less prone to injury if I did a number of unrelated activities that built strength, flexibility, and stamina, rather than just play squash every day.
Add strength and flexibility exercises to your aerobic workouts. Combinations like biking and weight lifting, running and yoga, or aerobics and stretching exercises are mutually reinforcing. They help ensure against a damaging injury.
3. Warm up. Start by doing something that gets your muscles moving. Walk briskly or jog at a slow pace for a few minutes. Then stretch. Once your muscles are a little warm, your stretches will be much more effective. You will also be less likely to have an injury. Don't think that you will save time by skimping on the pre-workout. Beginning a strenuous workout with tight, stiff muscles is the most likely way to damage or injure a muscle. You should do stretching and strengthening exercises for at least five minutes before you begin the vigorous portion of your stamina workout. Remember, too, to cool down by stretching your muscles at the end of each workout.
4. Use equipment designed for your sport. You don't need to go crazy buying sports equipment, but it is important to have equipment that is fitted to you and your particular activity. Wear shoes that are expressly made for your exercise program and replace them when they show signs of too much wear and tear (about every three hundred miles worth of workouts). You don't need expensive shoes (I never pay more than forty or fifty dollars for a pair), but they should provide good support for your feet and ankles. Be particularly careful about having good shoes if you do aerobics or any sport that involves lots of running, jumping, or bouncing because you will be more prone to ankle and leg injuries. Replace shoelaces frequently, as they get stretched out quickly and lose their support. If you bike, get a bike that fits you. Always wear a helmet (that keeps you younger, too!). Likewise, if you Rollerblade (in-line skate), make sure to wear a helmet, knee pads, shin guards, and wrist guards, especially if you are playing hockey or some other game on Rollerblades. Go to a specialty store and talk to the salespeople about the advantages of specific equipment and evaluate what you really need. The salespeople in small stores are often serious athletes themselves and can be extremely knowledgeable.
5. Avoid overexertion. Gradually increase your exercise time and do not increase it by more than 10 percent a week. Even if you are training to meet a goal like running in a marathon or playing in a tennis tournament, do not overdo it. More than 40 percent of marathoners who run over thirty miles a week develop injuries within the training year, the quickest way to put the dream of the race to rest.
(RUNNING MARATHONS IS NOT NATURAL; SUCH A DISTANCE OF RUNNING IS UN-NATURAL. IT WAS INVENTED BECAUSE A GREEK RUNER WAS SENT 26 MILES TO BRING MORE FIGHTING MEN TO THE BATTLE THEY WERE LOOSING AGAINST THEIR ENEMY. THE SPORT WAS UNKNOWN TILL THEN.
IF YOU ARE JUST GETTING STARTED INTO A REGULAR EXERCISE LIFE, I RECOMMEND THE CHARLES ATLAS "HEALTH AND STRENGTH COURSE" [STILL OBTAINABLE FOR ABOUT $50]. THE VERY BEST WAY TO GET YOUR BODY IN SHAPE, THEN GO FROM THERE - Keith Hunt)
Strength and Flexibility: Stretch It to Your Limits
Strength and flexibility exercises are the important third prong of your Age Reduction exercise plan.
(AND THAT IS WHAT THE CHARLES ATLAS COURSE IS ALL ABOUT - Keith Hunt)
We tend to think of stamina-building (aerobic) exercises as the most important kind of exercises, but such exercises do not build muscle or bone. Although the data on ageing indicate that strength and flexibility exercises produce only 20 percent of the RealAge benefit attributable to exercise (1.7 years younger), these exercises help your body protect itself from such injuries as muscle tears or bone fractures. They also help retard ageing of the bones and muscles, improve balance control, and help prevent fat gain and damage to joints, muscles, and tendons. These exercises keep your bones young and in this way prevent osteoporosis (the loss of bone density) and fractures. Strength and flexibility exercises increase the efficiency of oxygen use by your muscles, reduce arterial ageing, and improve immune function, thus decreasing the risk of the early onset of chronic diseases, such as arthritis.
Although there have been fewer studies of the benefits of strength and flexibility exercises—in contrast to the extensive amount of research on aerobic exercise—-the studies that have been done confirm that those who are strong and flexible are better able to perform everyday activities, are less likely to develop back pain, and are better able to retain mobility through old age. In 1995, a review in the Journal of the American Medical Association analyzed eight studies on the benefits of strength and flexibility exercises. Such exercises were important in preventing falls and increasing bone density. Some studies showed a RealAge benefit of 2.7 to 4 years with just ten weeks of strength and flexibility training. In general, keeping yourself strong and flexible can make your RealAge as much as 1.7 years younger.
(I WOULD SAY EVEN YOUNGER. MY BODY STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY IS 20 YEARS YOUNGER THAN MY NEARLY 72 BIRTH AGE, IN 2014. I'VE BEEN DOING MANY OF THE CHARLES ATLAS STRENGTH AND FLEXIBLE EXERCISES ALL MY LIFE FROM GETTING HIS COURSE AT AGE 13 - Keith Hunt)
Ageing makes us more prone to stiffness and orthopedic injuries; muscles become stiffer, and tendons and joints are not as strong or elastic. Studies show that when people do strengthening exercises and become stronger, they are more likely to begin doing other exercises as well. We all lose muscle from our twenties on—that's one reason why we gain weight as we age. On average, a pound of muscle uses 150 kcal of energy per day, whereas a pound of fat uses 3 kcal of energy per day. Even marathoners lose muscle if they don't do strengthening exercises. If you do strengthening exercises regularly, you will counteract this attrition, and your body will burn more calories all day long, even when you're at rest. Stamina exercises, in contrast, don't build muscles. Doing just twelve weeks of strength and flexibility training six times a week for fifteen minutes at a time will increase the number of calories you burn by 15 percent.
You should always do flexibility exercises (stretches) before and after any vigorous workout—after warming up first, of course. You can do strengthening exercises either before or after your stamina workout or on the days in between.
There are many kinds of flexibility exercises. You can learn how to do stretching exercises at home. Many gyms offer stretch classes. And, of course, there is yoga. Although yoga is not any better than other stretching techniques, most yoga routines provide a comprehensive, full-body stretch of all the muscle groups in one workout.
(IT REALLY SURPRISES ME THAT THIS DOCTOR AND OTHERS KNOW LITTLE OR NOTHING ABOUT GOOD OL' CHARLES ATLAS AND HIS COURSE. A COURSE FOR STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY THAT REQUIRES NO GADGETS OR A TRAINER AT A GYM…. AND ONLY $50 - Keith Hunt)
Strength training involves working our muscles in opposition to a force of resistance, such as weights. One four-year study showed that lifting weights regularly led to increased bone density—up to one-third more than any other activity. Another study found that postmenopausal women who began weight training preserved bone density, gained muscle mass, and significantly improved their sense of balance. Within three months of starting a weight-lifting program, muscle strength can increase by as much as 20 percent, making you 0.9 years younger. "Weight training can also help improve performance in other sports. For example, one study found that runners who began doing leg lifts regularly increased their speed by as much, as 40 percent.
(THE CHARLES ATLAS COURSE DOES ALL OF THAT WITHOUT WEIGHTS, ANYWHERE AT ANY TIME - Keith Hunt)
If you have never lifted weights or done any strengthening exercises, get instruction first. It is easy to get hurt from lifting weights incorrectly, and just a little guidance can ensure that you will get the most out of your weight-lifting time and avoid injury. One way of combining weight training and stamina training is to begin circuit training, in which you lift weights in rapid succession, walking briskly between sets. If you join a gym, it will probably have a Cybex or Nautilus circuit already set up for you. If you are going to buy weights to use at home, buy free weights. All-in-one weight machines are much more expensive and take a lot of time for readjustments between each maneuver, meaning you spend a lot of your workout time just fiddling with the machine. Also, many 'aerobic' exercise machines allow you to set a particular level of resistance. On treadmills, you can raise the angle of the 'track.' Many stationary bicycles can be adjusted to increase the amount of force needed to pedal.
(AND BEFORE ALL THAT STUFF, GET THE CHARLES ATLAS COURSE……NOPE I DO NOT GET ANY MONEY FROM THE CHARLES ATLAS COMPANY FOR REFERRING YOU TO HIS WONDERFUL COURSE - Keith Hunt)
A Personal Trainer: The Benefits of Professional Instruction
Consider hiring a personal trainer for a few sessions. Although it may seem a luxury—-the kind of thing we associate with Hollywood celebrities—using a trainer can provide a big payoff for not that much investment, and I strongly advocate it. When my daughter Jennifer needed rehabilitation for a knee injury, she initially refused to work with a trainer. I finally convinced her to try it, and once she started, she quickly realized the value. The trainer taught her how to focus on her workouts and how to visualize her muscles actually getting stronger. This process helped strengthen the muscles around the knee, so she recovered more quickly. She learned how different muscle groups worked and how best to strengthen them.
(YES FOR ANYONE WITH AN INJURY IT IS BEST TO HAVE A PRO TRAINER HELP YOU. THEY KNOW HOW AND WHAT TO DO, IN WORKING WITH THAT INJURY - Keith Hunt)
If you do decide to hire a trainer, how should you begin? Start with a number of sessions right in a row and then taper off. A good trainer will focus closely on technique, so you will learn how to do each exercise properly. Go several times in the first two weeks to reinforce what you learn, so you don't forget. After the first two weeks, go for a refresher session once a week for a month and then go once a month after that or as needed. If hiring a trainer seems like too much of a 'splurge,' consider a conditioning-training class. Even one lesson will help you improve your form and lessen the risk of injury.
One of the things Jennifer liked best about going to the trainer was that she learned several exercises for each muscle group. Now she can alternate between them or simply do the ones she likes best 'What my trainer really taught me is that you should do the exercises you love to do,' she told me. 'If you don't like something, there's usually another way to get the same effect.'
Your basic exercise sequence should be this:
Warm up
Flexibility exercises
Strength exercises
Flexibility exercises again and cool down (same as the warm-up)
Flexibility Exercises: The Basics
When you begin to do flexibility exercises, remember that warm muscles respond better than cold ones. After you warm up your muscles by walking slowly for five to ten minutes, begin your stretching exercises. It is usually good to do your stretching exercises just before your stamina-building workouts, so you stretch before you do vigorous exercises. Even if you attend a stretch class, such as yoga, make sure to do these seven basic stretches before exercising. Each stretch should be done twice, with slow and gentle movements. Extend into each stretch, feeling the pull on your muscles, for thirty seconds. Do not bounce because bouncing can put you at risk of straining or tearing muscles. Even if you do stretching exercises before your stamina workout, as I recommend, you should do the whole sequence again at the end of your workout as well.
(YES I FULLY AGREE…..STRETCH EXERCISES FIRST, EVEN IF FOLLOWING THE CHARLES ATLAS COURSE - THEN THE STRENGTH TRAINING EXERCISES - Keith Hunt)
TO BE CONTINUED
REAL AGE…. the GYM and Exercises
Joining a Gym
What You Need to Know
Joining a gym or health club can be a great investment, a time-saving and motivational way to get your body in shape. Or it can be a boondoggle: Only one of three people who join a gym works out more than one hundred days a year. Before sinking a lot of dollars into a membership, make sure that you will actually use the gym. Before you join a gym:
1. Try it out. Most reputable clubs will allow you to work out free at least once before joining. That way you can test the equipment and the atmosphere. Do your workout at the time of day that you normally plan to work out to see how crowded the club gets and how long you would have to wait for machines.
2. Find out about classes. Ask to see a class schedule and talk to some instructors. Find out if classes are free with your membership.
3. Find out if there is someone regularly on staff to help answer questions about your workout. Good gyms will have someone who will teach you how to use all the equipment properly for free. Also find out if your gym has personal trainers who can take you through your workout. (In most big-city clubs, the fee for a personal trainer is $25 to $50 an hour.) Although you might not want to use a trainer all the time, having a pro look at your workout once in a while can do wonders to improve your technique.
4. Join a gym that is close to your home or work. Fitness-club gurus have what they call the 'twelve-week-twelve-mile' hypothesis: Most people who join gyms work out for only the first twelve weeks of their membership, and only if the club is less than twelve miles from their home or office. Find a place that's close and convenient.
5. Consider the atmosphere. Pick a gym where you feel comfortable. Look at the crowd that goes there and think about whether you would enjoy working out there. Perhaps working out with the 'twenty-somethings' would make you strive for more. Or maybe you would prefer a place that offers classes designed particularly for people over sixty. Some clubs are geared to women, and others are geared to men. Shop around and decide what fits you best.
6. Ask about hidden costs. Before joining, read the contract carefully and ask about extra expenses that may be added. Remember, too, that if you sign a full-year contract, you will have to pay for the whole year, even if you don't use the gym.
Ask if there are any special discounts for joining. Gyms may have monthly deals or offer special rates to first-time members. Ask around for pricing specials at comparable gyms in the area. You might be able to get a lower price from the gym you want to join.
7. Check out the equipment. Does it look new? Is it of good quality? Is it what you need for your workout? Don't believe promises about new equipment that's coming in 'next week.'
8. Determine your workout needs. Some people like being pampered in upscale gyms that offer the most deluxe equipment and amenities, such as massages, juice bars, and day care. Others are happy in a concrete room with just a treadmill and a set of free weights.
9. Decide what activities and frills you would like your gym to offer and which ones you are willing to pay for.
10.Decide if it's the best option for you. Local park departments may offer free or low-cost access to gyms and exercise equipment. Also, many YMCAs, YWCAs, and YM/YWHAs have gyms that cost less than commercial options. Check, though, to be sure that the membership does not include other services that you do not want to pay for.
Stretching
Achilles tendon and calf stretch. Face a wall. With both hands against the wall, place one foot well behind you and the other foot flat on the floor with the.toes touching the wall. Keeping the rear leg straight, with your heel on the ground, slowly lean in toward the wall. Keep your back straight. Hold it. Then switch and do the other leg. This exercise stretches your lower leg and helps prevent damage to your Achilles tendon.
Gastrocnemius stretch. Move the back leg closer to the wall and tilt the front foot upward along the wall, with the toes propped up against the wall. Lean in toward the wall. Repeat with the other leg. This exercise stretches your lower leg (calf) muscle.
Quadriceps stretch. This exercise stretches the long muscle that runs down the front of your thigh. Face a wall. Put your left hand on the wall for balance. Bend your right leg backward. Then reach your right hand behind your back and grab your right ankle, pulling it gently toward your buttocks until you feel tension along the front of your thigh. Thenalternate and do the same thing for the left leg; that is, place your right hand on the wall and grab your left ankle.
Hamstring stretch. Stand on one leg. Prop the other leg straight out on a chair or table, so the top of the entire leg is parallel to the ground. Bend over so you bring your face over your knee. Slide both hands toward the propped-up ankle as far as they'll go. This exercise stretches the muscles running down the back of your thigh, as well as the muscles in your lower back.
Chest and triceps (back of the upper arm) stretch. Find something taller than you that you can grab onto, such as the top of a door frame or an overhead pole designed for pull-ups or stretching. Reach both hands over your head and grab onto the door frame or pole. Lean forward and stretch out your upper torso.
Biceps (front of the upper arm) stretch. Stand along a wall. Place your arm at shoulder height from the side nearest the wall outstretched to your side and slightly behind you with fingers and palm against the wall. Lean forward, so your arm is stretched out behind you.
Back and abdominal stretch. Lay down on your back, facing the ceiling. Put a rolled-up towel in the small of your back. Place your arms on your stomach. Relax for five minutes.
Strengthening Exercises: The Basics
Focus on strengthening all the different muscle groups. Pay special attention to the biceps, triceps, abdominals, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calf muscles.
These exercises are performed against some force of resistance, either a weight or the weight of your own body. At first, try eight to twelve repetitions for each exercise (one set). Then you should build your way up to three sets or more for each exercise. Start out with small amounts of weight. As you progress, you will find yourself increasing the weight limit.
Bent-knee push-ups. Lie facedown on the floor with your feet together and the palms of your hands flat on the floor on either side of your chest. Support the weight of your upper body on your arms with your knees against the floor as you raise your body until your arms are straight. Keep your back as flat as you can. Lower your upper body until your nose almost touches the ground and then raise it again. This bent-knee push-up is much easier than the straight-knee version. This exercise strengthens the muscles of your arms, chest, shoulders, and back. By doing the bent-knee push-up eight to twelve times three times a week, you'll eventually develop the upper-body strength to do the much harder straight-knee version; in which the pivot point is your toes, not your knees. Try to build more and more repetitions. Your three-year goal: to do as many straight-knee push-ups as your RealAge (I use my calendar age; that way, I know that every year I get a little stronger).
Knee extensions and flexions. Sit on a chair and place an ankle weight on each leg. (You can buy specially designed weights that have Velcro or an ankle wrap that has pockets into which you put progressively greater weight.) Extend one leg so it is straight out in front of you. Lower your leg back to its starting position. After eight to twelve repetitions, switch to the other leg.
Hip and knee extensions. Stand up and grab the back of a straight-backed chair with both hands (you may not need to use a chair, but I did when I started doing this exercise). Stand up straight with your toes just wider than your hips and point your toes outward. From this position, bend your knees slightly, directing your body weight over your toes. Do not do a deep knee bend. Keep your heels on the floor because the strength benefits occur with only a partial dip. Return to the initial position. As you get stronger, you can wear a backpack and gradually increase the amount of weight in the backpack?
Chest and shoulder exercises. Sit upright in a straight-back chair that has no arms. Your shoulders should be straight. Keep your arms at your sides. Hold a weight in each hand. (You can either buy free weights or make your own from milk or water jugs filled with liquid or sand.) Raise one arm slowly upward and outward, keeping the elbow straight. Stop when your arm is fully extended above your head. Slowly return your arm to its starting position. You can either buy heavier weights or increase the amount of water or sand in the jugs as you get stronger. Do the same exercises for the other arm.
Abdominal exercises. Lie comfortably on your back with your hands resting on your chest or at your side. Bend your knees and put a pillow behind your knees. Slowly bend and bring your head and chest and abdomen as a unit straight upward toward your knees. Start with as many as you can easily do, and build by one of these 'crunches' a week. After week five, add five crunches aimed at each knee laterally by slowly bending and bringing your head and chest and abdomen as a unit upward toward the outside aspect of each knee (first the right and then-the left after going back to the starting position).
Abdominal exercises, advanced. Lie comfortably on your back with your hands clasped behind your head. Lift both legs together. Hold for a count of six. Then move each leg up and down alternatively six times but do not touch the ground with either. Then do a scissors, moving the right leg left over the left leg, and vice versa, six times. Repeat the cycle three times before you put your legs on the floor again. Increase the count for each step as you get stronger.
Do three sets of these strengthening exercises after you do the flexibility exercises outlined above. Repeat the flexibility exercises at the end of the strength sequence.
Again, these are just basic stretches and lifts that you can do at home without any elaborate equipment. As you progress, you may want to add more to your workout, increase the duration and intensity of your workout, or even take a class that integrates your strength and flexibility exercises into one circuit workout.
……….
ON HIS LAST COMMENT, ONCE MORE I RECOMMEND THE CHARLES ATLAS COURSE FOR STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY. STILL OBTAINABLE. TYPE IN CHARLES ATLAS ON YOUR WEB BROWERS AND UP IT WILL COME - Keith Hunt
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TO BE CONTINUED
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