Midlife may not be too late to start exercising

Adults who increased leisure-time physical activity later in life had a low risk for mortality comparable to those who maintained activity consistently throughout adulthood, according to findings recently published in JAMA Network Open.

"Little is known about how long-term participation in leisure-time physical activity from adolescence to early adulthood and into middle age may affect mortality," Pedro F. Saint-Maurice, PhD, division of cancer epidemiology and genetics, National Cancer Institute, and colleagues wrote.

Researchers examined how leisure-time physical activity patterns as a teenager (aged 15 to 18 years) as well as early (aged 19 to 29 years), middle (aged 35 to 39 years), and later adulthood (aged 40 to 61 years), were tied to all-cause, CVD and cancer mortality in a prospective cohort of 315,059 people, 58.2% of whom were men. Activity levels studied ranged from 0 to 10 hours per week.

Saint-Maurice and colleagues found participants who were less active throughout most of their lives but increased activity aged 40 to 61 years had lower risk for all-cause (HR = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.62-0.68), CVD-related (HR = 0.57; 95% CI, 0.53-0.61), and cancer-related (HR = 0.84; 95% CI, 0.77-0.92) mortality. In addition, those who were consistently inactive and maintained higher amounts of leisure-time physical activity throughout their life had lower all-cause (HR = 0.64; 95% CI, 0.6-0.68), CVD-related (HR = 0.58; 95% CI, 0.53-0.64), and cancer-related (HR = 0.86; 95% CI, 0.77-0.97) mortality.

"Our findings suggest that it is not too late for adults to become active. These findings are particularly informative for health care professionals advising individuals who have been physically inactive throughout much of their adulthood that substantial health benefits can still be gained by improving their physical activity habits," Saint-Maurice and colleagues concluded. – by Janel Miller

Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.

Adults who increased leisure-time physical activity later in life had a low risk for mortality comparable to those who maintained activity consistently throughout adulthood, according to findings recently published in JAMA Network Open.

"Little is known about how long-term participation in leisure-time physical activity from adolescence to early adulthood and into middle age may affect mortality," Pedro F. Saint-Maurice, PhD, division of cancer epidemiology and genetics, National Cancer Institute, and colleagues wrote.

Researchers examined how leisure-time physical activity patterns as a teenager (aged 15 to 18 years) as well as early (aged 19 to 29 years), middle (aged 35 to 39 years), and later adulthood (aged 40 to 61 years), were tied to all-cause, CVD and cancer mortality in a prospective cohort of 315,059 people, 58.2% of whom were men. Activity levels studied ranged from 0 to 10 hours per week.

Saint-Maurice and colleagues found participants who were less active throughout most of their lives but increased activity aged 40 to 61 years had lower risk for all-cause (HR = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.62-0.68), CVD-related (HR = 0.57; 95% CI, 0.53-0.61), and cancer-related (HR = 0.84; 95% CI, 0.77-0.92) mortality. In addition, those who were consistently inactive and maintained higher amounts of leisure-time physical activity throughout their life had lower all-cause (HR = 0.64; 95% CI, 0.6-0.68), CVD-related (HR = 0.58; 95% CI, 0.53-0.64), and cancer-related (HR = 0.86; 95% CI, 0.77-0.97) mortality.

"Our findings suggest that it is not too late for adults to become active. These findings are particularly informative for health care professionals advising individuals who have been physically inactive throughout much of their adulthood that substantial health benefits can still be gained by improving their physical activity habits," Saint-Maurice and colleagues concluded. – by Janel Miller

Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.

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How to Exercise With Fibromyalgia

[unable to retrieve full-text content]5. Don't go it alone. Plenty of generally healthy people need the social connection of a group fitness class or the accountability of a personal trainer to start and stick to fitness. For people ...

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How to Start a Bullet Journal For Your Fitness Goals

You have probably heard of a hundred different ways to track your fitness goals and progress electronically — OK, maybe not a hundred, but you know there are a lot of fitness apps, tracking bracelets, and even rings (like Prince Harry's Oura) that record your steps, weight, and sleep. I've tried a bunch of different tools myself, but sometimes you're just a pen-and-paper person, and a good bullet journal is what you need to stay consistent.

Bullet journaling has been a great asset to my fitness and nutrition goals. Not only does it allow me to be creative and offers a fun activity at the beginning and end of every day, it also gives me a wide visual representation of how I'm doing overall, in life, on my way to my target. It doesn't just include number metrics like weight or how many workouts I did in a week. It includes whatever else I want to focus on in my journey to better health, whether that's more self-awareness, more time meditating, or calories or water consumption.

A bullet journal can be overwhelming to start and requires some preparation, but I promise that after you draw out a plan (quite literally), you'll be happy you did it. This is how to get started.

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How to start fitness and stick with it

How do you start to exercise if you really haven’t done anything since Halloween and that big candy binge?

This article focuses on one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions (exercising more) and how to get started in a way that will keep you exercising for a lifetime.

First of all, start with a realistic, measurable goal. Start with something small that can be achieved with only a small change to your schedule. For example, start by exercising at least twice the first week. If you start small, you increase your chances of success.

If you exercise at home or at a gym, it’s nice to be accountable to someone. If you have a friend or family member that will exercise with you that is great. Other ways to get that accountability are to regularly go to a fitness class. Once you get to know the instructor and other members of the class, they can become your workout buddies and help you to be accountable.

Another way is to hire a personal trainer. When you have a regular appointment and have invested money into your training plan, it helps to make you accountable. It is also a great way to learn to exercise at a pace and method that is right for your body and needs.

Work on overcoming your fear of the gym if that is a problem for you. The gym can be intimidating, especially if you don’t know how to use the equipment properly.

The YMCA and most gyms offer free sessions to help you learn how to use the equipment. Take advantage of those sessions. They are usually held by personal trainers and health coaches that are skilled in workouts with machines and can teach you about the machines and which ones would be most beneficial for you.

Start small. If you haven’t exercised since Halloween or even months or years before Halloween of this year, that is a great reason to start lighter or less. With time, you can slowly increase your exercise and/or the weights you are lifting and you will see progress. I have observed members of our gym start by exercising too often or with too much weight and be unsuccessful in a very short time. Starting to exercise is a journey and that journey often starts with 15-30 minute sessions of exercise.

What is the best exercise to do when you are just beginning? My best suggestion is to start with exercise that you enjoy and will keep doing. If you like to walk, walk. If you enjoy riding a bike, outdoor biking or a cycling class might be right for you. On the other side of this, if you don’t like swimming or being in a pool, don’t start with water aerobics.

My last piece of the exercise puzzle is to look beyond weight loss. Exercise has many health benefits such as sleeping better, feeling more energized, happier and calmer. It can help with high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis and other health issues. If you can start to associate exercise and how good you can feel as a result of your exercise program, you’ll be more inclined to stick with it.

Lastly, the YMCA has a New Year’s Resolution exercise program that is perfect for beginning exercisers. It will teach you how to use our equipment and start a healthy program that is lasting and beneficial. Please call the YMCA at 402-564-9477 or stop to see us for more information.

Marcia Grant is a wellness coordinator, personal trainer & fitness instructor at the Columbus Family YMCA.

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Living On: Earlier you start exercising the more likely you are to live longer

CLEVELAND, Ohio - At 91, Edna Zilm isn’t just active because she works full-time. She also enjoys walking, stretching, lifting light weights and even doing planks.

For her, staying active is a lifestyle choice that started early. At 20, she developed a passion for downhill skiing that continued until age 75. And in between enjoying family and serving clients, she’s participated in various sports, including tennis and golf.

“As a former nurse, I learned that good health is of the utmost importance on a daily basis in order to enjoy your work, family and friends,” said Zilm, a Realtor with the Blumberg team of Howard Hanna in Pepper Pike.

Zilm is the perfect example of why it pays to become physically active sooner rather than later.

An ongoing study of physical activity, in its seventh year at Duke University â€" shows that physical performance declines earlier than researchers thought. Challenges start with middle age around 50. Duke’s research of 775 participants ages 30 to 90, shows that it’s a mistake to wait until declines in physical fitness sets in. Functional declines and sometimes disabilities generally happen before 65, the targeted age for the start of the study of geriatrics.

Study co-author Katherine Hall, an Assistant Professor of Geriatrics at Duke University School of Medicine, equates bodies to machines.

“If you put 60 or 70 years of wear on any machine, it’s going to show some decline,” she said, noting that the severity of decline varies significantly from one person to another based partly on how active, or sedentary, they are.

Measuring Fitness

To assess age-related changes in people’s fitness abilities, the researchers at Duke had participants perform tests designed to measure things like strength, endurance, balance and walking speed.

At all ages, male study participants generally performed better than the females, but the age when physical declines became truly apparent was consistent for both sexes: the 50s. Both men and women began to have trouble rising from and sitting back down in a chair repeatedly for 30 seconds (an indicator of declines in lower body strength) or standing on one leg for up to 60 seconds (a measure of balance).

Since doctors don’t typically perform these type of tests during an annual physical, Hall said the results were surprising. What surprised her most is that the age of a participant wasn’t the key factor in many tests, but rather it boiled down to a person’s decision to be more active. For example, some younger, sedentary study participants performed worse than more active, older adults.

“There wasn’t much meaningful difference between people in their 30s, 40s and 50s and people in their 70s and 80s,” she said. “Prior to this study, I would have guessed it would have been a huge difference. “

However, Hall said, “Our younger people need to be doing more, as do our older people.”

Hall says walking speed is the strongest predictor of hospitalizations, as well as a person’s risk for developing chronic diseases, disabilities and cognitive decline.

“We saw a steady decrease as they get older, especially in their 70’s. And the same was true with aerobic endurance, and that has to do with a loss of stamina,” Hall said.

“I was surprised that at the beginning of the 50s is when most people start to see more impairments in lower body strength and balance. That’s what you need for daily activities like getting in and out of a car and doing house/yard work. We need to be measuring physical function more frequently and across all ages of adulthood, and having these discussions about doing purposeful exercise much earlier.”

Pushing through adversity

Omar F. Campbell, 35, has been a personal fitness trainer and group fitness instructor for 10 years. These days, clients at his new Warrensville Heights facility, Limitless Chanxes, range in age from 25 to 79.

“When it comes to age, it’s not about what you can and can’t do, it’s about when you’re going to start moving,” said Campbell. “There’s no excuses not to move your body.”

Campbell said moving your body starts with a mindset, and even he suffered a setback four years ago. He says he gained a lot of weight while dealing with personal and professional changes.

“It’s all about adherence and changing your thoughts. I think people don’t understand the way our bodies can be stressed with eating and lack of movement,” said Campbell, a former semi-pro basketball player who has a bachelor’s degree in wellness and various certifications in fitness and nutrition.

“I know how it feels when you’re mentally tired. It’s hard when you have to deal with life and trying to do better,” he said. “It takes a lot for people to say, ‘I’m physically tired, but I’m going to keep going.’”

“I got into training because I wanted to help people’s quality of life,” Campbell said. “We all have an expiration date, but exercising can affect your quality of life.”

Guy Gentile, 82, said he was physically active for most of his life, then he turned into a coach potato at age 51, and remained inactive for the next eight years. But on Jan. 11, 1996, he says he decided to take a walk. He’s walked every day since then except one recently. Whether it’s a sunny day, or there’s rain, sleet or snow, Gentile walks about 2 miles a day.

“Normally it takes me about 32 minutes to walk 2 miles. Sometimes I walk a mile-and-a-half. I’m slowing down a bit. You know I am 82,” he said. “My goal is to walk my way to 100.

“I want to be here to celebrate when my grandson turns 50.”

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How to stick to your fitness New Year's resolution

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Jan. 2, 2019, 2:42 PM GMT/ Source: TODAY

By A. Pawlowski

If you've promised yourself to be more active in 2019, you have lots of company.

Almost two-thirds of people — 59 percent — who are making a New Year's resolution say their goal is to exercise more, according to a new survey by YouGov, a market research company. It's the top resolution on a list that also includes eating healthier, saving money and losing weight.

Many people will quickly find out how difficult keeping that promise can be. Studies show up to 20 percent of resolutions are broken within the first week of January and 80 percent are broken within the first year.

To boost your chances of success, Brandon Alderman, an expert in exercise psychology, has some unique and practical advice:

For more tips on how to start small, sign up for our One Small Thing newsletter

1. Make it your goal to put on exercise clothes when you come home from work.

For people who find it difficult to incorporate exercise into their lives, setting a vague goal to work out "more" can be daunting. But the simple act of changing into exercise clothes takes the pressure off, while putting you on the right path.

"A much easier goal would be: 'All I have to do is walk in the house and take off my work clothes and put on my exercise clothes.' It's specific, it's measurable," Alderman, an associate professor and vice chair of education and administration in the department of kinesiology and health at Rutgers University in New Jersey, told TODAY.

"The idea behind doing that is you've met your goal and it's probably difficult to take those exercise clothes off without actually doing some form of exercise."

In other words, once you've got those biking shorts, running shoes or yoga pants on, you might as well do a workout.

It's a strategy Alderman uses himself. He recommended setting a goal of putting your exercise clothes on least three days a week for three months as a start.

2. Focus on the immediate benefits of exercise.

"One problem is that when people make a resolution to exercise more, often they're doing that for the potential long-term benefits of exercise" such as losing weight or looking better, Alderman said.

But it's debatable whether exercise alone can do that without accompanying changes in diet.

Alderman would rather people focus more on the immediate benefits of exercise, such as feeling better afterwards, experiencing less stress and enjoying better mental clarity.

"A more effective approach is almost to be a little bit more selfish or self-centered in terms of exercise and say, 'I'm going to exercise for 30 minutes five or more days per week for me,'" he said.

"We all just need to get up and move more."

3. Remember: The best type of exercise is the exercise you'll actually do.

Pick an activity you like: walking, dancing, swimming, running, jumping rope or whatever fits your life. Americans are sitting for extremely long periods of time and becoming more and more inactive, so even low-level activity that replaces being completely sedentary is good, Alderman said. The government's exercise guidelines call for adults to get at least 2 ½ hours to five hours a week of moderate intensity exercise; or 1 hour, 15 minutes to 2 ½ hours of intense activity every week.

Follow A. Pawlowski on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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Fresh Start to Fitness: Exercises to stretch and strengthen your inner-thigh muscle

(KUTV) â€" The gracilis is a muscle that runs along the inner thigh and is responsible for hip adduction and assists with knee flexion. Jeffery Beck, exercise specialist from Intermountain Medical Center suggests completing the following gracilis stretch and strengthening routine twice a week to keep the muscle healthy and strong!

1) Standing Gracilis Stretch: Place your right leg on a raised platform and slightly turn away from your raised leg. Keeping your hips facing forward, slowly bend your opposite leg until you feel a gentle stretch on the inside of your right thigh. Hold for 30 seconds and then switch legs. Do 3 sets of 30 seconds per leg.

2) Seated Gracilis Stretch/Resistance Exercise: Sit on the floor with your feet together, hands on your feet and elbows resting on your inner thighs. Gently press down on your thighs with your elbows until you feel a stretch through the inner thighs. Hold for 5 seconds. Now press up against the elbows with your thighs and hold for 5 seconds. Repeat the process back and forth for 30 seconds. Complete 3 sets of 30 seconds.

3) High Knee Hurdle Walk: Drive your right knee up to the side and then bring it in toward your body as you step forward as if stepping over a hurdle. Repeat the same motion with your left leg. The movement should resemble how a duck walks. Do 3 sets of 10 reps per leg.

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