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09 May 2009 02:27 PM

According to fitness experts, yes, you can--provided you keep working out well past retirement.

No one enjoys living with the aches, pains and overall discomfort that come with aging, so to avoid the lower back spasms and stiff joints, fitness experts advise to stick with a well-rounded exercise routine as you get on in years.

Backing up the experts' advice is a new study, which found that fitness, strength and flexibility do not simply fade away with age, as long as you make the right lifestyle choices. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found that individuals who partake in aerobic activity, strength training and stretching can offset the effects of aging.

The study shows that regular exercise can also lower the risks of chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and heart disease. In addition, researchers say following an effective exercise regime can boost immune function, alleviate fatigue and cut the risk of disability in older adults.

The study also offers good news for individuals who have never followed a regular exercise routine. According to researchers, people of any age can start exercising, and reap the same health benefits. However, researchers warn that sedentary people should talk with their doctors first, particularly if they have medical conditions.

To achieve the best fitness results, researchers at the Mayo Clinic recommend participating in the following:

Aerobic Exercise--Any type of movement, like walking, jogging, swimming or riding a bike, that raises the heart rate and gets you breathing harder. Aim for 30 to 60 minutes of cardio activity three to five times per week.

Strengthening Exercises--Such as lifting weights, doing push-ups or pull-ups, or working with weight machines. These types of exercises are important to maintain muscle mass and strength.

Stretching--Experts maintain that it is important to fit in stretching to boost flexibility. Also, consider balancing exercises to improve coordination and to lower your risk of injury.

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New research that uses an innovative approach to study, for the first time, the relative contributions of food and exercise habits to the development of the obesity epidemic has concluded that the rise in obesity in the United States since the 1970s was virtually all due to increased energy intake.

How much of the obesity epidemic has been caused by excess calorie intake and how much by reductions in physical activity has been long debated and while experts agree that making it easier for people to eat less and exercise more are both important for combating it, they debate where the public health focus should be.

A study presented on Friday at the European Congress on Obesity is the first to examine the question of the proportional contributions to the obesity epidemic by combining metabolic relationships, the laws of thermodynamics, epidemiological data and agricultural data.

"There have been a lot of assumptions that both reduced physical activity and increased energy intake have been major drivers of the obesity epidemic. Until now, nobody has proposed how to quantify their relative contributions to the rise in obesity since the 1970s. This study demonstrates that the weight gain in the American population seems to be virtually all explained by eating more calories. It appears that changes in physical activity played a minimal role," said the study's leader, Professor Boyd Swinburn, chair of population health and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University in Australia.

The researchers started by testing 1,399 adults and 963 children to determine how a number of calories their bodies burn in total under free-living conditions. The test is the most accurate measure of total calorie burning in real-life situations.

Once they had determined each person's calorie burning rate, Swinburn and colleagues were able to calculate how much adults needed to eat in order to maintain a stable weight and how much children needed to eat in order to maintain a normal growth curve.

They then worked out how much Americans were actually eating, using national food supply data (the amount of food produced and imported, minus the amount exported, thrown away and used for animals or other non-human uses) from the 1970s and the early 2000s.

The scientists used their findings to predict how much weight they would expect Americans to have gained over the 30-year period studied if food intake were the only influence. They used data from a nationally representative survey (NHANES) that recorded the weight of Americans in the 1970s and early 2000s to determine the actual weight gain over that period.

"If the actual weight increase was the same as what we predicted, that meant that food intake was virtually entirely responsible. If it wasn't, that meant changes in physical activity also played a role," Swinburn said. "If the actual weight gain was higher than predicted, that would suggest that a decrease in physical activity played a role."

The scientists observed that in children, the predicted and actual weight increase matched exactly, indicating that the increases in energy intake alone over the 30 years studied could explain the weight increase.

"For adults, we predicted that they would be 10.8 kg heavier, but in fact they were 8.6 kg heavier. That suggests that excess food intake still explains the weight gain, but that there may have been increases in physical activity over the 30 years that have blunted what would otherwise have been a higher weight gain," Swinburn said.

"To return to the average weights of the 1970s, we would need to reverse the increased food intake of about 350 calories a day for children (about one can of fizzy drink and a small portion of French fries) and 500 calories a day for adults (about one large hamburger)," Swinburn said. "Alternatively, we could achieve similar results by increasing physical activity by about 150 minutes a day of extra walking for children and 110 minutes for adults, but realistically, eventhough a combination of both is needed, the focus would have to be on reducing calorie intake".

He emphasized that physical activity should not be ignored as a contributor to reducing obesity and should continue to be promoted because of its a number of other benefits, but that expectations regarding what can be achieved with exercise need to be lowered and public health policy shifted more toward encouraging people to eat less.


Posted by: Evelyn    Source

07 May 2009 04:12 PM

Here's some food for thought the next time you decide to lace up your sneakers and head out to burn calories in the fresh spring air: Fitness experts say walking is a good form of exercise... provided you take 100 steps per minute.

A new study shows that the 100 steps per minute pace is vital for those who want to reap the most benefits while hitting the pavement. Experts say, ideally, the pace should be intense enough to produce sweat.

While some walkers use a pedometer to keep track of how many steps they take, experts say the device gives no information on how intensely they're exercising. In order to get in a moderately intense workout, a person's heart rate must increase to a level that improves physical fitness. According to researchers, for that to happen, most men need to walk at a pace of 92 to 102 steps per minute, while women must complete between 91 and 115 steps per minute.

In addition to walking at least 100 steps in 60 seconds, experts recommend that adults complete at least 30 minutes of moderate activity, five times per week. This can be achieved in two ways. The first option is to complete all 30 minutes in one session, which means taking a minimum of 3,000 steps per session. The other option is to break those steps down into several shorter exercise sessions throughout the day.

"Because health benefits can be achieved with bouts of exercise lasting at least 10 minutes, a useful starting point is to try and accumulate 1,000 steps in 10 minutes, before building up to 3,000 steps in 30 minutes," the study's lead researcher noted.

Researchers say the best way to achieve 100 steps per minute is to purchase a simple pedometer and a wristwatch.

Related Articles:

Walking May Not Be Good Enough

What is Moderate-Intensity Exercise?

Something is Better Than Nothing

Creating an Affordable Fitness Plan

Get Fit By Jumping Rope

How Often Do You Use Your Home Gym?

Bad Things Happen When You Stop Going to the Gym

Getting Fit: No More Excuses

Exercise and Music

Fitness Food for Thought

Why am I so Sore?

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06 May 2009 03:38 PM

She famously shed 75 pounds from her 5'8" frame two years ago, and then infamously gained back 83 pounds. Now, actress Kirstie Alley says she is ready to get fit the old fashioned way--by exercising like a "woman possessed."

Or obsessed. The former "Cheers" star says she is ready to slim down without taking shortcuts. This time she insists that her weight loss regime will include daily cardio exercise and weight training.

This new promise comes a few months after Alley stepped on the scale for the first time in more than a year.

"I started screaming," Alley tells PEOPLE Magazine in its latest issue. "It said 228 pounds, which is my highest weight ever. I was so much more disgusting than I thought!"

But, Alley says she is determined to turn that disgust into results. The 58-year-old former Jenny Craig spokeswoman (she famously trimmed down to 145 pounds while with the company) confesses that she banished her gym equipment to the garage and hasn't worked out in more than 15 months. In addition, to eliminating aerobic activity from her life, Alley reveals that she also gave up eating small, low-calorie meals and spent the last year gorging on Chinese takeout and buttery pasta dishes.

"I fell off the horse," admits the indulgent star.

Still, Alley says she is set to begin a new fitness plan, which includes a professional trainer. She'll need the extra help. As incentive to lose the weight, the TV star has vowed to enter a triathlon and sculpt her "schlumpy" figure back down to a bikini-ready 140 pounds.

"I'm going to have to work harder than last time," she says, but "I'm way excited."

Alley is hoping her excitement can help get her through the daily workouts and restricted diet she knows she must endure to get fit.

We'll see what happens.

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05 May 2009 10:34 AM

The next time you brush off an invitation to attend a yoga class because you think you're too old to twist your body into a pretzel, think about Bette Calman. The Australian yoga instructor is 83 years old and is able to contort her body into positions that people more than half her age would have difficulty executing.

London's Daily Mail recently featured the flexible grandma in a multi-page spread. And boy, can this lady spread her limbs. At an age when most people are retiring to their rocking chairs, Calman is bending over backwards, striking challenging "lotus" poses and extending her arms over her head and around her neck, all in an effort to promote the benefits of the ancient Indian fitness option.

What's more, she strikes her pretzel-like poses wearing her trademark pink jumpsuit and pearl earrings. The nimble Australian says that despite her age, she doesn't have chronic aches or pains. Rather, Calman credits her nearly four decades worth of daily yoga classes to keeping her fit and happy.

"I'm proof that if you keep at it, you'll get there," Calman told the paper. "I can do more now than I could 50 years ago."

Doing more includes executing tough balancing maneuvers, such as the extremely tough "peacock" pose where the body is held in a horizontal position using just the arms. Calman has also mastered the tricky raised "lotus" and "bridge" poses and can complete headstands with ease.

The normally reserved Calman says she is speaking out about the benefits of yoga now because she wants people to realize that the age is just a number.

"Forget age," said Calman, the author of three yoga books including one called Yoga for Arthritis. "Even a basic posture, or just going to a window and breathing deeply, can have big benefits."

Calman is a fitness legend in Melbourne where she teaches 11 yoga classes a week.

Her motto: "Yoga keeps you young."

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