Maybe you have your workout routine down. You’ve been doing it for years and it seems to be working fine. Maybe you’d like to be a little leaner or have a little more muscle, but, for “your age” you feel okay about where you are. I hear that fairly frequently, “I’m doing okay, getting my workouts in.” My reply is always, “Are you where you hoped you’d be?” The answer is usually, “No.”

One of the major problems with doing the same thing that you’ve always done is that it might not be applicable any more. Maybe it’s outdated because more research has come out in exercise science to show that what we used to believe, no longer holds true. i.e. we used to believe that weight machines were the best way to train and gyms packed machines in every square inch. Now we know that training movements with body weight/free weights, where we have to balance and stabilize, offer more benefit in sports and everyday function.

Another reason your program might be outdated is that our needs change through the years and our current needs may be different for those we had years back. While you may have been focused on just being lean and mean in the past, now, you may have much more specific goals, such as trying to better your balance, mobility, and stamina.

In continually doing the same program, we also limit the benefits we could be receiving. By varying our exercises, exercise volume, intensities, repetitions, rest periods, etc. we get greater and better rounded results. A structured, regular change in these variables is called periodization.

Finally, change, in this case learning new physical programs and movements, has brain health benefits. As we are taught a new movement, we both have to understand what it is and we have to get our body to move in that new way. Two of the pillars of brain maintenance are mental stimulation and physical exercise.

So, in spite of feeling “fine” about your routine, it’s probably time to reassess. The benefits of having a new program with new challenges can make a huge difference in the results you get. You’re never too old to learn a few new tricks.

 

In my last post, The Loss of Balance Fear Spiral, I mentioned that it is common to have more difficulty balancing as we get older. I also discussed how I believe that this is due to being less physically active, challenging our balance less, and the accompanying fear of falling that occurs. As promised, in this post I want to offer ways to safely improve your balance and lose the fear in trying more challenging activities.

First, let’s talk about safety. If you do not feel absolutely safe from falling, you will never really allow yourself to challenge your balance.  The corner of a room can be your best friend when training balance. Corners, walls, railings, anything solid that you can lean against or grab will give you the confidence to try balancing and know that you can save yourself if you start to fall. You also need to choose a level that is only slightly more advanced than your current level. While there are all kinds of balance devices available, that doesn’t mean that you need to, or even should be using them.

Balance training exercise selection, like any other exercise selection, should be specific to your individual needs. For most of us, those needs are about standing tall, walking, climbing, and possibly a little jumping. So, let’s look at some exercises for those activities.

Single Leg Balance – Standing on your leg closest to the wall, with your back close to the wall, stand as tall as you can and work to maintain balance. Only touch the wall if you need to.

Single Leg Balance with Reach – If the single leg balance is not challenging, maintain that position and move the non-weight bearing leg forward, then to the side, and back again. Moving that leg will force you to readjust your center of gravity over your standing leg.

Reaching Tall – For those of you whose posture is leaning forward, particularly if you fear falling backward, stand with your feet shoulder width apart and with their back about 6″ away from the wall, reach both arms as high as possible. Lower your arms as you start to feel yourself falling back (don’t worry, the wall is there to catch you if you do fall back). Repeat.

Tandem walk – Standing with the wall close to your side, walk forward heel to toe in a single straight line. You can try going backward, once you feel like you have mastered going forward.

Calf Raise Balance – With your feet shoulder width apart and hands hovering in front of the wall, press down with your toes and lift your heels as high as you can. Hold the top position for a couple of seconds, lower your heels and repeat.

Heel Walk Side Stepping – Standing with your back about 6″ away from the wall, lift your toes and balance on your heels. Now side step parallel to the wall until you reach the end of the wall. Reverse the direction and side step back.

Step Up and Balance With a Pause – Turn every time you take the stairs into a balance exercise. With your hand hovering above the railing, step up and balance on the lead leg for a couple of seconds before you take the next step and balance on the other leg. Step and balance the whole stair case.

These may not seem very challenging to look at, but give them a try and see how you do. Fit these exercises in wherever and whenever you can. The more often you work on your balance the sooner it will get better.

 

Note: The goal of these balancing exercises is to be close, be safe, but, only touch the wall or grab the railing if you need. You have to struggle a little to force your body to adapt and become better at balance.

 

Like any action that we have repeated over and over again through the years, much of our eating has become habitual. And habits are things that we have done so often that they are automatic responses. That mind-less nature of these responses is what can make them difficult to change.

Becoming mindful of what you are doing is the first step in changing it. What’s the old saying… “Knowing you have a problem is the first step in curing it.”, or something like that. If we want to change our eating habits, we need to take a look at what we are currently doing, before we can come up with a strategy for changing it. Keeping a journal is best way to do this. While, ongoing journaling can help you continue to change and stay on track, even just journaling for a couple of days can help reveal trouble areas.

One of the most common overeating issues is when we eat while distracted. If we have a bag of chips in front of us while watching TV, they seem to disappear without us realizing it until the bag is empty. The same is true if we have snacks at our desk while working on our computer. By not paying attention to our food, we are unaware of how much we’re eating and we’re not even really enjoying the flavor of the food.

If this happens with you, ask yourself why. Are you actually hungry, or it just something you always do (habit)? Do you snack while watching TV because you need to do something with your hands? Understanding why can help you find a solution.

If you are hungry, stop what you are doing. Turn your TV off or leave the room or your desk. Get the food you want. Take the time to enjoy the food and think of it as an eating meditation. Experience it. Look at it, smell it, place it in your mouth, notice the texture, the feel. How does it taste? Food will be a lot more enjoyable and you will eat less if you eat mindfully. Then you can go back to whatever you were doing. Sometimes, this mindfulness can even help you make decisions to eat better food. If you really pay attention to the taste of those lousy chips you’ve been eating, you might say to yourself, “Hey, these chips taste awful.” and find something better (dare I say healthier) to eat.

If you find that you are eating because you needed something to do with your hands, find something else to do. It could be knitting, doodling, coloring, making things with modeling clay (or Play-Doh). These may not sound like things you normally do, but you will be surprised how well they work. (If you have other things that work for you, share them with us in the comments below.)

 

What are your eating habits? Do you find yourself eating without thinking about it? Do you know how much you are eating and how the food tastes? Keep a food journal for a few days and see what your eating habits are. If you find that there are times that you are eating without really paying attention, try these approaches to control those mindless moments.

You may not think too much about your posture, but, in today’s society, it’s easy to find yourself in habitually bad postural positions. We sit all day with our backs rounded over and our heads looking up at a computer screen or down looking at a device. Poor posture can lead to numerous problems as we get older. Muscles that are in shortened positions for long periods of time become tight, which will prevent our joints from being able to return to their ideal stretched position. In example, when in a forward rounded position, the muscles in the front of our bodies become tight and make it difficult to stand up with a neutral spine.

Tight hip flexors will pull and tip the pelvis forward which can create low back pressure and pain.

Tight chest muscles may cause the spine to round forward which then create a posture that forces an increased curve in the neck when trying to look forward or up. This, in turn, can create neck pressure and pain.

The rounded posture can also put more pressure on the diaphragm making it more challenging to breathe.

To prevent or counteract these postural deviations, like most aspects of fitness, is very personal depending on your strengths and weaknesses. Stretch this. Strengthen that. However, I’m going to let you in on a simple solution. Sit talls.

Sit on the edge of your chair avoiding touching the chair back. Sit tall and then imagine I offered you $50,000 to sit 2″ taller. As you try to stretch your spine up, pushing the top of your head further toward the ceiling, you engage your core muscles. This will help strengthen your weaker postural muscles, such as your abs and upper back. It can also help stretch tight, front torso muscles. Sit talls can also be performed as stand talls, trying to stand as tall as you can.

Of course, even if you build strength and flexibility, you then need to create the habit of holding good posture. I tell clients to set their watches to chime on the hour and, when it goes off, check your posture and make sure you are sitting or standing as tall as you can. Hold it. You’ll forget after a while, then the chime goes off again. You correct your posture again and bit by bit you create a habit of holding better posture.