Sarcopenia is a word used to mean wasting of muscle that occurs naturally with age. Most people’s bodies lose about 10% of muscle mass each decade once they reach their thirties. This accelerates dramatically once the age of sixty is reached. This muscle wastage has many undesirable effects, among them:

• Trouble with balance and, as a result, a higher chance of falling (a major problem for the elderly)
• Poor recovery from disease or surgery. Muscle provides a storehouse of protein to aid efficient recovery and when it’s absent, recovery is slow or non-existent
• Lack of strength and power resulting in dependence on others to get in and out of the bath or even into and out of bed in some cases
• Osteoporisis – a disease whereby bones become porous and fragile
• Increased fat deposits (as muscle mass decreases, metabolism slows down so fewer daily calories are burned, resulting in greater fat storage)

There are no drugs to stop sarcopenia, the only weapon against it is to maintain muscle mass and the only way to do this is with some form of resistance training, whether it be using your own body weight (as with push-ups, chin-ups, dips or body-weight squats), using free weight and machine weights or doing physical work like digging ditches or loading bricks.

In our personal training business we are seeing more people over fifty who have realized they need to maintain their muscle mass and who are doing so very successfully with carefully programmed, fun exercises that include good doses of resistance training. There’s no better time than the present to get started and, the good news is, it’s never too late to get started.

Probably the best way to overcome any barrier is to, firstly, know what it is. If you know what you’re dealing with you can plan ahead on how you will deal with it when it comes your way.

Getting into shape can be a constant battle with your body when you start, especially if you’ve been inactive for any length of time. The biggest barrier to fitness is simply getting started. This makes complete sense if you understand the Law of Inertia – an object at rest tends to stay at rest while an object in motion will tend to continue in that same motion unless acted upon by an outside force. Your body, in the case of starting a fitness program, is the object, and if it’s been “at rest” (sedentary is a nice way to put it, otherwise known as bone lazy) it’s naturally going to want to stay that way and it WILL take considerable force (from you and, if necessary, a competent fitness coach or personal trainer) to get it active.

This is a kind of chicken before the egg proposition – is your body or are you the barrier here? If you think of your body as an object and you’re the driving force, then it all becomes simple – not necessarily easy, but simple nonetheless. Your body is resisting change – it wants to stay on the couch. YOU are going to have to get it moving.

Here’s the (almost) no fail method:

1. Hire a competent personal trainer to help get you started. This way you’ll have a team of two against the wily ways of your body. The trainer should know what he’s doing (or she as the case may be) so you can rest assured you won’t be wasting your time.
2. Follow the trainer’s advice – do the extra work on your own, keep a food diary, drink the extra water and slow down on the alcohol. Ignoring your trainer’s advice is like shooting yourself in the foot.
3. Ask questions, find people who are on a similar journey, join fitness forums online.
4. Eat well – it might take planning out your weekly meals and making lunches in advance. Eating poorly is just asking for your body to kick you in the teeth and going on strike.
5. Sleep well – getting enough rest is in the same category as eating well. You’ll get less complaints from a well-rested body.
6. Drink enough water. This takes planning too. Don’t skimp on it – very often you think you need a hit of sugar when your body is actually thirsty. Leaving it until you feel parched is leaving it way too late. A good test: your urine should be clear.

Good luck in overcoming the biggest barrier to fitness. It can be done, it has been done countless times and you can do it too.

Feel free to email us at rudi@gofitnow.com if you want any more advice or help.

• Today we are going to do a core workout without the use of any equipment.
• Before starting your workout, you should warm up for at least 10 minutes.
• There are two ways to do the exercises that are coming up: you can time them and hold or you can do repetitions.
• First we’ll do a series of planks.
• The easiest plank to start off with is on the knees. You can hold and time it or do it in repetitions, whatever you decided to go with. Keep your torso in line, knees on the floor and you’ll be holding your upper body off the ground with your hands.
• The next plank is the normal plank. It looks like a push-up, but you hold up your upper body with your forearms. You are going to lift up and hold and to make it even tougher you can get into the normal push-up position (on hands, not forearms). Again, you can hold the position and time how long you can stay up or do repetitions.
• For the next exercise you are going to get onto your side with your knees slightly bent and you are going to push your torso up with the arm closest to the floor. Up and down (repetitions). To make this harder you can put your legs out straight. You can bring your other arm down to the floor to assist you if your supporting arm gets too tired. To make it even harder than that, keep both legs out straight and don’t use your arm to help you.
• For the next exercise you are going to lay on the ground on your back with your knees bent and your arms will push your torso up. You are going to lift your back up and hold. Then bring it down, lift it back up, and hold again. A reverse plank.
• Once you have completed the sets that you choose for each of these exercises, you are going to cool down and stretch.
• That’s a good, fast and simple core workout and all you need is your own body to get great results.

Here is the transcript for the video – Safe and Easy Lower Back Stretches. We have had many people get relief and increased movement into their backs from doing these simple and safe lower back stretches.

“Hi, this is Rudi and Tracey Marashlian. Today we are going to give you a sample of a little routine that we do with a lot of people that really helps their lower back discomfort or pain and you can make it a little harder or easier as you go.

“One of the key things is how do you get into the stretch. You will need to have a mat on the ground and you will move in sideways and then you lean back and lift up your legs and you want them to be as close as possible to the wall. Ideally, if you can straighten your legs, that is great, but if not, and a lot of people can’t when they first start off, you can leave them slightly bent. The goal is to eventually be able to straighten your legs against the wall.

“So once you have your legs against the wall, you hold them up there for 30-60 seconds. Once you have done that, you go to stretch number two where you bring your legs apart. You bring them out as far as you can, but not to the point of pain, with the stretches you just want to feel a little bit of discomfort. Once this stretch is done for around the same amount of time, you are going to go to Stretch 3: this one is a groin stretch. You are going to bring your legs in so that your feet are touching each other, like if you were going a butterfly stretch on the ground, but you are against the wall, and you are going to push on your legs, which is when you will feel the stretch and you are going to hold that one for the same amount of time as the others.

“After you have done those three, you are going to do a bridge against the wall and slowly bring it up and down. This is going to stretch the spine. Once you have done that a few times, you are going to keep your back up and leave one foot on the wall and bring the other across the first and push. Make sure you are breathing the whole time. This is going to stretch the hips and the bottom muscles. While you are doing this stretch, slowly lower your back to the ground, if you feel pain, then back off the stretch. Once you have done one side, switch to the other doing it the exact same way.

“Once done with that, you are going to do lower back rotations. You will put both feet back on the wall and lower your back down to the ground and you want to your knees and hips to be positioned in a 90-degree angle. Your knees are going to be together and your arms should be positioned in a way that will keep them on the ground. You are going to move your legs, keeping them together, from one side, slowly to the other side. If you’re sitting down all day, this is going to release your back.

“After doing that, you are going to slide back on the mat and do some bridging. You are going to keep your legs bent and feet on the ground with your hands flat by your sides. You will lift your bottom up and down. Once done with those, the last stretch you will do will strengthen the tummy muscles. You will get into a plank position, but you will keep your knees on the ground.

“Make sure you are breathing the whole time you are doing these stretches. If you don’t have a stop watch, you can count breaths; one breath in slowly and one breath out and you might do about 5 breaths for each stretch. This is a great little routine that will give you some strength and some more mobility around the lower back.”

My daughter recently took a nutrition course at a local junior college and the data she was taught was very much aligned with what ACSM was promoting – high daily carbohydrate consumption and relatively low protein consumption. It leads me to wonder who is paying for the research? We know that the money in the food industry mostly comes from corporations that sell carbohydrates – Coke, Kellogs, Cadburys, Nestle, etc. Smaller food producers don’t have the kind of money available to finance longer term scientific studies. Just a thought.

On the other side of the coin, some people subscribe to very low carbohydrate diets (the Atkins Diet is a famous example). There was a study done and reported in the October 2007 issue of the  Journal of the American Dietetic Association to determine whether low-carb diets might result in early fatigue or affect the desire to exercise – keep in mind that for people who work out, the degree of carbohydrate restriction is very important because reduced tissue glycogen stores (a form of carbohydrate that supplies instant access energy to the muscles) are known to cause increased fatigue during exercise.

There were two groups of untrained, overweight people. The ketogenic* group ate a diet very low in carbs (5% of energy), high in fat (65% of energy) with the rest of daily energy coming from protein (30%). The control group ate a conventional low-carbohydrate diet (40% carbs, 30% fats, 30% protein). At the end of the study it was found that both groups were equally effective at inducing weight loss and reducing fat mass (no data on whether they also maintained muscle mass) however, the “ketogenic” group had greater feelings of fatigue during exercise and also believed they’d worked harder than the group that ate more carbohydrates.

The researchers went on to suggest that people who want to lose weight should eat, “Moderate amounts of carbohydrate (35 to 40% of energy) from vegetables, fruit, whole grains and also should eat ample protein (up to 30% of energy).”

So what’s our recommended course of action to lose weight effectively? Definitely maintain an exercise routine (exercise has too many health benefits to leave it out of the equation, including the fact that people who exercise are more likely to maintain their weight loss than people who don’t exercise) and eat a diet with 35 to 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30% fat – check out The Zone for a great example of how to do this effectively.

*ketogenic: describes a state in which the body, after all carbohydrate stores have been used, produces ketones (water-soluble compounds that come from the breakdown of stored fatty acids and are used as a source of energy for the heart and brain when there is no carbohydrate for the body to use as energy). It occurs when the body doesn’t get enough carbohydrate and so has to get energy from its fatty acid stores.

For a long time scientists thought that only aerobic exercises, like running, had    any prominent effect on the body’s metabolism, but recently, studies were done that  showed that strength training influences the body’s metabolism in a large way.  This is because strength training helps reduce blood glucose very specifically.

First of all, when doing any kind of exercise, the body uses excess glucose as  necessary fuel. When doing strength training, the body uses excess glucose as well  as building muscle. Building extra muscle provides the body with a larger storage  area for glucose and both factors of using the excess glucose and building more muscle improve the body’s glucose processing, which is very important in preventing type 2 diabetes.

The most popular form of strength training is weight training. Weight training is done by using weights stacks, dumbbells, bands, body weight and so on to oppose muscle contraction. Some examples of this are bent over-rows, dumbbell presses, pull-ups, dumbbell lunges, triceps dips, and free-weight squats. You can learn how to do these through video tutorials and also by getting a competent personal fitness trainer.

According the the American College of Sports Medicine’s Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2012, strength training is currently number 2 on the list with Pilates  and balance ball training dropping off the list completely. “It is common for cardiac rehabilitation, pulmonary rehabilitation, or metabolic disease management programs to include some form of weight training in the exercise prescription.”

Remember, having a healthy diet is also a very important way to help prevent type 2 diabetes. Make sure you aren’t eating too many sugary and junk foods. Also make sure you are eating the right amount of vegetables and just in general have your diet balanced. Doing strength training along with having a good diet is a sure way to prevent diabetes.

1/2 cup non-fat cottage cheese                                                                      

1/2 cup oats

2 eggs

pinch of cinnamon

honey (according to your taste)

coconut oil for greasing the pan (you can go with butter for added decadence or olive oil if you want to go the unsaturated way)

frozen berries (for the topping)

low-fat Greek yogurt (for the topping)

TOPPING:

Put a cup or more of frozen berries into a saucepan. Cook on medium high and stir until the berries are warm and the juices are released to form a light syrup. Use this and some low fat Greek yogurt for a delicious topping.

METHOD:

Put the oats into a food processor and grind until powdery then add the cottage cheese, eggs, cinnamon and honey. Mix thoroughly to form a smooth batter.

Heat a pan, smear with coconut oil, butter or olive oil. Once hot, pour some batter onto the pan. When you see bubbles forming, turn the pancake over with a spatula until the other side is cooked.

Make sure your pan isn’t too hot otherwise your pancakes will burn – it pays to be patient. Once you have the right temperature the pancakes cook quickly.

Serve the pancakes topped with the warmed berries and Greek yogurt for a very healthy breakfast treat.

RECIPE MAKES 4 PANCAKES

The neck, technically called the cervical spine, has four main muscles and it is more vulnerable to injury that the rest of the spine. Instead of being enclosed by the torso (or core), it is encased by a relatively small number of muscles and ligaments in relation to the amount of movement it does.

Think about the vital structures that are part of the neck – the airway, spinal cord and major blood vessels that supply the brain. If any one of these gets damaged, loss of life can occur quickly. Sorry about the dramatics, but you need to get the importance here – it’s not merely an aesthetic choice to do neck exercises.

Here are some very simple neck exercises:

Forward Neck Press – You can do this sitting or standing. Place your hands on your forehead and look straight ahead. Then press your hands against your head while at the same time lowering it towards your chest. Do this slowly. Repeat 10 times.

Side Neck Press – Now place your right hand on the right side of your head and push your head and hand together gently. Hold the tension for about 10 seconds before releasing. Repeat 10 times then do the same on your left.

Rear Neck Press – Place both hands behind your head. Apply resistance through them and try to move your head back. Hold the tension for about 10 seconds before releasing. Repeat 10 times.

Make sure you use your hands to brace against the pressure you apply as they will not only help increase the tension to build strength, but also support the head to ensure your neck remains fully supported.

Posture is defined as skeletal and muscular balance of the body that allows it to move in certain ways and stay in certain positions without causing it injury. It has been found that misaligned skeletal framework of a body (most importantly the spine) can cause a multitude of health problems. The largest of these problems would be the obstruction of messages from the nervous system to other parts of the body, since the spine is necessary in order to get messages to and from the brain. This is a huge concern as the nervous system plays a large part in regulating the other systems of the body.

The most common form of poor posture is forward-head posture (FHP). People generally develop this misalignment by sitting at a desk for too long, driving, playing video games and so on. If parts of the body are out of their optimal alignment for too long, the muscles begin to adapt by either shortening or lengthening. This results in muscle imbalances and can create problems with nerve tissue. FHP, specifically, has been shown to cause restricted motion of the neck and cause chronic neck pain.

When having poor posture in general, the body is balanced less efficiently. This causes an undesirable effect on how well the body moves. It has been shown that poor posture causes unnecessary pain during pregnancy and is also associated with increased falls in elderly people.[1]

From the above you can see why having optimal posture is so important. But what exactly is optimal posture? Optimal posture consists of keeping your head neutral, no forward of backward tilt, having a slight curve in your spine, and keeping your shoulders down and back, not slumped forward and not pulled unnaturally too far back.

Having good posture is important at all stages of a person’s life. Make sure that you keep your head neutral and shoulders aligned properly and you will not only reap the benefits of good posture but you will also train your muscles to stay in the correct position to hold your skeleton together properly well into old age.

What’s So Great About Vitamin D?

1. When you have enough vitamin D in your body, more leptin is released than usual. Leptin tells your body when you’re full. An Australian study showed that people who ate a breakfast high in vitamin D and calcium blunted their appetites for the next 24 hours.
2. With enough vitamin D in your bloodstream, fat cells slow their efforts to make and store fat according to Dr. Holick, M.D., Ph.D., author of The Vitamin D Solution. Whenever your vitamin D levels are low, parathyroid hormone (PTH) and calcitrol (another hormone) levels are high and when you have high levels of these two hormones your body tends to hold onto fat. A Norwegian study found that elevated PTH levels increased male risk of becoming overweight by 40 percent!
3. Vitamin D can help you lose fat all over your body, but especially from your belly. Studies at the University of Minnesota and Laval University found that vitamin D triggers weight loss primarily around the belly.

The Institute of Medicine recently increased the amount of daily vitamin D to 600 international units (IU) but there are some scientists who argue even that is not enough. The Endocrine Society recently released a revised recommendation of 1,500 to 2,000 IU.

According to Dr. Horlick, obese people (people with a body mass index of above 30)need two to five times the vitamin D of lean people – a dosage that should be monitored by a doctor. This is because fat cells tend to trap vitamin D so less is available in your bloodstream.

So how can you make sure you’re getting enough vitamin D? Going out into the sun might not be enough these days – the pollution in our air filters vitamin D-containing UVB rays and there’s also the worry of skin cancer to consider. There are, however, some healthy, nutrient and vitamin D-rich foods available to help you get more D.

EGGS:

Eggs not only contain vitamin D, they are also packed with protein and have omega-3 fatty acids. Eating an egg for breakfast while reducing overall calories can improve weight loss by 65% and reduce appetite throughout the day (according to two Saint Louis University studies).

FATTY FISH:

Fatty fish includes salmon and mackerel and they contain up to four times the vitamin D of lean or white fish. These fatty fish varieties also offer high levels of omega-3 fatty acids. Go for the wild varieties – a Boston University study found that farmed salmon has just 25 percent of the vitamin D of wild salmon – wild salmon get their vitamin D from eating nutrient-rich plankton while farmed salmon eat feed pellets.

DAIRY:

Most milk products contain calcium as well as vitamin D – we already know how calcium plus vitamin D can blunt the appetite for up to 24 hours – so this could be a good choice to pump up vitamin D levels for people who can tolerate dairy products.

VITAMIN D SUPPLEMENTS:

Vitamin D supplements are fine but, it appears vitamin D works best in combination with other nutrients (like calcium), so your best bet is to eat whole foods rich in this awesome vitamin rather than take a bunch of pills.

Obviously, we’re not advocating you go nuts and eat a dozen eggs for breakfast, but modifying your diet a bit to include a couple of eggs, fruit and low fat yogurt for breakfast along with some healthy servings of fatty fish throughout the week can’t hurt. If you’re concerned about your vitamin D levels, see your doctor or nutritionist.

A balanced exercise plan along with a healthy, nutrition-dense diet will go a long way to improving your waistline, energy levels and your overall good health and longevity.

Tracey Marashlian