The Comeback Trail

Get on the road to renewed fitness and health.

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‘Too Old’ To Get In Shape?

March 19th, 2010 · Fitness, Motivation

Obviously there’s no such thing, but in case you have any lingering doubts, I refer you to this inspiring Massachusetts woman who, at age 60, started working out at her local gym for two hours a day, five days a week.

Oh, by the way, that was 30 years ago. And Anna Sudman, now 90, is still showing up, knocking off three miles on a treadmill run, doing 200 sit-ups, spinning, and participating in muscle-conditioning and cardio-kickboxing classes. It’s a story well worth reading, and an example well worth following.

– Chris Nerney

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Exercises To Avoid: The Upright Row

February 12th, 2010 · Exercises, Exercises To Avoid, Weightlifting, Workout Tips

I’ve decided to start a regular series featuring exercises and machines you shouldn’t use, especially if you’re older. And the reason why you shouldn’t use each of the exercises I’ll feature will always be the same: You can get injured (or worse).

We’ll begin with the upright row. It’s usually done with a barbell and weights, but also can be done with dumbbells, a cable machine or resistance bands. The upright row is designed primarily to work the trapezius (neck) and deltoid (shoulder) muscles. Here’s an example with an Olympic barbell (which weighs 44 pounds):

Why you shouldn’t do it

In the video embedded above, trainer Mike Behnken says, “If you have shoulder problems, upright row is not a good exercise to perform because it can cause rotator cuff impingement and shoulder pain.” I’ll go a step further and say that if you don’t have shoulder problems, doing upright rows would be a good way to get them. In the March issue of Men’s Fitness magazine, trainer Jeff Cavaliere explains, “One of the tests physical therapists use to screen for shoulder impingement puts your shoulder in the exact position that it takes at the top of an upright row. Not good. Doing that is like begging for a shoulder injury.”

That’s because you’re taking a joint to the limits of its natural plane of motion — and you’re doing it with heavy weights. And if you’re using a narrow grip on the bar, you’re also creating an unnatural strain on your wrists that isn’t necessary.

What to do instead

You can give your traps a good workout with shoulder shrugs and your deltoids with dumbbell raises (front, lateral and at a 45-degree angle). Examples of shrugs and lateral dumbbell raises below:

The technique is the same for the front and angled dumbbell raises. The important points are to bend the knees and not raise the dumbbells above shoulder level.

-- Chris Nerney

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Variety Is The Key to Staying On The Comeback Trail

February 8th, 2010 · Fitness, Health and Fitness News, Motivation

There’s a good (and long) article in the Montreal Gazette about the growing variety of group exercise classes offered at gyms and health clubs. And it gets to one of the fundamental challenges of maintaining fitness: Your routine can get boring. Which is deadly, because boredom leads to poor workouts, then missed workouts, and then no workouts. We’ve all been on that program.

The way to avoid that fate is to mix up your fitness routine. Variety is important not just because it keeps you on the comeback trail, but because it prevents you from “plateauing”. The body’s ability to adapt is what enables your muscles to grow and your cardiovascular system to become more efficient. As you put increased demands on your body — lifting more weight or improving your running pace — it meets those demands by adapting. That’s called plateauing.

Ironically, this adaptability can work against you. As the body changes to accommodate the increased demands put upon it, it no longer needs to adapt, and thus stops stronger, faster and more efficient. That’s why people who do the same exact workout all the time don’t improve. They’re no longer challenging their bodies sufficiently to force change.

That’s the theory behind sports periodization training, in which workouts are planned in staged cycles, with alterations made regarding frequency, duration and intensity. It’s also the basis of Tony Horton’s P90X workout system, which includes 12 different workout DVDs. Horton says his goal is to create “muscle confusion”, but it’s the same thing: Mixing up your workout routines so that your body doesn’t have an opportunity to plateau.

– Chris Nerney

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Best Way to Beat The Winter Blues

February 4th, 2010 · Fitness, Motivation

For many people, winter is the hardest season. The days are shorter and it’s bitterly cold (in many regions), meaning fewer outdoor activities. And that can make it harder to stay in shape if your thing is running, biking, rollerblading or any outdoor aerobic activity that doesn’t involve wearing clothing made by Polartec.

All of which can make winter depression even worse. And once that downward emotional cycle accelerates, it’s April before you know it and you’re still soft, flabby, out of breath — and hating life.

Well, you can’t do much about the shorter days and cold weather, except wait. But there’s one thing you can do to help combat the winter blues: Get in shape. You always feel better when you’re healthy and strong. Exercise increases your energy level by improving your cardiovascular health, which increases your endurance. Strenuous physical activity also increases your body’s levels of endorphins, hormones that can give you a sense of euphoria. Which is the perfect antidote to winter lethargy.

And don’t wait for the ideal moment or until you’ve finalized a detailed workout schedule. That’s procrastinating. Just start doing something today. If you hate your treadmill, make yourself go outside for a run. Yes, even if it’s cold. I’ve dreaded every winter run I’ve ever went on, but I always felt great after finishing them. If you can’t bear the cold, then make yourself use the treadmill or spinner (which used to be called an exercise bike). Or put in one of the fitness DVDs you ordered last year and never have opened. If you belong to a gym and stopped going, start going again. Whatever it takes. You’ll work out a schedule as you go along, and you’ll gravitate toward exercises and activities you enjoy. The key is to get it started.

– Chris Nerney

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Fun Facts and Timely Tips For Heart Month

February 3rd, 2010 · Fitness, Health and Fitness News, Humor

I knew February was Black History Month, but I never knew February also was Heart Month. At least until I ran across this list of “28 tips for 28 days of heart healthy ways” published by the American Heart Association. Here are a few items worth highlighting:

“You’ll gain about two hours of life expectancy for each hour of regular exercise you do.”

So by getting and staying in shape, not only are you enabling yourself to feel better now, you’re putting extra years in the bank. That’s a powerful argument for fitness.

“Americans watch an average of four hours of TV per day. Why not spend that time watching and exercising? Do floor work, sit-ups, push-ups and leg lifts to get your body moving. Add hand weights or use a stationary bicycle, treadmill or stair climber to make the most out your viewing hours.”

You can do this while watching any television show. For viewers of The Biggest Loser, though, it should be mandatory. That’s just one man’s opinion.

“To lose a pound of fat, you have to burn 3,500 calories or eat 3,500 fewer calories. Exercises with the most calorie-burning potential: boxing, bicycling, running even belly-dancing burns more than most exercises! Try adding a few high-energy classes to your exercise routine.”

I know a lot of people hate running — all my whiny friends certainly do — but it’s incredibly efficient at burning calories. If you don’t enjoy running by yourself, finding a partner can make it more tolerable. Biking also is great at burning calories, and it’s more enjoyable than running because there’s a Zen aspect to biking that running lacks.

“Drop that mocha latte! There may be hidden calories and fat in your hot beverage! Many take-out beverages contain more than 300 calories per serving that’s about as much as a small order of fries!”

What does the American Heart Association know? Maybe those do-gooders should mind their own business.

— Chris Nerney

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Your Fitness Quote of the Day

February 2nd, 2010 · Humor

Prison “is not like LA Fitness or Bally’s.”

Former New York Giant receiver Plaxico Burress, talking about how he works out as best he can while serving a two-year sentence for New York state gun-law violations. Burress was interviewed by his former Pittsburgh Steelers coach, Bill Cowher, in a segment that will air on CBS’s NFL Today before the Super Bowl.

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10-Minute Workouts: Too Good To Be True?

February 1st, 2010 · Exercises, Fitness, Products

Is it a case of giving people what they really need — or merely what they’ll buy?

From Reuters:

The American Council on Exercise has listed shorter, more intense workouts among the top exercise trends for 2010, as consumers approach fitness with time and money in mind.

Taking aim at the time-challenged and the easily bored alike are DVDs offering fitness in 10-minute morsels. …To date there are 25 “10 Minute Solution” DVDs, with workouts ranging from Latin Dance Mix, to Boot Camp to Pilates.

Not surprisingly, fitness professionals who aren’t hawking 10-minute fitness systems are skeptical.

Dr. Philip S. Clifford, an expert with the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), questions whether the 10-minute concept is demanding enough.

“Exercising in short spurts may be an effective way for some people to fit exercise into their busy schedules,” said Clifford, a professor of anaesthesiology and physiology with the Medical College of Wisconsin.

“My concern is that it seems easier to get busy and skip a 10-minute segment or two,” Clifford explained. “There is no way that 10 minutes of aerobic exercise is adequate for maintaining cardiovascular fitness or aiding in weight loss.”

Absolutely true. However, I’ll offer one caveat regarding strength training. A smartly designed program — one that minimizes down-time and uses compound sets (back-to-back exercises that work the same muscles) or supersets (back-to-back exercises that work different muscles) — can get you pretty toned up.

I haven’t tried any of the 10-minute workout DVDs, but here’s a link to a SparkPeople discussion thread about Tony Horton’s 10 Minute Trainer, which gets almost unanimous positive reviews (not so Beachbody, distributor of the DVD).

How about any of you guys? Anyone try one of the commercial 10-minute workouts? Or even a 10-minute workout you designed yourself? And if not, do you think 10-minute daily workouts are enough to keep people in shape? Please feel free to comment below.

– Chris Nerney

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Being Stupid At the Gym (So You Don’t Have To Be)

January 27th, 2010 · Exercises, Gyms and Health Clubs, Injuries, Workout Tips

As I mentioned in my first post, I earned a certificate as a personal trainer from the National Academy of Sports Medicine a couple of years ago. I also mentioned that I’m 54 years old. Unfortunately, poor judgment sometimes has a way of circumventing training and experience. Read on.

Like many older people (athletic and non-athletic), I have my share of chronic injuries — nothing dramatic, but they’re there. The most consistently painful is plantar fasciitis, a common running injury that I got, oddly enough, running. I’ve had it for more than a year. At the risk of getting too “medical” on you, it sucks. I also have a persistent problem with one of the fibular ligaments in my left ankle, which often feels on the verge of a slight sprain. I probably should get an MRI. In addition, I’m pretty sure I have slight arthritis in my wrists, though flare-ups are fairly rare.

Then there’s my back. I have a bulging (or herniated) disc in the area of the L5 vertebra, which most of us know as the lower back. As anyone with lower-back pain will attest, it can be debilitating. Fortunately, I can go months and months without it bothering me at all. There is, however, a big downside to those long periods of dormancy: I convince myself that the condition somehow has been “cured.” Which leads (finally!) to my stupidity at the gym.

I was dedicating the session to lower body and core work and decided to use the leg press machine. The one I used is almost identical to the machine pictured below (image courtesy of JUMPUSA.com), except it had stacked plates.

Ye Olde Leg Press (Courtesy JUMPUSA.com)

I did a light set to warm up, then did another at around my body weight. My back still felt fine, yet my quads wanted more! So I added another 50 pounds or so and did a third set. While I could have put up more weight, the amount I used seemed sufficient to give my quads a good workout.

About two seconds after I got off the machine, I realized I had made a big mistake: Namely, that I did an exercise which focused a tremendous amount of force directly on my lower back, thus compressing the vertebrae. I was in moderate pain for the rest of the workout. This went away the day after. Bullet dodged, right? Wrong: Two days later, just carrying my laptop in a backpack was almost excruciating.

Based on experience, I expect my current lumbar flare-up to subside in a week or so. Then I’ll be back to normal. In the meantime, here’s the dual moral of my story:

1) Never forget your limitations when working out. If you have a chronic injury or weakness — especially in a joint — avoid any exercise or machine that’s likely to cause a re-injury (or worse).

2) Don’t let your muscles do your thinking for you. Sadly, my quads didn’t get the memo that I should avoid compressing my vertebrae. It was up to me to remember that, and I should have known better.

I hope someone learns from my mistake, because I don’t plan to demonstrate the lesson again.

– Chris Nerney

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Jane Fonda Wants Boomers to Feel the Burn

January 25th, 2010 · Health and Fitness News, Products

To many, she’ll always be “Hanoi Jane” (just check the vitriolic comments in this article from England’s Telegraph web site), but for millions of exercise enthusiasts around the world, 72-year-old actress Jane Fonda is the person who brought the then-burgeoning fitness craze into their homes with her 1982 aerobics video, Jane Fonda’s Workout.

Now Fonda is planning a return to the mats with a workout DVD targeting older people who are out of shape. From her blog:

I’m excited because things are falling into place for my 2 new exercise DVDs (used to be videos). We will film them mid March. Lionsgate will distribute. They have 8 of the top 10 exercise programs. But mine will target an audience that has been left out: MY age group and the boomers. I want to get to people who have stopped working out, or never did, or… I can’t wait. They won’t be released, though till beginning of 2011.

Fonda’s site features a 23-minute clip from one of her old videos (Jane, two words: embed code). Personally, I find Fonda’s cheerful demeanor as she leads the aerobics session to be in pleasant contrast to the grim, drill-instructor approach of contemporary trainer/sadists such as Jillian Michaels, who would consider it her professional responsibility to beat the smiles out of the two women training with Jane. “Oh, you think this is fun, do you? See how much fun it is three hours from now when you’re still doing it!”

Yeah, yeah, yeah, she gets results. But as I’ve said before, you can get results without being an abusive psycho. I doubt anyone who has watched Tony Horton (P90X) train people on one of his DVDs would say he’s taking it easy on people. And if you checked the video posted on her site, you’ll notice that Fonda and her workout partners aren’t exactly soft and pudgy. In fact, I prefer their bodies to the hard, hollow-cheeked looks of Jillian Michaels and Madonna any day.

– Chris Nerney

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Make Inertia Your Bitch

January 21st, 2010 · Fitness, Motivation

in·er·tia (ĭ-nûrˈshə). noun. The tendency of a body at rest to remain at rest or of a body in motion to stay in motion, unless acted upon by a force.

As far as I know, Sir Isaac Newton was more physics expert than fitness expert. But his First Law of Motion, from which the concept of inertia was derived, offers an important insight for people trying to stay on The Comeback Trail.

Even the most dedicated people will occasionally miss a scheduled workout, usually for reasons beyond their control, such as work and family responsibilities, illness or injuries. Nothing wrong with that; life has a way of disrupting our best-laid plans. But when a layoff of a few days turns into weeks of inactivity, that’s inertia working against you.

Fortunately, the flip side of inertia (a body in motion tends to stay in motion) can be just as powerful. Even the most modest efforts to kick-start your workout regimen — deciding to get on the floor and do 30 pushups, say, or going out for an easy three-mile run — can quickly get you back on track. It means you have to impose your will on inertia — that’s the “force” acting upon it — but once you do, Sir Isaac’s theory starts working in your favor, and you’ll find yourself right back in the workout groove.

– Chris Nerney

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