I can’t seem to run as fast as I could. I have aches and pains in my joints. How much of my problems are a part of aging, and what am I willing to give up?

A few years ago I was half way up Mount Rainier. I thought I had prepared myself adequately. I was 56 at the time. I didn’t make it and it was one of the few times in my life I missed a peak. Rainier was an important to me. I had planned on this summit for years. Now I was there and this was the time. The few weeks after that event caused me to learn a very valuable lesson.

I had pain everywhere. The bottoms of my feet hurt. My ankles hurt, my knees and hips hurt. I was so disappointed that I didn’t summit on Mt. Rainier, I was determined that I would do what I could to continue hiking and climbing regardless of the cost. Was I just getting old. Was it time for me to adjust my expectations for myself?

I lived in the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon along the western edge of the Wasatch Mountains (upper east bench of Salt Lake City). I decided I would revisit as many of the hikes I had taken and peaks I had climbed over the previous years as I could. I began hiking the easy trails in Millcreek and Big Cottonwood canyons. Before each hike I wrapped my ankles. I purchased insoles for my sore feet. I placed warming supports around my knees. I took a couple of ibuprofen and started out. I did this for four weeks. What happened next caught me off guard.

About four weeks later, I started feeling pretty good again. I realized that I had strengthened muscles that had grown weak and flabby. As these muscles started doing their work again, my aches and pains slowly disappeared. I took out the insoles, quit wrapping my ankles, and stopped wearing the knee warmers. By the end of that year I was hiking pain free and pushing myself as hard as I had twenty years earlier. I recorded that year on my Maintain Fit personal journal. My last hike that year was a winter ascent on Mount Olympus between Christmas and the new year. I recorded 80,000 vertical feet and 180 miles of trails. Along the way I summited 37 peaks.

What if I had decided that I was too old and that my body was telling me to slow down. To this day I would still have those sore feet, and probably several more problems. The pattern is all too clear. One problem cascades into several. We don’t always know when we can work ourselves out of a problem, or whether it truly is the end of an era. But we will never know if we don’t test it. I am older now. I really am slowing down, but I have tested the theory again this past six months. I broke my femur in July. Once again, I worked hard to get back to my best level of performance (whatever that is, not what it was) and my body is once again responding to hard work and consistency. I don’t hear people talking about this miracle of recovery, especially for older men and women. I may never get back to the tough peaks, but I am on the trails, in the river, walking, hiking and climbing again.

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Get started today with a free exercise log from Maintain Fit
Photography by Elise McLaughlin

It is January. I have been surprised at how busy the gym is. I usually go when fewer people attend so I can enjoy the relative loneliness of a workout. I realized that it is January. Each January and into a little of February people are still working on New Year’s Resolutions. In two more weeks the gym will be quiet again. The larger question is how to stay motivated. Whether your personal choice is running, hiking, weights, aerobics, etc, how do you keep from burning out? Look to your dreams.

My preference is trails and peaks. I love to gain altitude and feel my heart pumping and my lungs taking the punishment. Unfortunately, I broke my femur in July. During my recovery, two dreams have driven me to recuperate. The first dream is one I have had several times in the last twenty plus years. I am running on a trail. It is autumn; I am in the oak brush and mountain maples. The ground cover of tall grass and low bushes is turning yellow. The trail is winding with small spurts of ups and downs and I am running. I feel great. I feel strong and my running is effortless.

Can you imagine a better motivator? That is why I must go to the gym, and get up on the trails. I am too young to give up that piece of my life. I am reminded (in three dimensional full life images with every sense fully engaged) that this is what I love. And I don’t want to give it up.
The other dream is quite opposite. We all have dreams that are somewhat similar. The common thread in these dreams is weakness. I am trying to run from something frightening but I can’t. I am in slow motion grabbing the cracks in the concrete to pull myself along. Since my accident this dream has adjusted to fit my scenario. My accident has left my legs weak, especially my thighs. In my dreams now I fall to the ground but I can’t get up. I am struggling to push myself to a standing position. Last night I was being chased by a huge cinnamon colored grizzly bear who talked. As he approached me I knew that he was going to come after me. I asked, “Is it my turn?”. He responded that it was. The weakness in my legs was enlarged in my dream.

Once again, what a powerful motivator. Each time this dream, or similar one occurs, I wake and remember why I can’t slack off. I am reminded from the depths of my own brain that I must and I will keep working to have the personal strength and health to perform at my best levels. I got up this morning and went for hike. An inch of new snow covered the already two or three feet on the trail. I only got a mile up the trail, but I was on a trail.

I will be on the trail or in the gym next December with a small handful of other diehards. These dreams are even motivating me to run, which I dislike. I am up to one and half miles now. I am so grateful when I am now on a trail, or walking along a stream, or kicking through the fast water that I am back doing the things I love.

I know you have dreams and some of them are like mine. Use their power to keep you doing what you love.

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Get started today with a free exercise log from Maintain Fit
Photography by Sara Moses

This last few months has had more than its share of sickness. We have the regular flu which kills about 35,000 Americans yearly. In addition to that we have had the Swine Flu. Other colds and flu viruses have kept American families hopping with one child, a parent, another sibling and so on sick until it seems some families have been sick for many weeks at a time.

Remember that one of the best ways to keep immunities high is to keep active. Regular trips to the gym, and or maintaining your personal exercise routine is the modern apple a day. You know this. You have heard your friends, family and the small communities of people with whom you share your particular passions the stories of how they got sick when they quit running, hiking, swimming, etc for a few weeks. This fact keeps many of us maintaining our routines.

Be smart. If it is too cold, or the roads are icy, make adjustments. If work gets hectic, or schedules fill up, make adjustments. Sometimes taking a week or two off can help sore muscles heal, and tendons repair themselves. But the trick is to get back to some kind of activity quickly. Run stairs at work. Do leg exercises in your cubicle. Do the low crawl as you do housework. Park your car at the far end of the parking lot. Put your fry sauce at the far end of the counter so you have to reach farther.

Nothing good can happen in your life without personal discipline. This is another word for sacrifice. Sacrifice bears its own special fruit. One of the choice fruits of regular exercise is health. Our immune systems are stronger. We are susceptible to fewer illnesses. This connection between regular exercise and strong immune systems has been demonstrated. We know it works, and it is cheap. We all have other people, our jobs, our children, who need us. When they get sick, or have their emergencies, it is we who fill in and make life work. Stay healthy and keep exercising for your sake and the sakes of the people who depend on you.

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Get started today with a free exercise log from Maintain Fit

Over the years I’ve done a number of surveys and polls for people that come to my web site. There are two primary drivers for most people that end up at maintainfit.com and they are to:

1. Lose Weight
2. Stay motivated

The thing that I find so interesting is that they searched for something like exercise log, rather than just searching for lose weight. What I’ve observed is that most of the population wants to achieve these two goals, but only a few are willing to put in the effort to get there. Everyone else wants a free ride.

That’s interesting, but not as interesting as the thing they don’t tell me. The more I dig into what people tell me in my surveys, the more convinced I am that what they really want is a better looking body.

Body image trumps all

What people want is to look beautiful or handsome. They want others to see them as sexy and attractive. It’s the ideal body image that their really after.

That’s why I wrote this post about not believing everything you see. As it turns out, the body image we’re all seeking isn’t always achievable. There are some really skilled makeup and touch up artists in the world.

So I know there is a group of people that want to lose weight and are willing to do the work to get there. The question I have now is whether or not those people have a more realistic attitude about what their body image should be. I know that the more healthy I live, the more my opinion changes. I don’t need to look like the Incredible Hulk anymore. It’s enough to feel healthy and know that I’m doing all I can to avoid an early heart attack.

And when you do meet one of those 1 in a million people that approximate that perfect body image that you want, don’t dwell too much on it. Remember that God gives us each the strengths we need to get through this life. Take it in stride and go for a long run!

I’ve noticed that a log of people like to have something to printout or store right on their computer when it comes to their exercise log. Just like the printable food diary that I posted a few months ago, you can download this as a PDF and print it out right now.

Printable Exercise Log as PDF

This is a very simple printable exercise log that will get you where you’re going. It will help you track exercise, difficulty, and other important values, without getting in your way. The best part is that you can easily transfer your information into your fitness log here at maintainfit.com for graphing and storage.

Post a comment with questions or suggestions.

I just published the last planned press release for the 2010 Fitness Jumpstart. There are 3 days left to register for the program and it’s getting a lot of buzz. Articles were published in local papers and on Yahoo! News. Hundreds of people found it through Google too.

What excites me most about it is that the people that are looking for this type of program understand that there’s more to fitness than pills and surgery. There’s still a large percentage of the population that really believes that you get out of fitness what you put into it. And what you put into fitness should be some effort.

Anyway, here’s the final press release if you’re interested: Mr. USA gives live training.

The real details are over here, and you might want to hurry since registration closes on Saturday night: http://www.maintainfit.com/2010jumpstart/

Post a comment if you have any questions, or if you signed up and want to chat about the cools bonuses that are already in the members area.

So one of the fitness experts I follow is a guy from Canada named Scott Tousignant. He has a focus on weight loss, but the thing that I like most about his stuff is that he focuses on your mindset. His approach is also very human, meaning you don’t need to spend a few hours a day to get results.

Well, the other day I saw a post on his blog that had a killer video in it. The video showed an average looking woman as she got primped and prepared for a photo shoot. She ended up really pretty at the end of the primping, but the really surprising part came after the final photo was taken.

They went on to show what they did in Photoshop to end up with the final photo. It was a beautiful woman that only slightly resembled the real model. Side by side you might have a hard time believing they are the same person.

You can see the video and read Scott’s take on it here: I Can Make You Look Like A Cover Model.

Dr. Nathan Olsen has understood pain relief and how sports performance can benefit from proper chiropractic care for years. In 2010, with the help of Daniel Watrous of Maintain Fit, he’s turned his clinic into an HD video studio to reveal some of his best kept secrets.

The techniques he plans to share can be done in home and don’t require an office visit. Even though they’re easy to learn and do, they bring big benefits. Read the full press release below.

Chiropractor converts clinic into HD video studio to relieve pain in 2010

Ultra fit couple Bryan and Nicole Weaver of Gym on the Run team up with the online exercise log Maintain Fit to take part in the first ever 2010 Fitness Jumpstart program. Gym on the Run brings a unique and effective approach to health and fitness with programs that motivate and accommodate individuals, couples and families in their own homes.

To learn more about their contribution read the press release below.

2010 Fitness Jumpstart rectruits Ultra Fit boise couple Gym on the Run

Former Mr. USA 2008, Ivan Rusilko and Electrical Engineer Daniel Watrous from Boise are both determined to make America more healthy and fit. In 2010 they plan to keep many more on track with their new years resolutions in a very high tech way.

Read the full press release below.

Maintain Fit 2010 Fitness Jumpstart features Mr USA and a short engineer