My daughter's Christmas gift to me...hand painted!

Everyone seems to like to be motivated, especially when they’re making New Year’s Resolutions, to exercise more. The most common reason for embarking on an exercise program is to lose weight. However, I have found it very interesting that keeping bones strong is a big motivator for many women to make strength training and cardiovascular (heart healthy) exercise a permanent part of their lifestyle.

Besides being great for the bones, here are 10 more reasons to strength train:

1. Increase lean body mass (muscle) quickly, in only 2 strength training sessions per week.
2. Fat loss! With more muscle, your cardiovascular and strength workouts will be more intense, making them a better calorie burning workout.
3. Increases glucose uptake, reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.
4. Great for your heart! Decreases resting blood pressure, reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.
5. Helps keep you regular! Increases gastrointestinal transit speed, reducing the risk of colon cancer
6. Strengthens the lumbar spine, reducing the risk of low-back pain.
7. Improved balance because of reactivated motor units, which are groups of muscle fibers attached to a nerve. Strength training basically wakes up these dormant muscles and nerves.
8. Can reduce the pain and debilitating effects of arthritis.
9. Can keep frailty at bay for life…so make it fun, make it social, & you’ll keep it up for life!
10. My favorite reasons: I love that energized, wonderful feeling after a strength training workout.  I can run up the stairs, no problem. I really love it that I’m stronger than I was 20 years ago.

Get inspired with this charming YouTube clip called, “23 & ½ hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health?” that I sent it out a month ago in an email. My Mom, who is 89, was about to skip her water exercise class that day because she had too much to do, getting ready for Christmas. She was so inspired to exercise after watching it that she went to the pool after all.

I hope that you’re inspired and good luck with your exercise resolutions!…Susie

Colleen, Sue, Gerry, & Moni enjoying biceps curls!

I headed up to Fargo, ND this month for the Northland chapter meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine on “Resistance (Strength) Training Across the Lifespan”.  The 10 hour drive was worth it to hear the top people in the field of exercise science speak. Of course, the Strength Training for Older Adults session was my favorite, as well as the session on recovery foods led by a professor of nutrition. I was pleased to see slide after slide of research confirming the information in my Nutrient Timing blog post. Keep drinking those yummy smoothies!

Here’s some great news about getting the right “dose” of strength training per week. Two times a week is not only enough strength training, but research has shown that twice weekly can actually be better than three days a week.

Muscles need 48 to 72 hours to repair and rebuild themselves stronger after a challenging strength training workout. As we get older, it takes our bodies longer to recover. Personally, I have noticed that I don’t feel recovered on Sunday, two days after a good strength training session on Friday. By Monday, I feel back to normal.

At the ACSM meeting, Dr. Wayne Westcott presented research showing that beginning to advanced exercisers, both young and old, often need three days of recovery time. “Following a relatively hard strength training session on Monday, muscle strength was well below baseline (initial) level on Tuesday, slightly below baseline level on Wednesday, significantly above baseline level on Thursday, and the same amount over baseline on Friday.” Baechle & Westcott

Working hard on the plank!

I think that this is very important cutting-edge information as it pertains to women’s strength training for osteoporosis prevention. We don’t want to be working our muscles too hard on Wednesday, when they haven’t fully recovered from Monday! 72 hours of recovery seems to be necessary between vigorous strength training workouts to gain maximum strength. Our stronger muscles will be able to pull harder on our bones, stimulating them to stay strong. If you have been strength training three times a week, and your workouts are in the relatively hard range, I highly advise you to cut back to twice a week workouts, three days apart.  You’ll get stronger muscles, which are highly associated with stronger bones. This should help maximize our strength training that is designed for slowing age-related bone loss and preventing osteoporosis.

Use your extra time to do some more weight-bearing (on your feet) cardiovascular exercise: brisk walking, dancing, raking leaves, hiking, or easy jogging are some good activities.

Back Extension for strong backs, balance, & coordination

The easy question is when to strength train! Anytime that is convenient for you is the best time to strength train. Do it  2-3 times a week to build muscle and neural-muscular connections to help you stay on your feet with better balance and coordination, on non-consecutive days. At the very least, be out of your chair & on your feet for a minimum of 4 hours a day. If you have a desk job, stand up often and maybe even put that computer at standing level. I always want to get a plug in for doing at least 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise per week with a good portion of it being weight-bearing exercise, meaning on your feet! If swimming is your favorite cardiovascular exercise, then make doubly sure that you  strength train for the nice bone-building pull that it puts on bones.

What exercises to do is a bit more complex, in terms of strength training.

Take care when looking on the Internet for strength training for women, you will find many exercises which may be inappropriate for women in the peri- and post-menopausal years. Today, I saw one site that suggested doing pull-ups, push-up, lunges, and throwing medicine balls (large, weighted balls) . You need to start with much easier exercises than those! Push-ups and pull-ups aren’t good to do if you have shoulder issues or a high body mass index, throwing medicine balls would be dangerous with low bone density & balance problems, and lunges can be fine only if your knees are fine. I’d recommend easing into women’s strength training slowly, first focusing on form and breathing with easy exercises, then slowly adding challenging weights and moves. It is time well spent and will reduce your risk of injury.

Bands for strengthening arms, back, chest and shoulders

Deciding which strengthening exercises are the best for YOU depends upon a number of factors: your fitness level, current health, injuries that you may have to work around, whether or not you have low bone density or arthritis, and your age, to name a few. What works for a 20 year old could injure a woman past 50, so it’s good to make sure that you begin at an age-appropriate level, tailored to your specific needs. University research shows that bone-strengthening exercises need to be site specific, targeting the muscles around the bones that tend to get the weakest from osteoporosis.

You will love what strength training can do for you! All of your other weight bearing activities will be easier when you are strong, such as dance, brisk walking, and biking. It is incredibly rewarding to feel stronger within a few weeks of beginning to strength train and within a year, to be stronger than you have been in decades. It’s nice to know that you are slowing bone loss AND reducing your risk of fracture because as you get stronger, balance and coordination also improve. You can then catch yourself better if you start to fall and have the strength to stay upright. If people simply don’t fall down, their risk of fracture is greatly reduced.

Peaches & yogurt, a good carb & protein combo!

Here’s an amazing statement:  “The effectiveness of any protein product is largely dependent on when you take it.”-Len Kravitz, sports scientist from the University of New Mexico. I want you to know that I’m quite conservative when it comes to nutrition, but these well-researched findings from the sports medicine world are very convincing!!! What if you only had to tweak your diet a little to boost your muscle growth and enhance recovery from all that good strength training for strong muscles & bones that you’re doing? Give it a try! Here’s the short version on nutrient timing.

General meal guidelines: Please, make sure that you aren’t hungry or too full when you strength train! The Mayo Clinic gives these guidelines for meal sizes prior to exercising:

• Eat large meals at least 3-4 hours before exercise
• Have small meals 2-3 before a workout
• Snacks: Around an hour before exercising.

You’ll have to experiment to see what works best for you, such as how long it take your body to digest certain foods and how you feel during and after exercise.

Nutrient Timing: If you can time it right, eating or drinking a pre-workout snack and a post workout snack in just the right proportions at the right time can help you get stronger and recover quicker from the good stress of exercise.

Pre-Workout snack: If it’s solid food, follow the guideline of eating around an hour before exercise. If it’s a sports drink or smoothie, you can have it closer to the workout. Again, see what works best for you. I emphasize, don’t exercise hungry! If muscles are low in glycogen (carbs) during exercise, that can actually inhibit muscle growth!

Here are the proportions recommended by Dr. Kravitz for the pre-workout snack:

20-26 grams of carbohydrate to 5-6 grams of protein; carb/ protein ratio of 4:1 or 5:1, which is not a lot of food!

Examples:

• Sports drink or bar, check proportions
• Smoothie of  ½ to 3/4  cup non-fat, unsweetened yogurt (~5-6 g. protein + 7 carbs), 1 peach (10 g. carbs), 1/3 banana (8 g. carbs), total: 5-6 g. protein & 25 g. carbs
• 1 slice whole grain bread (3 g. protein + 20 g. carbs), 1 tbs. peanut butter (4 g. protein + 3 g. carbs), 1/3 apple (7 g. carbs), total: 7 g. protein & 30 g. carbs
• 3/4 cup vanilla soymilk (5 g. protein + 7 g. carbs), 2 tbs. almonds (3 g. protein + 3 g. carbs), 2 tbs. raisins (18 g. carbs), for a total of 8 g. protein and 28 g. carbs

Post-workout smoothie

Post-Workout snack: Dr. Kravitz emphasizes that there is a 45-minute window post-workout in which nutrients, especially protein, is absorbed at a much higher rate than 2 hours later.

Nutrient proportions for the post-workout snack:

• 40-50 grams carbohydrate to 13-15 grams protein; carb/protein ratio of 3:1 or 4:1
• See above pre-workout examples, but double the amounts and add a little more protein. 

Sound complicated? Here’s how I make it simple. I love to have a liquid drink after a workout. It helps with hydration and is digested more rapidly than solid food. My favorite is to blend 2 cups of yogurt and fruit in the morning, drinking 1/3 of it prior to my strength training and 2/3 afterwards. I do my best to keep my meals at appropriate sizes so that I’m a little hungry for that smoothie! Piling food on top of an already full stomach is counterproductive to a healthy body.

Remember that the proportions are important, as well as the timing. Good luck tweaking your food around exercise time. Don’t fret over the exact proportions. Incorporate the pre and post workout snacks into your total daily diet and don’t add calories unless you’re underweight.  Have fun with it! Let me know what recipes you come up with!

Resources: Ivy, J. & Portman, R. (2004). Nutrient Timing. Basic Health Publications, Inc., Kleiner, S.M. (2001). Power Eating (2^nd Edition). Human Kinetics Publishers

My file cabinet is a great mini-stepper desk!

No time for exercise? Get your DDM: Daily Dose of Movement in throughout the day with tiny bouts of exercise. One of my favorite ways to get my DDM is the mini-stepper that I keep under my desk and pull out anytime that I’m on the phone, reading, or even working at my computer. You’ll feel the effort in the muscles of the thighs and around the hip joints, which makes it a great workout for osteoporosis prevention, helping to maintain or even increase the bone density of your hips.  Also, you get a tiny heel thump at the bottom of each step, which  sends a little upward jolt that can stimulate bone growth in your lower spine and hips, like walking does. If you don’t like that thump or if it bothers your joints, don’t step down as far or put some padding below the foot plates. Caution: For safety, hang on to some form of support while on a stepper, especially if your balance is challenged.

Last summer at the 2010 IDEA World Fitness Convention in LA, Dr. Len Kravitz, exercise scientist extraordinaire from the University of New Mexico, had us  get up frequently to move during his lectures, giving us “N.E.A.T. ” moments. N.E.A.T. is an acronym for non-exercise-activity-thermogenesis, coined by Dr. James A. Levine in his book, Move a Little, Lose a Lot. N.E.A.T. simply means the calories that you burn standing up and being slightly more active throughout the day, but not in formal exercise. The simple act of standing up and pacing for a couple of steps will get you out of that unhealthy sedentary state.

My phrase for that frequent movement is DDM: Daily Dose of Movement! Find ways to get it in and you’ll have stronger muscles, bones, and a healthier BMI (body mass index). Suggestions: Stand up often, chose to accomplish tasks in a more physical way, park a good distance from your destination,  stand up BEFORE you answer the phone, do toe raises and heel stands at the sink,  make a treadmill desk, watch TV on an exercise ball, stand on one leg, or just have your computer at a standing height. The possibilities are endless! Let me know how you accomplish your Daily Dose of Movement! Send a picture if you have one!

Biking in Canada

Ever since I wrote that blog post entitled, Time for just 1 kind of exercise? Strength train!, it has been nagging at me that I need to tell you that you MUST find the time to do two types!! Strength training AND cardiovascular exercise are the basis for lifelong fitness.  Besides helping to strengthen bones, strength training will help you have better cardio workouts which is why the American Heart Association recommends it. Lift those weights AND get out for a brisk walk, bike, or swim, even if it’s in little bits of time throughout the day. It will make you feel alive and happy! Adding bits cardio by always standing up when you answer the phone, stepping in place, and even taking the phone outside for a walk will help make it happen. Or, go on a biking or hiking vacation! Strength training has helped me keep up with my kid sister over the years on our bike rides around Whistler, BC.

Girija strength training

It’s a great idea to adapt one’s exercise routine when you get to that over-50 mark! What worked when we were 20 can be counterproductive in the second half of our lives, especially if you are dealing with low bone density. If you are strength training for osteoporosis and fracture prevention, please heed these precautions!

Jane Brody, Personal Health columnist for the New York Times, recently wrote a very important article entitled, Forget About Crunches. Here’s How to Protect Your Back,  for those who need to strengthen and protect their spines. (Really, who doesn’t??) Take a look at it. Even if you don’t have low bone density or osteoporosis, following these recommendations will protect the discs between the vertebrae of your spine, help maintain your bone density, and build beautiful posture.

During and between exercise sessions, walk tall by standing up straight, slide chin back, pull shoulders back and down, pull tummy in, and lift your chest up as if you’re showing off a gorgeous necklace! Do the same when you’re sitting, plus add squeezing your gluteal muscles in the buns  together. Try it….feel taller and less compressed in the midsection? I do! Keep at it throughout the day and all of these little moves will contribute to fabulous posture and what I call your “DDM: Daily Dose of Movement”!

Strengthening backs & spines

Here it is: STRENGTH TRAINING!

Strength training, also called resistance training or muscle strengthening exercise, is the type of exercise that has the most effect on building stronger bones. Research shows that weight bearing exercise, such as brisk walking, is great for your cardiovascular system and can help maintain bone, but strength training wins the bone building prize.

Being strong will  make every other physical activity that you do more enjoyable and effective. You can walk quicker, garden longer, and do your daily activities with more ease when you do muscle strengthening exercises. Strength training should only be done 2-3 time per week. Now, that’s time efficient exercise!

The statistics are staggering and the stakes are high! If you are a 50 year old woman, you have a 50% chance of having an osteoporosis-related fracture in your remaining lifetime and men over 50 have a 25% chance.

From the National Osteoporosis Foundation’s website:

Prevalence

• Osteoporosis is a major public health threat for an estimated 44 million Americans, or 55 percent of the people 50 years of age and older.
• In the U.S. today, 10 million individuals are estimated to already have the disease and almost 34 million more are estimated to have low bone density, placing them at increased risk for osteoporosis and broken bones.
• While osteoporosis is often thought of as an older person’s disease, it can strike at any age.
• Of the 10 million Americans estimated to have osteoporosis, eight million are women and two million are men.

Coming to this symposium was certainly eye opening and informative. I was the only exercise person amidst a sea of nurse practitioners, dieticians, physicians, researchers, and physical therapists. I’ll start blogging about it as soon as I get home!

For several years, I have been communicating with the National Osteoporosis Foundation regarding safe exercises for women with osteoporosis. Awhile back, they suggested that I start a local NOF support group. I’m happy to say that Colleen Stone, MD, agreed to be a co-leader with me. Our first meeting is this Thursday at 7:30 at the Fairfield Public Library. Some of you had asked that I give a talk on what I learned here in Las Vegas and I will do that at the Thursday meeting. Oh, course, I’ll be telling you as much as I can fit in during class, also!