Posts Tagged ‘physical activity’

Aging is disuse in disguise, what that means is that most signs of advancing age are connected to a decline in function. The adage use it or loss it fits, with a growing body of evidence that shows you are not only what you do, but you are what you don’t do.

 Aging Process

What the aging process is associated with is a decline in physical and mental abilities. It can show in both appearance and function. It can also be seen in awkward and limited movement. The crunching, grinding, and squeaking sounds heard as seniors move about makes the younger generation think the aging crowd is from the Jurassic period.

As you dig into the history of people that are aging beyond their years, you will find that you are dealing with an inactive crowd. Active living would produce different results.

Ideologically we can reverse the aging process by 15 to 25 years,” says Mariam Nelson, Ph.D., a Tufts University scientist and specialist in aging. We can do that by becoming stronger. At age 35, says Nelson, we begin to lose one quarter to one third of a pound of muscle each year. Yet, Nelson’s studies of weight training in women over 45 shows that even into their 90s, people can add muscle mass and bone density, reduce the risk of heart disease and osteoporosis, and lead more useful, independent lives.

In other words, the problem isn’t aging but disuse. “People who don’t exercise regularly suffer a 1 percent loss in aerobic fitness every year starting at age 20,” says Barry Franklin, Ph.D. president of the American College of Sports Medicine. “But that loss can be restored years later,” he adds, “through just three months of steady exercise.”

Anti-Aging

Anti-aging strategies are nothing more than increasing your activity and decreasing your caloric intake. Sounds easy enough but the challenge is to get people to do it. The benefits would outweigh the effort. When American’s demand healthy options they may mean public or private insurance, low fat or smaller portions.

The road to fitness is the route to youth. It is within reach, everyone can turn back the clock. People who are fit have less body fat, have better cardiovascular function and may look decades younger than the sedentary crowd.

You thought big butts are a problem, they are when glued to a chair. Scientists are warning that sitting for long periods of time is dangerous to your health.

Getting up from the couch means that you don’t plop down on the nearest chair, it seems that sitting is just as dangerous as reclining all day.

Now What?

In an editorial published this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Elin Ekblom-Bak of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences suggested that authorities rethink how they define physical activity to highlight the dangers of sitting. There are many reasons why a lack of activity is lethal.

“After four hours of sitting, the body starts to send harmful signals,” Ekblom-Bak said. She explained that genes regulating the amount of glucose and fat in the body start to shut down.

Figures from a U.S. survey in 2003-2004 found Americans spend more than half their time sitting, from working at their desks to sitting in cars.

A study by Nielsen Co, a ratings company, found that Americans spent an average of 151 hours a month viewing the TV during the fourth quarter of 2008, Even for people who exercise, spending long stretches of time sitting at a desk is still harmful.

Tim Armstrong, a physical activity expert at the World Health Organization, said people who exercise every day — but still spend a lot of time sitting — might get more benefit if that exercise were spread across the day, rather than in a single bout.

Another Look

One study suggested a woman’s risk of metabolic syndrome, a precursor to diabetes and heart disease, jumps 26% for every extra hour she sits in front of the TV. Whole-body muscular inactivity associated with prolonged sitting has also been strongly linked to obesity and even certain types of cancer.

What we are looking at is a future trend. Everyone saw it coming as we totally switched to hIgh-frequency living. We have been winding down from a manual society to a pain free no gain much weaker addition. I call it our Waterloo, a pace that can break us as we move like snails through life. What we call a fast paced life that has people using more technology, while at the same time transforming us into a new level of physical decline.

 It’s Come to This

A new editorial published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine said that people who sit still for long periods of time — such as desk workers or couch potatoes — have a higher risk of disease than those who move a muscle every now and then in a non-exercise manner, such as walking up the stairs to grab a cup of coffee.  

From the computer, to the desk top games, and television, we may show our prowess playing video games, but we may be a zero when displaying our physical strength. Unless walking up the stairs to grab a cup of coffee is an extra ordinary accomplishment.

Crisis

Researchers in Australia found the increase in mortality that came from spending too many hours sitting in front of the TV. This held true even when people exercised regularly.

The study, appeared in the journal Circulation, is the work of lead author Dr.David Dunstan, a researcher at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, and colleagues.

For six years Dunstan and colleagues followed 8,800 people aged 25 and over  who took part in the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study and found that the participants who watched four or more hours a day watched TV were 46 per cent more likely to succumb to any cause and 80 percent more likely to become a statistic from cardiovascular disease compared to people who said they spend less than two hours in a day watching TV.

Get up

Adapting to survive in the world of webinars, American Idol, and video gaming is a new challenge. You need to have more positions than reclining, and sitting. You can’t afford to be a sitting duck. We will show you how to pick up your activity level, get up and get going. Stay tuned and we will show you how to turn down the electronics and turn up your conditioning

Walking away from diabetes is something that anyone can do. You can decrease your chances of developing type 2 diabetes, and reverse its course. By taking the appropriate steps as in walking, you reduce your chances of developing Type 2 diabetes by 50%.

Exercise is physical gold. It is the key force in managing the fundamentals of health. By performing Physical activity you lessen the chance of becoming disabled from all causes.

Activity

The factors to consider are two fold. One, activity normalizes glucose levels, and two, it energizes. Calories are said to be used for energy. If that were true the more you eat the greater amount of energy you should have. Remember how energetic you felt after a Thanksgiving dinner. This will tell you the fleeting and unreliability of scientific sounding insights.

Highly nutritious foods that fuel your body are usable for cellular energy. The other source of energy comes from activity. This vitalizes your lymph, and cardiovascular system.

Getting Started

Leisurely activity is a way to get started. Actually the best way to look at it is that not doing anything is risky. It is tough to start when you are sitting on the fence for so long. The thing to remember is that you are in control of meeting the challenge. Not exercising your option is at your own risk.

The total amount of activity is more important than the intensity in lowering blood pressure in children. This was reported by United Kingdom researchers in the Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Activity that works for blood pressures means it works for all the systems. The frequency of activity is important. More urgent is getting your foot in the water. Likewise, while exercise is important, many people don’t place enough value on activities from performing everyday tasks like lifting and chasing children, lugging groceries and cleaning house. Anything beats sitting around without moving around.

Look Here     

Collapsing onto the couch in front of the television is only O.K. if you are winding down from increased activity. This is a personal investment which most people seem to put off with dire consequence. To change your outlook in 2010 we will have under construction a rookies guide to exercise.

We will show how to walk away from diabetes, and become healthier, with step by step instructions. We have some highly regarded fitness experts, which will do everything but do it for you.

Alicia Weber is a fitness instuctor who will give you an idea of how simple it is to start an exercise program.