Strong Over 50

Here's the new website for Strong Over 50-Certified North Hills Fitness. If you're interested in an SO-50 workout, check them out!

Transform Your Health. North Hills Fitness.

From our friends at North Hills Fitness:

If you are contemplating starting an exercise program but haven't started yet and aren't really sure what to do, here are a couple of ideas:

1. Start walking/light jogging or other light cardio like an exercise bike or elliptical trainer. Walk (or pedal slowly) three minutes, jog (or pedal quickly) 30 seconds. If that's too easy, increase to 1 minute. Do this for 20 minutes on day 1, 24 minutes on day 2, 28 minutes, day 3, etc. Gradually increase your time jogging vs walking.

Its best to do cardio on a fairly empty stomach. Remember to drink 8-10 oz of water for every 15 minutes you exercise.

What we're looking to do is to get your cardiovascular system (heart & lungs) used to exercise before going on to tougher activity. Also, we want to increase and then decrease heart rate several times. Your cardiovascular system gets a lot of benefit from doing this vs just running at a high rate. Decreasing your heart rate is called "recovery".

Don't think you can "do it"? You can. When I started exercising I rode my bike about a mile and had to take a break after that. It was really hard! As a matter of fact, I'll never forget lying on the ground next to my bike by Lake Lynn, panting like a dog, and someone came by to ask if I was OK! Fast forward a couple of years and my cardio health is excellent. It just takes time and consistency.

2. Begin working on balance and flexibility. This is the first phase of fitness training. It is key to develop good balance and flexibility not only for exercising but for life. Good balance and flexibility improves posture, joint stability and movement patterns. A lot of lower back and knee problems are caused by poor balance and flexibility.

Here's a good article with more explanation and specific balance and flexibility exercises to do.

http://www.shericolberg.com/exercise-columns8.asp

Exercise Column: Balance & Flexibility Training | Dr. Sheri Colberg-Ochs Do balance and flexibility training to stay younger, exercise columns by Dr. Sheri Colberg-Ochs, PhD, Author

Hi Everyone - We've been traveling lately and have good news from Tampa, Florida. We have a newly certified facility, Vitality Fitness. You can go there to be a part of the Strong Over 50 program. See you in Florida!

http://vitality-fitness.com

South Tampa Personal Training