Simple strength training tips
If you’ve never lifted weights in your life — and many people haven’t — why should you start now? The answer is simple: Muscle tissue, bone density, and strength all dwindle over the years. So, too, does muscle power. These changes open the door to accidents and injuries that can compromise your ability to lead an independent, active life. Strength training is the most effective way to slow and possibly reverse much of this decline.
Having smaller, weaker muscles doesn’t just change the way people look or move. Muscle loss affects the body in many ways. Strong muscles pluck oxygen and nutrients from the blood much more efficiently than weak ones. That means any activity requires less cardiac work and puts less strain on your heart. Strong muscles are better at sopping up sugar in the blood and helping the body stay sensitive to insulin (which helps cells remove sugar from the blood). In these ways, strong muscles can help keep blood sugar levels in check, which in turn helps prevent or control type 2 diabetes and is good for the heart. Strong muscles also enhance weight control.
On the other hand, weak muscles hasten the loss of independence as everyday activities — such as walking, cleaning, shopping, and even dressing — become more difficult. They also make it harder to balance your body properly when moving or even standing still, or to catch yourself if you trip. The loss of power compounds this. Perhaps it’s not so surprising that, by age 65, one in three people reports falls. Because bones also weaken over time, one out of every 20 of these falls ends in fracture, usually of the hip, wrist, or leg. The good news is that the risk of these problems can be reduced by an exercise and fitness routine that includes strength training.
Beginner’s simple strength boosting exercises
A sturdy chair with armrests and athletic shoes with non-skid soles are all you need for these simple strength building exercises.
Seated bridge

Sit slightly forward in a chair with your hands on the armrests. Your feet should be flat on the floor and slightly apart, and your upper body should be upright (don’t lean forward). Using your arms for balance only, slowly raise your buttocks off the chair until nearly standing with your knees bent. Pause. Slowly sit back down. Aim for 8–12 repetitions. Rest and repeat the set.

Triceps dip

Put a chair with armrests up against a wall. Sit in the chair and put your feet together flat on the floor. Lean forward a bit while keeping your shoulders and back straight. Bend your elbows and place your hands on the armrests of the chair, so they are in line with your torso. Pressing downward on your hands, try to lift yourself up a few inches by straightening out your arms. Raise your upper body and thighs, but keep your feet in contact with the floor. Pause. Slowly release until you’re sitting back down again. Aim for 8–12 repetitions. Rest and repeat the set.

Standing calf raise

Stand with your feet flat on the floor. Hold onto the back of your chair for balance. Raise yourself up on tiptoe, as high as possible. Hold briefly, then lower yourself. Aim for 8–12 repetitions. Rest and repeat the set.
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Best Walking Speed for a Longer Life

Here’s why: New research suggests that if your everyday walking speed is more than just a casual stroll, you’ll live longer than your pokier peers.

The Perfect Pace
Yep. When researchers reviewed nine similarly structured studies involving nearly 35,000 adults over the age of 65, study results suggested that gait speed was a big predictor of how long people would live. To reap longevity rewards and live longer than expected, people’s everyday walking speed needed to be at least 2.25 miles per hour. That’s a little over 3 feet every second. People with this gait speed typically outlived the slower-striding folks in the study. (Walking this much can slash your risk of a stroke.)

How Walks Talk
Of course, a real walking workout now and then, where you get your heart rate up and sweat a little, is great for your long-term health, too. But the everyday speed at which you get around could be an important sign of how healthy you are. A person’s walking ability can be a window into the health and function of a number of systems in the body because it requires a coordinated effort between your heart, lungs, skeletal muscles, and brain. So if you walk well — and often — it can become a powerful tool in your quest to live a longer life. (Too cold to go out and walk? Try this walking workout you can do in your own living room.)

This u tube video clip shows the human spirit at its finest.

Sadly earthquakes all over the world are happening as we speak.

May we be inspired by what this clip shows, may we treausre what we have and continue to keep ourselves fit and healthy.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CghS9SHUsI&feature=autofb

Start with imperceptible movements, just squeezing gently  – do this repeatedly – ten squeezes or so, till you feel some sense of relief.

We keep our core muscles in tip top condition for two reasons. One to prevent problems in the first place, then to fix any problems ( pain ) should it occur.

Pain is our red light – the indicator for caution. But it does not mean zero movement.

The correct movements , however miniscule, produces results even if they need to be repeated  second hourly at first.  The most innocuous exercise is to choose swimming  ( if you can get into a pool ), or to go for a gentle walk, increasing your walking as pain eases. If swimming is out of the question warm baths/shower and gentle movement in the bath/shower is your other option.

The best exercise for core strength – wait for it……is core activity 24/7

Yes a disappointing answer, but what is the point of vigorous class work if it is not integrated into your real world.

By the way resting in bed is appropriate in the acute phases, but not for long, not all day.

Are your core muscles “on” now??

Now that’s a sexy term. What the …. does this mean?

“Gizmos”  to spur  us on to exercise harder?  Compression garments?  Yep, we can wear them or NOT wear them. Professor Gordon Lynch was chatting about them and I found it kinda interesting.

For some, wearing them makes some of us feel better about ourbodies while exercising , inspiring us to work harder –  gaining increased benefit from exercise.

This is contentious because research does not back this up…yet. However you may well ask why all elite athletes, sportsmen are trending to wear them.

Perhaps not so relevant for recreational exercisers like you and me . However there are benefits. The most obvious is that they wick the perspiration away from the body so reducing chafing, especially there is a bit of “body fat”!!!  They may/do reduce muscle soreness after extreme exercising, they do seem to speed recovery from exercise and appear to prevent injury. This is of course un researched as yet but the anecdotal  evidence is there.

So the question is do us recreational exercisers wear them or not? There is the cost factor as they are not cheap.  However they do feel wonderful to exercise  in and if it “spurs you on” to exercises harder…so be it.

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Here’s an inspiration. I wanna be like her when I am in my eighties!!!!

Watch this video clip to the end and aspire to her fitness.

You’ll need to be fit, flexible, courageous and outright cheeky.

The simple side will come, I hope, but most likely only after years of practice. But I think I see the light. At the moment, and a mere 3 years of nonstop practice, I feel I have just touched the surface of its complexity. The challenge is seductive, how much more is there to learn?

For me the choreography is the mental challenge, then perfecting one’s “form” – perFORMmance, comes next.

And no.! Tai chi is not for weaklings. We all prop up our Tai Chi practice with additional core and strength training.

The combination with Tai Chi is such a logical functional link to living life in safety, introducing some sense to how we use our bodies, how we move, how we posture our spines. And then there’s that unexpectedly, delightful bonus. It feels, (to me that is ) a little like you are “dancing ” through the movements.

Better still, practice Tai Chi in groups.

We need both. Partnering each other, they are the symbiotic relationship needed for muscular-skeletal fitness.

Core stability training provides the framework – the hardware if you like. Cardio vascular exercise puts all this to the test, testing endurance and capacity of those very same muscles. In combination, both forms of exercise will mould the “body you need”, one that meets your day to day practical activities; ie strong back and core muscles for safe spinal posture (especially if you have a sitting job) or energy to keep up with your active day.

The “body you need” means having powerful muscles (or strong legs for lifting) that can be depended on 24/7; it means flexible joints ( pain-free knee and hips movement ) that that can be used 24/7 for bending. The more we use our bodies the stronger we become, the longer our bodies last. Yes we never “wear out”, provided we are mindful of careful, safe use of our bodies. And indeed we actually do “rust” away. If you don’t use it you lose it; such an annoying but true cliché.
Yes of course you need to be aware of how to move your joints with safety, how to posture your spine with the least wear and tear and you need to know the difference between good stretch and bad stretch. One is stretch, the other strain.

Core work ensures those muscles are strong enough to pump fuel (oxygen through blood supply) to the working parts and indeed you may ask the question – is there enough fuel getting through? Muscles that are challenged and exercised regularly – cardio work, respond to demand. With this increased demand (such as brisk walking, walking hills, swimming ) and over time, the body responds by extending new blood vessels. a more extensive vascular bed to the working parts. In other words, the beginnings of an improved blood flow throughout the body – to the muscles, the heart. In essence, the response to demand. Here we go again – if you don’t use it you lose it- sorry!! And yes, most importantly your heart. Being a muscular pump, it experiences this improved blood flow, making the pumping mechansim stronger, more effective and efficient..

So once fitness levels start to improve, more and more oxygen is provided to the working parts, improving efficiency and effectiveness of each muscle fibre. So the cycle begins. The more demand on our bodies the stronger we become, the easier it is to exercise; leading to increased cardio vascular fitness.