Fitness Guide

We have learned through a variety of studies that those individuals who just train aerobically (without strength training) do maintain their cardiovascular endurance over the years, but they generally lose lean muscle mass as they get older. However, those individuals who combine strength training and car- diovascular training can maintain their lean body mass as they get older. What this means is that if you just do cardiovascular activity, your body will naturally lose muscle mass as you get older, and that means that you will actually get “fatter” as you age, unless you incorporate strength training.

We have also learned that consistent strength training helps maintain bone and muscle mass as we get older. For women, strength training (along with cardiovascular training) may also protect against post-menopausal bone loss and osteoporosis in their later years.

And strength training is not complicated. It is recommended that you do 8 – 12 repetitions of 8 – 10 major muscle groups at least 2 days a week. However, you don’t have to do all these exercises at once. You can break them up into shorter workouts throughout the day. For example, you can do just upper body exercises in the morning, and your lower body exercises in the evening. Or, you can alternate strength exercises with cardiovascular exercise (often known as circuit training) by switching back and forth every couple of minutes.

The best part is you don’t need complicated equipment or fancy machines. You can do everything you need to do with a simple pair of dumbbells, or you can try Nautilus’ new SelectTech® dumbbells, which provide you a wide variety of weight options in a revolutionary all-in-one dumbbell. You can use elastic tubing, or simply do body weight exercises such as push-ups or lunges.

Flexibility is being able to bend, reach, twist and turn with comfort and ease as we perform daily tasks, play or exercise. It is perhaps the most ignored component of fitness, but certainly the easiest one to incorporate into our daily lives because it can be done anywhere and almost at any time.

To maintain your flexibility, you simply need to stretch. This could be as simple as reaching for your toes, or reaching overhead when you wake up in the morn- ing. Or maybe you enjoy it so much that you would be interested in trying the Nautilus® yoga workout video. You can even incorporate stretching into your strength training workouts by stretching the muscles you have used immedi- ately after you have completed your exercise set.

Like cardiovascular training, it is recommended that you stretch every day. However, you do not need to create a formalized program. You can simply make sure that you stretch your major muscle groups throughout the day.

Make sure you include your thighs, calves, hamstrings, back, chest, neck and shoulders.

Do what feels good, but also remember to mix it up. Don’t just do traditional “reach and hold” stretches. Also, try gently moving through a range of motion that is comfortable to you. For example, you don’t have to stretch your neck simply by pulling on your head with your hand. You can also just rotate the neck slowly around and look side to side.