The benefit of exercise that cannot be measured

When we are younger we exercise to look better and perhaps to perform better at a sport or activity, and of course, to be healthy. When we are older we still want to perform well and look good, but there's other benefits that move to the forefront. At we get older our old injuries begin to haunt us. As we get older we are not as resiliant, and we need an added measure of protection against injuries. At my age I just want to feel good and not get hurt or sick. I am at a point that I have to exercise to avoid the pains that old injuries bring.

You can't measure the decreased likelihood of injury that strength affords. You can't measure the decreased likelihood of sickness, or conditions such as diabetes that exercise allows. You can't measure the diminishment of pain around compromise joints. You can't measure the ability to put in a strenuous day and the next day not be crippled with pain. You can't measure the ability to do things at your age that other people would not even attempt to do. We have an 88 year old client who was still lifting 50 blocks while working in his garden. We have a 67 year old woman who can lift her ailing 60 pound dog into a car without her back be in spasms the next day or the next week or month.

It's great to look good or run fast, but it's some point it is just wonderful not to live in pain. You can't measure improvement in quaility of life, but it is a profoundly real for those who experience it.

A little strength training, an active lifestyle, and better eating choices can have profound effects on one's fitness and health. These changes do not require endless hours in the weight room. Our fitness trainers at New Orleans Personal Trainers and at Austin TX Personal Training can guide you through an effective strength training program that will achieve life-changing results.

Going All Out Again

A series of injuries including a ruptured Achilles tendon resulted in nine month of no exercise - none. I didn’t even work for a couple of months. I started back lifting what I could handle and began a sprint training program three times a week on a stationary recumbent bike - 120 seconds warm-up followed by a 30 second all-out sprint followed by at 90 second easy recovery pace. Eventually I worked up to a total of eight sprints. If you can do more you are pacing yourself.

After the first sprint I was breathing so hard I was panicked and reeling. I had to get off the bike momentarily. Only through sheer willpower (Not really, more like embarrassment. Did I want my workout to be over after only 30 seconds?) was I able complete a second sprint and the reeling and panic returned. It was awful. My legs were throbbing several minutes afterwards as I lay writhing on the couch.

Did I mention that I was really out of shape? The beauty of being really out of shape is that the curve to the upside is really steep if one starts exercising and sticks with it. I did two more sessions that week and each session, while difficult, got easier. By the end of the second week, I had improved dramatically, the panic had subsided, and I had continued to up the RPMs each session and had added a couple more sprints. At the end of two months I was doing eight sprints at much higher RPMs than I had started without all the panic.

We got a new recumbent that had higher resistant levels so I upped the intensity, and I now do just four sprints three times a week plus the strength training session. That comes out to about an hour a week of training.

The results after six months:

My testosterone level was tested; it was up 35%

I have been on blood pressure meds for 30 years. My doctor eliminated one med and as the readings continued to fall cut the other in half. At one doctor's visit the BP reading was 108/ 68, so they took the other arm and it was 106/66 which was very low for me. He told me to continue doing what I was doing. I have been taking these dosages like forever. For him to cut back on these dosages is a really big thing. The doctor will be coming into facility sometime in January to exercise.

I am 30 pound lighter. Dieting concession - I consume all my calories within eight hours each day.

I am able to go all out at age 60 to reach my maximum pulse rate and beyond and not get knocked back on my heals prostrate on the couch, and turn around and do it again and again and the next day do it again.

I feel really good. I compare that to the panic and the reeling I felt after one 30 second sprint six months ago. It was chasing my daughter that caused me to rip my Achilles. I am by far better able to keep up with my young daughter. The difficult work was worth it.

At Austin Personal Training and at New Orleans Fitness Trainers we can help you gradually build up to a high intensity strength training or an aerobic high intensity training program that is safe, effective, and efficient for your age and condition. You need not spend hours in the gym to feel better, look better, and perform better.

Strength training for seniors - yes

The results from this study Once-weekly resistance exercise improves muscle strength and neuromuscular performance in older adults:

" A program of once or twice weekly resistance exercise achieves muscle strength gains similar to 3 days per week training in older adults and is associated with improved neuromuscular performance. Such improvement
could potentially reduce the risk of falls and fracture in older adults".

People of any age can become stronger, but it is the seniors who stand the most to gain. The personal training sessions conducted by the personal trainers at Austin Personal Training and at New Orleans Fitness Trainerswas derived from a study working with osteoporosis patients. Researchers found that joints hurt less, bone density increased and muscles were stronger and more toned with minimal time exercising. This type of personal training has been shown effective for men and women of all ages.

Past blog entries related to anti-aging.

52 weeks and a new lease on life

Every new year we have great expectations of improvement in our well-being, but few achieve those improvements. One man did:

At 72 years old Marcus was slowing down; he could no longer play golf every day. He could play nine holes but lacked the stamina to pay eighteen holes. He began strength training at New Orleans Personal Trainers(our other location – Austin Fitness Trainers). He strength trained for about 30 minutes once a week for a year.

A year later Marcus would play 18 holes of golf, and the next day he would play 18 holes again. He was hitting the ball farther and enjoying golf again. Marcus had added quality years to his life, and it took just 30 minutes a week.

Marcus had increased stamina, flexibility, strength, and very importantly added protection from injury. He was playing a hell of a lot more golf creating a virtuous cycle of increasing well-being.

52 weeks of continuous improvement add up. Every time Marcus exercised he would do a little more. Each week he gave himself ample time to recover, and because of that, each week he would continuously improve. 

Significant strength increases occur exercising as little as once a week IF it's the right exercise program. A properly designed high intensity strength training program starts with the premise of not seeing how much exercise one can withstand but with just how little one can get away with doing and still have significant results.

Loss of strength ultimately leads to life compromising conditions such as arthritis, type-2 diabetes, herniated discs, osteoporosis, weight gain, and heart disease. Of all the bio-markers of aging the most important is the loss of strength. Strength training is by far the most effective exercise in addressing the bio-markers of aging that effect not only how young we look, but more importantly, how we young we feel. People aren't put in nursing homes because they're out of breath; it's because they're too weak.

Our program is one that people can stick to for life - a life where one feels better, looks better, is free to enjoy life more without endless hours in the gym. Is it worth 30 minutes of week? We think that it is.

Don't hang up those cleats just yet

At 78 years of age Jack had few golfers his age to golf with. His friend Marcus was 73 and about ready to hang up his cleats for good. Marcus could play nine holes and that was about it; the next day he’d be too rundown to play again. Jack insisted that Marcus start doing the strength training program Jack had been doing for years. Jack said, "Anybody can stick to one half hour a week. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain."

A year later Marcus was playing 18 holes of golf, and the next day, he would play 18 holes again. He was hitting the ball farther and enjoying golf again. Marcus had added quality years to his life, and it took just minutes a week.

Every time Marcus exercised he would do a little more. Each week he gave himself ample time to recover, and because of that each week he would improve.  52 weeks of continuing improvement add up.

Strength training is by far the most effective exercise in addressing the bio-markers of aging that effect not only how young we look, but more importantly, how we young we feel. Loss of strength ultimately leads to life compromising conditions such as osteoporosis, arthritis, herniated discs, type-2 diabetes, weight gain, and heart disease. People aren't put in nursing homes because they're out of breath; it's because they're too weak.

The strength training programs at Austin TX Personal Training and New Orleans Personal Training start with the premise of not seeing how much exercise one can withstand but with just how little one can get away with doing and still have significant results. There is no magic bullet; the exercise will be demanding, but such a program will be brief, efficient, produce significant strength increases, and be one that people will stick to for life - a life where one looks better, feels better, and is free to enjoy life more without endless hours in the gym.

The many benefits of strength training

From this LA Times article Strength training does more than bulk up muscles:

A growing body of research shows that working out with weights has health benefits beyond simply bulking up one's muscles and strengthening bones. Studies are finding that more lean muscle mass may allow kidney dialysis patients to live longer, give older people better cognitive function, reduce depression, boost good cholesterol, lessen the swelling and discomfort of lymphedema after breast cancer and help lower the risk of diabetes.

"Muscle is our largest metabolically active organ, and that's the backdrop that people usually forget," said Kent Adams, director of the exercise physiology lab at Cal State Monterey Bay. Strengthening the muscles "has a ripple effect throughout the body on things like metabolic syndrome andobesity."

The list of benefits of strength training for any age is long.

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Austin TX Personal Training
New Orleans Personal Training 

Muscles really do have a long memory

From this Science News article Muscles remember past glory:

"Muscles hold memories of their former fitness in nuclei (green, shown on muscle fiber) that help the muscle bounce back to fitness when training begins after a period of inactivity.

Pumping up is easier for people who have been buff before, and now scientists think they know why — muscles retain a memory of their former fitness even as they wither from lack of use.

That memory is stored as DNA-containing nuclei, which proliferate when a muscle is exercised. Contrary to previous thinking, those nuclei aren’t lost when muscles atrophy, researchers report online August 16 in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The extra nuclei form a type of muscle memory that allows the muscle to bounce back quickly when retrained.

The new study suggests that pumping muscles full of nuclei early in life could help stave off muscle loss with age."

The upshot of this research is that dividends will be paid in the future if you strength train now, not when you are old and frail. Strength train when you are younger and you'll be better off than those who opted for non-weight bearing exercises.  When you are older and stronger you will:

• Have a stronger immune system and be better able to withstand sickness and disease.


• Have stronger bones and less likely to have the broken bones that comes with the decalcification of bones.
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• Have more stamina and a stronger heart.  Exercising strong muscles forces the cardiovascular system to make a positive adaptation to the demands placed on it; weak muscles, not so much.


• Have higher quality of life. Do you want to be able to play just nine of holes of golf or eighteen?


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Strength effects not only how young we look, but more importantly, how we young we feel. Strength training reverses many of the bio-markers of aging. This does not require hours in the gym. With high intensity strength training you can work the whole body in less than one half hour, and it only need be performed once or twice a week to see continuing results. Your life can be transformed in just minutes a week with the right exercise program.

We have such a strength training program at both our locations - Austin Personal Training and New Orleans Personal Training. A little strength training, better eating choices, and an active lifestyle is a program most people can stick to, and it can have profound effects on one's fitness and health.

What Clients Are Saying - "My years of strength training helped me survive cancer"

Number eleven in a series about what clients have to say about their workouts.

I recently visited New Orleans a place I had lived for many years. I had the good fortune to cross paths with an old friend, Gunnar. He was once a long time client. I did not recognize him at first as he had lost his full head of air as a result of cancer treatment. He is 76 and healthy now and has yet to retire.

He told me his years of strength training helped him survive his bout with cancer. I don’t know how much of an impact strength training played in this instance. I do know that as we age we get a little weaker and lose a little muscle each year, and that decline begins to accelerate as we get into our 60s. In his later years Gunnar was not getting weaker; he was getting stronger. He was strength training. A person with a stronger body can better withstand ailments one will inevitably confront.

Strength training reverses more of the bio-markers of aging that any other form of exercise. You need not spend hours in the gym to make a profound difference. Studies have shown that significant strength increases result from high intensity training as little as once a week.

As you become stronger you will find you will be able to engage in more activities, and this will further enhance your health. It all starts with strength. Just improve a little each week and over time you will feel years younger and your life will be transformed. High intensity training is the type of personal training we do at Austin Fitness Training and at New Orleans Fitness Trainers.

Previous blog entries in the series What Clients Are Saying:
1. @#%& incredible
2. Seems too good to be true, but it actually is that good
3. After each session, I always felt better on all levels.
4. This would not have happened to me if I had a personal trainer
5. This affects all aspects of my life.
6. I saw a remarkable change in my body
7. A Radical Transformation
8. I don’t think I would be alive today
9. Amazing and remarkable

10.My doctor said it would not be necessary to start taking drugs to preserve my bone density