Lifting weights is smart.

I'm watching the sun come up as I write which is one of my favorite things to do.  The start of a new day.  Where will your day take you?  Mine is taking me to the gym as soon as I finish writing this, downing my coffee and eating my Perfect Bar.

I want all of you woman and men who are nearing 50 and don't work out to lift.  It doesn't matter if you've never lifted a lb. in your life before.  Start lifting today.  We are all going in the same direction and we are all going to lose muscle mass so we all need to "use it or lose it."

The last year has been a challenge for my lifting but I have not stop.  My ankle injury is still present, it is a split tendon and it's not healing so there will be a needed surgery when I have the time for some major downtime recovery, yuck.  The idea of not going to the gym freaks me out.  It's not the actual gym that I'll miss, but whats in the gym.  I love lifting, I love challenging myself and I love being strong.

Just because you are aging does not mean that you can't lift.  What it does mean is that you should be lifting.  All I can tell you is how I feel when I lift vs. don't.  Lifting gives you the ability to do things that you can't do when you don't lift.  Just imagine for a moment, a huge big crane is trying to lift some commercial beams up to high level floors of a building.  Unfortunately the crane is made of light gauge cord.  It can't lift the heavy beams without being damaged.  Right beside that flimsy crane is a big strong crane with strong cables that can do the job and do it easily.

I'm always trying to come up with an analogy that will hit a cord with those sitting on the fence about lifting.  You do not have to go to the gym to get strong, but you do have to lift.  A lot of people I talk to tell me that they walk!  Walking is great but it is just walking.  If you want to get strong you MUST lift.

Age is a number, that's it.  If you have never lifted before, start today.  Getting strong is a process.  You cannot grab a 50lb. dumbbell today and expect to do what the seasoned pros are doing. You have to start small and grow slowly if you want to do it wisely and without injury.  I often hand people weights that seem far too light in the beginning.  It is better to achieve success rather than fail in the beginning.  This helps to create a passion for more instead of suffering from the all too common "this is too hard and I can barely walk."

Well, I'm off to the gym.  Have a wonderful day.  Go lift.

Working out around injuries

Wow, it's been 8 months, where the heck has the time gone?  I've been very busy this year but my workouts have not stopped.  I wanted to blog today after skipping so long without a blog because I've learned so much in the last few months of working out.

First, I want to talk about age related stuff.  Oh ya it's just great getting older, lots more aches and pains.  Anyhow, about those aches.  I've been dealing with some joint pain and injury.  This has meant that I needed to tweak my workouts.  No, it does not mean that I had to stop, just work around the problem.

Working around an injury or weakness teaches you a great deal.  It has taught me how to focus when lifting and even though I already knew that form was important; it is now even more of a focus for me.  

I wish that everyone knew how important form and full range motion lifting is.  I watched a guy at the gym today and shuddered at his workout.  He was lifting weights that he could barely lift.  The range he had to stay in was the joint damage range.  There was no full range muscle usage which meant that he was setting himself up for a serious injury.  First because he isn't building any muscle by only moving within a 2" radius and second because he is solely relying on his joints to do the work.  No muscle = joint injury.  Whether you lift or not, you need muscle to protect your joints.

When I lift around an injury or weakness; I am very consciously avoiding the area and building the muscle around it.  I currently have an ankle injury, a split tendon to be specific.  I could have sat out of working out for a longtime for this one.  But that idea was not even an option.  So, I've had to do a lot of things very differently which has in fact been very educational.  

How do you do your legs without your ankle?  Hmmmmmmm. I'm wearing a full boot so that is protection there; and I am not doing any ankle bending movements.  I am not relying on my ankle for any help, which is very important.  It gets to sit out for a while.  I am doing straight legged movements and using my boot leg.  My focus is on everything around the injury, using each muscle that I can while avoiding the injured area.  It has required focus and a big learning curve.  

No more blindly pumping iron, everything is done with methodical precision.  Working out as you get older is harder, I'm not going to lie.  But not working out makes the day to day so much more difficult.  

My son gave me a piece of advise almost two years ago that changed the way I worked out from that moment.  I have called upon that advise with my current injury.  I was attempting to do full pull-ups, very difficult for any woman.  I could feel the strain in my poor elbows as I struggled, when he said to me "Mom, engage your lats (latissimus dorsi)."  Those four words changed it all.  Stop putting so much strain on the joints and use all the muscles to lift.  It made a huge difference.

Now when I am doing my leg curls, assisted pull-up leg squats or seated leg press; my quads and hamstrings are doing the heavy lifting.  This results in them getting stronger to protect my joints even more. 

A new year, a new diet.

A new year has begun again and with January's arrival comes the "diet" word in many households.  I hate the term "diet" because it is misused all the time.  Diet is what you eat; it does not mean a weight loss diet.  

The gym is also filled with all those who are turning over a new leaf in their life.  There will be people who make it and those who do not; the ones who will start over again next January.  But why do so many people fail?  Many fail because they move too far away from their comfort zone.  Success is often achieved with baby steps. 

If you have a diet filled with processed food, sugar and carbs; then switching over to a diet void of carbs, processed food and sugar will make it nearly impossible.  Making a big diet change can be tough when your body is use to one thing for such a long time and then try to remove it completely.  The mind is a crazy thing and it can sometimes be the obstacle in the way of success.

Getting your head to agree with the new diet can take some time and discussion.  First you have to stop thinking that you are being deprived.  Next, there is no secret pill.  You may need to lose weight or you might just want to eat a better and more nutritional diet.  Whatever your reason for diet change; you need to let your head know what is going on and why.  

You only have one body in this life of yours; why not fuel it to the best of your ability?  When we eat food; it goes through a huge process before leaving again.  If there is no real nutritional value in what we eat then it is not helping to fuel our body at all.  In fact it may be causing damage on it's way through.  

Eating healthy food and loving it takes a new way of thinking.  If your current diet is a junk food base then you will need to teach yourself about the joys of healthy food.  Eating should not be just to quench hunger; we should eat to fuel our body to best it can be.  That means going back to simple and unprocessed.  You can change your palate but it definitely takes time and mind games.  

Yes, I eat things that are not considered healthy; everyone has a weakness or two.  I allow myself to eat indulgent foods, but in moderation.  Often the idea of not being allowed to eat things makes us want them more.  We feel deprived and cannot continue on the new healthy way of eating because of deprivation. 

Eating healthy is a good thing.  Learning to love healthy food is a process.  If your diet has gone down the processed path then you need to step off the road you are on.  You need to sit down and have a talk with yourself.  When you eat a diet filled with nutritional food; you are giving your food that it needs, foods it can use.  You will feel amazing; but it will not happen overnight.  Change is a process, take the first baby step today and the next when you are ready.  Take care of that body, you only have one.