Peer Pressure

There's nothing like a little peer pressure to keep one motivated to eat healthy and workout. Our community has come up with a way to inspire people to live healthier lives. It's called Healthy on the Shore. Corporations encourage their employees to form teams of four and enter the Corporate Challenge. You track activities, how many 8 oz. glasses of water you drink, and how many fruits and vegetables you eat. You enter your team's points weekly and at the end of the session, a winner is announced. The top team wins bragging rights.

Being part of this challenge has inspired me to go a little farther with a healthy lifestyle. I already drink a lot of water and eat a fair amount of fruits and vegetables, but I've added a little more of each to my diet. As far as exercise, you get points for working out but also for activities like shoveling snow and cleaning house. You even get 20 points an hour for playing with children (if only I had some grandchildren--maybe I could rent some). You can also earn extra points for parking further from entrances or taking stairs instead of the elevator (the only problem is Muskegon doesn't have buildings tall enough for elevators).

Yesterday, in order to earn a few extra points for the team, I decided to shovel a path on our deck from the house to the grill. Part of my motivation was a fear that the deck was going to collapse because of all the snow on it. I worked for about 90 minutes and finally had a path cleared.

I wasn't in the house for more than 10 minutes when an avalanche of snow and ice came down from the roof and covered my handiwork.

I could've been killed. But it was worth it for the team. I got 48 extra points.

Budget Friendly Home Gym: Part 5

The Exercise Ball

I love this piece of equipment because it's cheap and so versatile. Not only can you use it for exercises, it can be a piece of furniture. One of my co-workers uses an exercise ball as a chair to help build core strength while sitting at her desk. (If you do this, make sure you don't let your back slouch forward as this doesn't help your core and it hurts your back.)

An exercise ball can be found at most discount department stores (i.e. Target, K-Mart, Walmart) as well as sporting goods stores. They run about $25. They come in different sizes according to your height. If you are average, I'd suggest a 24 inch ball.

As far as exercises, you can add a core workout to most of your normal free weight exercises just by performing those exercises while sitting or balancing on an exercise ball.

Add a little zest to your push-ups by balancing your legs on the ball rather than on the floor.

The exercise ball is great for abdominal work. You get the extra range of motion by stretching backwards on the ball.

If you are a senior citizen or have balance issues, you can start out by placing the exercise ball on a stand. This will help stabilize the ball until your balance improves.

There are websites that have workouts for exercise balls. One that I've found helpful is exerciseballworkouts.net. It's free and has videos to show the exercises.

Exercise balls add a fun dimension to any workout. The only downside is storage, unless you get it in a color to match your decor.

Cardio vs. Strength Training

When I first started working out in college, I did nothing but run. I signed up for a 25k race in 1981 and started increasing my miles to train for it. I thought I was in great shape, until I went to an exercise class that was all floor work (i.e. Jane Fonda record--this predates VHS tapes). I couldn't do all the leg lifts, sit-ups, and whatever else was on that record. I even bought leg warmers, but to no avail. Hmm. Maybe I was in shape cardiovascular wise, but I had no muscular endurance. I didn't start strength training until after my second back surgery in 1994 and it has made all the difference.

As we age, we need to increase the percentage of time we spend lifting weights in proportion to the time we spend on cardiovascular training. According to Dr. Kenneth Cooper (Cooper Aerobic Center), we should spend the following amount of time a week on cardio versus strength training:

• Age forty and younger: 80 percent aerobic, 20 percent strength
• Ages forty-one to fifty: 70 percent aerobic, 30 percent strength
• Ages fifty-one to sixty: 60 percent aerobic, 40 percent strength
• Ages sixty-one and older: 55 percent aerobic, 45 percent strength

So, bottom line, I need to add another day of strength training to my workouts. I think I'll get some new leg warmers to increase my motivation.

Winter Exercise

Yesterday, my husband and I decided to go for a short trek through the woods on our snowshoes. We are blessed to have a wooded area across the street, so all we have to do is strap on the snowshoes and go. (Our driveway is at the mailbox in the background.)

My husband putting his snowshoes on.

It doesn't take long to get your heart rate in the "zone", especially if the snow is deep and you're breaking trail. Also, I'd forgotten how much snowshoeing works your glutes. I definitely felt the burn. (Maybe I'm just getting old and anything would feel like it's working my glutes.) At any rate, it was great to get out in the fresh air and sunshine (a rarity in West Michigan in the winter). I find the winter goes so much faster if I participate in outdoor sports. Here's to January being half over.

Cross Country Skiing

Last week, we had a few days with temps in the 50's, and all the snow was gone. Over the past two days we've had "Lake Effect Snow Warnings" and maybe 10 inches of snow. Officially, the warning goes until 7 a.m. tomorrow. We were supposed to get 4-6 inches of snow today. But, alas, the weatherman was wrong. We had bright blue skies. It was a great day to dust off the skis and head to the state park.

We are so blessed to have a beautiful state park five minutes from our home. I called our friends, Jim and Jayne, and we headed out to enjoy a trek through the woods.

My legs felt a little wobbly on the first few hills. Of course, after you fall once, you're much more relaxed, because you've (hopefully) gotten it out of the way. Jim had a mishap on one of the bigger hills. He ended up taking off his skis and walking the rest of the way.

It's always so invigorating to get outside and get a good workout in while having fun. I hope my husband and I are still skiing when we're 90.

Almost 54 and Very Sore

A couple of days ago, it was 52 degrees in West Michigan. It had rained all morning, so the snow and ice had melted off the roads. The sun came out around noon and I decided to go for a run outside. I don't do treadmills or ice and snow, so it had been over a month since I had run. No problem. I had a new outfit from Christmas to wear (nothing like new workout clothes for motivation) and some new music on my iPod.

I headed outside and basked in the sunshine. The air smelled so fresh. I ran one of my 6 mile routes and loved (almost) every minute of it. I did some stretching when I got home and went on with my day.

It is now two days later, and I have been so sore from my little trot around the block, that every time I stand or sit, I audibly groan. My calves, quads, and hamstrings have been screaming at me for the past 48 hours. Of course, everyone experiences a little DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness), but this has been excessive. Twenty years ago, this would not be happening to me. Furthermore, I've been finding, lately, that some days my muscles are sore and I can't remember what I've done to deserve it. So the question is this:

Are my muscles more prone to injury as I age?

or

Is my memory so bad that I can't remember when I've exerted myself?

I think I need to change the name of this blog to "Need to Refurbish After Fifty".

Hot Mama

The heat has arrived in Muskegon, Michigan. I had forgotten how hot weather makes exercise more difficult. I sweat more, my heart rate is higher, and every step is miserable. It's called "heat stress". There are more variables than just the air temperature in heat stress. The humidity, air velocity, and the amount of thermal radiation also must be taken into account. Exercising on a warm, sunny day with calm winds is more difficult than exercising in the same air temperature with cloud cover and a slight breeze. Also, the sweat that forms during light sweating contains less sodium and chloride than when the sweating rate increases. A high sweating rate decreases blood volume which reduces performance. Unfortunately, I am a heavy sweater. Even my hands and the inside of my ears sweat. (I can't wear earbuds for my Ipod because the sweat makes them fall out.) I have one sports bra that shows the sweat more than others and for some reason, it seems to collect in two spots on my chest. That bra has gone to Goodwill.

The good news is that we can acclimatize to exercise in the heat. After exercising for an hour or more each day for 5 to 10 days, cardiovascular changes, as well as changes in our sweating mechanism will occur. Could I possibly start to sweat like a normal person after just 10 days of training? Maybe I should have kept that sports bra.