strength

Help!!! I’m Losing Muscle!!!

Sarcopenia is the loss of muscle tone that happens as we age. It can be seen in lack of strength, balance, and speed—though there are currently no definitive measures for practitioners to look at when diagnosing sarcopenia. That might be changing as sarcopenia became an official disease in 2016. It’s considered a treatable disease.

New research indicates it also might not be inevitable. Humans may not just lose 3-8% of our muscle mass each decade starting in our thirties (that’s the actual data). It could be that each decade we move less and therefore lose muscle. That makes the answer simple: move more and keep your muscles. It also implies you aren’t fighting an uphill battle. So how do we keep as much of our muscle tone as possible?

Keep Moving and use the acronym MOVE:

Movement Awareness:

Notice anything you’ve lost. Is it harder to balance? Can you no longer get up and down off the floor. When you pick something up do you no longer squat and instead hinge from the back? Is it hard to lift a heavy pot suddenly?

Objective:

Set an objective. What do you need to train to help rebuild what you’ve lost? Who can help and is there anything […]

Help!!! I’m Losing Muscle!!!Maggie Downie2024-01-26T12:07:20-05:00

Grip Strength

Multiple research shows a correlation between overall health markers and grip strength. There seems to be a particular correlation with cardiovascular health (based on a study of 140,000 people over 4 years). Some researchers think testing grip strength might be a cheap, easy way to assess general heart health.

This matters because grip strength often starts to diminish between the age of 50-55 (I don’t know about you, but that sounds young to me). And Millennials have lost grip strength compared to their adult counterparts from the 1980s. This loss is more pronounced in men than women, but both have lost their grip. (Note: the research on this did not indicate they are concerned this is causing heart issues in adults today, more just that as a population we do less manual labor.)

The real issue is that grip strength has such practical applications in life, so if and when you lose it, you notice it daily. If your grip strength is still good you might take for granted using a fork, pumping gas, vacuuming, lifting a water jug, or opening a jar of pickles, but all these tasks require grip strength.

Grip strength is interconnected with wrist health and forearm strength. So […]

Grip StrengthMaggie Downie2023-09-28T12:46:41-04:00

Family Fitness – Fun for the Whole Family!

This is a great time of year to start a family fitness routine because with kids heading back to school we all tend to get back into a schedule after summer vacation. If you are looking for a family fitness routine your whole family will enjoy consider keeping it simple, incorporating variety, and looking for fun ways to move.

Simple

Probably the most basic way to incorporate movement with the whole family is to plan a walk after dinner. You could do this three, five, or seven nights a week if you are feeling ambitious. It would help instill great habits.

In case you’re not sure you could convince your whole family to walk every day, here are some other ideas. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty more and you can come up with anything and try new things daily or weekly, depending on how often you want to move with your family.

Play a Game

You could always use the technology kids love and play a game. The Nintendo Switch has boxing, bowling, and dance games you can play that will keep you moving. Or go old school and pull out a game like twister.

Bike Ride

You can take a […]

Family Fitness – Fun for the Whole Family!Maggie Downie2021-09-14T23:03:26-04:00

Arm Strength

Planking on a mountaintop in New Hampshire

Arms tend to be a weak point for many ladies. But there are so many fun moves we can do if our arms, wrists, and shoulders are strong and stable enough. You can do handstands, cartwheels, monkey bars, kick boxing classes, and push-ups. Am I selling you on arm strengthening exercises yet? Okay, you can pick up your grand kids, nieces or nephews. You can lug your own bag through the airport and get it up in the overhead bin without assistance. Even little things like brushing our hair comes from our arm strength.

To build up to all the exercises you dream of doing, start with the basics. Check out the videos below for some very basic arm strengthening exercises. Never do anything that hurts. It’s never worth it. Take your time building up.

For the Shoulders:

Basic Tricep & Bicep Exercises:

Overhead Press for Shoulders:

Plank to Down Dog (Great for strength and shoulder flexibility combined)

Want to Learn More:

Read Tips for a doing a handstand. Click here.

Having Goals and Trying a Jacob’s Ladder. Click here.

What is your purpose? Click here.

Ways to Keep in Touch:

Arm StrengthMaggie Downie2018-04-24T16:01:05-04:00

Age Has Nothing To Do With It

Every once in a while someone will tell me that the reason I can do a particular pilates exercise is because I’m young. I think that’s a bit of a copout because usually the person who says it is also capable of doing the exercise or if they can’t do it yet but would be able to do it with practice.

I also don’t think age really comes into play when you’re talking about pilates. If someone said to me, “You were only able to run a marathon when you were twenty-five without training because you were young,” I would whole heartedly agree with them, but pilates is different. It has this brilliant way of making you see every exercise that challenges you and then gives you ways you can improve.

But we each improve in our own body and at our own rate. And life always throws new things as us, so as soon as we conquer one exercise we may find another more difficult. Or we may take two steps forward and one back on […]

Age Has Nothing To Do With ItMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:57-04:00