There isn’t any single anti aging exercise or workout schedule that will keep you looking and feeling younger for longer. Rather, the message that most health professionals are trying to tell us all is that regular exercise of any kind is the key to feeling young, lowering the risk of many diseases, avoiding weight gain, and maintaining physical ability into the senior years. When designing an anti aging strategy at any stage of life, exercise is one of two vital components. The other is a healthy diet.

Lack of exercise and aging go hand in hand. If you are inactive, you will lose muscle tone and strength, your cardiovascular fitness will suffer, and you will find yourself less able to participate in sports or do other things you used to enjoy. Your posture will likely suffer as muscles deteriorate, and you will begin to suffer from back pain. Your blood pressure may start to rise. A sedentary lifestyle can result in myriad different physical problems. Even people who are quite young can seem prematurely old if they suffer from these effects of inactivity - from this perspective, any activity is anti aging exercise.

As well, you can exercise slow aging and lower your risk of disease at the same time. Medical research tells us that regular physical activity lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease and some cancers. Many diseases associated with growing older can be avoided, controlled or even eliminated with regular exercise and aging apparently reversed - blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol can all come down to healthy levels. Anti aging exercise for these medical problems can be as simple as a brisk twenty minute walk every day. Strength training is also often recommended for arthritis, bone density, and circulation problems.

While you are concentrating on anti aging exercise, you’ll be dealing with another potential problem: the tendency to gain weight as you grow older. It’s a fact that people tend to gain weight once they reach middle age. It’s a slow conversion of muscle mass to fat storage due to lower activity levels, a slowing of the metabolism, and hormonal changes. Decreased exercise and aging seem to irrevocably result in fat storage. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Keep up your activity levels by engaging in sport, walking, biking, swimming or some other regular exercise. Even gardening, house cleaning, and trips to the store can be opportunities to get exercise. You’ll stay trim and avoid health problems at the same time.

Can exercise slow aging? Clearly it can, and it’s a long lasting benefit. Engage in sports, active leisure time activities, regular work outs or whatever interests you - it’s all anti aging exercise. And not only will you fell better now but you will be investing in a healthy and physically able old age. Your bones will remain strong, your strength levels will stay up, your joints will stay flexible, and you outlook will be positive. Get regular exercise and aging will seem like a normal comfortable process. Not only can exercise slow aging - it can improve your health and emotional well being in so many ways.

As you may already know, fat loss can be quite a tricky subject. Along with a solid diet and plenty of rest, a cardio routine is necessary in order to achieve your goals. However, many cardio routines simply do not work. Each individual is different, so a fat loss program that will work for one may not work for another. This being said, there happens to be an exercise strategy that seems to be the most effective way for any individual to lose weight.

Fat loss interval training, or most commonly known as high intensity interval training, is a unique technique that is proven to be more effective at burning fat than the lower intensity type work outs. This method entails several periods of intense exercise with a lower intensity “recovery” phase in between each of these periods. For instance, a runner would begin with a jog for about 60 seconds, then the jog would turn into a 30 second maximum-intensity sprint. From here, the runner returns to a jog and repeats the cycle. Naturally, the maximum-intensity phase will become increasingly difficult and it is acceptable to decrease the interval time in compliance with fatigue. Ideally, this workout should last anywhere form 20-30 minutes. Though interval training is most efficient while preformed on a track, it is possible to do this type of training on any cardio-type exercise machine.

Though high intensity interval training is a powerful way to lose weight, beginners must be cautious while performing the method. It is important to start at a lower intensity, and gradually work into your body’s maximum-intensity ability. A warm up phase, consisting of stretches and a light jog, along with a cool down run, are imperative in order to prevent injury.

Electrolytes are minerals found in your body. They are broken down into smaller particles called ions when they are dissolved in water. The main purpose of electrolytes is to regulate fluids in the human body. This helps balance blood pH. They create the electrical impulses required for all types of physical activity, including neuromuscular communication.

If you are eating a well-balanced diet, you will likely initially receive adequate amounts of electrolytes. When they are consumed, electrolytes will separate into a mixture of positive and negative ions. They then become charged either by the ions found in the water inside the bloodstream or the surrounding cells.

At this point, water serves as a conductor, which allows the ions to find their way to the cell membranes, carrying fluid, nutrients and waste. This process will then trigger nerve impulses along with muscle function. It allows the ions in the bloodstream to neutralize various waste acids found in the blood.

If hydration and electrolyte levels are balanced, normal physical functions won’t be an issue. However, exercise will affect a shift in these levels. Electrolytes become more concentrated resulting in their depletion over time. This can hinder the performance of athletes, and in extreme cases, can result in serious medical conditions.

Among the electrolytes dispersed when we sweat, sodium is the most relevant, as well as water levels. As a result of losing water more rapidly than we lose electrolytes, the need for replacing lost minerals during shorter periods of exercise is not as critical as it would be during longer endurance activities.

When participating in longer workouts or more strenuous activity, your body can become depleted in both sodium and other electrolytes. If these levels fall too low, you may begin having important loss of neuromuscular function. In these particular circumstances, it becomes vital to replace these lacking electrolytes, otherwise you could find your body beginning to shut down.

It’s important to replace fluid levels as well as electrolytes as soon as possible. Even if you don’t feel thirsty, it is still imperative to replenish what has been lost. Fortunately, it isn’t hard to achieve this balance. Drinking a healthy sports drink may be the most efficient source of replenishment.

Not only do certain sports drinks provide you with adequate amounts of the most important electrolytes, they also provide water necessary for rehydration. Sodium and chloride are the minerals you lose most through sweat. Ensuring your sports drink includes sodium chloride in addition to other electrolytes such as potassium chloride, magnesium and calcium, helps take the guesswork out of consuming the necessary amounts of electrolytes.

As a rule of thumb, typical athletes should be consuming 4-8 fluid ounces of water every 20 minutes. Factors that influence your fluid intake are body mass, your body’s tolerance, how hot it is and your sweat rate. What you want to consider is the amount of sodium in your chosen sports drink. The normal range is approximately 20-60mg per 100ml, and is vital when participating in any physical activity lasting more than one hour.

As soon as the weather gets warm, you’ll see a rapid rise in six pack abs workout routines in the gym. Everyone wants to get ripped for the beach and they think that the best thing for their stomach is to just do endless crunches. So they spend days training their abs with various types of crunches and high reps and hope that they’ll see results. It never comes. What gives? Why?

First off, crunches don’t just make up a six pack ab workout program. Just doing ab movements doesn’t cut it. Ab training should be as calculated as everything else that you do in the gym. You should plan in how you’re going to improve and what happens when you reach that point. So the first thing that you have to do is design your six pack ab workout program.

The best way to do this is to break up your ab training into three separate days. Crunches, hip raises and rotation. You often see people throwing all three of these movements into the same workout but that’s not the best idea since you’ll never be able to fully target an area that way. You want to maximize your ab training to the fullest every workout. So by doing just all crunch variations (body weight, cable, swiss ball etc) in one workout you fully fatigue those muscle fibers.

While I’ll never tell you that you need to target your lower abs, I will say that hip dominant movements like reverse crunches will work the lower portion of your abs to a greater extent. It just has to since anytime you’re curling your hips the lower portion of your abs must engage. Lastly, we have rotation movement like cable chops and Russian twists. These movements will engage our obiliques more so that we don’t leave any area of our abs out.

Now we need to look at what steps and reps are used. Stop training with high reps in your six pack ab workout, they don’t work. We keep hammering your abs with high rep work and we give our stomach no reason to get stronger. So to do that we want to train with lower reps and more sets at certain times since we’ll increase the chances of creating more ab definition. So you should alternate by training each of your three ab days with higher reps, around three sets of twenty reps on week one and week two change your six pack ab workout to four sets of eight reps.

Is it a good idea to do strength training and cardio in the same workout? And if so, which one should be done first?

Well, you’ll first need to look in the mirror and clearly distinguish whether your goal is to lose weight (fat) or build strength. If you’re somewhere in between, then the specifics of this article are less important.

But assuming your goal is either fat loss or building strength, you will require a different strategy.

Let’s look at each case individually:

YOUR GOAL IS FAT LOSS…

If your goal is to lose fat, however, you may increase your ability to burn fat during any given workout by doing intense cardio BEFORE your strength training workout.

Why?

First, doing cardio at a moderate to high intensity elicits a greater degree of lipolysis (fat breakdown). By stimulating lipolysis, your body has more fatty acids at its disposal and is therefore more inclined to use fat as a fuel during the subsequent strength training workout.

Research has shown that a greater fat loss benefit can be expected if periods of higher intensity cardio are performed during the early phase of the workout. A 2003 study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology showed that fat oxidation was higher in a workout that was initiated with a short bout of high intensity cardio.

The second benefit to doing higher intensity cardio before strength training (for fat loss purposes) is that it produces greater than normal cardiorespiratory and metabolic responses, such as increased post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC).

EPOC is a measure of “passive caloric expenditure” that occurs after your workout as your body attempts to re-establish homeostasis. This increase may be due to a greater increase in body temperature and circulating hormones, both of which will increase fat burning after your workout.

More good news - your body also prefers fat as a fuel source during the post-workout stage, as it needs this energy to replenish glycogen (carbohydrate) stores that were depleted during the workout.

So even if you can’t lift as much weight during your subsequent strength training session, don’t worry. The goal with fat loss is not to lift maximum weight but rather to elevate your body’s metabolism by maintaining an elevated heart rate for more of your workout.

YOU WANT TO BUILD STRENGTH…

If your goal is to develop more muscular strength then you need to do your cardio AFTER your strength training workout.

Why?

Because, aside from doing a light cardio warm-up, excessive (or high intensity) cardio before lifting weights depletes your glycogen (energy) stores. As a result, you will have less fuel in the tank for your resistance training exercises and thus will experience sub-par strength workouts simply because you won’t be able to push as much weight!

Just think of the last time you did an intense cardio workout - did you feel like throwing around some heavy weights afterwards? Most likely not.

THEY’RE ACTUALLY PRETTY SIMILAR

Want to lose fat? Then, begin with a 5-10 minute bout of high intensity cardio (notice how I’ve used “intense” cardio) before your strength training routine that should incorporate full body exercises using weights that will only allow 6-8 reps!

Want to build strength? Do the exact same thing but simply move your intense cardio after your strength training.

You see, when it comes to the strength training component of your workout, regardless of whether you want to burn fat or build strength, using heavier weights and lower repetitions (6-8 reps) is the key to success! So put away those low weight, high repetitions aerobics videos.

References:

Kang, J. et al (2003). Effect of order of exercise intensity upon cardiorespiratory, metabolic, and perceptual responses during exercise of mixed intensity. Eur J Appl Phsyiol, 90: 569-574.

The kettlebell is the REAL pulse of cardiovascular fitness. If you are looking to significantly boost your level of performance and hit your warm-up when everyone else is breaking a serious sweat then this is your formula for success. I have had years of experience training athletes and the kettlebell is the greatest tool for obtaining both optimal strength and the conditioning of a race horse.

More and more endurance athletes are realizing that a successful strength and conditioning program is the answer to their success. Kettlebells are no doubt, the most effective device in delivering both a hard-hitting strength workout along with all the benefits of developing serious cardio endurance. Working out with kettlebells will give you a whole new experience when it comes to your cardiovascular training.

I have had serious successful athletes that are in better shape than most other serious athletes tell me after a kettlebell workout that nothing gets their pulse going more than the iron bell. Swinging the bell or performing overhead snatches with the bell will give you the conditioning workout of your life if you have never tried it. Once you start you will always include this as the PRIMARY element of your training regimen.

So what are you waiting for? If you want to dominate everyone else you compete against on the bike, running on the road, or even swimming in the water then you need this. Every successful athlete knows the value of an effective strength and conditioning program. There is no better way for one to gain an edge in every element of fitness when it comes down to training to WIN!

Enjoy

-MissFit

So how do you measure up?

We all know that unhealthy eating and not enough physical activity is bad for us. But do we know why? Sure, if you add these two things together, you may put on weight. But why does it matter if you are carrying a few extra centimetres around your middle?

Well, having excess weight around your waist is a likely sign of dangerous internal fat deposits around your organs – and this is where the problem lies.

In 2005, approximately 7.4 million Australian adults (54 per cent) were overweight or obese – 2 million more than in 1995. Being overweight or obese has also recently overtaken tobacco smoking as the leading risk factor for premature death and disease in Australia.

For most Australian women a waist measurement of over 80cm means you are at increased risk of developing a chronic disease. If your waist measurement is over 88cms for women, your risk greatly increases. Chronic diseases include type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers. (For ethnic specific values for waist circumference please see website www.australia.gov.au/MeasureUp).

To help avoid the crippling effects of obesity on the health system, the economy and to individuals, the Australian Government, together with state and territory governments, is running a campaign to educate people about the risk factors for chronic disease, and how people can make simple changes to their lifestyles to help reduce their risk.

These changes might be as simple as taking the stairs rather than the lift, taking a walk with friends rather than meeting for coffee, making sure you eat a healthy breakfast, and eating smaller portions of food. Joining a MissFit PT group training session and starting a new exercise plan! Now there’s a thought.

To assess your risk and to find out what measures you can take to improve your life simply sign up to receive your FREE online health and fitness analysis with MissFit PT. Plus we’ll throw in 2 free group training sessions for your time.

It’s never too late to make positive changes!

Now if you’re still searching for a good reason to start exercising, perhaps the idea of an improved sex life might convince you to get cracking?

A bedroom romp can be an exhausting workout, as you might find yourself having to hold certain positions for short or long periods of time. So it’s important that your body is conditioned and flexible enough to do this, otherwise you could find yourself, or your partner injured. So don’t get too carried away with the Karma Sutra just yet!

So how do you prepare your body for better sex through exercise?

1. You need to work on your cardiovascular activity. For example start running, boxing, swimming, cycling, do anything you can to increase your heart rate, and keep it elevated for more than 30 minutes at a time.

2. You need to work on your strength, so start lifting weights. If you haven’t weight trained before start with high repetitions on low weights and build up from there.

3. You need to work on your flexibility, so start stretching out before and after each training session. Once your flexibility improves you can start to try and aim for greater range or depth with your weight training which will help also. For example, the deep legged squat. You might find at first that you can only squat to a 45 degree angle, and then with practice you should aim to hit 90 degrees, which is virtually your hamstrings touching your calves. Nice depth here. Or consider incorporating yoga or pilates into your weekly training regime to improve flexibility and strength.

Doing regular exercise (4 times a week) will give you greater energy levels as you will feel less tired and be more willing and able to hit the bedroom at the end of your busy day. Not to mention, people who exercise often feel more confident about their bodies because they look better. If you stick to an exercise plan within no time you’ll be wanting to leave the lights on and undress for your partner. And lest not forget, sex burns calories so if you manage to go the distance for an hour or so you can tell your trainer that you did an extra training session or three this week!

Happy romancing!

-MissFit

ps. If you want to see MissFit demonstrate some great sexercises with Triple M’s The Cage Emily Jade simply click on this link.

1. Start slowly. Ease into your runs and pick up the pace once you feel warmed up.

2. Pick scenic and pretty courses. Maybe it’s a sense of running the same course day after day that makes running seem difficult and boring. Find some local beauty spots. Head to the park. Run on the beach. A change of scenery can do wonders for your mental outlook. You’ll be so focused on the new surroundings, you won’t even notice the minutes flying by.

3. Run at different paces. Slow down then speed up. Moving faster sometimes forces you to concentrate on form and actually makes the run feel easier, even while your pulse rate is climbing.

4. Run with someone or in a group. When discussing work or the kids or partners, you’ll forget about all those km’s you’re covering.

5. Strengthen those quads & butt. New runners sometimes complain of sore joints mainly knees. The stronger your quads and glutes are the easier it will be to lift your legs off the ground. If these two muscles are strong it will protect your knees against the pounding. Don’t overlook the quads & butt when you do your strength training. A lot of single leg squats and lunges please.

6. Wear the right shoes. Plain and simple running will not feel easy if you’re in the wrong shoes. You should change your shoes every 6 months.

7. Vary your workout times. Do 3 x 1 km efforts, run for 25 -30 mins, try 1 hour.

8. Get your breathing under control. There’s no wrong or right way to breath when you run. You just have to make sure you get enough oxygen into your lungs so that you’re comfortable. Deeper, longer breaths are good, but when you run hills you will find you have to take shorter, quicker more shallow breaths to get the oxygen in.

9. Run from Point to Point or from light post to light post. Set yourself a course in advance and run from point A to point B. Plus there’s a sense of accomplishment for completing it.

10. Be at ease when you run. It’s your time to be free and clear your mind. Listen to your IPod or think about your favourite music when you run. Sing the songs in your head or out load!

-MissFit