Workout and Diet Advice for Women over 45

More on how to change your attitude! A University of Chicago Booth School of Business research study had one group of participants visualizing eating an unpleasant food and the other group visualizing avoiding the unpleasant food. You guessed it – the first group formed a more favorable opinion of the food, the second group, nothing. Seems we are hardwired to equate avoidance with discomfort so the more you skip those hard-to-love-squats, the more you come to dislike them. By physically doing what you may dislike, you begin to change your attitude, because the brain equates taking action with a positive outcome. So either think about how much you love squats; or don’t think about them just do them!!

Fifteen minute workouts!?
We are all pressed for time, and rather than skip a workout due to lack of time, it is great to have some exercises that we can simply do in less time and still feel that we got a good workout . I have taken the challenge to suggest such workouts, and will be blogging these suggestions for the time challenged over the next couple of weeks. The objective is to make the workouts shorter in duration and still be effective.

In my previous blog post I discussed getting the most from your trainer; how to do it and what your responsibilities are as a client. So why are we talking about whether to end the relationship with the trainer? Fact is, like any relationship, things can feel ‘old and stale’, or we reach the point where we are no longer ‘feeling the love’. Though these generally apply to a male-female romantic relationship, the metaphor applies equally to the trainer-client relationship.
As women we are pretty sensitive and intuitive and can sense when things are ‘just not working’. If you are unsure of your instincts, then ask yourself the following questions:

I have had personal trainers for short periods occasionally over the years, and I have been a personal trainer.  I have seen what works and what doesn’t work from both sides.  I am also a keen observer of current personal trainers when they are training others.

A few weeks ago I blogged about “mixing it up”  –  changing and adding variety to your fitness schedule.   I made mention of some ‘Butt’ exercises I had found and planned to try.  Amazingly I couldn’t find that great set of exercises again.  Found similar but not the ones I was so excited about when I blogged.  This has bugged me  –  and I am now working on building up my own list and finding individual exercises to include.   I was annoyed to ‘lose’ the list and it kept me from blogging ’till I could find it’.  Really silly how our minds work.  So I am moving on while I build the Butt List.

It is just what it sounds like  –  a grueling run through mud (not by accident) and a variety of obstacles.  The annual Mud Runs take place all over the US in Summer and Fall.  Here is a link to the search I just completed using Bing.  Google brings up a similar result.  Some are 5 miles or 10K (just over 6 miles).

Every year Camp Pendleton (in San Diego)  holds a variety of fitness activities that are open to the general public.  This includes Mud Runs –  more than one each year.  Below are some tips posted  on www.crossfitweekendwarriors.com earlier this year right before a Mud Run (June 10^th ).  The tips are attributed to Ken Davis and give one a flavor of the challenge. Read on:

I don’t know about you – but I have been working out with weights for a lo-o-o-o-ng time.   I really notice it when the workout routine comes around to the start of the cycle and I think “man I just did legs….  or so it seems”.   Does no-one else get that feeling?  Is it just mydays and weeks that fly by, along with the workout cycle?

Of course our objective in working out and bodybuilding is to stay healthy  –  but who are we kidding, it is also to stay looking and feeling young ( well at least a good deal younger than our chronological age).  So it seems ironic that  we give ourselves away, by acting old in oh so many ways.  In fact Pamela Redmond Satran has written a book “How Not to Act Old” and excerpts have been reproduced in More magazine http://tiny.cc/uF2rq,  and even the Wall Street Journal took time to give an excerpt http://tiny.cc/jDTot.   I tweeted a couple of excerpts that I found funny  (one regarding Twitter and one regarding exercise).  I figure there is something for everyone even though a few women commented in More that they were insulted.

I wish I had thought of this, the Pyramid, it makes so much sense.  Conditioning gurus view athletic training as a pyramid.  They use it for football players, surfers, runners, cyclists (I’ll bet Lance knows all about this) to make sure the athletes get to and stay at the top of their game.  The pyramid works like this:

·         at the bottom are the fundamental, functional movements,
·         above that is the power,
·         and above that, the skill.

In a recent Tweet I said June would be the month to focus on stretching tips.  Well we are still in June, so this is just in time.   Summer is the time we think about getting to the beach or the BBQ or the County Fair – so we want to work out and get going.  The activity that generally suffers is the stretching.  I raise my hand – I am guilty of this oversight.  And am I the only one who has said ‘well I will stretch tonight when I get home’ and that is the last time the thought entered my head?  You don’t have to be a Boomer to forget to stretch; I think a lot of people forget.