Encore Personal Training member Warm-up
Encore Personal Training member Warm-up or Daily HW.
While the benefits of performing yoga have long been discussed, it can often be an intimidating form of exercise to try. Some people picture a studio full of perfect-looking twenty-somethings who can contort their bodies into all kinds of interesting positions. Some people are afraid they might look silly if they don’t know what to do or they are simply afraid of injuring themselves if they try to bend this way or that.
As most people age, they start to lose balance and flexibility, among other indicators of physical fitness, making it even less likely that they would attempt an activity like yoga that involves stretching and holding poses for certain lengths of time. Recently a group of researchers in Taiwan developed a type of yoga exercise program that they’ve named “silver yoga.”
This program, developed by Chen, Tseng, and colleagues (2), consists of four phases:
This program was critically reviewed by experts in the fields of yoga, elderly exercise, geriatric nursing, geriatric physical therapy, osteopathy, sports physiology, sports medicine, and/or sports injuries (2).
In a study published in Nursing Research, Chen, Fan, and colleagues (1) studied a group of 55 participants aged 65 or older who participated in 24 weeks of a three time per week silver yoga exercise program. Measures of body composition, cardiovascular-respiratory function, flexibility, muscular power and endurance, balance, and agility were taken before the study began, at twelve weeks, and at 24 weeks.
At the end of the study, participants in the silver yoga group had significantly reduced body fat percentage, decreased respiration rate (indicating that the exercise took less effort, and improved shoulder range of motion (right shoulder abduction) compared to their pre-silver yoga measurements (1). Additionally, the silver yoga group had improved in all measured physical fitness categories when compared to the control group at the end of the 24 week study.
As the general population ages, it’s becoming more important than ever for senior-based health programs to be developed and implemented to keep our seniors healthy and reduce the burden on the healthcare system. A silver yoga program is just one of many exercise options for older adults to participate in to positively affect their health. The importance of the above study is that it shows that exercise programs tailored specifically to the abilities and needs of an older population can, in fact, improve their overall physical health.
Exercise advice for couch potatoes usually goes like this: doing something is better than doing nothing. Turns out that might be true–people who do even a little regular exercise may have lower risk of heart disease than people who never leave the sofa.
Researchers did a meta-analysis of 33 studies looking at the effects of exercise on coronary heart disease among people who were active or sedentary to see if they could quantify how much exercise was needed to show any benefits. The 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, which recommend a minimum of 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise for health benefits, were used as a measure.
People who met those basic guidelines had a 14% lower risk of heart disease compared with people who did no leisure time physical activity. Bigger benefits were in store for people who exercised 300 minutes a week–their heart disease risk was lowered by 20%. There were diminishing returns for those who were active at five times the basic guidelines; they saw only a 25% decreased risk for heart disease.
But people who did less than the recommended 150 minutes per week also had lowered risk of heart disease compared with their sedentary counterparts.
When grouped by gender, women fared better than men, seeing reduced heart disease risk overall.
While the U.S. guidelines seem to be a good marker for exercise, the study authors note that more research may be necessary to further explore the relationship between physical activity and heart disease risk.
The study was released Monday in the journal Circulation.
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Source: LA Times
Get strong and balanced rear shoulder muscles by including this exercise in your weight routine. Sitting on a bench or chair makes it easier on your lower back when you lean forward. Begin with 3- to 5-pound dumbbells, then progress to heavier weights as you get stronger.
Sit on the front edge of a sturdy chair with your feet together directly below your knees. Grasp dumbbells in each hand and lean forward, maintaining a long spine. Reach both arms down, straight below your shoulders. Begin with palms turned in.
end your elbows out to the sides and rotate your hands backward. Pause for 2 seconds with your elbows at shoulder level and your hands near the outsides of your chest. It’s important to keep your shoulders relaxed down and away from your ears as you raise your arms. This way you’ll target the small muscles in the back of your shoulders, the rear deltoids. Perform three sets of eight to 12 repetitions.
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Source: LA Times
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