Effects of Lack of Exercise, according to Jack LaLanne

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve probably heard it a thousand times: “I know I should exercise, but I hate it. I’m fat and out of shape. I can’t do any of the things I used to do, my doctor wants me to work out because of my lack of fitness, but I hate it. What can I do?”

If you don’t exercise regularly you’re in Big Bad Trouble.

Men lose their masculinity, their drive, strength, shape and endurance; yes, even their sexual desires are diminished along with their zest for living. The aging process is hastened. The blood vessels can become hard and small, leading to high blood pressure. Fat is stored when not physical

active. When you are not exercising regularly, even the mind can be affected. Your self-image, self-esteem and psychological factors can be affected. Exercise helps you to sleep better, alleviate stress, helps burn up extra calories, absorbs your food more completely and even permits you to overeat occasionally. Exercise is a normalizer; if you are overweight it will help you to burn up calories, providing that you are not taking in more calories than you are burning up. If you are too thin it will help you absorb your food more readily and help build muscle.

That link above is straight from a guy who walked the walk AND in my own experience I have to say it is on the money.

Do your self a BIG favor, and shut off the mass marketing machine you are hit with on a daily basis via TV, Radio, Internet, Social networks, Texts, Billboards and everywhere else. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an add for some newly marketed, cleverly named exercise/diet/gimmick tattooed on Kim Kardashian’s chest.

Now that you have done that read the above paragraph by Jack Lalanne. Make sense? Ok then…….READ IT AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!

Ingrain it in your mind. No scratch that………in your BODY and MIND. Cut away all the mindless chatter and this is it.

Now what do you do and how do you do it?

That’s a fair question but don’t put the water in before you build the pool!

Embrace the concept above first because it will help you stay on course because most people jump from ship to ship and lose their vision.

When something isn’t happening as fast as you would like or you never understood and trusted what you were doing…………you have to go back to the basics, and it doesn’t get much more basic than Jack’s paragraph.

The hows’ and what’s ……….those will be coming next.

Best,
Robert

Here is an article that makes good and bad points for barefoot running.

Barefoot running article.

Here is my position on all of this.  First, most of us treat our feet like crap. Today’s shoes are NOT the best thing for our feet. You ever seen the over engineered, highly priced, shoes that runners wear today? Or Basketball players? There is an “athletic” shoe for practically every sport. Tennis, walking, cycling, running, hiking, climbing, trail running, basketball, “aerobics” style health club class shoes and even sex.  I know….sex isn’t a sport, but as WC Fields once said (when asked if poker was a game of chance) “Not the way I play it.”  I have to admit though, if  they ever figure out how to market a sex shoe to us they will! I always feel better when I walk around barefoot.

I really learned first hand the difference it makes when I tried squatting years ago without shoes. I realized how much “weaker” I felt and was so glad I discovered that weak link and could shore it up!…………….

Then there are the “regular shoes. High heels, pointed boots, ill fitting dress shoes, flip flops and countless others.  Arch supports galore! Heel lifts! Extra cushioning! It’s all there. So much so that our feet never come close to contacting the ground itself. All those nerve endings and muscles that are supposed to react and send the signals upwards to other muscles and nerves are deadened. The result? Podiatrists make a fortune, shoe companies make even bigger fortunes, knees ache, backs ache and feet and ankles lose much of their strength and mobility.

That’s a bad thing since our feet are the first thing that comes into contact with the ground. It’s as if the dimmer switch was turned down to just above off, and there is no way to bring power, balance and strength up from the ground the way it should. We neglect our feet. We NEVER directly exercise them (well I do at least) and have never been taught how to in the first place. This becomes more and more important as we age. How many elderly people have YOU known or seen with bad feet? They are EVERYWHERE!

Back to barefoot running. Why do it in the first place? Same reason much of your regular exercise should be done barefoot. It makes you stronger, it gives you that connection to the ground so you can make your exercise really “total body.” Exercising barefoot reawakens muscles and pathways that might have been shut down by wearing shoes. Plus it just feels good. Ever hear of people with sore backs walking on stones in bare feet and feeling MUCH better after that? Why? Because their feet could move again, which sends the signals upwards to other muscles, and joints and tendon and ligaments to fall into place and maybe even relax a bit.  In the training world that I inhabit there is an old saying that goes…….”you are only as strong as your weakest link.”

In many people this link is in their feet and/or ankles. Heck I remember an old study that found people’s butt muscles shut down by up to 90% following an ankle sprain, and it doesn’t come back online unless you do specific exercises preferably barefoot.

So…………..should you or shouldn’t you? I am afraid there are many other questions to ask yourself before you even get to that one. How about…..

Have I ever run before?

Do I run now?

Do I have a pre existing condition in my feet and ankles?

Do I have a pre existing knee or back problem?

Am I overweight?

What is my height and weight?

What is my age?

Should I be running in the first place?

Have I been diagnosed with any major foot/ankle problems such as plantar faciitis, ankle sprains, hammer toes or MTP joint pain? How about pins in your ankle? Any history of broken bones down there?

Let’s say you don’t have any of those problems, you do run a bit, you are only slightly overweight and have no injuries. You are 5′ 9″, 42 years old and want to try barefoot running because you heard it’s a more natural way to run and exercise. Should you?

If I was there with you I would still want to know more. We would look at your running stride, and put you through a movement assessment to reveal any weakness or “flat tires” that might cause injury from your increase in running.  So……should you?  Eventually you might, but right off the bat? Nope.  I have a complete program of exercises that are great for preparing your ankles and feet for barefoot running.  That is where you would start.

If you are overweight, and/or your feet are a big mess then you DEFINITELY should NOT head out the door to run barefoot. You have to earn the right to get there, and that will take walking in regular shoes, watching your nutrition and taking it from there. Also…….if you are big person (not fat) just big. 6′ plus, stocky, big bones etc…then barefoot running may not be the best alternative for you either.

The main thing everyone needs to realize is that if you have spent your life in shoes you can’t expect to start a barefoot running program of any kind (yes that includes today’s minimalist shoes like Vibram 5 fingers) without a fairly lengthy period of preparation. Right now as I speak there is an epidemic of people NOT taking the time to prepare for it ending up with ankle problems, foot pain, calves that are SO sore they can barely walk and other injuries.

If YOU want to run “au naturale” here is what I would do if I were you.

First, kick of your shoes as soon as you get home and spend all your hours at home barefoot

Second, start a daily routine of foot and ankle flexibility and mobility exercises (I use these in my own program)

Third, start strengthening those feet and ankles with a couple of exercises (yes the ones I use…I can’t help it I like what I like cause it works)

Fourth start going for walks while you are also strengthening your feet. Get yourself a pair of good minimalist  shoes like Vibram 5 fingers or New Balance minimus walking recovery shoes and start going for walks outside. Please try and stay off the damn treadmill and get your butt outdoors. If you can actually find grass (a park or something) that is even better. A beach is also a GREAT PLACE for this. You don;t need any footwear at all. Work up to 30 minutes. Once you have done this do more.

Fifth, I am now experimenting with jumping rope in my Vibram’s. I had a bit of trouble until I first worked the earlier strength and mobility exercises. My feet and ankles handle jumping rope much better now.

Sixth, start incorporating short easy jogs into your walks. Alternate them, say 5 minutes walking and 30 seconds jogging. Gradually increase the jogging part. This step should not be progressed quickly AND you should do all the other steps for a long time first before you get to this.

Seventh, spend time and effort on building your ankle and foot strength, endurance and mobility so you can jog/run for 20 minutes or more!

I have done some easy runs in my 5 fingers and except for sore calves I have done alright. I wouldn’t recommend always running this way but I run on grass on uneven terrain in a park and it feels good on my feet. Please let us know how you are doing with your own program!

Best,

Robert

1. Low back pain.

2. Upper back/neck pain and fatigue.

3. Squatting becomes a problem and puts extra pressure on your low back.

4. Your butt may not do it’s job as well. So what? Back pain, knee pain, weakness (like an old person that can’t even get out of a chair anymore) that’s what.

5. Calves can tighten up and bending your ankle to any normal range is a problem so that may throw the stress on your knee.

6. Muscles work together so you can do stuff. Like a symphony orchestra they work together towards an end. All the parts make up the whole and if one is overly tight it disrupts the flow. In an orchestra this would come across as flatness or bum notes or even sound out of tune. In other words it would be an amateur or even lousy performance. That means something as simple as touching your toes will look like an ancient mummy trying to bend over and fix it’s bandages. Or a slumped and painful posture or hips that move like they are made of concrete.

7. Hamstring cramps may be possible or even worse a hamstring pull.

8. Legs and hips tire more easily because moving takes so much extra effort to fight the tightness.

9. The front of your body is compressed and “collapsed” which makes something as simple as breathing a more labor intensive effort, which means more tension in your muscles which means all of the above and more.

10. You may make the grandparent noise as you plop down into a chair. You know that sound….the sort of relieved grunt. Have you caught yourself making that sound? It’s also a the sound as you they get out of the chair too!

There are more, but you get the idea. If your hammies are “on” all day and you can’t even bend over and do the simplest of movements like touch your toes? You are NOT fit. No matter what else it si that you do. If you can’t do the simple stuff that every human should be able to do then THAT is the place to start an exercise program. Keep it basic and take care of those hamstrings!

Next…….a few fixes for tight hammies.

Best,

Robert

If you know anything about me you might know that I am all about taking control of your life. To be specific………health, fitness and staying Younger Longer. If you were to pay attention to that study you might think your chances are not good if you live in the US. I say what’s the damn difference? If this study tells us ANYTHING it tells us that prevention is our best friend.

Prevention of what? All those symptoms from: boneheadednutritionsittingarounddoingnothingbreathinglikeanasthmaticlychallengeddullmindedliving……that’s what.

All those “ness” symptoms like fatness, weakness, tiredness, stiffness, breathlessness, , and of course heart trouble, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, even certain cancers.

I watched both my grandfathers slowly wither away from smoking related diseases. You must have experienced something similar either with yourself or someone you know.  Sad thing is my grandfathers diseased ravaged bodies were preventable. Their bodies were much older than their real ages were. Yep, YOU and I don’t have to age badly. I heard an old self improvement line that I always repeat to myself reminding me to keep it up.

“Certain things, done in a certain way, every day will change your life”

In my experience that is 100% true in staying younger longer, preventing illness and keeping a positive attitude about your life. What are those things, and how you do them are numerous, and too much to even try explaining in a blog post. Here is one nugget though.

You can pick any minute of your day and change something in your life. It doesn’t even have to be a big change, but if you are doing the same things day after day and nothing is happening for you. If things are sliding backwards then just pick a moment and do it differently. You can always pick another moment after that too.  Watch what happens when you do it.

Let’s say you always pick up a bagel w/ cream cheese and coffee for breakfast. Maybe that is your moment. Change it. Try something more healthy for yourself. A couple of pieces of fruit, with a little cottage cheese coffee AND lots of water. That is just, of course, a suggestion since you may not like the taste of those things, but that’s not the point. Just come up with something healthier. Try to pick something that wasn’t manufactured by humans. Something that actually grew out the ground, and wasn’t pulverized, processed and ruined to death.

Please let me know how this goes for you, and remember that we ALL have a say in how our lives go. Not the government but US and YOU! I now step off of my dirty little soapbox and leave you to it.

Best,

Robert

At this point I really need to air a pet peeve of mine. No scratch that, a plain old wrong perception that most people have. To help get to the bottom of this hamstring tightness problem you fist have to understand that the hamstrings AND any other muscle group DO NOT work  alone. They don’t flex and stretch and tighten all by themselves. The whole picture often has to be looked at. Muscles work together to get whatever the job is done. They ALWAYS act best as a team with each other.

You say you can’t touch your toes anymore because your hamstrings are too tight? That may only be part of the problem. A tip of the iceberg.  “Stretching” your hamstrings may be a waste of time if the full picture isn’t understood.

Today I only wanted to throw out the 10 most common reasons your hamstrings are tight. Chances are that also means other muscles are overly tight too  BUT let’s stick with the simpler approach.

1. You sit a lot. If you sit at work most of the day, sit in the car driving to and from work and sit in front of the TV at night you are asking for problems because those muscles of yours will just love to conform to the position you put them in all day. Hamstrings (and many other muscles) learn to stay in that shortened range of sitting.

2. You are a tense person. I know people who are just very tense. All day. Worried, nervous and waiting for the next disaster to hit at work or/and at home. Breathing is shallow and muscles are bombarded with that tension all day so………..they stay that way.

3. Inactivity. Let’s link this one with sitting a lot. There is no need for me to go into  some long winded explanation about a life without any exercise or even worse without much moving around at all. Muscles learn what you teach them, and doing nothing in bodies that were built to do a lot means tightness.

4. Repetitive activity. Since I used to be a competitive runner I will use this one as an example. Many people admire runners who run every day without fail. Daily 6 miles at the same speed, bad posture, marathons it is all a one sided exercise. Pounding through the same stride thousands upon thousands of time. Runners are some of the tightest people on Earth. Take it from me I know first hand what that’ s like. Cycling, triathlons, gardening all day…anything that keeps you in a similar repetitive pattern’ll do it. Runners suffer greatly from tight hamstrings by the way. That doesn’t mean that 20 – 30 minutes of running 3-4 times a week is bad. More than that though you got an issue to deal with.

5. Weakness somewhere else: Weak muscles can’t do their job and other muscles try to take over (sometime leading to injury). A weak butt (very common by the way) can easily make your hamstrings overwork and tighten up. Weak abs too.

6. Tight somewhere else (psoas): If an area is weak another usually then becomes overly tight. Hip flexors are a prime candidate for this. These are big and important muscles on your front side that attach to your low back, pelvis and upper leg. Once they are tight your hamstrings may be forced to work double duty because the job of keeping things in line is thrown upon them.

7. Feet: This one is usually overlooked. I watch people walk down the street and sometimes notice what a mess their feet  and ankles are. I can tell just by the way they walk. If your ankles and feet are all messed up (and I see that in people ALL THE TIME) you develop problems higher up in your leg, back, neck shoulder……….all over the damn place. So many people suffer from incredibly tight and restricted feet. Shoes are a big cause of all this too. Then add on the fact that I see so many VERY WEAK feet out there.  It hurts thinking about it.

8. Isolated weight training: This is one caused by the overuse of the good old leg curl and leg extension machines. This throws all the load on those hammies and like I said……………….no muscle works alone in real life. Only on an isolated weight machine does this happen where hamstrings aren’t put through a normal range of motion. So……..weird soreness, tightness and such. Sigh!

9. Injury/Illness: I have met many people that have been in car accidents and they often have back and neck trouble. I have seen back trouble lead to tightness in other areas since the back kind of “shuts down” so other body parts and muscles share more of that load. INCLUDING hamstrings. Other accidents….falls, surgery, colds, Lyme disease and many more.

10.  High Heels: Not only calf tightness, but the higher the heel the more it throws the load on places like calves, hamstrings and backs.

11. Bad posture: Yowza! This one is a BIGGIE! If your posture sucks you are asking for all kinds of imbalances like tightness. Slumped, sagging, and leaning on one hip are common for this.

12. Age: This one is unavoidable. Everyone loses strength and flexibility as they age. That’s a given. HOWEVER! You can certainly slow that process WAAAAYYYY down. Unfortunately many don’t. I would say this is one of the top 5 reasons why people age badly!

Honorable mentions go to:

Poor stretching technique. See also poor exercise technique below

Muscle type (certain muscle types will be tighter than others BUT this doesn’t mean they can’t be taught to be more flexible, just not as flexible as someone else with a more flexible muscle type)

FAT! If there is too much fat in the way muscles and joints can’t even bend right anymore

Old hamstring injuries. Scar  tissue and maybe even the cause of the hamstring injury still lurking around means hammies that just  don;t like to “let go”

Poor exercise technique. This goes along with poor stretching technique. Don’t scoff. You would be surprised!

AND yes there are more!

These are common reasons and many can be fixed. So….in the next post I am going to list some of the success I have had with myself, my clients and information through other trainers and coaches.  In the meantime look over that list above again and see if any apply to you. It will help so you can figure out what to do about YOUR hamstring tightness.

Best,

Robert

Well, since I am now most interested in what works for  us “middle agers” and Staying Younger Longer I wanted to express my thoughts from that angle.

Younger Longer? Is that possible? In my book it is very possible, but like anything, it takes a lot of effort. Listen up now….by effort, I don’t mean doing endless exercise rep after rep just for the sake of doing them. Hell no! I mean making them count. You gotta be focused on keeping your exercise form right, and your effort strong. Flopping around like a mindless rag doll sweating, breathing and grunting your way through an exercise ain’t exercise. It’s just reps for the sake of doing reps. That’s amateur hour time AND that’s not the purpose of exercise ESPECIALLY if your big desire is to stay Younger Longer.

Part of staying Younger, Longer is not just looking or acting more youthful, but moving that way too. Don’t think you can be shapely, muscled or lean (less fat) and also retain some mobility in your joints and flexibility in your muscles? Not true! You can have both, and the energy, and vitality that goes with it.

To me…….Staying Younger longer means you are not 65 inside when you are really 50. It means a youthful attitude. It means fat doesn’t continue to pile on but get used up everyday. It means retaining much of your youthful strength, stamina and flexibility. It means your internal organs, digestive system, breathing are all still in good working order. It means……….aw enough already! It also means you should be able to do a burpee of some kind too!

Why? Because it is a wonderful exercise for muscle endurance, a bit of strength (especially early on in your exercise career), flexibility (when done correctly) and cardiovascular fitness. Here’s the catch though you got to earn your way into the club. The major mistake most make is to plunge right into an exercise like a Burpee and do the reps for the sake of reps. Knees, backs and wrists get twinged, too much too soon……….and many of the age reversing qualities that you want from the exercise are just not there.

So…are Burpees for everyone. If you have bad disc problems in your back probably not. If your doctor says no then probably not. For most everyone else though………..the answer is yes.

What to do? My best advice is to watch episodes 1-4 of Fusion Fitness TV. Each episode goes into pretty good detail for each step included in the full 6 count Burpee. Watch them and master each step. No matter how long it takes. Are there other variations you can try? Certainly there are, but I have found this one works more muscles and more flexibility AND gets the heart/blood moving the best for most people.

Here they are:
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4

Stay with it. Keep it simple and learn it. Do a few every other day OR if you are in better shape use them at the end of a workout. You can also (once you have gotten more comfortable with them) just do Burpees alone as your workout. Even if you are stuck at step 2. Work through the first 2 steps, back and forth, again and again. You will be surprised how much work you will get done in a short amount of time.

When they become too hard just rest. Once you have rested (for up to around 2 minutes or less I would guess) do some more. If you are stuck on step 1 keep working that one. Slow at first, and once you gain some strength and flexibility a bit faster. If you are stuck on step 3 work the first three  or leave out the push up and go through them without it. There are many levels for most anyone. if you can’t get all the way down to the floor put your hands on a box or a piece of furniture. Do them slower or faster depending on how well you are handling them BUT MOST IMPORTANT…..keep your form crisp and clean for all of them. If you are hunching over, sagging, knees caving in and all the other stuff you do when you are tight, weak and ESPECIALLY when you are tired….. STOP! The best advice I can give you is keep them in good form and they will serve you well.

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4

Best,
Robert

It doesn’t cost anything and it’s short. Hope you enjoy it.

Best,

Robert

My conclusion? It ain’t pretty. I am not going to parrot all the maladies that high heels can cause, because all you have to do is watch some of these women and girls try to navigate on them, and that tells enough.

Ok I have to say something! It hurts my back to watch some of them. Then there is all the wobbling about which looks about as graceful as a drunken dodo bird. Let’s not mention the painful problems in feet, ankles and maybe even knees OR the fact that the higher the heels the more it often throws their low backs into overarching spasms, and I would bet long term weakens their butts!

If you are middle aged and carry on this practice I would bet that the problems are made even worse.  Me thinks you can do some good preventative “fix it” stuff though. I teach a whole foot, ankle, hip program that helps with all that.

Just a reminder to those of you who do practice this fashion technique on a regular basis. Oh and by the way it makes a tidy profit for podiatrists and guys like me so please by all means. Keep it up!

Here is a good post on “remedies” for the day after a high heel day. One of the remedies reminds of the old song High Heel Sneakers. Maybe that’s the answer. How come no one has made those yet?

High Heel Hangover

Best,

Robert

A friend of mine trained an 81 year old women for 1 year in the art of exercise and nutrition, and THAT woman reversed her age so successfully that she actually gave birth to a healthy young son yesterday! I am not telling who the father is. Who cares anyway?!

She should be WAY past ever being able to give birth, but her muscular, nervous, hormonal, immune, digestive, circulatory, cardiovascular, sexual….ALL her systems got going again on a hard, progressive, consistent program. That plus her positive mindset did the impossible. Expect this story to hit the airwaves any time now.

Just goes to show what can happen when desire, a well thought out/nutritionally balanced program (with plenty of hard work thrown in) can do. I guess this woman will be around 101 years old when her son graduates from college eh?

YEAH that’s right. …………APRIL FOOLS!

Maybe that story is far fetched, but changing the age of your body with time tested stuff like eastern/western type exercise and meditation AND , plenty of good nutrition AND a desire/mindset to feel the good stuff is not far fetched at all.  You want it it then all you have to do is develop a plan, and follow it relentlessly. Don’t know how? Then hire some help for god;s sake! All the Alzheimer’s, joint replacements, and sagging/flagging old people listen up. You may only be 45 years old with a 60 year old body. Is that how you want to crawl towards your finish line?

I constantly keep that in mind when I don’t “feel like it.” Life is full of people who drag themselves to the finish line, and while there are no guarantees in this life, your chances of walking across that line go WAY up if you do something about it on a daily basis. Not weekly, or whenever you feel like it, but daily. Nature calls and if you don’t answer you lose.

Fair? So what if it’s not fair. All we have to do is do it. You and I don;t even always have to like it. We just have to do it.

So ends my April fool’s rant for the day.

Best,

Robert

Great article above from the New York Times. Not that it really should come as a big surprise or anything, but just imagine. Exercise can keep all systems younger? Muscles, tendons, brain, digestive, fuel consumption (yes that includes fat burning), cellular health, skin tone, joints…and yes (yell this one loud there) sex organs?

No surprise to me, and it really shouldn’t be to you either. If you have reached middle age and haven’t started……..What’s Stopping You!!!

Start today. Start small and keep working at it. YOU can have those benefits too, but you gotta help yourself crack open the vault to get the riches. If you don’t do it who will??

Best,

Robert