Get fit at any age

Kathy Smith, 57, answers your questions about exercise to help you jumpstart your fitness program. (To win a copy of her latest DVD, click here.)

Q: How can I lose weight and keep more from creeping on?
A: The obvious answer is to eat less and get more aerobic exercise so you burn more calories.
WEIGHT TRAIN: The less obvious answer is to change your body composition so you have more muscle and less fat. How? Lift weights. Weight training may not make the numbers on your scale drop (muscle weighs more than fat), but you’ll be more toned and will look thinner. Many women who take up weight training drop several dress sizes.
BUILD MUSCLE: Building muscle helps you reduce your body’s fat stores because muscle tissue burns calories—approximately 35 to 50 calories per day (versus a measly three to five for a pound of fat). Around the age of 30 we start losing about 4 percent of our muscle mass per decade, then at age 50 what I call “the great decline” picks up and the deterioration increases to 10 percent per decade. Yet, there’s no age limit on building muscle through weight training. A Tufts University found that when a group of men and women, ages 56 to 80 spent 12 weeks weight training without changing their diets, they all had beneficial increases in muscle mass and decreases in fat mass.
YOUR PROGRAM: Adopt a weight training routine of eight to ten exercises that hit all the major muscles: biceps (front of arm), triceps (back of arm), shoulders, deltoids (upper back), butt, legs, and calves. Start with one set of 15 reps two times a week, then progress to two sets. If you’re going to use free weights, start with a set of three-, five- and eight-pound weights. You’ll see a difference in six weeks.

Q: I know all the benefits of exercise, but I can’t get motivated. How can I get inspired?
A: When you feel as though you want to exercise as opposed to feeling as though you have to exercise, you’ll be primed for success. But how do you get to that point?
FOCUS ON A TANGIBLE GOAL: Instead of thinking about the calories burned think about how energetic you’re going to feel afterward. It’s an immediate pay-off.
TRY SOMETHING NEW: If exercise is boring, do something you’ve never done before. Be adventurous. YOUR PROGRAM: Take skating lessons, join a masters swim group (they welcome all levels of swimmers), learn to play golf, take a dance class, pick a destination and ride bikes there with your family, or set your sights on a big hike—that will give you incentive to train for it. Or get to know your city. Pick a neighborhood to explore and walk around it for 30 minutes.

Q: I exercise inconsistently. How can I stay on track?
A: Throw out the rules. Most people believe you have to exercise hard all the time and be unwavering in your choice of workouts. But we all have moods or times in our lives when we just aren’t up for a hard session. Where you can get into trouble is if, during those down times, you decide not to do anything at all.
TALK TO YOUR BODY: Do what you need to do versus what you’re ‘supposed’ to do. If you take the pressure off yourself, you’ll be less likely to have bouts of inactivity, and by doing just a little something, you won’t lose much of the fitness you’ve already gained. That’s going to make it much easier to get back up to speed when you’re ready to return to your regular routine.
HAVE WORKOUT BUDDIES: I have six workout buddies that help me stay accountable! That way, when one person can’t exercise on a given day, I have five other friends I can call.
YOUR PROGRAM: If you’re not in the mood for your usual run, take a low-key yoga class or just an easy walk through your neighborhood then end with a couple of abdominal exercises on the grass.

Posture perfect

Straighten up to stave off neck and back pain—and boost health overall.

By KATE HANLEY

As a licensed massage therapist, Cindy Rowland, 42, had a good understanding of proper physical alignment—for her clients. Her own posture was another story. “I spent my days hunched over the massage table,” she recalls. Rowland was so focused on her clients, she didn’t notice she was slumping until headaches and back pain led her to an alignment specialist. Since following a stretching and strengthening course, she has less pain, sleeps better, and has improved digestion. “Now, my clients can see what good posture looks like and hear how it helped me,” Rowland says. Here’s how it can help you, too:

BETTER DIGESTION. Good posture tones core muscles, which support your digestive organs. “If your 47core musculature is slack, your body stabilizes abdominal organs by packing fat around them, which heats the organs and reduces their function,” says biomechanist Katy Santiago, director of the Restorative Exercise Institute in Ventura, Calif.

FEWER HEADACHES. In a 2008 study, Italian researchers found that office workers who were instructed to correct the position of their heads and necks every two to three hours reported having 40 percent fewer headaches each month.

ENHANCED DETOX. “Posture dictates how well blood and lymphatic fluid flow,” Santiago says. If you have fewer kinks, your body releases toxins efficiently.

STRONGER BONES. When properly aligned, your bones support your body mass—and weight bearing keeps them strong. (Poor posture? Muscles and connective tissue end up doing some of the supportive work.)

Rhomboid Crunch
Benefits: Strengthens the rhomboids (the muscles that connect the shoulder blades to the spine), which corrects the tendency to round the upper spine forward. Opens the chest and promotes deeper breathing.

A | Stand up straight with your feet directly under your hips. Hold a broomstick under your buttocks with your arms straight, hands shoulder-width apart, palms facing forward, and thumbs facing out. To avoid puffi ng out your ribs, pull your rib cage toward your spine.

B | Slowly lift the bar as high as you can without moving your hands wider than shoulder- width apart. Don’t lift your shoulders up toward your ears; concentrate on opening your chest and bringing your shoulder blades together behind you. Hold for ten seconds, then release. Repeat for a total of six reps.

BONUS: To increase the challenge and the benefit, perform this exercise standing on one leg. Keep both legs straight and lift one out to the side several inches.

CHECK YOUR ALIGNMENT
POSITION YOUR FEET. Good posture starts with the feet. “Keep the outer edges of your feet straight and parallel to each other to prevent back pain and osteoarthritis in the knee or hip,” says Santiago.

STAND UP STRAIGHT. To ensure that your ankles, hips, shoulders, and ears are in line, stand with your back touching a wall, heels three inches away from the wall. “Only your tailbone, bra strap, shoulder blades, and head should touch the wall,” says Santiago.

ADJUST YOUR PELVIS. Your pelvis should be in line with your rib cage. To check, lie on the floor on your back. You should be able to just slide a hand in the space between your lower back and the floor. If you have more space than that, your pelvis is tilted. If you have less than that, it’s tucked.

Get fit together

Exercise with a friend, and you’ll stay motivated and focused.

By Karen Asp

Friends keep us healthy in so many ways. Studies indicate they can lower blood pressure, improve memory, and even help us get fit: Research from Indiana University shows that people who exercise together are seven times more likely to stick with a routine than those who go it alone.

Stay motivated. When workouts get difficult, friends can be a source of encouragement, says Jim Annesi, Ph.D., director of wellness advancement at the YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta. “Exercising with a partner motivates you to work harder and try something new,” says Kaitlin Kay, a trainer at Peak Performance gym in New York City.