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The fountain of youth was once thought of as an actual place where one could drink in the the water of eternal life. A healthy, vibrant, youthful existence could be had simply by partaking of the waters. Not so these days. Most people look under a knife for a solution to their aging bodies. Call your local plastic surgeon if you want to achieve a young look.
But the feeling of youth can be had without surgery or injections. There is no magic potion or pill for keeping a young appearance and a vigorous life, but there is one very reliable source of vitality and you can benefit from it at any age.
Exercise.
Exercise is it's own magic self, helping to lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers and osteoporosis to name just a few of the many benefits of regular exercise. Though not the only answer to an aging body, regular exercise is the predominant factor in finding that so-called fountain of youth.
Research has shown that most chronic health conditions we experience as we age are brought on by disuse rather than aging. Studies also show that muscle fiber can be trained at any age and since we lose 12% of our muscle strength and 6% of our muscle mass every decade after age 50, increasing muscle mass is crucial. So make no excuse! You are never too old to feel young again.
Let's start with the basics. When it comes to staying young, there are several pillars regarding the importance of exercise. Here are the major components to a healthy age defying exercise program:
Cardiovascular exercise: Regular cardio workouts keep your heart healthy, decreases blood pressure, increases good cholesterol, lowers bad cholesterol, and keeps you slim. It also helps release endorphins for better moods and because cardiovascular exercise increases blood flow to your genitals, sex may be more enjoyable too. Strength training: The most important benefit of strength training is the increase in bone mass. Brittle bones lead to fractures and stooped stance. Stronger muscles allow for easier movement and upright walking. Flexibility: As we age, being able to move easily with little discomfort is paramount. Keeping muscles and joints mobile helps to move us through life with ease and poise. Balance training: In the elderly, falls become major causes of injury and sometimes death. Actually training your balance can keep you feeling confident as you walk and reminds your muscles how to keep you on your feet.
These are not the only aspects to staying young, but they are the most important for keeping your body strong and pliable. Other age defying clues: getting enough sleep, staying out of the sun, never, ever smoking, keeping your mind strong, and staying socially active.
Many doctors recommend yoga and Pilates to their middle aged and elderly patients as ways to gain strength and flexibility without adding stress on their joints. Swimming is also a preferred method of exercise as the water supports your body weight and is also easy on the joints. The point, really, is to get moving and start exercising no matter how old you are.
The fountain of youth may not really exist as we once thought it did, but regular exercise will help you feel younger and may add years to your life without actually turning back time.
The Importance Of Exercise - Is It The Fountain Of Youth
Susannah Marchese maintain your fountain of youth
Horizon employs a heavy-duty flywheel that provides continuous velocity, so as your feet move the pedals, the flywheel's momentum carries you through the complete motion. As a result, the trainer feels very natural and not at all choppy. Plus, the flywheel is extremely quiet, making the trainer ideal for home use. Horizon also applies a magnetic brake to the flywheel, creating more consistent resistance during a workout. And the instep-stacked flywheel design--where the flywheel sits above the pedals rather than in line with them--delivers a lower step-on height for easy access, along with a stride length that's longer, more natural, and more versatile regardless of the user, workout type, and fitness level. As an added benefit, the unit is smaller and shorter than other ellipticals, so it fits in almost any room, including low-ceiling basements.
Horizon's Ergoflow elliptical geometry is built around your body, not the machine's components. The distance between the pedals have also been narrowed to create a more natural walking motion, and the pivoting footpad imitates how your foot's position changes as you move forward. And a more natural, ergonomic movement means less stress on your knees, hips, and lowers back, so you enjoy longer workouts and faster results.
Elliptical Trainer Features:
About Elliptical Trainers
Elliptical trainers represent the next wave of advancement in low-impact cardiovascular exercise machines and continue to grow in popularity. By simulating motions experienced through walking, stepping, cycling, and skiing, elliptical machines allow for a smooth and fluid motion while building strength in the arms and legs. Similar to the exercise position for treadmills, elliptical trainers are used by standing in an upright position while holding the handrails of the machine. With elliptical trainers, however, your feet remain in the foot pedals throughout the exercise regimen and circulate in a smooth and seamless motion, resulting in little to no impact on the knees, back, and hips.
Elliptical trainers are compatible for all ages and fitness levels and allow you to select the difficulty level through the incline and intensity settings. Additionally, elliptical trainers allow you to determine the complexity of your workout based on your needs, all while listening to music, watching television, or reading a magazine while exercising in the comfort and safety of your own home.
Many elliptical trainers include an array of challenging programs, forward and reverse directional movement, EKG grip pulse handles, a lightweight portable design with easy fold-up capability, and a monitor displaying calories burned, distance, speed, time, and heart rate. Other types of exercise machines, namely treadmills and bikes, offer excellent cardiovascular exercise and muscular training for the legs in a forward-motion exercise. Elliptical trainers take this to the next level by offering an upper and lower body workout with dual motion, challenging and diverse programs, and a low-impact exercise machine that won't strain sensitive joints.
About Horizon Fitness
Horizon is part of Johnson Health Tech, one of the largest manufacturers of fitness equipment in the world. The company is committed to designing, engineering, and manufacturing superior products for health clubs and homes. Horizon's manufacturing facilities rank among the most sophisticated in the industry, with an intricate mix of robotics and skilled workers that maintain the highest standards of accuracy and quality. Every stage of manufacturing undergoes a testing phase, and 10 percent of Horizon's products go through a rigorous quality inspection that includes completely taking them apart and reassembling them.
At least once a week on any local news channel anywhere in the country there is a color piece on an octogenarian who just completed a marathon, or a 98 year old man who went skydiving, or a team of rugby players all over the age of 60. Fitness isn't exclusive to the young.
Admittedly, age takes a toll on the joints and muscles, but the principles of honing the body's strength, flexibility, balance, and cardiovascular health still hold true for seniors just as much as youth. Intense wind sprints and hundreds of push ups may not be the best route to senior fitness, but there are still plenty of types of exercises for the elderly. Here are some of the best...
Swimming
Can't sprint? Swim! Swimming combines the intensity of a full body workout (especially the core) with the reduced stressed, low impact environment. One of the best exercise option for seniors suffering from arthritis. This exercise is a particular draw for elderly woman suffering from chronic back pain, or seniors with brittle bones.
Tai Chi
No, this is not a spiced herbal beverage available at Starbucks (that's chai tea). It is an ancient martial art focusing on subtle movement, coordination and balance. As a martial art, it's much more art than martial. This is a wonderful exercise for the elderly as speed is not a requirement. And regardless of age, many use Tai Chi as a form of stress relief as well as fitness
Yoga
If you take kindly to Tai Chi, Yoga would be a next healthy step. Yoga can be more vigorous than Tai Chi, but still applicable for senior fitness. It works to strengthen and lengthen muscles, as well as improve flexibility. Additionally, there are many yoga positions and routines specifically designed to alleviate back pain.
Hiking/Walking
The most primal exercise, and perhaps the best, humans were meant to hike. The human body evolved to endure and thrive from long, low impact walks, and that applies perfectly to elderly. Hiking outdoors encourages adaptability; it is the opposite of the treadmill. Even a slow hike can provide a good amount of cardiovascular exercise without reaching painful intensive levels for senior citizens.
Rowing
This is not a traditional exercise for the elderly. No one thinks of a 60-and-over rowing team when they think of senior fitness. But, rowing provides a strenuous upper body workout, without the pump and grind of the gym. Rowing works the quads, the core, and even the leg muscles. It also adds the fresh element, essential to senior living. Getting a workout along the lazy shore of a local river can be quite charming.
Back Flips
Okay, maybe not. In fact, definitely not an exercise for the elderly. Stick to the first five.
Ultimately, have fun. Simple activities like dancing, golfing, gardening or even just a picnic can be a great way to keep the body active. Logging an hour a day at the gym isn't a necessity so long as you get the blood flowing, a simple walk to the corner grocer may do the trick. The principles of fitness and senior fitness are the same; find enjoyable, fulfilling activities, choose a variety rather than a boring daily routine, and don't be afraid to include others!
Senior Fitness - Exercise For the Elderly
About the Author: Mark Sisson is a fomer professional triathlete who runs a popular health and nutrition blog, Mark's Daily Apple. Check it out for more great articles and information on the Primal Blueprint, a revolutionary health plan using the principles of human evolution as the basis for modern, high protein, healthy living.
With the World Cup approaching, there's a lot of discussions in the media on how the different teams are preparing for the tournament. And when it comes to improving soccer fitness, and especially soccer conditioning, there are some different schools of thought.
On one side you have those who say that in order to improve your soccer fitness and soccer conditioning, you need to play the game of soccer, not just run for the sake of running.
On the other side, you have those who believe in running everywhere from 300 meter to 3 km, primarily without the ball.
I tend to be on both sides of this discussion, and let me explain what I mean by that.
Play Soccer to Get Fit
According to several studies, the most covered distance on a soccer field is 10-30 meters before a player have to change direction or change a type of movement. So that means that every 4-5 seconds a player changes a type of movement (from sprinting to walking, jumping, back pedaling, etc).
So what happens when you only perform linear runs without a ball (200 meter +), and then get out on the soccer field and perform let's say a change of direction at least every 5-10 seconds?
A whole other type of fatigue occurs. Try to run 200 meter straight, and then perform a 200 meter shuttle (which involves change of direction) to see what I mean. Running with change of direction throughout the course of the run is way more difficult then just running straight ahead.
This is one of the reasons I believe in "playing to get fit", since that prepares the players for the actual game with all of its different movements.
But probably the biggest reason I believe in this method of training is because what happens to the players at the end of a game, when they are getting tired both physically and mentally.
A lot of us can keep pushing ourselves when running suicides or 200 meter shuttles, but what happens at the end of the game, when you have the soccer ball at your feet?
Not only do you have to have the strength and power to make a decent play, you also have to "be fresh" in your head, and your concentration needs to be high. And what happens when you get tired?
It's more difficult to make good decisions.
That's why you see (in general), more passes and shots being missed at the end of a game. It's easy to be on the side and complain when a player misses "a simple" pass at the end of the game. But if you play yourself, you know why this occurs, and it is because of the fact that your head is not in the game, your mental status and concentration is decreasing, and it's getting more and more difficult to make good decisions.
This is where "playing soccer to get fit" really beats the other side of thought if you ask me. If you condition your players in different types of soccer games, they'll then learn to keep the quality high even during the last period of a game, and they learn to handle that fatigue.
So why would you ever want to train the players soccer fitness or soccer conditioning without the ball?
Primarily because not all players at all levels can keep a high enough pace in order to work on their conditioning with the ball. The reason for that is because not all players possess the technique required for certain drills.
An example of that is technique and dribbling drills/tracks, where they have to dribble through and around different obstacles. If your technique is "average", then your speed with the ball won't be high enough for you to improve your soccer fitness.
If you perform the same drill/track without the ball, then that pace and speed would be a lot higher, and therefore, doing conditioning without the ball can sometimes be of importance.
Here's what I recommend for improving soccer fitness, both with and without the ball:
With the ball
1. Play 11 v 11/10 v 10/9 v 9 on a 4/5 sized field (penalty box to sideline).
2. Playing 7 v 7/6 v 6 on half a soccer field.
3. Playing 5 v 5/4 v 4 in a 20 meter x 20 meter/30 meter x 30 meter area. This variation can also be played with extra players along the sidelines that support the team with the ball. To make it more difficult, have the players in the box play man-man defense, where they have to follow their man everywhere in defense.
4. 2 v 2/3 v 3 in a smaller area, 15 x 15 meter/10 meter x 10 meters).
For these variations, playing for 4-8 minutes down to 2 minutes is what I recommend.
- Up to 8 minutes without a break is recommended when playing 11 v 11 for instance,
- 5-6 minutes when playing 7 v 7/6 v 6,
- 3-4 minutes when playing 5 v 5/4 v 4,
- and 1-3 minutes when playing 2 v 2/3 v 3.
Remember that this is just general guidelines, primarily used with older players (17-24 year olds). If you work with younger players, make decisions based on your own observations and experience.
For more sprinting and high intensity running, these are the type of methods I recommend:
1. 2 v 2 Counter Attacks. You play with 2 goals at a distance of anywhere from 15-40 meters apart. You divide a group into 2 teams, and the players within each team pair up 2 and 2. You start the drill by having one team attacking against the other team. When the defending team either wins the ball or the ball is "dead" (after attacking team has finished), the next 2 players standing on each side of the post behind the defending team starts a counter attack. So the team who was attacking, now has to run back towards their own goal to prevent the other team from scoring.
The drill goes on like that without a brake for 2-4 minutes. Having a total of 6-8 players per team is a good recommendation, but you may use more or less depending on level.
This is a fantastic drill where the players have to sprint for 10-30 meters, sometimes with the ball, and sometimes without the ball, and they have to make good decisions even when they feel fatigue.
2. "Football Sprints". This is something Raymond Verheijen uses a lot with his players in South Korea when preparing for the World Cup.
It is basically a duel between 2 players who sprint for 10-30 meters competing for the ball (who has been delivered by the coach), and the one who gets to the ball first have the opportunity to score.
This is a fantastic way to implement sprint training in a soccer based environment. Just use your imagination with this one!
Without the ball
1. Agility track. As I said, some drills are better performed without the ball, especially at a "lower" level. Set up a set of cones in some type of pattern (T, L, Arrow Head, etc), and have the players sprint through the track as fast as possible. If you are working on conditioning, have them repeat the track several times with pretty short rest.
2. 10-40 meter sprints. Sometimes I implement 10-40 meter sprints in a type of interval setting, without a ball. This is primarily done because players sometimes ask for it, and it does have a psychological impact on the players.
Summary
To improve soccer fitness and soccer conditioning, I really do recommend you to focus most of your efforts on actually playing soccer. I'd say that 80-90% of the conditioning I do with my players is with the ball in different "game-situations", and 10-20% is without the ball, mainly with different agility drills and sprints.
And last but not least, if you work with kids (8-12/13 years old), don't think about conditioning. Just play and have fun, and work more on developing movement skills and coordination.
How to Improve Soccer Fitness
About The Author
Jonas Forsberg is a Swedish Soccer Speed Coach who helps soccer players to improve their soccer specific speed, without making it too complicated. Visit The Soccer Speed Blog for more info!
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