Exercise Guide

“Butterflies” strengthen your upper body and help improve your posture

They work almost every muscle in your upper body, especially back and chest muscles. In addition , the Butterfly strengthens arms and shoulders.

As we get older we tend to slump with our shoulders moving forward. Sit for a moment and let your shoulders move forward as when you are very tired. They will be rounded and pushed forward.

Can you visualize how the muscles in your chest can become shorter and tighter when you sit like this? Now pull your shoulders back and pretend you are trying to make your shoulder blades touch behind your back. Feel how the chest muscles are stretched and lengthened. You cannot maintain good posture when your shoulders are slumped forward–that’s why we need to work on strengthening the upper back–to make the muscles strong enough to be able to hold your shoulders back.

In addition, when you slump forward your internal organs are crowded–no wonder we begin to have health problems–organs like your liver and pancreas are so crowded they do not have room to function correctly. Lungs also suffer from not having enough space to properly inflate.

Let’s begin:

Sit on a straight chair, near the front edge of the chair. This is to allow room to bring your elbows behind your body. Sit up straight, feet flat on the floor, shoulders back.

Hold a dumbbell in each hand. For beginning women, 3 or 5 pounds; for men, 5 or 8 pounds. The weights are held in front of your chest in an upright vertical position, close to your chest.

Ready? Lift the weights straight up in front of your body as high as you can. Your arms should be extended to their full length over your head.

Now lower the weights back down to the original position. Pull the weights around your body by pulling your shoulders back and attempting to make your shoulder blades touch behind your body. Obviously nobody can actually make their shoulder blades touch, but we pretend we can in order to create the stretch across our chests. Feel the stretch.

Now return the weights to the original position n front of your body.
Pay attention to the muscles in your upper body. You should be able to feel all of them working as you do this exercise.

Repeat for a total of 8 to 10 repetitions.

Phyllis Rogers is a senior citizen, Certified Fitness Trainer and Specialist in Fitness for Older Adults. She has created a strength workout for seniors using dumbbells and has taught over 1500 Strength Exercise classes in the Atlanta, GA area. She is author of “Over 40 & Gettin’ Stronger” — which contains photos and detailed instructions on how to do her workout. To learn more and to order her book, visit http://www.StrongOver40.com Or e-mail her at fitness9@mindspring.com

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My life has been devoted to fitness. In all my research, I have found that it’s very important not only to exercise your body, but your mind as well. After all, we are total beings, and the body, mind, and spirit are all housed in one mass.

Like most people, perhaps you associate fitness and exercise with physical acts of moving your body. Perhaps negative thoughts or lethargy sometimes causes you to resist moving or doing physical things that are good for you. If so, you might care to re-train your thoughts so that when your mind says “I can’t”, your body says, “Watch this!” With a little persistence and experience, your body may more easily win out in these situations, and you will try the very thing that your mind told you that you were incapable of doing.

For example, say you are beginning a weight training program and someone suggests that you lift a five-pound weight up in the air above your shoulder. Perhaps your first instinct is to say, “I can’t do that”. This reaction occurs mainly because you have never tried that before and you’ve read articles that warn you that you might hurt yourself if you don’t execute the movement properly. A greater mistake would be made, however, if you did not try. If five pounds seems too heavy, use one, two, or three. At least you would have tried and not quit.

For years we were told that once you lose your muscle tone, you could never regain it. Tufts University has done countless studies on this subject and the results are astounding. It has been shown that even people in their 80s and 90s have been able to recoup their strength, in some cases, close to that which they had in their earlier years.

The reason muscle mass is lost is because of disuse, nothing more. Thus, it stands to reason that if we use our bodies and keep them moving and actually stress our muscles so that they get stronger, we would be able to take care of ourselves for many, many years.

I fully believe that our bodies were created for movement. If we incorporate some kind of exercise in our daily routine, we will stay strong and sharp for years to come!

Some fun ways to stimulate your mind are by doing crossword puzzles; putting together jigsaw puzzles, playing card games; challenging someone to a game of chess; or trying any other thing that keeps your mind active.

In exercise classes, I’ve observed instructors encouraging the participants to do things like using their right leg with their left arm, then changing to using the same arm with the same leg, just to add variety and to make the class think. Coordination exercises stretch the brain and keep it quick and aware.

Exercise is so beneficial to our body, mind and spirit. Exercise will improve the quality of every life. Many researchers have proven in myriads of studies that people who exercise their minds along with their bodies are much younger acting and stay vital longer. It has also been said countless times that exercise is the closest thing we have to the “Fountain of Youth”. So, go for the zest - take a walk, today! And, make movement a part of your daily life!

Bonnie Murphy is an expert in working with “mature” women. Please visit her website at http://www.bfitandwell.com. Don’t miss getting her Industry Leading E-Book entitled “Discover the Secrets to Leading A Fabulously Fit Lifestyle after 50″. Sign up for a downloadable copy at http://www.bfitandwell.com.
Phone: 907.646.4076
Email: bonnie@bfitandwell.com

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You’ve read over and over that strength traininglifting
weightsis a fountain of youth and helps keep your body
strong as you age. And you’ve decided you’d like to buy
some dumbbells and set up an exercise program in your
home.

The first thing to do is to make an appointment with your
health care provider. Since strength training is good for
almost any physical problem, you will probably be given the
green light. But if your doctor gives you any warninglisten
and do what he or she says. There are some physical
conditions that preclude strength training.

Now that you have approval, how many weights do you
need? Where can you purchase them? How much will they
cost? What else will you need?

You’ve probably heard that you can use soup cans or gallon
jugs filled with water, and it’s true that you can. However, I
believe that you’re better off purchasing dumbbells–cans
are hard to hold onto, and jugs of water slosh around so you
don’t get the same response as you do with a dumbbell.
The one exception to this is if you are very weak and cannot
lift a 3-pound weight. In that case, you may want to use
cans of food or bottles of water rather than purchase one or
two pound weights which you’ll soon abandon as you
become stronger.

You’ll need at least three different sizes of weights for
working different muscles. For instance, you’ll need a lighter
weight for working the triceps muscle (the one below your
upper arm that we call “bat wings”) than you will for other
exercises.

Weights (dumbbells) are available at discount stores and at
sporting goods stores where you’ll have several kinds from
which to choose. The least expensive are the plain gray
metal weights with hexagonal ends which work just as well
as more expensive ones. The gray weights cost
approximately fifty cents per pounda pair of five pound
weights weighing a total of ten pounds will cost about five
dollars. The ones with round ends tend to roll when you put
them on a chair seat, which can result in injured toes,. If you
place one weight diagonally across the other one when you
put them down; this lessens the possibility of the dumbbells
rolling off the chair seat.

To begin with, you’ll need light weights, although you’ll soon
leave those behind and move to heavier ones as your
muscles get stronger. If you are a female over forty, I
recommend that you begin with: one pair each of 3, 5 and 8
pounds. A man should purchase one pair each of: 5, 8 and
10 pound weights. Men who pursue an aggressive
program, will soon need 12 and 15 pound weights.

You will need a chair without arms (a folding chair works
just fine) and a space large enough that you can lie on the
floor with arms and legs spread out for floor exercises and
stretching. If you really “get into” weight lifting, you may want
to invest in a pair of ankle weights, but you won’t need them
to begin your program. You can always add them later for
lower body exercises,

If you have arthritis in your hands, you may find that a pair of
weight lifting gloves will help make lifting the weights more
comfortable. Other equipment you’ll need includes a chair,
a towel, a bottle of water and a good pair of shoes. Please
don’t ever lift weights without shoes onit isn’t worth taking
a chance on injuring your toes.

Finally find a place to store them where they’ll be out of the
way. and easily accessibleso you won’t be tempted to put
off exercising because they are difficult to get at.
Please don’t forget to drink water while you’re exercising.
Keep a bottle of water handy while you’re working out and
drink frequently.

I suggest that you find a workout partneryou’ll be able to
motivate each other on the days you just don’t feel like
exercising, but I promise that if you go ahead, you’ll be
energized afterward. Many people tell me that they have
more energy after they have finished a workout than they did
when they came to class.

You should also create a schedule of times and days for
your workout. Write down your schedule so you won’t forget.
You should not do resistance training on successive days
with the same parts of your body. For instance, you wouldn’t
want to do upper body exercises on consecutive days. If you
want to lift weights every day, alternate upper body and lower
body. For instance, do upper body and Monday, Wednesday
and Friday, and lower body on Tuesday, Thursday and
Saturday.

You’ll get the best results by doing resistance training at
least twice a week–not more than three times.
Now, you’re all set to begin your program. My book “Over 40
& Gettin’ Stronger contains complete instructions for a
strength exercise workout. You can order a copy at my web
site www.StrongOver40.com or at Amazon.com.

Phyllis Rogers is a Certified Fitness Trainer and Specialist
in Fitness for Older Adults. She is author of “Over 40 &
Gettin’ Stronger” which contains an easy to learn strength
workout using only dumbbells and which can be done at
home. She has taught more than 1200 strength classes for
older adults Her web site is http://www.StrongOver40.com. She
can be reached at fitness9@mindspring.com and is
available for speeches and workshops.

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