One of the most powerful reasons I have found for people to sustain a fitness program is that they have to enjoy the actual process of training. If you don’t like what you are doing, or the whole program seems to be imposed from an outside force, it will be very difficult to keep on training over any period of time.

In this short article, I want to present you with five tips that will help you continue with your training over a long period of time. As you know, the results from a fitness program don’t come in one big moment, they come as an accumulation of small steps over time. Many small steps lead to big results. However, if you quit doing the program, the big results never materialize.

Tip 1: At the onset of any fitness program, you should try to find a fitness activity that you either enjoy now, of think you would enjoy. For example, many people believe that they would enjoy hiking, because they can do it without having to feel like they were not doing it “correctly”. If you can walk, you can “hike”.

Enjoyment in this situation means that you don’t have to deal with the stress and frustration of learning a new and difficult skill. For example, compare the fitness benefits of hiking and golf. Both get you outdoors in a beautiful setting. Both require that you walk a lot. However, the stress level associated with trying to learn how to play golf (or “improve” your score) can make the experience less than enjoyable.

Tip 2: Keep your focus on the positive benefits of what you are doing, not on your shortcomings or lack of skill. Remember that you took up the activity to improve your health and fitness, not to set a world record in the first month you try something new. To support this perspective, you can focus on how good it “feels” to be doing the activity. For example, if you are lifting weights, you can focus on how your body is responding to the new challenge. If you are hiking, notice how it feels to be out in the open air experiencing nature first hand.

If you are doing weight training, it will do you no good at all to compare your efforts with the people in the gym who are most fit or skilled. As any of them will tell you, for them to develop the skill and strength they have today took a lot of small individual steps. They were not born being highly skilled. In many cases, the most phenominal performers started out as the least skilled or developed. They built their capabilities one training session at a time. The same will be true for any human being….you included.

Tip 3: Look at your training as if you were making gradual progress in each workout. As noted above, every human’s progress occurs in small steps. You do one or two things better each time out. You may do one more set of a given weight in the gym….or walk another 50 yards on your hike. The point is, that with each time out, you are making small improvements in your fitness. You may be a little stronger, have a little more endurance, or drop a quarter pound of fat. Over time, all the little things will add up.

Tip 4: Reenforce the idea that you are doing good things for yourself with positive mental imagry. Think about all the good things you do for yourself during a training session. Think about how good it feels to master the small things about your training. For example, when you first start weight training, you have no idea how to properly perform a given exercise. After a few times, you will do each one well. After a few months, you will do many moves flawlessly. You can feel great about mastering these moves and skills. It shows you that you can do some incredable things by taking small steps.

Tip 5: Keep a journal of your training. It is really important that you keep a record of your thoughts and feelings as you work through a transformation of any kind. If you are new to physical training, it will be important to record your inner voice as you continue along the path. You should also record what you are doing in your training, and the details of what you do in your training sessions.

The value of a training journal is twofold. First, it can show you how your perspective on your training and fitness have changed over time. It is almost impossible for us to recreate how we actually felt at past times in our lives. If you write it down when it happens, you will be able to see how your perspectives are different now as compared to an earlier point in your training.

A journal is also the place where you can see a measure of your progress. You can compare your starting point with where you may be at any given time in the future. You can see what has worked for you, and what has not worked well. The journal is the document that you create for yourself to record your steps on the path. It should be for your eyes only.

These five tips can help you get on the path to good health and fitness. They can also help keep you on the path.

Richard

If you think that you are “over the hill” at 40, 50 or whatever, take a look at this 703 pound bench press from 57 year old Will Crossen, Jr. He is a “normal” guy….who is abnormally strong.

Like anyone who is very successful at something, Will trained hard to perfect his craft. You don’t just walk into a gym and move iron this big. Take a look….and enjoy the interview.

Richard

People are often confused about what they need to do to be “healthy”.  A lot of people have no clear idea about just what steps they need to take to “be healthy”.  This short article is intended to help you understand what your health care professional can do for you, and what they really can not do for you if you want to be “healthy”.

First of all, it helps if we have a definition of what it means to be “healthy”.  For most people it simply means to be “not sick”.  That is, they can carry out every day life without any significant restriction because of their physical health.  If they have some chronic problems such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or some other condition that can be managed with drugs, they still feel they are “healthy” if their condition does not become critical.

The problem with this definition is that it does not take into account the posibilities of having “exceptional health”.  This is the type of health where you are able to do exceptionally challenging physical tasks and find that they are both fun and rewarding.  Rather than being managed in a state just above physical calamity, you are in a physical state where you literally have few limits on what you can do.  The idea of not being able to do almost any physical activity you want is far from your mind.

What should be of interest to those of us past 50 is that it is possible to achieve ”exceptional health”.  But how one gets this is very different than achieving the condition called “not sick”.   The big difference is that to deal with disease and serious physical damage, you need to have a good medical professional.  Their job is to deal with things like cancer, serious illness and broken bones.  Their job is to use all their skill and available technology to get you to the situation where you are “not sick”.

If you want “exceptional health” that is going to require a whole different approach, and the key person in achieving this outcome is not your doctor…it is YOU.  Your doctor is great for dealing with all kinds of dread conditions, but if you want to achieve exceptional health it means you will have to get yourself in good physical condition, get your weight where it should be, and keep yourself in great shape.  There is no treatment the doctor can provide that will do this for you.

When you are seeking exceptional health, your doctor can give you advice, but the way you are going to get in good conditon is by training diligently, eating properly and learning everything you can about how to care for yourself.  This is not a ”visit the doctor and get a prescription” type activity.  You are the one who has to train, manage what you eat, and keep your mental focus.

Unfortunately, too many people believe (or hope) that they can get outstanding health by simply taking a pill or working out occasionally.   Reality is that you have to have a healthy life style if you are going to have exceptional health.

The good news is that almost anyone can achieve a very dramatic improvement in their physical fitness, and have “exceptional” health.  Recent studies reported by the Harvard University Health Letter indicate that it does not matter what age you are when you begin training and eating properly.  People well into their 70’s can transform their health and fitness if they adopt a healthy life style and train consistently.  The key is to get started now!!!!!

You can make a huge and dramatic improvement in your physical fitness at any age.  You can check out the free quick start course offered on this site.  You can also dig much deeper and see whats involved in transforming your life for the better by purchasing my six month transformation course called A Guide to Getting Younger After 60:  How to take Ten Years off Your Body. Click on the tab above to get your copy.

In reality, the choice is yours whether you want to have exceptional health, or simply be “not sick”.  That is the good news.  It is up to you….not your doctor.

Richard

When people begin a diet or a training program, they often never think about how fit they need to be when they start.  In other words, they have no clear idea of the real objective of their own training program.  This is equivalent to starting on a car trip with no idea of the destination.  Yet, most people seem to begin their programs with no clear idea of where they want to go. 

If you don’t have an idea of where you want to go, how will you know if you are even going in the right direction?

If you don’t have some initial idea of what you want to accomplish, you will have no idea if your work is helping you get where you want to go.  It will be easy to quit doing your training because you have no way to determine whether you are failing or succeeding.   

Here are some basic ideas that should help you decide what you want to do, and how effective your training program may be.

People often begin training with the idea that they want to be “healthy”. This is really a pretty vague idea, and it makes it really hard to decide what you should be doing, what you should buy, how you should eat, and what makes any sense for you.

Let me offer some ideas that should help you sort out your own objectives. 

People do physical training for two basic reasons:  1) Enhance their physical capacity to do a variety of physical activities; and 2) to look good.  If you work on building your physical capacity, you will often look better as well.  

Enhancing physical capacity basically means building muscular strength, endurance and capability to do a variety of tasks ranging from very simple things like daily activities to far more demanding things like running marathons.   Being “in shape” is always relative to what you are trying to accomplish.  

Many older people find that they don’t have the physical capacity to do simple daily tasks like walking any distance, lifting light objects, getting in an out of chairs, or climbing stairs.  People who have such a limited physical capacity generally have the goal of regaining basic functionality.  On the other hand, there are many people in their 60’s and 70’s who are involved in competitive sports who are working at trying to improve their times in the marathon or consistently shoot par on the golf course.  They are trying to enhance their physical capacity to perform extremely difficult and demanding activities. 

To help you understand where you may be in terms of your own fitness, and where you want to go, I developed a twenty point scale that dipicts the various levels of physical capacity a person can achieve.  The list includes ten levels of negative conditioning to ten levels of positive conditions.  The levels of conditioning are rank ordered from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most extreme level in each case.  Let me begin by showing the negative scale for fitness.  The conditions I include are intended to be illustrative:

Negative Fitness Scale

1. Overweight by 5-10%
2. Some physical limitations -
3. High blood pressure – overweight 10-15%
4. Significant overweight  – hypertension – pre-diabetic
5. Chronic high risk for heart attack and stroke
6. Diabetic (type 2) – unable to do regular recreation –
7. Morbid obesity – unable to do routine physical tasks
8. Have suffered stroke or heart attack
9. Major loss of function
10. Incapacitated – terminal illness

This is a pretty grim list.  Your goal is to be on the positive side of the scale.  Here is the positive list.  Remember, the conditions are illustrative.

 Positive Fitness Scale

1.  NOT SICK
2. No physical limitation on every day activities
3. Bodyweight within 5% of target – normal blood pressure
4. Able to do mild recreational activities –  weight on standard
5. Able to do relatively demanding recreational activities
6. Can pass multiple strength and cardio fitness tests
7. Can participate in multiple non-competitive sports
8. No limitation on recreational activities
9. Able to participate in some competitive sports
10. Routine participation in high intensity competitive sports
11. Performs as an elite athlete in competitive sports

You will note that I stuck in an “11″ category for elite athletes.  This is because there are so few people who actually perform at this level, and they are literally “off the chart”.

You can use this scale in a couple different ways.  The first is to establish where you are when you start, and where you want to go.  This is important because it gives you a sense direction for your training, and an idea of how you are progressing. 

The second way you can use this scale is to evaluate different options for training or nutrition products.  For example, if a product promises to convert you from a -8 to a +9, you really need to be skeptical.  Pills and supplements alone cannot take you from a -5 to anything above a +1 (not sick).   In short, you can look at a product and assess how much difference it may actually make in your overall fitness.

The vast majority of people probably begin training at somewhere between the low to mid minus numbers, and the low positive numbers, such as “not sick”.  Their goals when they begin should be to move up the scale to a point where their physical capacity allows them to do whatever they may want to do with no real limitation.

it really does not make a large difference where you begin, because often those who are at the lower rankings when they start use this as a motivation to move to much higher rankings.  Literally, you are the one who determines where you want to go.  If you start at minus 4, you may want to go to a plus 5 on the scale.  Simply being “not sick” may seem like a big goal when you start.  As you progress up the scale, your goals may change.  This is just fine.  Where you want to go is up to you. 

Have a great day,

Richard

Like a lot of you around the US, I watched the NFL football playoff games this past week end.  In the post game celebrations, the players always seem to say a lot of the same things: how hard they worked, how much they give credit to their team mates, and how grateful they are to win big games.  We hear this so often that it sounds a little like a canned line for TV.  However, if you really look at what they had to do to get where they are, these are NOT platitudes, they are statements about precisely why the individual players are where they are.  What can we learn from this?

If you are “over 60″ and feeling more than a little “out of shape”, the good news is that you can make some dramatic positive changes in the way you feel and look if you follow the NFL players lead about hard work and focus.  Many men and women over 60 have simply accepted the notion that they are stuck with poor physical fitness and health.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Granted that there are some limits on how much change we can bring about.  However, most people never get within miles of what is possible for them.  The reason?  They simply do not apply themselves to the task with the degree of diligence that is needed.  it is easy to be sucked into the notion that either “there is nothing I can do about my body and health”, or “I can take a pill or train 5 minutes a day and be just fine”.    In real life, neither of these ideas will get you very much.

In a recent book called Talent Is Overrated, Geoff Colvin reviewed the research on what separates world class performers from the rest of the population.  What has been documented in careful research study after study is that the biggest single factor in achieving success in any area of endeavor is doing the work needed to succeed.  That does not mean doing the minimum to pass a test, it means really putting in the time and effort needed to become really good!

When it comes to being a fit person over the age of 50, 60 or 70, the biggest single factor in determining how successful you will be is the quality and quantity of the work you do to get in shape.  Like it or not, the biggest single factor in your ultimate success will be whether you do the work needed to have the physical fitness of a much younger person.

Most of the fitness programs designed for seniors are either sold with the promise of quick results from very little effort, or miraculous transformations because of the properties of some medication.  Neither of these has any merit. If you want exceptional results, you have to do some exceptional work.

What do I mean by exceptional work?  One of the key elements of exceptional work is the idea that you have to do the right things to become fit….not just go through some mindless set of exercises.   In short, you have to work smart, not just work hard.   This involves building your body through a series of progressive movements that allow you to build balanced and comprehensive strength.  You have to eat properly and consistently.  You have to take supplements that are appropriate for the training you are doing.   You need to develop the mental approach to your life that will support all the other things you are doing for your health. 

Most people want effortless solutions to their problems.  If they are out of shape and feeling bad, they want to be able to take a pill and feel great.   The problem is that no matter how earnestly we may want  these things, the fact is that great accomplishments don’t come about without a lot of focused effort.  Everyone want’s a great healthy body, but the only one’s who actually get to have one are those who actually do what is needed to get a great body. 

OK you ask…what do I have to do?   To get you rolling on the right path I have developed a program that covers the physical, mental and nutritional aspects of getting into great condition.  This will help you start the process of literally taking a decade (or more) off your body.  The book A Guide to Getting Younger After 60 is where you start transforming yourself into a much “younger” you. 

The book is available for immediate download from this site.  If you want to see some of what is involved, you can try the”quick start” mini course available for free from this site.  The free course will give you a taste of what you can do to make a major transformation in your physical and mental well being.

You have nothing to lose and a lot to gain.  If you don’t like the course, you can return it for a full refund.  If you do like the course, and do the program, you will be rewarded with a dramatic positive change in your youth and vigor.  There is no time to take action like right now! 

To a Great Future for YOU!

Richard