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Lauren Muney at age 40:
Wellness coach and featured in
"Fit Over 40: Role Models for Excellence"

MUSCLE UP?
Basic Training
by Lauren Muney

“Running is very beneficial. It's good for your legs and your feet. It's also very good for the ground. It makes it feel needed.”  ~Charles Schulz, Peanuts

A body can be changed. It can be made faster, better, stronger . . . and without the $6 million it took to make the Bionic Man.

People often ask: "What is the best exercise?"

The truest answer: "The exercise which you will stick with - which you will do for the rest of your life".

To start on your best body ever, we just have to begin. This article will feature recommendations for the most traditional methods of fat-loss (and "toning" or muscle-building) activities. This article will not cover the many activities that you can do of all types, like cycling, skiing, surfing... but will focus on body-improvements.

Improvement comes from pushing past previous efforts

To affect change, you need to push yourself beyond the boundaries from any previous effort. The change in the body comes from the body needing to adapt to these activities; the body wants to protect itself from being strained, so it will constantly adapt (change) because it doesn't ever want get hurt again.

Example: ever try to run (or bike, or walk uphill) when you don't normally do those exercises? Your breath gets short and you are very uncomfortable. Your body isn't ready to exert. But if you try the same exercise (running, biking, walking uphill) in a few days, your body will be able to do more than it could a few days earlier. Why? Because your body forced itself to make new blood pathways, new lung capacity, even new muscle fibers to accomodate the pain it encountered! Suddenly, you are fitter than in the previous days!

However, pushing yourself doesn't have to be Herculean effort. Excellent results come from a combination of cardiovascular workouts and weight/resistance training:

What a beautiful set of lungs you have, my dear...

CARDIOVASCULAR training means that the heart (cardio)-pumping systems in the body are required to work. By exerting this system you are requiring the blood to pump more through the veins, arteries, and heart, thereby training these parts to accept more blood; the lungs are trained to take in more oxygen, which then brings more oxygen to the blood and heart. The more oxygen, the better functioning in workout, the better functioning at rest also. The benefit? A stronger heart, stronger lungs, decreased susceptibility to heart and cardiovascular diseases. This is also called aerobic training, or aerobics, because oxygen is used within the whole body process.

Fat burning capacity

The longer or stronger you work cardio in a session, the more option that you can surpass the "training" capacity, and move towards "fat-burning" capacity. Everyone wants to burn fat, but not everyone knows that it's actually as easy as just taking a brisk walk!

Warning: not too much cardio

However: you need muscle to increase your metabolism and give you the "toned" (ie: fat-reduced) look which many people want. If you do too much cardio, you can burn off muscle while you are trying to burn fat. You don't want to burn muscle: it's the actual powerhouse of your body. (Here's an article about finding the best exercise solutions). The best fitness is to do both cardio AND weight or resistance training.

Even grandmothers lift weights now...

WEIGHT / RESISTANCE training means that the body lifts, pushes, or pulls on a weight. Having that resistance against the muscle, or set of muscles, actually creates microscopic tears in the muscle from the use. While you might think that those tears are bad, actually, the repair of the tears is what grows the muscle. The muscle is forced to spend energy to create more fibers. More fibers mean bigger muscles. As you increase resistance, more tears are made and the more changes occur.

More fat burned - everyone's goal!

The more energy the body spends on repairing/growing muscles, the more it is using its metabolism, and the longer you burn fat - even when at rest! Muscle actually uses energy, and fat does not . . . so the more muscle and less fat you have in your body, the faster your metabolism, and the less fat you have yet again.

To understand the concept of weight and resistance training, see my article on the Bowflex - even if you aren't interested in that home-tool, the article describes some very good training-science.

"Will I become freaky, with too many muscles?"

Although lifting weights will increase muscle size, NO ONE will become "muscle-bound" (like a bodybuilder) without an extreme amount of work, special dieting, and sometimes drastic methods (like drugs!).

Some people prefer to drastically improve muscle size ("hypertrophy") and some just want to keep muscles compact, yet working at peak efficiency.

Weight training is a fantastic way to improve and enhance the body shape, for both men and women, and rest assured, you won’t look like a freak. Even mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfather can get fit by doing weight-training: healthy muscles provide a healthy body.

First thing: look at the fork

However, no exercise program will reduce weight or bodyfat without applying sound nutritional principles. There is no use in training a body to beautiful musculature which cannot be seen under layers of fat. . . . and nutrition is 75% of fitness. Without healthy balance of nutrients, vitamins, fats, and correct 'fuel', the body cannot repair even during 'everyday stress', much less more strenuous life. And, once the body is balanced, and properly exercised, it will shed fat!

Exercise both the mind and body at the same time

It's amazing how many people think their lives are really only concentrated in their brains. But look below your necktie - your body is there also. So when you are exercising, it's important to remember that your mind is connected to those well-exercised muscles also!

You can't disconnect the body from the mind entirely, but engaging in physical forms which calm the mind and work the body at the same time are said by some experts to be the most effective (and stress-reducing) activities you can do for your health.

The surprise of the day for all you physique-fans is that YOGA, TAI-CHI, STRETCHING, and other "mind-body" exercise is very good for the body. I needed such mind-body enhancement myself recently, after an injury. I realized how inflexible I was (in my body) and that showed how inflexible my mind was, also! I was completely unprepared for realizing how much my mind has to stretch as my body stretched.

The interesting part of stretching and yoga is that you need to be completely "present" to feeling your body stretch (or, in my case, not-stretch), and learning how to apply stretching and mindful principles.

What happens when you turn off all outside stimulus -- turn off the television and loud radio -- and start listening and feeling your body? You become in-tune with yourself. You realize what your body needs, what it has or doesn't have, and you start understanding its strengths and weaknesses. (For example, I noticed that I couldn't balance on my right foot or my right knee, but I could on my left)... to begin listening and feeling your body is to be aware that we aren't simply machines of muscle and blood; we can actually CHANGE what is going on inside of us.

Being aware is the first step to making changes: seek sources of assistance

To become aware, you simply have to separate yourself from the habits which keep us unaware. Start exercising; doing it slowly if you have to, but begin. Find knowledgeable people, helpful friends, useful reference materials, classes, and good equipment.

Coaching is a good step to learning how to be mindful about your body's needs for exercise, nutrition, fat loss, stress-reduction and other details perhaps it's been crying for.

It's your LIFE. It's your BODY that is trying to have that life. You only have one body... treat it with the care it deserves.

All it takes is effort and time. Sometimes, just only a BIT of both.

"To start on your best body ever, we just need to BEGIN"