| Exercise Increases Immune Function
"Numerous studies have shown that exercising
within reasonable limits strengthens the body's defenses
against the disease. After a typical workout,
either the number or aggressiveness of various immune
cells and proteins - increases by from anywhere from
50 to 300 percent. While those increases typically
fade within several hours after a single workout, regular
exercise may produce more lasting improvements...The
results of several clinical trials support that apparent
link between regular exercise and stronger immunity."
Consumer Reports on Health, April, 1995, Consumer Union
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Antidote for Heart Trouble
Moderate exercise does reduce the risk of dying from
a heart attack. That's the word form a study by
Dr. Arthur Leon of the University of Minnesota, reported
in the Journal of the American Medical Association,
in which 12,138 men who ran risks of disease were tracked
over 10 years. Results: middle-aged men who engaged
in 14-15 minutes of light activity a day were one-third
less likely to die of heart attacks than their sedentary
peers.
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Surviving a Heart Attack
Exercise can make a difference in how well you survive
a heart attack. The American Heart Association's
pamphlet, "Exercise Your Heart", reports that
inactive people have 1.5 to 2 times the risk of having
a heart attack than active people, and 3 times the risk
of dying immediately after a heart attack.
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Strength Training Also Strengthens
Bones Exercise that puts stress on the bones
- strength training or weight bearing activities such
as walking or running - helps to increase mineral
bone density.
 Because
bone is a dynamic tissue that is constantly changing
- increasing in density during youth and decreasing
in old age - throughout one's life, it's important
to begin prevention of osteoporosis early on, preferably
in young adulthood or before, when the body's ability
to build bone mass is at its peak. As Physical
Activity and Fitness Research Digest: Osteoporosis an
Physical Activity (Presidents Council on Physical
Fitness and Sports. September, 1995) notes, 60
percent of a person's final skeleton is developed during
the adolescent years - making exercise, particularly
strength training, in youth a key preventive strategy.
Strength training is also effective for increasing
bone strength in older adults. Tufts University
researchers in Boston put 20 sedentary older women (none
with osteoporosis) through a year long, high intensity
strength training program. At the conclusion
of the study, their BMD had increased by 1.5% while
their strength increased 35-76 percent, whereas both
the bone mineral content and strength of the women in
the control group had decreased significantly.
The author, Jean Mayer concluded, "This study demonstrates
that one year of high intensity strength training
has a positive effect on the following individual risk
factors for osteoporotic fractures in women 50 to 70
years of age: bone density, muscle mass, muscle strength,
dynamic balance and overall physical activity.
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Antidote for Heart Trouble
Exercise can boost blood levels of high-density lipoprotein
(HDL), which is associated with lowered risk of heart
attacks. That is the conclusion of the study published
in the New England Journal of Medicine by Richard Terry
and Peter Wood of Stanford University. The study
of 155 men who were 20-60% over ideal body weight looked
at both diet and exercise as methods for increasing
HDL levels. Both diet and moderate exercise were
equally effective in increasing HDL and reducing the
risk of heart attacks.
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Pumping Iron Controls Cholesterol
Researchers at West Virginia University Medical Center
found that participants in an eight-week weight training
program experienced an increase in HDL cholesterol -
the good cholesterol - of 14%, and a drop in the harmful
LDL cholesterol levels.
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Personal Trainers & Result
Producing Diet & Exercise Program These
programs assist you in reaching your fitness goals as
well as educating you about proper eating and exercising.
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Personal Fitness Training
This program involves our most result-producing exercise
schedule. First you discuss your goals with one
of our personal trainers. Second, your trainer
suggests individualized exercises and routines.
Third, you and your trainer meet three times a week
for your progressive, one-on-one workouts.
With such supervision, you will accomplish goals that
may have been previously beyond your reach.
Our one-on-one training courses may be purchased in
two week increments up to one year.
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Weight Management Program
If you are ready to change how you look and feel about
yourself permanently - our weight management program
is for you. In just six weeks we will provide
you with the tools you need to accomplish your goals:
- Nutrition Guide Book
- Meal Plans
- Meal Cards
- Label Reading
- Fat Grams
- Calories
- Food Pyramid (serving size)
- Dining Out
- Behavior Modification
- Group Meetings
- Body Fat Measurements
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Exercise and Your Mind
One particularly significant way that exercise can
help is by preventing or alleviating depression.
An estimated 20-30% of adults will suffer from depression
or anxiety at some point in their lifetime. However,
many studies have uncovered evidence that physical
exertion can work to counteract symptoms of depression.
In several recent surveys, respondents reported higher
levels of self-esteem and lower incidences of depression
when they exercised. A 1995 survey of 1,154
members of the Fifty-Plus Fitness Association, found
that 8 percent considered heightened self-esteem to
be a benefit of their exercise program, and 87 percent
said that a sense of well being was also a benefit.
In the September/October 1995 issue of the American
Journal of Health Promotion, older adults who were
sedentary were more than twice as likely to report having
experienced two or more days of poor mental health during
the prior month than were physically active subjects.
Psychology and Aging identified aerobic fitness and
physical activity as two of the four most important
variables for predicting decline in cognitive function
in old age.
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Strength Training Boosts Your
Metabolism A 1994 study in the journal Metabolism
found that a high-intensity training program resulted
in a significant reduction in body fat, even after the
energy costs of exercise itself were deducted.
 A study
in the journal Obesity Research reported that highly
active, previously obese subjects maintained significantly
greater weight loss, regained less weight loss, regained
less weight over time, and had a greater decrease in
total cholesterol levels than did less active participants.
A 1994 article in the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition reported on the effects of a resistance training
program on the preservation of lean muscle, percentage
of body fat and energy requirements for 12 older adults.
The three month program successfully increased muscle
mass, decreased fat and boosted energy requirements
- including resting metabolic rate of the exercisers.
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The Risks of Being a Couch Potato
Sedentary people are three times more likely to have
a fatal heart attack than are physically fit people,
says a University of North Carolina study of 2,802 women
and 3,106 men aged 30-69. The study showed that
a lower level of treadmill-tested fitness was associated
with a greater risk of heart disease.
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Sedentary Lifestyle Worse Than
Smoking Researchers Carl Caspersen and Kenneth
Powell of the Centers for Disease Control concluded
that sedentary people were almost twice as likely to
have heart attack as very active people, and that physical
inactivity outranked cholesterol, smoking and stress
as a threat to cardiac health. That finding was
based on a two-year analysis of 43 separate studies
dealing with the connection between heart disease and
physical inactivity.
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A Report of the Surgeon General
on Physical Activity and Health
- Reduces the risks of dying prematurely.
- Reduces the risk of dying from heart
disease.
- Reduces the risk of developing diabetes.
- Reduces the risk of developing high
blood pressure.
- Helps reduce blood pressure in people
who already have high blood pressure.
- Reduces the risk of developing colon
cancer.
- Reduces feelings of depression and
anxiety.
- Helps control weight.
- Helps build and maintain healthy bones,
muscles and joints.
- Helps older adults become stronger
and better able to move about without falling.
- Promote psychological well-being.
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Exercise for Relief of Hypertension
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is one of the
most common and detrimental problems that older adults
face. Fortunately, a moderate regular exercise
routine is one of the most effective for controlling
high blood pressure. Researchers at the University
of Florida and the Veterans Administration Medical Center
in Gainesville, put a group of 60 to 79 year old volunteers
through moderate and intense exercise programs.
Both groups of exercisers showed a significant decrease
in blood pressure.
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