Walking – Andrea Arthur Owan

The Benefits of Active and Passive Rest

I’ve been thinking a lot about sleep lately, probably because I hadn’t been getting as much sleep as I needed. Knee injury pain made sleep—or any kind of decent rest—impossible for several weeks, and my own careless lifestyle added to the problem.

I was staying up too late, reading too many articles on my phone, getting my eyeballs fried from the glaring light and lack of blinking. (You know we blink less when we stare at tech screens, don’t you? That causes our eyes to take in more light and get dry from the lack of moisturizing when benefit from when we do blink.)

I finally had enough, so I mandated some going-to-bed practices for myself and enlisted my evil cell phone for support! Next week, I’ll tell you all about what I did and how well it’s working for me. But today, I want to cover a couple of other important habits or lifestyle practices that can help you stay healthier and happy.

Like sleep, they fall into the category of rest.

Active Rest—

According to the 12 Minute Athlete, “active rest” is when you’re still moving but not at the intensity level that you normally move on a regular workout day. It’s important for people who workout daily to rest overworked muscles and aid the recovery process.

But what if you’re not an athlete, or everyday, hardcore exerciser?

Active Rest is beneficial for anyone who is busy and pretty active on a daily basis. And you don’t have to be running, lifting weights or participating in heavy cycling.

Think about your daily workload and the stress you incur while working. Do you have to run from office to office, or building to building? Are you going brain dead from all of the nonsense planning meetings you have to attend?

Active rest can be a day where you change up the pace a bit by slowing down and focusing on more relaxing, gentle movements.

According to the article, active rest can be:

Going for an easy to moderate hike with your friends or family
Taking an easy bike ride
Going for an easy swim
Light stretching
Taking a relaxing walk (This is not power walk time!)
Playing with your dog, kids, grandkids
Doing some sort of fun activity that you enjoy. Maybe something new to exercise or stress different body parts. Nothing competitive.

The goal is to get moving, but not too much.

Some of the article feedback noted people doing house cleaning, Pilates and stretching. Other people liked to box. (That seems to be gaining popularity, especially among women.)

My husband used to pull out his roller blades and he, I, the kids and the dogs would head down to a local park for several zooms around the walking path. The boys would wheel right along with their dad. I was the designated dog walker, by choice. A roller blader, I’m not.

Passive Rest—

While athletes will define passive rest as participating in an active that allows your heart rate to drop back to normal as quickly as possible, we’re aiming for something a little more pedestrian or general public level here.

For our purposes, passive rest is when you’re quietly resting but still awake, and not engaged in multitasking.

I think a lot of people might engage in this too much, but there are others—like my husband—who have great difficulty just sitting and resting quietly. It’s taken years of practice, but now he looks forward to it. Advancing age may be contributing, but he’s making the most out of his passive rest periods. It’s a time he can shut his overactive brain down and recover.

What kinds of activities constitute “quietly resting?”

You could be lying on the couch with your eyes closed. My mother used to say she was “checking out the backs of her eyelids” when she did this, when we accused her of sleeping.

Although some say watching a movie or television is quiet resting, I’d be cautious about putting that in the resting category. Unless it’s a comedy or a somewhat interesting movie, television watching has been shown to actually decrease brain wave function to a damaging level. You want to rest, but I don’t think we’re aiming for brain dead.

As a society, we sit way too much and much of that sitting is down in front of a television, anyway. I would recommend that you use this rest technique judiciously and sporadically because it’s also contributed to the horrendous obesity epidemic we have going on in our country.

Another good passive rest can be a soak in a spa tub or bubble bath, eyes closed or reading a book.

But whatever you select, make sure you pick out an activity that makes you feel relaxed and that slows your breathing. Maybe coloring, brushing your dog or cat, daydreaming. Watching a sunset or sunrise. Listening to your favorite classical or acoustic worship music.

Mix it up—

Make sure you incorporate both active and passive resting periods into your week.

Sunday—the most popular day of rest—is a wonderful day to fit these in. Try using these techniques to unwind and recharge mentally, instead of using Sunday to run errands or hit the mall.

I think you’ll find the health and fitness rewards amazing!

Until next week,

Find your passive resting happy place or space.

Your brain (and body) will be celebrating!

Blessings,

Andrea


Andrea Arthur Owan is an award-winning inspirational writer, fitness pro and chaplain. She writes and works to help people live their best lives—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The Fallacy of 10,000 Steps

Do you make it a goal to walk 10,000 steps each day?

A lot of fitness-minded people have this goal on their daily to-do list. They think it’s conventional wisdom. And when they don’t manage to get to that number, they feel defeated.

Turns out, though, 10,000 steps might not be the number you should shoot for.

Actually, it’s a lot lower!

The Proof—

A June, 2019 New York Post story revealed that the 10,000 steps being an optimal goal is a sham. And they backed it up with some evidence from Harvard Medical School and the Journal of American Medical Association—Internal Medicine (JAMA Internal Medicine).

Evidently, less is often more when it comes to walking.

A lot of women were studied, 16,741 of them to be exact, between the ages of 62 to 101, for four years. They wore walking trackers for 7 consecutive days, while they were awake. No water activities, t hough.

Unfortunately, 504 of them died during the study.

10K Daily Steps Results—

The study showed that five thousand, not ten thousand steps seemed to be a sweet spot for decreasing early death for women.

Those averaging 4,400 steps experienced a significantly lower mortality rate than those taking half as many, or 2,200 daily steps.

Seven thousand, five hundred steps offered an even lower mortality, but not a huge drop.

No decrease in mortality came with hitting the 10K number.

So how did we arrive at 10K steps?

Isn’t it just like some marketing genius to manipulate our lives and thinking? (Rhetorical question.)

Evidently, that’s exactly what happened in this case, when a Japanese marketing company advertising an early version of its walking meter (pedometer) invented before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics to promote movement touted the 10K steps through the devices name: “manpo-kei”

Man = 10K
Po = steps
Kei = meter

And voila! The 10,000 steps meter!

Now that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is looming, I wonder what other brilliant devices and bogus marketing we’ll be subjected to, and fall for.

Heavens, we’re gullible and way too trusting, aren’t we?

What the study didn’t tell us—

The study didn’t look at quality of life, cognitive function, or physical conditions. And evidently there was no evidence to suggest that more daily steps was dangerous, although it stands to educated reason that more mileage would increase your risk of joint wear and tear and some chronic injuries from overuse. But relaxed-pace walking probably wouldn’t be a problem. (Although being on your feet too long during the day can cause vascular issues.)

One thing the researcher did note, however, was that the intensity of each step did NOT matter. Every step, no matter how energetic, counted!

What great news that is as advancing age slows you down!

I found the story online several weeks ago, but Harvard Health Beat on-line newsletter released its version just last week.

Key findings, noted in the on-line article are:

Sedentary women averaged 2,700 steps a day.
Women who averaged 4,400 daily steps had a 41% reduction in mortality.
Mortality rates progressively improved before leveling off at approximately 7,500 steps per day

So if you have time, and the inclination, for those 10K steps, then step away!

But if not, do not be discouraged. Shoot for 4,400 and then work your way up to the golden 7,500 steps.

Until next week,

re-set your fitness counter’s step goal and enjoy a sigh of relief.

You can do this!

Blessings,

Andrea

Harvard Healthbeat Newsletter link.

Andrea Arthur Owan is an award-winning inspirational writer, fitness pro and chaplain. She writes and works to help people live their best lives—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

How to Stay Active and Mobile in Your Senior Years

What scares you the most about growing old? Is it Alzheimer’s, dementia, cancer, or a devastating neuromuscular disease?

Then there’s age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, hearing loss.

There’s a long list of age-related diseases we can acquire or succumb to as we age. But there is one thing that we can do: avoid general deterioration.

I spend a lot of time watching older people and observing the daily activities at the residential facility where my 97-year-old mother lives. And there are things that stand out for me.

Movement—

I am taken aback and saddened by the tremendous loss of mobility.

A large number of them use walkers. They slowly move from elevator, to dining room, back to the elevator, hunched over their four wheels, in hopes that they don’t teeter over, fall, and break a bone.

The longer they use the walkers, the more they hunch, the more they move with their legs in a splayed out position, shuffling more than picking up and swinging their legs in a natural gate.

They spend far too much time sitting in a chair, watching television. So often it’s the only mode of entertainment they have.

And the lack of activity contributes to a steady decline in strength and mobility, flexibility and balance. Muscle tone deteriorates to the point of no return.

Flexibility is compromised.

Fat to muscle ratio changes, with muscle coming out on the losing end.

All of that deterioration leads to a decrease in balance, an increase in falls, and more loss of mobility.

And sadly, all of that inactivity also increases your chances of suffering memory deterioration and dementia.

A different picture—

And then I go to the gym and see elder adults in their seventies, eighties and nineties trying to maintain whatever they’ve got in order to stay mobile and flexible and strong so they can enjoy life more. They tell staying strong and mobile is what motivates them to exercise.

And I wonder which camp I want to end up in, or am more likely to.

I know from experience that the more and longer you sit and spend parked in a chair or on a couch, the more likely it is you will deteriorate. I’ve been stunned how quickly it’s happened to me over the last year. Before I realized it, nearly a year had elapsed without my adhering to the regular exercise program I’d been following for years.

And I’ve paid a price for it. Now I’m trying to slug my way back to strength, flexibility and mobility. It’s tough. But I’m determined to ward off the walker as much and as long as I can.

What you can do—

It isn’t complicated. And it isn’t expensive. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but here’s some things you can do to:

Daily stretching exercises. Harvard Medical and Mayo have some great suggestions on their websites.
Join a gym and do some light weight lifting. If you can’t do that, then buy some small weights to do upper body exercises at home. Learn how to use your body weight as resistance for muscle strengthening.
Buy a DVD that teaches you tai chi, a great activity for people into their senior years. It increases breathing, strength and balance.
Take yoga for its breathing, strengthening and flexibility benefits. It’s also a great social activity, although I wouldn’t endorse the spiritual aspects of it.
Take daily walks.
Increase your protein consumption. Recent research indicates seniors need more protein.

The important thing is to pick out something you can do to keep moving and stick with it.

Maybe you can put off buying a walker a little longer than the average person.

Until next week,

Keep moving!

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

Using the New Exercise Guidelines: Easier to Achieve Success

Even if you’re not a big exerciser, you probably know exercise, or physical activity, is a critical component of good health—both physical and emotional/mental. Even the Health and Human Services Department of the United States government thinks so, and they get in on the act of improving our nation’s overall health by establishing exercise guidelines.

They recently made some guideline changes you’ll be interested in, if you’re concerned about maintaining or improving your and your family’s health.

A little history—

While I’ve been studying guidelines for some 40 years, doctors and scientists have been writing about them and trying to establish norms since the 19^th century. As research improves, the guidelines change. They’re never perfect, but they usually do set a good foundation for people to aspire to. (I wouldn’t count the current food pyramid among those aspirating tools, though. Companies and special interest groups had too much influence in its development.)

Why exercise?

God created our amazing bodies to move in a variety of ways. When you keep that in mind, you realize that exercise can be a form of praise and worship to the One that created you!

But for those of you needing some extra motivation, remember there are tremendous benefits to exercise. Exercise can:

prevent chronic diseases
improve mood
improve overall health
improve quality of life
sharpen mental function
boost concentration
improve sleep
get you connected with nature (if you exercise outdoors)
increase your metabolism, which can help you lose or maintain a healthy weight
remove toxins from your body through metabolism and sweating
increase lung capacity
improve heart function
tone muscles and sculpt body, which can improve balance, increase metabolism, and improve your body image

Some background on the new guidelines—

The United State’s Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion has designed new guidelines (updated from 2008) that are better tailored for age and ability. This is great news because we’re rapidly shedding the one-size-fits-all in exercise and dieting myths!

The new guidelines wrap around the idea that the amount of exercise you should aim for and get, and the mix of activities you engage in, depends on your age and ability. Essentially, the exercise becomes more personalized. That’s great, because we’re all unique.

Do you have a preschooler at home? Then you need to make sure your bundle of energy gets at least 3 hours of run or jump-around activity. Shutter the video games and television and get your charges outside or to a pre-school gym. Mommy and me classes are also great to get their activity and yours in too.

Are you an “older” adult? You’ll want to aim for at least 150 minutes a week. (Since people say 80 is the new 60, I’m going to guess that a lot of technically “older” adults don’t feel old, but the technical definition is anyone 65 years or older.)

Does 150 minutes sound like a lot? Years ago we would say that amounts to 30 minutes of exercise, 5 times a week. Then more recently, experts said exercise needed to be done in no less than ten-minute blocks.

But based on the current research, we now know that the exercise doesn’t have to occur in those compulsory, 30-minute chunks, or even the smaller ten-minute and can actually be racked up in much smaller increments. Little batches throughout your day seem to be just as effective as the dedicated blocks.

Exercising enough? Great, but you’re in the minority.

If you travel to Seattle, Honolulu, or the California coast, you’d think everyone in the country is an exercise addict, but that’s not the case. According to Harvard Health Publishing:

“Eighty percent of the population is not meeting the guidelines. Each year in the U.S., an estimated 10% of premature deaths and $117 billion in healthcare costs are associated with inadequate physical activity.”

If that’s true, encouraging exercise—and bringing it back into the schools!—would improve our nation’s health and have a positive effect on all of our pocketbooks.

What’s changed in the new exercise guidelines?

The primary change in these new guidelines is—

Move more, sit less!

We’ve heard a lot about the health dangers of sitting in the news the last couple of years. No matter what your age, you’ll benefit from exercise, although the benefit may emerge in different ways.

For a young person, exercise aids normal growth and development, both physical and mental. It strengthens bones and muscles and improves their lung and heart (cardiovascular) health.

For an older adult, it can keep muscles and bones from deteriorating and weakening and can help improve balance, which helps decrease the risk of falling and serious injury. In turn, that helps seniors maintain more independent and active lives for longer durations.

One of the critical components to the new guidelines is that it bases your dose of physical activity on the activity’s relative intensity.

For example, a brisk walk could count as a moderate physical activity. But what’s moderate physical activity? It’s working at an intensity high enough that you can speak comfortably but not sing.

Not in shape? Your intensity level might be reached sooner than someone who’s more trained or younger, so make sure you DON’T compare your efforts with someone else’s!

How to begin an exercise program or incorporate the new guidelines—

If you’re just starting out, you will definitely want to begin more slowly and carefully. Then you can increase the exercise duration, intensity, and frequency.

But as I’ve cautioned many times, DO NOT increase all of these factors simultaneously!! Increase one of them at a time, over a period of several days or weeks. You’ll notice more rapid improvement at the beginning and then a slow down. At the slow down point, you can choose to maintain the status quo, or you can mix things up by changing the intensity or frequency.

For example:

You’ve decided to walk your neighborhood every day. If you’re huffing and puffing after half a mile, you’ve gone too far. If you don’t feel as though you stressed your system much when you return home, you probably didn’t work hard enough during the activity.

Let me give you a more personal example.

My husband decided to take up our older son’s challenge to run a 5K race with him. (An easy length for my son who is a former high school long distance runner and now half-marathon competitor.) So, my husband consulted me on how he should go about training for it.

Since he’s really in good physical condition, (a recent stress test showed him to have the heart function of a trained athlete 20 years younger than his chronological age), I told him to run up the main street near our house—which heads uphill—and then back down, in a loop. Round trip from our garage is 1.2 miles. I told him to do that at least three times a week at a comfortable pace to see how he felt, and how the post-arthroscopy knees felt.

Things felt good after a week, so I told him to either increase his mileage by 10% OR increase his intensity by 10%, which would essentially improve his mile-a-minute time.

Things were going great, until he had chest pain, which curtailed his activity until we could determine the cause. It turned out to be a spasming esophagus, which can mimic heart attack pain. So after his down time, he had to start over.

Then he injured his ankle downhill skiing with our younger son right after Christmas, which has set him back again. He is just now returning to training, and plans to do so at the gym on the treadmill. We’ll see how it goes. I suggested he test his ankle strength and stability by doing heal raises, wind sprints, figure eight drills and high knee jogging and fanny kick running. But he’s bypassing those for straight-on running.

He’s also just returned to work after two weeks of holiday vacation, so it could be slow going due to mental fatigue (just being back to work!).

What type of exercise is best for your age?

What about straight forward, or single direction/single plane type of exercise, like running?

While it might be great for cardiovascular health, it’s not going to give you improvement you might want in balance or muscle strength. And therein lies the challenge:

To have a good, overall fitness level, you need to incorporate a variety of exercises, like—

Aerobic activity— walking, running, cycling, swimming. Something done for sustained periods.

Muscle-strengthening activity—resistance training with weights, bands. Something that improves your muscle mass, endurance, strength, power and muscle health.

Bone-strengthening activity—Critical for post-menopausal women, or women who have suffered from eating disorders and low weight. Exercises like running, resistance training, jump roping, dancing, or impact exercises (keep it reasonable and on the low side), improve bone health and reduces your risk of fractures.

Balance activity—Another critical component for aging people, balance activities improve coordination and reduce the risk of falling and injury incurred from falls. Tai chi, yoga, dancing, walking backward, one-leg (stork) standing, standing or walking on your toes, skipping frontward, backward, sideways, and diagonally all help improve balance.

And surprisingly, doing some of your lower-impact exercises or calisthenics with your eyes closed can improve your balance. Just don’t be skipping around the house or gym with your eyes shut!

Multicomponent physical activity—Selecting several physical activities to keep your brain sharp and on its toes (along with your body) is the way to go. Play tennis and swim; hike and bike; dance and jog. It’s okay, and better, if you don’t limit yourself to just one exercise. For us ADD types, that’s a winner!

I really can’t stress enough just how important it is to find exercises that incorporate ALL of these components. I’ve personally learned that the frustrating way.

When I was a gymnast, my cardiovascular health was good, even though I wasn’t a runner. (I really loathe running, which is good, because I’m primarily a power muscle athlete; and my feet and ankles don’t tolerate running.) And my balance was superb, upside down or right-side up! When our high school psychology teacher had us do this little experiment of putting vision-warping glasses on and trying to walk a straight line, I had no problem. Super easy! I could walk a straight line with my eyes closed. I’d spent most of my life doing that; I knew where my body was in space almost all of the time it was moving, upside down or right side up.

When I played competitive racquetball in college and grad school, I was zigzagging all over the court, improving my hand-eye coordination (which wasn’t always good) and improving my reaction time, power, and balance.

But when I became a body builder, my physique and muscle strength improved, but the constant one-direction activity nearly destroyed my coordination and reaction time.

Now, years later, after sitting way too much every day and just walking or weight training, (I had to drop tennis after a nasty Achilles tendon injury several years ago), I’ve noticed that my balance has plummeted. (The fact that my hearing has plummeted too hasn’t helped the balance issues.)

So now I’m walking, hiking, and dancing. Doing morning calisthenics that wake me up while working on breathing, muscle tone, and balance has helped immensely.

I’m having to learn to regain my balance with my left foot too. For two years a bone spur in my big toe has caused me to walk primarily on the outside of my foot. Now that the spur is gone, I’m re-strengthening the big toe (I was amazed at how weak it had become) and stretching out the joint capsule and tissues.

It feels good to be able to put weight on that toe again, even though it screams at me before settling down for the exercise ritual.

And that story can help you as you select your exercise:

Know your body and your interests and tailor your exercise program to meet those personal goals and likes!

Keeping those things in mind will help you stick with your exercise program and find other, like-minded exercisers to workout with!

The basics of the new guidelines—

Keep in mind that these new guidelines are “evidence-based,” which means they’ve been drawn from an overview of scientific study/research results.

Preschool-age (3 through 5 years): physically active throughout the day with the goal of three hours of activity daily

Children and teens (6 through 17 years): at least 60 minutes daily of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity; include vigorous activity, muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening activity three times a week

Adults: at least 150 to 300 minutes weekly of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, or 75 to 150 minutes weekly of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, or an equivalent combination of both, plus muscle-strengthening activities at least two days a week

Older adults: multicomponent physical activities that mix balance activities, aerobic activities, and strength training can help prevent falls and injuries; reduce overall sitting and replace it with light (or when possible, moderate) activity

Pregnant and postpartum women: at least 150 minutes weekly of moderate-intensity aerobic activity

Adults with chronic conditions or disabilities: follow adult guidelines as able, including both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities

I’d like to tack on one caveat for pregnant women: Please follow your doctor’s advice and keep a close tabs on your blood pressure and heart rate during exercise. I had to curtail my walking toward the end of my older son’s pregnancy due to my blood pressure soaring too high.

I hope you found this overview of the new guidelines helpful, and you’re ready to get started!

NEXT WEEK we’ll start taking a closer look at the science of exercise and dieting and how you can improve your success rates in both areas!

Until then,

get moving, even if you haven’t moved much in a while. You will enjoy the many benefits!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

Doing a 2018 Health and Wellness Checkup and Planning for 2019

Even though Christmas 2018 is now in the annals, you’re undoubtedly looking ahead already to 2019 and all that you hope to accomplish in the New Year. And maybe thinking about what you didn’t accomplish that you hoped to in the outgoing year.

Specifically,

Did you achieve your health and fitness goals for the year?

I would recommend you don’t spend too much time dwelling on the areas where you missed the mark. Instead, I encourage you to look forward to what you hope to accomplish and how you plan to get there.

Be realistic, and hopeful.

Spend some time thinking seriously about what your priorities will be, and commit those to the Lord in prayer. He may have different (better) plans for you.

Think improvements and changes in bite-sized increments, not huge chunks or grandiose changes that are certain to make your brain rebel.

And make sure you write them down, read them often, and post them in a place where you can regularly read them. People who actually write down their goals are far more likely to achieve them!

I recommend starting with no more than three. If you accomplish those, then you can add a few more. Or, if necessary, alter or adjust what you did plan for.

Personal successes and failures—

Even though my beloved and I managed to scale the Pyrenees in our Camino de Santiago journey, I certainly—for a variety of reasons—fell short of my hopes.

I ended up having a major surgical procedure that curtailed my training. That added to the difficulty I had on the Camino, with my bad knees giving out on me.

Old, athletic injuries from decades ago were aggravated and are still hampering not only my workouts but also my daily life.

A bone spur removal surgery before Thanksgiving has further irritated my knees and slowed me down. But the surgery was worth it, and I’m already have much less difficulty with the range of motion in that toe. That will help my gait, which was severely compromised.

But even with the stumbles and failures, I’m looking forward to 2019 and the health and wellness program I hope to implement, like:

More outdoor exercise in a variety of settings—hiking, walking, cycling, swimming, canoeing and camping.
A probable regenerative procedure in March or April that will (hopefully) restore cartilage health to my knees! I’ll be filling you in on the process as I prepare for and undergo it.
Building a large vegetable garden area in our backyard, something we’ve wanted to do for a long time. But gardening in the Southwest is challenging (we refer to it out here as Blast Furnace Gardening); and what the sun and wind don’t burn and whither, the wildlife devour. So that means fences, netting and shade cloth. We’re already in the planning and preparatory stages. (Yes, this does fall under the heading of health and wellness, for several reasons. I’ll cover those as I keep you up-to-date about our successes, and failures.)

And I have a lot of current topics planned for you too! Like:

The Benefits of Low Impact Exercise
Blue Zone Living Methods
Exercises to help you Maintain Your Balance
Cognitive Exercises and Brain Beneficial Supplements
How to Effectively Re-train Your Brain to Change Your (Negative) Habits
and More!

I’m excited to share all of this with you in the new year; and I hope you’re looking forward with excitement to the changes—big and little—you can make to enhance your health and fitness,

so you can live a better, more balanced—and energetic—life!

Happy end of 2018!! (Make sure you celebrate what went well!)

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).