Monthly Archives: October 2011

Turn Back the Clock to a More Youthful, Fit You

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Brrrrr! It’s cold and DARK here in the northeast. And in another week, we will be turning the clocks back. We could very easily go into hibernation mode. Instead, let’s embrace the alternate meaning of the phrase turn back the clock. Reclaim your youth. Koko Smartraining can do just that. Help you turn back the clock...

Even in the “olden days” people wanted to stay young. In 1513, legend has it that Ponce de León landed in what is now Florida, searching for the fountain of youth. The Spaniard had no luck finding the restorative waters, but his name is forever associated with the quest for youth and longevity. In modern times we are seemingly all Ponce de Leóns- seekers of youth who spend crazy money on creams and plastic surgery and antioxidant packed beverages. We are looking  in the wrong place.

One of the best ways to get a body that can hold out against the nastiest side effects of aging is not found in a jar or on an OR table; It’s being active and maintaining lean muscle tissue. Koko Smartraining will help you feel like you’ve turned back the clock by building and maintaining the muscle that slows down the effects of time on your body.

You might not want to hear it, but here are some cold, hard facts about your aging body:

If you aren’t doing something about it, your body loses a half pound of lean muscle tissue every year after the age of 25. This doesn’t mean you are just losing a half of pound of weight each year, (wouldn’t that be great?) your body is losing its most critical mass. Rapidly. This is bad. Lean muscle tissue is what keeps your metabolism high, burning lots of calories, keeping your weight under control and giving you strength and energy to go about your life. As the percent lean muscle in your body drops, you begin to notice a lot of things we write off as symptoms of “getting old.” Middle age spread, low energy, poor range of motion, lack of balance and flexibility; all can be attributed in very large part to diminished lean muscle tissue.

Now the good news: That “if” heading up the last paragraph? It’s a big one. It means you aren’t completely powerless in the face of what the progressing years are doing to your body. Turn back the clock…

With strength training, you can gain back what you’ve lost and rev up that sluggish metabolism. You can also build more lean muscle tissue than you’ve lost. A 60 year old man with the same muscle mass as an average 25 year old, will have the metabolism of an average 25 year old. Isn’t that incredible? Three 30 minute trips on the Koko Smartrainer each week, consistently, is all it takes. All it takes to turn back the clock…

Strength training on the Koko Smartrainer also fights back other symptoms of aging. It prevents bone loss and improves bone density. It improves flexibility, balance and range of motion in joints and tendons. This leaves you with a much lower risk for falls and injuries and much better mobility and independence as you move through your later years. You can be the 90 year old no one believes is a day over 70. Turn back the clock…

Isn’t it a great feeling to know that you aren’t powerless against aging and the march of time?  So, don’t just turn back the clock next weekend, start today. At your Koko FitClub.

Mary Obana

President & Co-Founder
Koko FitClub

A well written, informative story on the topic of muscles loss and aging  can be found on NPR at http://n.pr/91aLmm

 

 

Sleep: For Your Health, It is Possible to get too Much of a Good Thing

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I may sound like a broken record, but you know my mantra – Koko Smartraining is just one piece of the fitness puzzle. Today I’m going to discuss another fitness necessity: restoration. Restoration, you say?

S-L-E-E-P!

You probably already know that not sleeping enough is a health risk (see below if you need reminding*), but do you know that sleeping too much is just as big of a problem?

Individuals who sleep less than six or more than nine hours a night have higher rates of heart disease and stroke, and are more likely to die of those causes,  according to research published in the European Heart Journal. Less than six or more than eight may adversely affect brain function, according to recent research in the journal, Sleep.

Major health risks aside, if you sleep too little or too much, it will affect how your body responds to your Koko workouts. Not only will your body feel more fatigued, but you won’t see the kind of results you can achieve when your sleep falls within the optimal range. Muscles, ligaments and tendons need to recover and restore from bouts of exercise, and this occurs during a healthy night’s sleep.

Sleep is a big piece of your fitness profile – make sure you are getting the right amount.

Michael Wood, CSCS
Chief Fitness Officer
Koko FitClub

*A few more unhappy consequences of sleep deprivation:

  • Decreased Performance and Alertness: Sleep deprivation induces significant reductions in performance and alertness. Reducing your nighttime sleep by as little as one and a half hours for just one night could result in a reduction of daytime alertness by as much as 32%
  • Memory and Cognitive Impairment: Decreased alertness and excessive daytime sleepiness impair your memory and your cognitive ability — your ability to think and process information
  • Stress Relationships: Disruption of a bed partner’s sleep due to a sleep disorder may cause significant problems for the relationship (for example, separate bedrooms, conflicts, moodiness, etc.)
  • Occupational Injury: Excessive sleepiness also contributes to a greater than twofold higher risk of sustaining an occupational injury
  • Automobile Injury: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates conservatively that each year drowsy driving is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 71,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities

 

Daily NEAT + Weekly Koko Smartraining = Body Composition Changes

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Now that you do your Koko Smartraining on a regular basis, no longer do you get dog tired just trying to play with your kids, work in the yard, or climb the stairs. And having energy again? Pretty nice.

Has being fitter encouraged you to be more active outside of Koko? I hope so. Especially if you have weight loss goals. Let me tell you why.

Research by James Levine, MD, PhD of the Mayo Clinic, found that lean people burn more calories than overweight individuals because  they are more active during the day; expending more than 100+ calories per hour simply by moving more and sitting less.

This phenomenon is NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.) It’s the energy, in the form of calories, that your body uses above and beyond your Koko Smartraining workouts. This can include everything from gardening, taking the stairs at work, navigating through the grocery store, playing golf, cleaning your house or walking the dog.

Let me share a quote from Dr. Levine’s book Move a Little, Lose a Lot that I find especially compelling:

“As a doctor who has spent more than 20 years studying human movement, obesity, and metabolism, I can tell you that the way we are living and the way many of us are going about weight loss is absolutely, fundamentally wrong.”

Dr. Levine is among a growing number of researchers who have concluded that one of the keys to achieving a healthy weight is to move more throughout the day – not  just during your exercise sessions.

Say  you are expending 300-500 calories in a typical Smartraining workout and you’re doing that three times a week. First of all, bravo! You’re  getting major health benefits like loading your bones and strengthening your muscles – including your heart. Not only are you feeling more energetic, but that muscle you are building burns more calories than fat. But the reality is,  if your goal is weight loss, the math still may not be working in your favor.

Those 900-1500 calories  a week may be enough to keep weight in check during the second and third decades of life, when we are typically more active in general, but it’s a whole different story if you are over 40.

Here is another quote from Dr. Levine:

“Our current obesity and related health woes stem from the fact that modern life in the Internet-driven electronic age has increasingly leeched NEAT from our existence to the tune of up to 1,500 to 2,000 calories a day.  And the loss is sucking the life out of us.”

This is a powerful statement. Think about what would happen, with your newfound fitness,  if you consciously return that lost NEAT to your daily life. Seemingly small changes – like parking farther from the store so you walk a longer distance – add up. If you burned those extra 1,500 to 2,000 calories a day, combined with the calories that you expend at Koko FitClub, you’d begin to witness a big shift in your  body composition. (Imagine also reducing your intake – but that’s another post!)

So, take that new-found Koko energy and get more active – everyday. You have nailed the first step: consistently doing 3 strength and 3-4 Koko cardio sessions each week. Upping your NEAT is the second.

One way I like to reinforce and remind myself of this goal is by wearing a pedometer to record how many steps I’m getting over the course of a day. Try it and then challenge yourself  to add an additional 2,000 steps to that base number over the next few weeks. Keep building up to 7-8,000 and set a long term goal of 10,000 steps a day. That’s where I’m at!

Daily NEAT + Weekly Koko Smartraining  =  Body Composition Changes. How’s that for a nice NEAT exercise prescription for you!

Michael Wood, CSCS
Chief Fitness Officer
Koko FitClub