Can I exercise even though my knees sound like 100 year old hinges?

As we get older most of us experience that our knees have their own language with creaking and grinding. As long as you don’t have any soreness or pain in your knees you can happily continue with whatever exercise you are doing.

Creaking and grinding usually come from the cartilage under the knee cap that over the years gets a bit uneven.

When you develop the creaking and grinding in your knees it is very important that you warm up properly before exercising. Do 10 minutes of a good pace walk or a little bit of jogging before you commence your training. When you slowly increase the intensity the circulation and you heart rate slowly increases and you joints will build up synovial fluid, which reduces friction between the articular cartilages of the synovial joints during movement.

The knee needs to be maintained well, not to develop any acute problems, so a well executed leg training program is very important. Train the muscles around the knee so they can stabilize the knee, and make sure that the knee cap is tracking well. If the knee cap is not tracking right the pressure on the cartilage increases and the likelihood of more server problems accrue.

It is also important to stretch your quadriceps muscles and iliotibial band, the knee cap inserts to these muscles. If you have tight muscles around the knee they put pressure on the knee and knee cap that might not track well.

Happy pain free training!

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta
 

www.newfitness.com.au

You know I like quinoa. It’s perfect to have at home; you can mix and match it with anything.  My newest invention!

Quinoa salad

Serves 1
1 cup cooked quinoa
½ cup red cabbage, chopped
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 large handfuls, baby spinach leaves
1 spring onion, finely sliced
4 cherry tomatoes, sliced
A hand full pine nuts, roasted

Dressing
½  lemon,  juiced
Olive oil
Fresh ground pepper
Balsamic vinegar
Turmeric

Combine all the ingredients and add the dressing.

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au

Stay fit and fool time!!!

Age is on everyone’s tongue these days and believe it or not we can actually control it. 

Just imaging being 85 and have a metabolic age of 40, you might say that is not possible, but more and more studies show that it is very much possible. We can even restore our brain, but I’ll leave that discussion for another time.

We sometimes say that age is just a number, and it couldn’t be truer. An overweight 30 year old that spends most of his/her time in front of a computer at work and in front of a TV at home, could have a metabolic age on 70 or 75 years old.

A Swedish study has been done with men 80 years old and older, the oldest where 93. All the men were still keen cross-country skiers. In the control group you also had healthy 80+ year olds that only did short slow walks with the dog.

The study shows the group of men that did the skiing, moderate to high-intensity training, had a fitness level as an average 40 year old, but the control groups’ fitness were on a level expected of an 80 year old.

15-20 years ago we didn’t discuss much about strength training and what effect muscles had on an aging body. We now know that all our welfare diseases are direct or indirect connected to muscle atrophy. Higher muscle mass will decrease the risk many of the chronic metabolic disease like diabetes, since the body can more easily regulate blood sugar levels.

Metabolic age is different from chronological age. Your chronological age is your age by calendar years, while metabolic age depends on your metabolism or overall chemical processes of the body, which are based on your health. Metabolic age is measured by comparing muscles mass and weight. Older individuals tend to have lower caloric requirements for a variety of reasons, ranging from a reduction of physical activities which reduces the demand on calories for energy to a reduction of muscle which also reduces the body's need for energy.

Your muscles and internal organs are lean tissues. People who age well, who seem to be far younger than their years, retain their lean tissue mass. The more lean tissue you have the longer life.   

So to stay physically and mentally young, keep your muscles strong and keep your cardio training on a moderate to high intensity.

Invite me for your 100-year birthday party!!!!!  

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au

               

My be-healthy top list

Being happy and healthy is like love or marriage, you need to look after it and nourishing it to be able to enjoy it.

Exercise, exercise work as a cure for everything for me. If I feel life is a bit too much for me, I’ll put on my training cloths and off I go - doing something, running, weights, cross fit, step – whatever gets the endorphins to kick in.

Eat, as years go on and my body demands more attention I’m eating more and more greens and fresh food and I can feel the energy in my body because of that. Eat something green with every meal and don’t be afraid of food and calories. Yes, watch the portions, but not to the extent where you starve yourself. We all have to eat to be healthy.

Sleep, we can’t recover if we don’t get some rest. I know I need at least 7 hours per night to feel good, but how much sleep we need depend on you as a person. I’m not going to tell you how much sleep you need, you probably know yourself how much you need to feel good, but most people do need 6-8 hours per night.

De-stress, the body needs a bit of stress to work well but constant stress is not good for our bodies. It is important to find a way that you can catch your breath and get you body and mind calm.

Have fun, we can’t take life too serious. Just have some fun, laugh with some friends, watch a funny movie anything that gives you a chuckle.

Balance, for me balance is when I feel that all components in my life are on a “fun” level. I can have a laugh at work, I can laugh with the family at the dinner table, my loved ones makes me feel happy and loved, and I have a rich social life that I enjoy.

We are part of our lives and we need to look after it, so if we keep Walt Disney’s “The Lion King” in mind and follow “ Hakuna Matata; don’t worry be happy”, we’ll be able to live a happy, healthy and filling lives until we are as old as we would like to be.

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au