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Age with Power: Fall in Love with Exercise

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 00:52:37 GMT

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and remember a time you fell in love and the bliss you felt.

Perhaps you thought about when you met your soul mate, the birth of your child, or when you discovered your life’s passion. You may remember your heart pounding a little harder, your mood lifted and an extra spring in your step. How would you like to feel this way every day? With physical activity and exercise, you can.

Warm feelings of love are caused by chemical reactions that occur with the release of hormones and neurotransmitters inside your body and brain. The same feel-good chemicals are secreted when we fall in love and when we are physically active and exercise. First, let’s distinguish the difference between physical activity and exercise. Physical activity is simply adding more movement to your day, like doing housework, gardening or dancing to a favorite song. Exercise is physical activity that is planned or structured for the purpose of getting stronger and healthier.

According to biological anthropologist, and Research Professor Dr. Helen Fisher of Rutgers University who studies love, the chemicals that the body releases with romantic love include:

Dopamine creates feelings of euphoria, increased energy, focus and attention and also triggers an intense rush of reward and pleasure. (Interestingly, heroin, cocaine and sugar light up similar areas in the brain, making these substances highly addictive. Surprised by sugar? We’ll break down the science on sugar addiction in another article.)
Norepinephrine causes the heart to go pitter patter, pound harder and gets blood pumping.
Endorphins are the body’s natural pain relievers and are chemically related to morphine. They also create a sense of well-being, security and attachment.

Like romantic love, exercise releases dopamine, norepinephrine and endorphins. But wait, there’s more! Exercise releases more chemicals into the brain that are powerful mood and mind-boosting substances including:

Serotonin is a natural mood-enhancer that helps relieve depression.
BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) also helps relieve depression and enhances brain health and memory.
GABA (Gamma Amino Butyric Acid) which helps calm the brain’s emotional circuitry like Xanax® but without the side-effects!

Exercise is a great outlet to cope with stress better. Then of course, exercise boosts energy and vigor, positively impacting all body and brain systems so you can feel good as the days and years fly by.

As we age, diet, medications and stress levels all influence levels of hormones and other chemicals and can cause them to get discombobulated, leading to mood changes, anxiety attacks and confusion. Exercise has widespread effects on the body and brain to help balance the whole system. If there was a pill that had the same wide-ranging effects as exercise, everyone would be popping it.

To experience these joyous feelings, you may be wondering how much exercise is needed. Glad you asked! Not as much as you may think. Research done by best-selling author, Gretchen Reynolds suggests that just 20 minutes of physical activity like walking is all that’s needed for the euphoric feeling, and for general health and well-being. In a 2021 research study , 6 minutes of self-paced walking improved energy, motivation and mood. The faster the pace, the greater the improvements!

Even when it comes to better balance and walking faster, independent clinical studies with older adults show it’s possible in as little as 10-20 minutes per week using the MoveMor Mobility Trainer! That’s a small time investment with a big return.

We have been led to believe that we need to work out long and hard for health benefits. Research is mounting to dispel this long-held belief.

What are you waiting for? If you’re looking for better balance and more confidence when you walk, just sit down, strap your feet in and perform a MoveMor exercise video. Then head out for an invigorating walk and feel the love.

Not sure where to start to get your balance and energy back? Schedule a 15-minute complementary call with Healthy Aging Architect℠, Cate Reade, MS, RD, CES, RYT, designing your blueprint to age powerfully! Get started today.

The First Step to Aging Powerfully in 2025: What’s your “Why?”

Sat, 11 Jan 2025 01:16:23 GMT

The start of the new year provides us time to pause and reflect on what went well and what we want to improve upon. Health is always at the top of my list for two reasons: first because I walk the talk as a nutritionist and exercise physiologist; secondly and more profoundly, it’s because I lost my health for a few years to chronic Lyme disease and recovered it.

Anyone who has experienced a chronic or disabling condition knows wholeheartedly and bone deep that health is your most precious asset. As the saying goes, “A healthy person has a thousand wishes, a sick person only one.” When you’ve lost your health and vitality, you want it back more than anything else on earth.

Living with physical, mental and/or emotional pain drains the life energy out of you. Your world gets smaller. You engage less. Depression sets in. You may lose hope and toss in the towel, simply accepting that further decline is inevitable. Or you can love yourself enough to take small, sustainable steps towards improving your health.

If you look at all the changes you need to make, you can become overwhelmed and not know where to start. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. But before you take that first bite, ask yourself, “Why do I want to eat that elephant?”

Regardless of your age or health challenges, we now know that small, gradual lifestyle changes are the foundation of health. What would happen to your home if it was built on a foundation made from sand? It wouldn’t be able to stand the test of time and the same goes for our health. The quality of how we choose to eat, move, drink, think, sleep and socialize each day all come together to create or break our health little by little.

Lifestyle choices are powerful medicine or slow poison.

Before you start looking at making lifestyle changes ask “Why?” “Why do I want good health? Why is good health important to me?” Ask yourself “why” 3-7 times or until you can attach your answer to something meaningful or emotional. For instance, when I was at my lowest point with Lyme, I took off from work for over a year because my mental health was failing. I was tired of life.

Each day was a struggle, but I turned a corner mentally and physically when I asked myself, “Why is it important for me to restore my health?” After asking “why” five times, I found my answer: I wanted to be there for my kids and husband. It was because of love. So every day when I didn’t feel like walking or drinking that glass of lemon water, I did it anyway. My “why” sustained and motivated me to persevere.

Asking yourself “why” helps you to drill down, understand and connect to your “why.” It’s the key to achieving lasting and sustainable changes.

Let’s use weight loss as an example, since it's a common New Year’s resolution.

I want to lose 15 pounds.
Why do you want to lose 15 pounds?”
Because my doctor told me that I need to lose weight.
Why did your doctor tell you to lose weight?
Because it will help reduce my arthritis pain.
Why do you care about reducing your arthritis pain?
Because it hurts to move.
Why is it important for you to move?
Because I want to be able to take care of myself.
Why is it important that you can take care of yourself?
Because I want to live independently.

Making this connection can drive your behaviors and sustain your lifestyle choices over the long haul.

Despite what we see on TV, losing weight isn’t just about looking better. It’s about feeling better and preserving independence, which is much more meaningful and profound.

Recognizing that health is a vehicle to connect with all the people and activities that give us meaning, we can intentionally make choices that are compatible with our goals. My “why,” being there for my family, motivated me even when I didn’t feel like eating vegetables, exercising, going to bed on time, thinking positively or reaching out to friends.

Each day we face a myriad of daily choices that move us closer to or further away from vitality and longevity. Consider and choose the ones that move you closer to achieving your “why.”

Get started today, pull out a piece of paper, ask yourself and determine your “why.” Write it down, place a sticky note on your bathroom mirror. Start a journal about why your health is important to you. Then pause and celebrate acting on the first step towards making lasting change and building sustainable habits for life.

Be kind to yourself along the way. Each day embrace that you are doing your best. Note the positive changes you are making and how you are feeling. As your energy levels gradually increase, so will your motivation. Understand that health, vitality and longevity are lifelong endeavors, and you are worth it.

Are you looking for an experienced health professional to walk with and guide you on your journey to aging powerfully but aren’t sure where to start?

Let’s talk! I am offering balance training and lifestyle coaching services virtually and in-person starting in March 2025. In the interim, please email me at cate@movemor.com , share your goals, immediate concerns and contact information. I can’t wait to talk with you and design your blueprint to age powerfully.

How to Reduce Holiday Stress and Fall Risk

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 20:53:42 GMT

The holiday season is here and heading into full swing. It’s a time filled with gathering together and sharing with family and friends. It can be a wonderful time of the year, and it can also be stressful.

There’s all the planning, shopping, cooking, cleaning, entertaining and then gift giving that can be fun, but it also has its own challenges! As we get older, it becomes even more important to manage stress because it can lead to a 41% increased risk for falling (1).

How can Stress Increase Fall Risk?

Our autonomic nervous system has two branches, the sympathetic for survival and parasympathetic for thriving. When we are experiencing physical or mental stress, we move into “fight, flight or freeze” mode. In addition to cortisol rising, heart rate and blood pressure go up and muscles get tight and tense, so we are ready to run or fight the tiger chasing us.

When we are under stress, blood goes rushing to the amygdala and away from the prefrontal cortex, our “CEO” or decision-making part of our brain. When this happens, we can’t make good decisions. With a myriad of tasks to accomplish, we may find ourselves rushing around and not paying attention to the environment we are in, what we are doing or how we are doing it. This can significantly increase the risk of a devastating fall.

When you ask an older adult who has just fallen, “What happened?” The most common response is, “I wasn’t paying attention.”

The #1 Strategy for Reducing Stress and Fall Risk

It’s a simple solution that starts with slowing down and practicing deep diaphragmatic breathing. Easier said than done but once you start practicing on a daily basis you can make it a habit that can be lifesaving.

That’s because your breath is the steering wheel of your nervous system.

When we are stressed, our breath becomes shallow. This sends signals to the brain that our survival is under threat. When we breathe slowly and deeply, signals are sent to the brain that we are safe. This moves us into the parasympathetic state where we can rest, digest, heal and repair our bodies instead of marinating in a stew of stress hormones that actually shrinks muscles and brain tissue!

Deep Breathing Reduces Stress and Falls

It improves balance by strengthening your core including your pelvic floor. Having a strong core creates more stability for better balance.
It reduces stress and cortisol to release tight muscles and relax. This can make you more flexible to respond more quickly to the world beneath your feet.
It improves attention (2) so you can move more mindfully to avoid a fall.

How to Breathe with your Diaphragm

Most people “overbreathe,” averaging about 12-18 breaths per minute. Research shows that slowing down the pace to 6 breaths per minute will reduce cortisol levels so you can move into relaxation mode. Practice inhaling deeply and exhaling completely to strengthen your diaphragm for a stronger core, more stability and better balance, physically and mentally. Here’s how.

Sit tall, lengthen your spine from the crown of your head, roll shoulders back and down away from your ears . You can also practice while lying down in bed.
Place one hand on your belly and one hand on your heart.
Inhale and exhale through your nose.
Inhale from the bottom up: Think about breathing deeply into your pelvic floor, feel the expansion of belly, rib cage and chest.
Exhale from the top down: feel the contraction of chest, rib cage and belly as you squeeze your belly button towards your spine and press muscles in below your belly button, exhaling completely.
Try inhaling for a count of 4, pause and then exhale for a count of 4 and pause. This will slow the pace to about 6 breaths per minute.

If this doesn’t feel good for you, try practicing a 1-to-2 count that feels more comfortable, focusing on exhaling longer than your inhale. For example, inhale for a count of 2 and exhale for a count of 4. Gradually increase the count and pause in between.

Practice Daily

1-3 x per day
3-30 breaths
Before rising and going to sleep!

When you first start practicing, you may feel a bit lightheaded or dizzy. This can be because the ratio between carbon dioxide and oxygen changes. This is why it’s good to practice seated or lying down when you first get started. With consistent practice, most people adapt around 3 weeks. Then you can practice any time and anywhere to feel more relaxed, attentive and steadier with each step.

Start breathing deeply today and enjoy every minute of the holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays!

References

Fink et al (2014). Association of stressful life events with incident falls and fractures in older men: the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study
Ma et al (2017). The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults
Russo et al (2017). The physiological effects of slow breathing in the healthy human

How to Get Up from the Floor

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 05:07:11 GMT

Is it challenging for you to get up from the floor? You are not alone. Many older adults find that this skill becomes more difficult as the years fly by.

Being able to rise from the floor is an essential activity to live independently and do the things you need, want and love to do; from playing with grandchildren, gardening and housecleaning. In the event of a fall, being able to get back up on your feet can be a lifesaving skill.

Having difficulty or even losing the ability to rise from the ground is largely due to stiff joints and weak muscles of the lower and upper body. It is a skill that can be regained and maintained with consistent practice overtime.

As we age it can be common to lose range of motion at ankles and hips. The loss of ankle flexibility is essential for the ability to get off the floor yet is commonly overlooked. It is also needed for daily activities like getting up and down from the couch, sitting on the toilet, and picking something off the ground. (Stay tuned, we will talk about ankle mobility in next month’s blog!)

Flexibility and strength of the lower and upper body are functional fundamentals that are commonly lost with aging and inactivity and are needed to get from the floor to your feet include:

Lower Body

Hips: Glutes, hip flexor strength & hip mobility
Knees: quadriceps & hamstring strength
Ankles: dorsiflexion, plantarflexion and lower leg strength

Upper Body

Chest & Shoulders
Triceps
Core

If you are looking to regain or maintain your ability to get up from the floor, I invite you to practice 10 exercises in the video here. Try to perform these exercises 2-3 times per week, every other day for 30 days. Let me know what you notice with your ability to get up off the floor!

Get Up from the Floor: 10 Exercises

To practice rising from the floor, please check out the video that shows you one way to get from the floor to your feet. Please let me know how it goes and if the exercises above make it easier for you. Practice this 1-2 times per week so in the event of a fall, you will be prepared from head to toes to move safely and recover your confidence.

How to Get Up from the Floor

Remember, yes you can regain your flexibility and strength at any age to rise safely, stay independent and enjoy life’s adventures!

Give yourself Grace: Building Resilience Takes Time

Tue, 10 Sep 2024 06:31:37 GMT

Here’s something we can all agree on. The older you get, the more experiences you have including the good, the bad and the losses. Aging is a great gift and when times get tough, you learn strategies that strengthen your resilience muscles. Just like the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is quoted as saying, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”

Resilience is what I admire most about my older adult clients. That ability to move through life’s challenges, to adapt to difficult situations, mentally and emotionally while learning, growing and becoming stronger. One of my MoveMor “frequent fliers” is a gal 92 years of age who recently lost her 67-year-old daughter. When I asked her how she was doing after class last week with sadness and a smile she said, “You have to deal with the cards that you’re dealt.” So true and you need strategies to manage your health emotionally, mentally and physically.

It is such a blessing and privilege to work with older adults who have incredible experiences, stories and wisdom to share.

At 61 years of age, I am blessed to be in great health and happily married for 33 years! My husband and I have raised three children who are amazing young adults living their lives. Now, in a couple of short weeks the nest will be empty. It’s a big transition time that doesn’t get a lot of discussion, but it should. It’s a time for reflection and big adjustments. Transitions are difficult as you feel the sand shifting under your feet. It feels unstable and uncomfortable.

Everyone talks about the “empty nest” but I didn’t anticipate our children living far from home. Two are living on the central coast of California. They love the beach, having a 10-minute commute to work and access to fantastic fresh foods at the farmer’s markets.

Now my baby boy is 6’3” and 22 years of age who graduated 4 months ago with his degree in architecture. He landed a fantastic internship in New York City. I am so happy for him as this is an amazing opportunity, but I am going to miss him, especially being so far away.

It’s so wonderful seeing your children grow and become adults. As a parent, the most important thing is for your children to be happy and healthy. They are happy which makes me happy. But it’s still tough when they leave and fly far from the nest. That’s hard for mama bears.

Now I have that same sense of sadness and cry like I did before each of my children left home to pursue their dreams. There is that sinking pit in my stomach, muscle tightness, and sleep disturbances surrounding the dreaded anticipation of him leaving. Our nest will be truly empty for the first time and our adult children will be on the west and east coast!

This is a big transition time in my life, filled with emotions and the need for reflection. Our time on this earth is finite. Nothing is permanent so enjoy and relish each precious moment that you have with those you love.

When tough times and losses come your way, give yourself grace. Emotions have a huge impact on health and should be acknowledged, not buried or ignored. Take time for yourself. Process how and why you are feeling the way you do and nurture yourself.

Here are 6 powerful strategies to practice to build resilience for the long run.

Breathe deeply : is key to staying grounded and calm. It is the steering wheel of your nervous system. Focus on 3-5 diaphragmatic breaths 3-5 X/day especially when feeling sad, stressed or tight.
Walk : “If you are in a bad mood go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for another walk.” ~ Hippocrates
Move: Movement is an essential nutrient to staying strong and centered. Do what makes you feel good. I love walking, gardening, lifting weights and practicing yoga.
Talk: with a trusted friend or therapist!
Journaling: is a wonderful way to reflect on life, process and move through your emotional ups and downs in the healthiest way. Life experiences are great teachers.
Focus on gratitude and beauty

Practicing these strategies means you can stay centered and feel strong emotionally, mentally and physically. Resilience is a muscle. Relish the wisdom and strength that grows with age. A practical tip that my therapist shared with me is, “Remember, no matter what happens to you, you can handle it.”

Improve Lymphatic Flow for Better Balance and Well-Being

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 12:54:04 GMT

Our lymphatic system is an extensive network of vessels and nodes that is often overlooked and integral to immune function and waste removal, significantly impacting physical, mental and emotional health. Unlike blood vessels that have the heart as a pump, the lymphatic system depends on movement for flow and function.

Approximately 30% of my female clients who are over the age of 65, have lymphedema that causes swelling and discomfort. This can negatively impact physical function, mobility and balance. It can decrease the ability to perform activities of daily living and raises concerns about the ability to maintain an active lifestyle and functional independence as the years fly by.

Cancer survivors have often had surgeries that involve the removal of lymph nodes that disrupts this powerful drainage system, leaving them with fluid imbalances, swelling and lymphedema in the lower and upper body.

As we age, our lymphatic system can become clogged and backed up leaving us with excessive fluid accumulating in ankles, legs and arms. This can cause tightness, stiffness, fatigue and joint pain. Improving lymph flow can reduce swelling, boost detoxification and the immune system. It can relieve fatigue and joint pain as well as improve proprioception that is a prerequisite for the balance and confidence needed to reduce the risk of injury and falls.

Boost Balance and Emotional Health

Proprioception is essentially our “sense of self” or body awareness. It involves sensory nerves called proprioceptors that are constantly communicating with the brain about where your joints and limbs are as well as the tension in muscles. This sensory information is critical for maintaining balance, coordinating movements and performing activities of daily living with efficiency, control and confidence.

Clearing the lymphatic system reduces toxins, inflammation and swelling around joints that slows the flow of sensory information. As your body and brain communicate more clearly, it increases a feeling of safety. The quality of your movement depends on the clarity and accuracy of the signals sent by proprioceptors that are located in and around joints including ligaments, joint capsules, tendons and muscles.

When your brain can accurately sense where your body is in time and space, this increases your sense of body awareness and competency. With stronger neural pathways responsible for sending proprioceptive signals, your brain becomes more resilient at interpreting and processing this information. This leads to faster neuromuscular responses and more efficient control of movement.

Greater body control results in a sense of safety that can reduce the risk of injury and the fear of falling. Feeling this assurance from head to toe extends beyond physical safety as it elevates emotional well-being with a renewed sense of competency, control and confidence when interacting with the world around you and beneath your feet.

Adults, cancer survivors or anyone with a lymphatic system (that’s everyone!) that is looking for more energy, health and balance, can benefit from improving lymph flow. For older adults, enhancing proprioception is a gigantic leap forward for a heightened body awareness, control and deep sense of safety.

3 Steps to Increase Lymph Flow

It’s simple! On a daily basis practice:

5-Minute Lymphatic Drainage Routine: Stimulating 6 key lymphatic points in your body by rubbing, tapping and massaging followed by “heel bounces.” Practice once per day for 30 days and see if you notice reduced swelling, feel lighter and have more energy. ? For smooth detoxification and to avoid a headache, be sure to stay hydrated, drinking filtered water before and after you practice.
Diaphragmatic Breathing: Deep diaphragmatic breathing creates pressure variations that promotes the flow of lymph. Practice 5 diaphragmatic breaths 1-3 times per day.
Take 10 for Lymph Flow: 10 exercises, 10 reps, 10 Minutes that contracts muscles surrounding key lymphatic areas from one safely seated position. (Perform daily without resistance or every other day with the MoveMor board.) Move more throughout your day as well.

3 Videos to Boost Flow and Function

Are you ready to increase your lymph flow, well-being and balance? Here are 3 videos for you to boost your flow today!

I have been practicing these steps daily for 5 months and feel brighter, lighter and more energetic. I am also sparkling more (women don’t sweat, we sparkle��).

Practice these steps for 30 days and share what you notice! Happy flowing!

Balance and Independence: An Intimate Connection

cate@movemor.com (Cate Reade) — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 23:07:30 GMT

Who doesn't love a success story?! Check out this video for some education and encouragement as Deanna shares her triumph over restoring her proprioception following her treatment for a brain tumor that damaged her body-brain communication that made her walking difficult and uncoordinated, putting her at a high risk of falling. Today Deanna walks with control and confidence! And you can too.

Need balance? There is a special discount offer at the end so you can save $$$ and your independence at the same time! Act now! Offer good through August 4, 2024.

Food is Foundational: 5 Steps to Optimize Your Energy and Aging

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 22:35:16 GMT

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” ~ Hippocrates

We have been led to believe that good health can be found at the pharmacy or in the supplement aisle. When we experience aches and pains, fatigue or lack of sleep, we head to our doctor who generally ends up prescribing a pill to help combat each symptom, often without searching for the root cause. Rarely do health care practitioners ask about the most important player in good health, the foods we choose to eat, day in and day out.

In 2008 the United Nations’ World Health Organization announced that chronic conditions like heart disease and stroke are now the leading cause of death, surpassing infectious disease as the number one killer around the world. The great news is, we have control over chronic conditions since they are diseases caused primarily by lifestyle choices including what we eat and drink, how we move and exercise, manage stress and sleep. Foods can be a panacea or poison. Every time we eat a meal or snack, we have the power to create health or disease. Good health is not just the absence of disease. It is when we feel vibrant, have a spring in our step and are brimming with energy.

For years we have been taught that food is merely “fuel” or simply just calories whose chemical bonds are broken to create the energy of life, ATP (adenosine triphosphate). Our bodies have been likened to basic machines with the equation of calories in = calories out to maintain a healthy weight. This is incredibly simplistic since the human body is a complex, dynamic and ever-changing system where food provides complex information to the body that determines how well you feel physically, mentally and emotionally.

When we eat food, we are supplying energy and are also delivering messages that tell cells to do this and not that; release this hormone but not that one; express this gene and turn off another one. Each molecule of food triggers a cascade of events that send signals throughout our bodies, balancing hormones, igniting immune cells and switching genes on and off, building and destroying cells.

Here are 5 simple steps you can take today so you can feel, move and age better:

Steer Clear of GPS: To reduce inflammation and optimize aging, reduce or eliminate gluten found in wheat, processed foods and sugars; especially maltodextrin because it spikes your blood sugar, damages your gut, increases belly fat (1).
Quality Matters: Whenever possible, choose organic foods, fruits, vegetables and dairy products; grass-fed and finished meats, pastured chicken and eggs and wild -caught fish.
Protein Power: It is all too common for older adults to not eat enough protein and this speeds up the loss of muscle, strength and function, threatening independence. Aim for about 30 grams of protein with each meal.
Eat the Rainbow: A diversity of colored vegetables and fruits contain anti-oxidants and phytochemicals that squelch inflammation as well as support a healthy microbiome that is essential for the health of function of your body and brain.
Avoid Seed Oils: These industrial oils increase inflammation, neurodegeneration and dis-ease (2, 3). Soy, corn, cottonseed, sunflower, safflower and canola oils are ultra-processed with high heat and harsh chemicals rendering a rancid oil at the point of purchase. These polyunsaturated oils damage your gut lining and energy-producing mitochondria contributing to chronic fatigue, ill-health and dysfunction.

The bottom line is if you are serious about optimizing your health and increasing energy levels, one of the most important places to start is with the food at the end of your fork. A clean whole foods diet is the cornerstone for successful aging. You have the power to choose between health or disease with each bite.

References

BIO

Aging with better balance, more confidence, greater health and energy doesn’t have to be difficult! If you are struggling you can schedule a free call to learn about the ways I can help you out!

Cate Reade, MS, RD, CES is a registered dietitian and exercise physiologist with over 35 years of experience teaching, writing and prescribing healthy eating and exercise programs. She is the creator of the MoveMor® Mobility Trainer and exercise programming who has helped hundreds of people get back on steadier, stronger feet, faster. Contact Cate at 303.515.7070 or cate@movemor.com

Reducing Fall Risk: Your Home Safety Checklist

Mon, 20 May 2024 21:18:05 GMT

As we age our risk of falling increases. Back in 1986, Mary Tinetti, a pioneer in fall risk and fall prevention research at the Yale University School of Medicine identified over 160 independent risk factors for falls! That was before “smartphones” so that number is certainly higher now as cellphones can be a major distraction.

The risk factors she identified can be thought of as intrinsic (occurring within the body) and extrinsic (occurring outside the body). Research shows that the risk of falls increases linearly with the more risk factors that are present (1). The more risk factors we can reduce, the lower our chance of falling. That’s the purpose of today’s blog.

Improve Physical Function

To reduce our intrinsic factors, it is crucial to improve our balance and mobility in order to sense and respond to the loss of balance in time to save ourselves from a fall. The most efficient way to walk steadier, stronger and faster is through increasing our joint range of motion and strength, especially at ankles, the primary joint involved in balance.

Our studies with older adults show consistent improvements in balance, ankle flexibility and strength in as little as 10 minutes per week for about 8 weeks using the MoveMor Mobility Trainer. That’s a small investment for a huge return of being more confident and fall resilient. This can be an incredibly simple and effective way for you to regain and maintain functional independence for life!

Improve Home Environment

Environmental hazards in and outside the home increase the risk of tripping and slipping. It’s estimated that in 50-80% of falls, at least one environmental risk factor is involved (2). We understand that weather is a factor out of our control, so extra caution should be taken when it’s raining, snowing or icy outside. Being aware of your surroundings and wearing appropriate footwear with good tread can be a lifesaver.

Invest in your health and balance with high-quality, well-fitting shoes. Your body’s foundation is critical for feeling steady so take good care of your feet. It’s one of the soundest investments you can make because you are guaranteed to get a high return on your investment.

When walking on snow or ice, walking like a “duck” with toes pointed slightly outward can increase your base of support to make you feel steadier. Be sure to walk slowly and intentionally with each step when you find yourself in a wet or slippery environment. Holding onto someone’s arm who is strong and steady can be extremely helpful too. Don’t be afraid to ask for help!

Since we can’t control the outside environment or weather, it’s important to consistently work on our walking ability to be best prepared to handle whatever comes our way within our community or when traveling. Exercising ankles is the most efficient way to improve balance. MoveMor can get you there faster. It can save you from a fall. How much does a fall cost? Purchase the tools you need to achieve your balance and functional independence goals. You are worth it.

Consistent mobility training is the key to train muscles in all directions so they are there when you need them to rescue a fall. Being strong and flexible in all directions means you can handle the loss of balance in multiple directions too. Physical fitness combined with having a home that is as safe as possible can significantly reduce your fall risk.

Perform a Home Inspection

The majority of fall-related injuries (55%) occur inside the home, including falls on stairs and in rooms throughout the house (3). It’s important to reduce environmental hazards within the home; performing a home inspection can help reduce the risk of a trip, slip or misstep.

While there are numerous factors to look out for, here is a checklist for you to correct 10 common home hazards.

1. Stairs and Steps

Are they clutter-free ? Avoid placing items on steps as a reminder to grab those items on the next trip up the stairs. If there is room, place a basket in a far corner that you don’t step near where you can put those items.
Is there adequate lighting so each step is clearly visible? An affordable and easy option here is to use night lights throughout your home and especially by stairs. There are also stick-on sensor lights and light strips that can be easy to install.
Are the handrails sturdy ? Do they extend the full length of the stairway? Using handrails ascending and descending stairs is always a good idea to maintain balance.
Are steps in good condition (indoors and outside)? Ensuring steps are not broken or uneven can reduce fall risk. Stairs need to be in good shape to offer stable footing.

2. Bedrooms

Is there a clear, well-lit pathway from your bed to the bathroom? Be sure that this path is clear of clutter, or a pet toy is picked up before hitting the hay. Using nightlights, a salt lamp or having a small flashlight on your nightstand can light the way to the toilet safely.

3. Bathroom

Is there safe footing in wet spaces ? Bathtubs and showers are naturally wet and slippery places! Placing non-slip self-stick strips are easy to install and a great way to keep feet feeling steady and secure with an easy to grip surface.
Do you have grab bars within reach next to the shower or toilet? These bars can provide extra stability when we need it. Resources are available to install grab bars correctly. Be cautious of suction-cup grab bars as they can lose their grip over time; if you have one, check the grip with a light tug before using it for your full body weight.

4. Kitchen

Are the items you use most often easily within reach ? It’s safer to store these items on the counter or in cabinets that you can reach for while squatting properly rather than having items in high cabinets or shelves where you need to be on tip-toes.
When needed, have a sturdy step stool available for those higher to reach items. Make sure you feel stable before reaching for items above you.

5. General Home Hazard Checklist

Check for and remove or replace some of these common home hazards that increase tripping and slipping including:

Loose rugs or throw rugs
Electrical cords
Clutter and remove obstacles on the floor
Wet floors
Low chairs or toilets
Unstable furniture
Improper height, maintenance or use of assistive devices like canes, walkers or wheel chairs.
Unsafe foot wear like flimsy slippers or shoes; thick rubbery soles and socks without treads.

For more information and tips to keep your home safe, please check out the AARP Home Fit Guide by clicking here . I encourage you to make time to perform a home inspection because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! Cheers to living falls-free!

References

Why Does Fall Risk Increase with Age?

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 03:03:02 GMT

One of the biggest concerns of older adults is a four letter word and that is “fall.” This is understandable since the results of a fall can be devastating. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1 of 3 people over age 65 and 1 of 2 people over age 85 will fall each year.

Falls are the leading cause of accidental death and injuries in older adults. One fall can result in injuries ranging from minor bruises to wrist or hip fractures or a brain injury. This can have devastating effects on your physical and psychological function including reduced mobility and activity levels, an increased fear of falling, low confidence and keep you from going out and about.

Here’s the good news, your risk of falling can be reduced. Just like people age differently with some being as healthy as horse into their tenth decade like Blue Zone centenarians. This is largely due to consistent exercise and lifestyle choices.

Kudos for being here and learning about how to build your fall resilience because you desire to be the person who ages with good balance and confidence.

Through awareness and understanding of what causes falls, you can take action to increase your abilities to respond quickly to save yourself from a trip or stumble. Yes, you can avoid becoming a fall statistic because falls are preventable! Let’s dive into the underlying causes of falls.

The Anatomy of a Fall

A fall can be defined as “an unexpected event resulting in a person coming to rest on the ground or lower level.” Falls happen in less than a split-second; research suggests we have actually 145 milliseconds to save ourselves from a fall (Shaffer & Harrison 2007). According to the Institute of Medicine, a fall occurs in four phases that can be categorized as:

Initiation
Inability
Impact
Injury

Phase 1

Initiation: The Loss of Balance

This first phase is the initiating event that moves the body’s center of mass (trunk) beyond its base of support (feet). It can be due to extrinsic and/or intrinsic factors.

Extrinsic factors can include environmental hazards like a loose rug, electrical cord, an uneven or slippery floor, or poor lighting, among numerous other causes. Performing a home inspection with a trained professional can help mitigate such risks within the home.

Polypharmacy, or taking too many medications, can increase the risk of falling through harmful interactions; the more drugs you take, the greater the chance that one or more medications can contribute to dizziness, confusion, and poor balance. Annually reviewing medications with your physician can help mitigate this risk by potentially reducing your prescriptions.

Intrinsic factors are the internal personal issues that most commonly contribute to initiating the loss of balance. These physical limitations include stiff unstable joints, weak muscles, poor postural control and a slower reaction time (Institute of Medicine).

Phase 2

Inability: Detect & Correct

This second phase includes the body’s inability to detect and correct the loss of balance in time to save yourself from a fall. According to the Institute of Medicine, the functional limitations associated with this phase are due to the loss of sensory function, impaired central nervous system processing and muscle weakness.

In other words, communication signals from the body’s eyes ears and joints to the brain become impaired, resulting in slower reaction times. (Want to learn more about your balance systems? Please see last month’s blog article ) “Why We Lose Balance and How We Fix It".

Phase 3

Impact: Body Hits Ground

The inability to sense and correct the loss of balance in time results in a fall which occurs when the body hits the ground. These impact forces are transmitted to bones, tissues and organs. The potential injury will depend on the magnitude and direction of the force, as well as the body’s vulnerability. In general, greater frailty leads to more severe injuries.

Phase 4

Injury: Physical and Psychological

An injury of some kind always follows a fall whether it’s physical, psychological or both. If a person is lucky, they are able to brush themselves off and get up unscathed without physical injury. We must recognize that whether or not a physical injury has occurred, falls are frightening and commonly lead to a psychological injury: the fear of falling. In fact, falling once doubles your risk of falling again (Hager et al 2019).

When people are afraid of failing, they can consciously choose to limit their activities. While this may seem like a strategy to stay safer, it actually leads to more trouble. As we move less, we tend to fall more; our joints get stiffer, muscles get weaker and our balance withers. It’s simply a matter of “move it or lose it.”

3 Action Steps to Building Fall Resilience

Now we understand that falls are caused by the inability to sense and correct the loss of balance in time to save yourself from a fall. The areas you can address today are polypharmacy and the extrinsic and intrinsic fall risk factors.

Review your Prescriptions: Schedule an appointment with your doctor to review your medications. This will provide the opportunity to potentially reduce your prescriptions that can contribute to an increased risk of injury and falls. Be sure to advocate for yourself here and review medications at least every year.
Remove Environmental Hazards: Perform a home inspection on your own or with the help of a healthcare professional trained in fall prevention. Look for and correct any areas in your home that can increase your risk of a trip, slip or stumble; Remove throw rugs, install grab bars and check lighting. To help you thoroughly review your home, I will post a lengthy list of extrinsic risk factors to check for in next month’s blog!
Focus on Function: improve joint flexibility and strength to be able to sense and correct the loss of balance in those 145 milliseconds needed to recover and stay upright! Ankles are the primary joint involved in balance. Research shows that ankle range of motion and strength are one of the areas most prone to decline and dysfunction.

Practice joint and ankle mobility exercises regularly and sign up for a balance class! Using the MoveMor videos is a simple and easy way to start. Improving your lower body flexibility and strength with MoveMor is a great supplement to any balance training program and can accelerate your functional improvements so you can move steadier, stronger and faster in less time.

Take action today and enjoy moving more freely and living more fully! Cheers to your good health, longevity and better balance!

References

Institute of Medicine https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK235613/
CDC https://www.cdc.gov/falls/facts.html
Scott W Shaffer, Anne L Harrison, Aging of the Somatosensory System: A Translational Perspective, Physical Therapy, Volume 87, Issue 2, 1 February 2007, Pages 193–207, https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20060083
Mittaz Hager AG, Mathieu N, Lenoble-Hoskovec C, Swanenburg J, de Bie R, Hilfiker R. Effects of three home-based exercise programmes regarding falls, quality of life and exercise-adherence in older adults at risk of falling: protocol for a randomized controlled trial. BMC Geriatr. 2019 Jan 14;19(1):13. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30642252/

Why We Lose Balance and How We Fix It

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 01:07:29 GMT

It’s no secret that balance tends to decline with age. We all take it for granted until we start noticing our balance isn’t as sharp as it used to be. You may notice that you are swaying a bit more while standing and walking, or feeling weaker or less steady. We all want it, but what is balance? We need to understand what it is in order to restore what was lost, safely, effectively and efficiently.

In science-speak, balance is the ability to maintain the body’s center of mass over its base of support. Your center of mass is a few inches below your belly button or can be thought of as your trunk. Your feet are your base of support (unless you are performing a handstand, then your hands are your base of support!) Since walking is the most functional activity we perform day-in and day-out, we will focus on balance being the ability to maintain our trunk over our feet.

Balance is the ability to stay upright when standing (static balance) or when moving and performing activities like walking or climbing stairs (dynamic balance). This ability tends to decline with aging. The most common question I hear from older adult clients is, “Why am I losing balance?” Let’s find out why.

What is Balance?

Balance is a sense that lives in the brain. Balance relies on information constantly flowing into the brain from three main sensory systems including our visual, vestibular and proprioceptive systems. Moving properly depends on the ability of the brain to gather and interpret the sensory information provided by eyes, ears and joints. This is essential because the brain then tells the body how to respond to stay upright and balanced.

The quality of the sensory input gathered directly impacts the quality of movement. The stronger the sensory signals sent to the brain, the more accurate the instructions sent to the body will be. On the flip side, as sensory signals become impaired, movement quality dwindles, as reaction time becomes slower.

What is Balance?

Making Sense of Balance: The 3 Systems

Let’s explore the sensory systems that make up balance.

Visual System:

Your eyes tell your brain about where your body is relative to the environment, whether you are walking inside your home, in a busy airport, or strolling on the beach. With aging eyes, a great many people don eyeglasses to function day to day, and as our eyesight weakens, so too does the quality of the sensory input.

Vestibular System:

The ears relay information to the brain about the motion and position of the head to adjust posture to maintain balance. The inner ears can be thought to function like both a level and accelerometer. Semicircular canals in the inner ears contain fluid and tiny hair cells. As the head nods up and down, moves left to right, or tilts to the side, the fluid in the inner ear moves and the tiny hair cells sense the speed and direction the head is moving in.

By age 70, it’s typical to have lost 40% of those sensory-detecting hair cells (Zalewski 2015).

Proprioceptive System:

Proprioception, literally meaning “sense of self”, is your sense of body awareness. It’s how you understand the parts that make up your body, where they are located, how they feel and even what they can do. It’s the way your body communicates with itself so you can walk without looking at your feet.

Proprioception is a prerequisite for balance and movement to prevent falls. Moving freely and in control starts with being aware of your body. You first need to know where your joints and body parts are to walk, maintain an upright body alignment, and move through all the directions that life moves in, from walking forward and backward, side-to-side, reaching up, bending down, twisting, turning, and dancing the night away!

Proprioceptors are sensory nerves that live in and around joints, in ligaments, joint capsules, tendons, muscles and connective tissues. They sense and send signals to the brain about joint position and motion, as well as the muscle force involved in movement.

As our proprioceptive abilities decline with age, it becomes more difficult to sense where our body parts and limbs are in time and space. This reduced sense of body awareness can impair joint function, body alignment, control and coordination. This results in poor balance and movement, significantly increasing fall risk.

Balance and Aging

The quality of our sensory information shapes our ability to balance. As we age, it is common for the sensory input from eyes, ears and joints to decline. This is why we start noticing that our balance isn’t as sharp as it used to be. It’s similar to having a staticky phone conversation when you can’t hear clearly to respond accurately.

In the same way, poor sensory input from your body results in a brain that doesn’t have enough information to properly advise the body on how to move to stay upright and balanced.

Losing and Restoring Balance

As our eyes, ears and joints lose their sensory capabilities, this is why balance is gradually lost. Your body is resilient, and you can improve your function given the right stimulation. Up to 70% of the sensory input for balance comes from your joints (Peterka 2002), so improving joint function can be a highly efficient way to improve your proprioception at any age so you can enjoy better balance and more confidence to prevent falls.

With 12-points of resistance, the MoveMor Mobility Trainer makes it simple to restore joint flexibility and strength in less time than any other tool, all from a safely seated position! This way you can activate your proprioceptive sensory nerves to balance better while stimulating your motor nerves for more strength and quicker reflexes.

Get started on your journey to feeling steadier, stronger and more confident by visiting MoveMor.com/exercise-programs. There are 7 exercise programs to choose from that vary in length from 5-30 minutes. Perform the exercises in a pain-free range of motion, 1-3 times per week on non-consecutive days. Enjoy better balance and that extra spring in your step today!

How to Sustain Those Fitness Goals and Habits: Fall in Love with Exercise

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 23:07:56 GMT

Take a deep breath, close your eyes and take a moment to remember a time you fell in love and the bliss you felt.

Perhaps you thought about when you met your soulmate, the birth of a child, or when you discovered your life’s passion. You may remember your heart pounding a little harder, your mood lifted, and an extra spring in your step. How would you like to feel this every day? With physical activity and exercise, you can.

Warm feelings of love are caused by chemical reactions that occur with the release of hormones and neurotransmitters inside your body and brain. The same feel good chemicals are secreted when we fall in love and when we are physically active and exercise.

First, let’s distinguish the difference between physical activity and exercise. Physical activity is simply adding more movement to your day, like doing housework, gardening or dancing to a favorite song. Exercise is physical activity that is planned or structured for the purpose of training balance, strength or endurance.

According to biological anthropologist and Research Professor Dr. Helen Fisher of Rutgers University, who studies love, the chemicals that the body releases when we feel love include:

Dopamine creates feelings of euphoria, increased energy, focus, and attention; it also triggers an intense rush of reward and pleasure.
Norepinephrine causes the fluttery feeling in your chest. As the heart goes pitter patter, your heart pounds harder and circulation increases throughout the body.
Endorphins are the body’s natural pain relievers and are chemically related to morphine. They also create a sense of well-being, security and attachment.

Like feelings of love, exercise releases dopamine, norepinephrine and endorphins, but they aren’t the only ones. Exercise releases even more powerful mood and mind-boosting substances into the brain, including:

Serotonin which is a natural mood-enhancer that eases feelings of depression.
BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) which also helps relieve depression and enhances brain health, cognition and memory.
GABA (Gamma Amino Butyric Acid) which helps calm the brain’s emotional circuitry, like Xanax® but without the side effects!

Exercise is a great outlet to cope with stress better. Then of course, exercise boosts energy and vigor, positively impacting all body and brain systems, so you just feel good.

Hippocrates is quoted as saying, “If you are in a bad mood, go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for another walk”!

Focusing on how you feel emotionally following exercise activity is a great way to fall in love with the process. This is a powerful strategy and mindset that you can put into practice so you can sustain exercise habits for your health and longevity.

There isn’t a single person who always wants to exercise or do balance training, but when we embrace how much better we feel afterwards, it is motivating to choose to move. Exercise is an act of self-care and self-love. The more connected you get to falling in love with the process, the more connected you feel with yourself and others. Health is all about taking consistent steps that accumulate over time so you can move and feel better over time, too.

The more you take care of yourself, the less you’ll need to see doctors.

As we age, diet, medications, and stress levels all influence levels of hormones and other chemicals in our bodies and can cause them to become dysregulated, leading to mood changes, anxiety attacks, and aggression. Exercise has widespread effects on the body and brain to help balance the whole system. If there was a pill that had the same wide-ranging effects as exercise, everyone would be popping it.

To experience these joyous feelings, you may be wondering how much exercise is needed; glad you asked! Research done by best-selling author Gretchen Reynolds suggests that just 20 minutes of physical activity, like walking, is all that’s needed for the euphoric feeling, and for general health and well-being. We have been led to believe that we need to work out long and hard for health benefits, but the research is mounting to dispel this long-held belief.

What are you waiting for? Just put on a pair of sneakers and head out for an invigorating walk, fresh air and sunshine…and feel the love.

(For quick tips on getting started, see last month’s blog, “Happy 2024! How to Create a Healthy New Habit.” )

Happy 2024! How to Create a Healthy New Habit

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 01:30:55 GMT

The New Year is always a meaningful time to reflect on your life to see what went well and what needs to change. The most popular changes are usually health-related like losing weight or reducing stress. This year, toss out the resolutions because they don’t work. Resolutions fail because people set unattainable goals, become overwhelmed and ultimately quit. This failure experience leaves you feeling inadequate and unmotivated, yet again. Instead of planning for a desired goal or outcome, design for a desired behavior. By creating and focusing on one, small and easy change at a time, you can create better habits that fuel long-term health success. Here’s how.

First, the best place to jump start better health is to simply move more throughout the day because inactivity is a physical and mental depressant. So let’s focus on increasing activity as the number one behavior to change. Behavioral scientist, BJ Fogg outlines a systematic approach to create habits that can change your life forever.

The 3 Keys

In Fogg’s Ted Talk, he cites three elements that need to happen at the same time for behavior change.

#1: You need motivation . What is your “why?” Perhaps you want to have more balance, strength and energy to travel the world, play with your grandchildren or improve your pickle ball or golf game. When motivation wanes connecting with your “why” can provide the spark of inspiration needed to overcome obstacles.

#2: The ability to make the desired change. Can you walk out the door and back? Can you do two pushups? Three toe lifts? Four heel pumps? Stand on one leg for 5 seconds? You get the idea. Match your ability with the behavior and make it small and achievable.

#3: A call to action or a trigger. This will be your signal to do this new behavior; it is easily done when you pair your new behavior with a current habit. For example, ‘After I brush my teeth, I will do two pushups.’ That’s it! Then celebrate each victory with a little happy dance and say a positive affirmation like “I am powerful!; I am on the right path; Taking care of myself is uplifting.”

Grow your Well-Being

As you grow stronger and experience these small successes one at a time, you will feel better physically and mentally. Generally it takes about 30 days of practice for this new behavior to become easier and automatic, otherwise known as a habit!

With a bit of reflection and planning you will be on your way to enjoying life more with a new sense of well-being. Simply start by matching your motivation and ability with a current habit to trigger action for a new behavior. To create the trigger, use BJ Fogg’s powerful one liner:

“After I __________________________ (existing habit), I will ___________________________ (new tiny behavior).”

Hint: It’s easiest to align your new behavior with habits that occur in the morning or evening since the middle of the day can be more hectic.

Goal: Better Balance

If your goal is to boost balance and confidence, a simple behavior to plug into your day is using MoveMor for just a few minutes before activities like walking, hiking or playing pickle ball. This can help activate and strengthen sensory and motor nerves in your hips, knees, ankles and feet so you can sense and respond to the world beneath your feet with greater agility to improve your daily performance and abilities to recover the loss balance in time to prevent a devastating fall or fracture.

Yes, You Can!

You do have the ability to change any habit in your life. Just put on your thinking cap, pull out pen and paper and write down one, small, easy-to-do behavior that gets you to move more. This is the way to create a cycle of success and lifelong habits that can reach far beyond those first few pushups, toe lifts or heel pumps!

Gratitude: The Gift of Being Present

cate@movemor.com (Cate Reade) — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 05:39:27 GMT

The holiday season can be a wonderful time for gathering and celebrating with family and friends, but it can also be a source of much added stress. You may be fretting about any number of circumstances like: how to manage your weight or chronic condition like diabetes during all the “feastivities”; choosing the perfect gifts and worried if you can afford them; missing a loved one who can’t be with you or who has passed away; or perhaps you feel unwell or someone close has been diagnosed with a disease.

Whatever personal challenges you are experiencing, research shows that grateful people are happier and healthier; can make better decisions; and are more joyful (1). It’s a skill anyone can learn and benefit from and best of all, it’s free!

How it Works

An attitude of gratitude bolsters the feel-good neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) dopamine and serotonin. Feeling thankful and appreciative also boosts the love hormone oxytocin so we feel more connected while it decreases the stress hormone cortisol (2).

Our day-to-day lives are so busy that we often rush from one task to the next one without being mindful. Living in the fast lane thrusts us into a chronic state of stress, consistently raising cortisol levels that end up damaging our body cells, organs and systems. This is a major reason why stress is the silent killer that we all talk about but don’t take seriously enough.

Slowing down, taking a few deep breaths and being grateful moves us out of the sympathetic state or fight or flight mode and into the parasympathetic state of rest, digest, heal and repair. This is where our body and mind can relax and rejuvenate so we can sleep better and experience more energy and vitality. And who doesn’t want more healthy energy?!

Count Your Blessings

When we focus on what we have instead of what we don’t have, it puts us in a positive frame of mind. We become more content, satisfied and fulfilled. The ability to notice, appreciate and savor life’s moving parts grows gratitude for better physical and psychological well-being (1,3).

Grateful people count their blessings and look at their lives and experiences as gifts (1,3). We can shift our perspective and explore: “What is this difficult situation trying to teach me?” “What am I grateful for in this moment?”

When my family and I were recovering from chronic Lyme, we were all thankful for each other, the support of family and friends and for having the resources to pay for exorbitant out-of-pocket medical expenses. Gratitude played a starring role in our healing.

Mindfulness

Practicing mindfulness is an effective way to plug into the feeling of gratitude. Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as “paying attention on purpose in the present moment, non-judgmentally...as if your life depended on it” (4).

When you think about it, all we really have is the present moment. Unfortunately, we spend a lot of time and waste precious energy worrying about the future or commiserating over the past. Focusing on the present moment helps us connect to each other, our thoughts and our own lives so we can become the best version of ourselves. Each day we have the opportunity to do and be better.

Cultivate Gratitude

When we are mindful we can be amazed by the power of breath, the body’s ability to heal itself from an infection or injury, the beauty of the blue sky, a pink sunrise or sunset, the miracle of a baby being born, the unconditional love of a pet, the plants and trees that clean the air and provide oxygen, the water that runs out of a faucet or down a cool Rocky Mountain stream …the possibilities are limitless.

Better Health

Scientific studies show that being thankful and appreciative is associated with less physical illness, fewer aches and pains; lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression (3, 5); and fostering new and lasting relationships (6).

Being grateful also expands our scope of cognition so we can be more flexible and creative with our thinking and make better decisions. This makes it easier to cope with stress and adversity (1).

Unwrapping the Gift

When we are grateful and thankful, we tend to be kinder and more generous. Gratitude makes us feel good, so we want to do it again and again. The best part is that it’s easy to get started and can feel the benefits quickly. Research shows that you can start feeling better in as little as 2 weeks by writing in a Gratitude Journal (1).

Here’s How

Grab a notebook, pad or smart phone and each evening before bed, write 3 things you are grateful for. Write novel blessings, trying not to repeat the same ones, because the possibilities are endless. Practice this for 2 weeks and see what happens.

The best time to get started is now, in the present moment. Today, tell someone how grateful you are for them. You will be sharing a great gift.

References

Emmons, R & McCullough, M (2003). Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology. www.greatergood.berkeley.edu .
Gottfried, S (2016). www.saragottfriedmd.com/thanksgiving-what-gratitude-does-to-your-brain/
Hill, PL et al (2013). Examining the Pathways between Gratitude and Self-Rated Physical Health across Adulthood. Pers Individ Dif. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23139438
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. www.psychalive.org | videos
Cheng, S et al. (2015) Improving mental health in health care practitioners: Randomized controlled trial of a gratitude intervention.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25222798
Williams, L & Bartlett M (2015). Warm thanks: gratitude expression facilitates social affiliation in new relationships via perceived warmth. Emotion. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25111881

Can Mindfulness Improve Your Balance?

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 20:51:22 GMT

Short answer: Absolutely.

Focused attention has the power to improve your health, mood and cognition. When it comes to moving steadier, research shows that practicing mindfulness while walking can improve balance in older adults. This is a simple practice that anyone can do to move more freely and live more fully with more confidence.

What is Mindfulness?

Being mindful means to simply focus on the present moment. Its roots stem from ancient eastern and Buddhist philosophy. It includes being aware of your thoughts, feelings, sensations and the surrounding environment through a gentle, nurturing lens. This way you can tune into what you are sensing in the present moment rather than living in and rehashing the past or projecting into the future.

Mindfulness Elevates Health

Do a PubMed search on “mindfulness and health” and 14,955 studies pop up in the National Library of Medicine! These research studies show there are numerous well-being benefits that can help people of any age with any health condition including:

Reducing stress and pain
Improving physical health and chronic conditions like arthritis, diabetes and cancer
Promoting cognitive function, attention and memory
Elevating emotional well-being and mood
Healthier aging and resilience
Improving balance!

One foundational way that mindfulness and meditation improve health is by calming your nervous system. Moving out of the sympathetic stress response and into the parasympathetic relaxation response is where health happens. It’s where the body can rest, digest, heal and repair itself.

Constantly living in “stress mode” where you always feel overwhelmed, fearful or tense puts your body into a chronic state of inflammation that damages cells, tissues and organs. This damage accumulates and can lead to impaired bodily systems from your nervous system, respiratory, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and immune system. This can result in inflammaging where the body is under constant stress and strain and breaks down more than it can repair itself. It is a major reason for the age-related decline in physical and cognitive function that makes it more difficult to move and think smoothly and easily.

Mindfulness for Better Balance

It’s well-accepted that practicing Tai Chi improves ankle proprioception and balance. Now studies are showing that walking meditation can do the same for elderly women and older adults with history of falling (1, 2). Walking meditation has even been shown to improve ankle proprioception and balance performance in people with chronic ankle instability! (3)

Walking meditation is a mindfulness practice where you walk slowly while focusing your attention on your leg and foot movements (2). Researchers saw improved ankle proprioception and balance improvements with older adults being able to stand on one leg for a longer time as well as increased neuromuscular control. When focusing your attention on your movement, researchers think that this improves the brain processes related to body awareness and balance adjustments (1).

Stronger neural and muscular connections mean you can be faster to sense and respond to your everyday environment, as well as recover from the loss of balance to effectively prevent a life changing injury or fall.

Practice Mindful Movement

For the happiest, healthiest and safest holiday season, before engaging in activity, focus on “BEAM” to relieve stress, boost mood, build a sharper brain, taller posture and better balance. BEAM is an acronym that stands for Breathe, Elongate, Align and Move Mindfully.

You can imagine being as long, strong and sturdy as a “beam.” Another meaning of “beam” is to be happy, smiling and radiating a line of bright light or energy. Visualizations can enhance physical and emotional well-being and help bring your attention into the present moment.

BEAM for Better Brain, Body and Balance

Breathe: take 3-4 deep breaths into the front, back and sides of your belly, up into your ribs and then chest; exhale in the opposite direction from your chest, ribs and then squeeze your belly button towards your spine.

Elongate: lengthen your spine on each inhalation lifting from the crown of your head

Align your body: feel light with body parts lined up; ears over shoulders, shoulders over hips, hips over knees and ankles. Practice standing with feet hip distance apart, toes pointing forward and knees softly bending over your second and third toes; pelvis is in neutral, your sternum lifts up and out with ribs aligned over pelvis, shoulders are back and down away from the ears, line up ears over shoulders that are over hips, knees and ankles.

Move Mindfully: think about where you are and what you are about to do; whether you are cooking, cleaning, going up or down stairs or walking inside or outside focus on your leg and foot movements

Practice BEAMing throughout your day so you can move mindfully and enjoy feeling sharper, steadier, lighter and more confident with each step you take throughout the holiday season.

References

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31563384/

“Walking meditation promotes ankle proprioception and balance performance among elderly women.” Jour Bodywork & Movement Therapies 2019

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34931904/

“Walking meditation versus balance training for improving balance abilities among older adults with history of fall: A randomized controlled trial.” Clin Rehabil. 2022

https://europepmc.org/article/med/35093512

Comparative effect of walking meditation and rubber-band exercise on ankle proprioception and balance performance among persons with chronic ankle instability: A randomized controlled trial. Europe PMC 2022

8 Ankle Exercises to Walk Steadier and Faster

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 00:55:57 GMT

Are you concerned about losing your ability to balance and walk smoothly? Improving your ankle mobility is arguably the fastest way to move steadier and stronger with more confidence. That’s because when you walk, your ankles control the movement of your feet. Ankles and feet need to be able to move freely in all directions across all three planes of motion to become a mobile adaptor of the ground beneath your feet and then instantly transition to become a stable platform to push toes off of the ground with stability, speed and power.

With age, injury or disease like arthritis or diabetes, joint range of motion is gradually lost, especially at ankles, and is a root cause of why it becomes more difficult to walk, balance and prevent falls.

Ankles are the foundation of the body, balance and movement. Increasing ankle range of motion is foundational to improve how you walk, move and feel. When you fix the foundation of an issue, you see the biggest movement improvements in the least amount of time.

What are the 3 Planes of Motion?

The three planes of motion are an anatomical concept that describes the direction of movement and can be thought of as imaginary dividers of the body. They include sagittal, frontal and transverse planes.

The sagittal plane divides the body into “right and left” halves and involves forward and back movements. Walking, squatting, lunging, pushing, pulling and carrying are examples of movements within the sagittal plane. These motions include “up and down” or “forward and backward.”

The frontal plane divides the body in “front and back” and involves side-to-side movements. You are moving in the frontal plane as you step out of a car or bath tub.

The transverse plane divides the body into “top and bottom” halves and refers to the body rotating or twisting to the right and left. Swinging a golf club, tennis or pickleball racquet and yoga poses like Warrior on that twist the body are examples.

Gait is a Triplanar Activity

Gait is basically your pattern of walking. With each step you take, ankles and feet need to move through all three planes of motion too! Triplanar is a simple way to describe the 3 planes of motion. With each step you take, ankle, lower leg and foot are all working together to create triplanar movement that is needed for the foot to quickly transition from a mobile adaptor position (pronation) to a stable platform (supination).

What is Pronation & Supination?

Pronation and supination are natural motions of the foot that occur with each step. Pronation and supination allow the foot to instantly transition from being a mobile adaptor to a stable platform, respectively. Each time your heel touches down to the time toes push off from the ground, your foot is tasked with being mobile enough to adapt to the varied terrain then to becoming a rigid lever to generate stability, speed and power.

With pronation and supination being foundational for walking, improving these ranges of motion is how you can experience the biggest movement improvements most efficiently. This way you can feel more secure, stable and confident in less time.

Pronation is a Triplanar Motion

Pronation is the rolling motion of the foot to the inside edge (arch down). When your foot is in a pronated position, the foot joints are more open as the foot flattens and the arch lowers. This allows your foot to absorb shock, adapt to the ground while also accepting the weight of the body.

Pronation occurs through a combination of ankle motion that includes dorsiflexion (sagittal plane), forefoot abduction (transverse plane) and eversion (frontal plane). This means the ankle needs to be able to lift toes toward the shin, point the toes away from midline and lift the sole of the foot outward to become a mobile adaptor.

Pronation is a combination of ankle dorsiflexion, forefoot abduction and eversion.

Supination is a Triplanar Motion

Supination is when the foot rolls to the outside edge (arch up). When your foot moves into a supinated position the foot joints move closer and parallel to each other creating a rigid lever needed to propel the body forward with stability, speed and power.

For supination to occur, the ankle needs to be able to plantar flex (sagittal plane), adduct the forefoot (transverse plane) and invert the heel (frontal plane). This means that the ankle needs to be able to lift the heel towards the calf, point the toes towards midline and lift the sole of the foot inward to become a stable platform.

Supination is a combination of ankle plantar flexion, forefoot adduction and inversion.

Pronation & Supination: Foundation of Gait

With pronation and supination being the foundation of gait, strengthening ankles in all directions across all planes of motion can improve your ability to meet the “triplanar” demands of walking. This way you can feel steadier, stronger and move faster with each step.

8 Ankle Mobility Exercises to Walk Steadier, Stronger & Faster

Seating tall in a stable chair with hips aligned with or slightly higher than knees, perform these ankle exercises daily without resistance or 2-3 non-consecutive days per week with the MoveMor Mobility Trainer . Perform 5-15 repetitions, hold each repetition for 2-3 seconds.

1. Dorsi-flexion

Lift and lower toes

2. Plantar flexion

Lift and lower heels

3. Forefoot Abduction

Point toes inward and back to center

4. Forefoot Abduction

Point toes outward and back to center

4. Inversion

Rotate toes inward, lift soles inward, return to center

6. Eversion

Rotate toes outward, lift soles outward, return to center

7. Pronation

Roll ankles inward onto inside edge of foot, return to center

8. Supination

Roll ankles outward onto outside edge of foot

Want to walk, move and feel better in less time?

MoveMor can get you there faster with 12-points of resistance, tight tissues can be lengthened, weak muscles strengthened, and better foot and ankle alignment can be restored in as little as 10-20 minutes per week. Better balance, ankle flexibility and faster walking speed means you can be more agile in everyday life and quicker to prevent a traumatic injury or fall. Get started today!

Improve your ankle mobility in 5 minutes with our exercise video “Take 5: Fix Your Foundation” We would love to hear what you think!

How to Restore Your Mobility and Confidence with Ease

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 23:23:37 GMT

Did you know that mobility is the fastest growing disability? I was shocked to learn that the Center of Disease Control and Prevention estimates that fourteen percent of adults in the United States (1 in 7) have difficulty walking ¼-mile or climbing stairs. For people aged 65 and up, this number skyrockets to forty percent! That’s 2 in 5 people having a hard time moving safely. This is sobering because mobility is foundational to age well and live independently.

What is causing this growing epidemic? Let’s dig into some potential root causes of mobility disability and action steps to prevent it.

Sarcopenia & Inactivity

Sarcopenia is the age-related loss of muscle mass and function that occurs to varying degrees in people. It is one of the leading health issues facing older adults because it results in weakness that restricts independence while increasing the risk of disability, injuries and falls. While many factors contribute to sarcopenia including a chronic state of inflammation, malnutrition, oxidative stress and neuromuscular degeneration (2), research shows that inactivity is the major culprit and exercise can reverse this syndrome (3).

Tight Joints & Weak Muscles

Living a sedentary lifestyle causes connective tissue and muscles to get short, tight and weak. Tight tissues that cross joints and cause compression, stiffness and pain. This impairs joint function, muscle strength and mobility.

As people age, there is an increasing prevalence of chronic joint symptoms. The CDC reports that that nearly 59% of individuals older than 64 years of age self-report arthritis or chronic joint symptoms, compared to 42% of 45 to 64 year olds (4).

Mobility is a Joint Effort

Ankles, knees and hips all work together to create locomotion to perform life’s daily activities including getting out of bed, showering, toileting, cleaning, cooking and running errands. Each joint affects the function of the other. If one joint is not moving well it is “dysfunctional” and the body’s other joints and muscles will compensate. Over time pain will pop up.

Problems at one joint often show up as pain in the joint above or below. According to Gray Cook, MSPT, author of Functional Movement Systems, knee pain can be coming from ankles that don’t move well; that lower back pain is likely coming from tight, immobile hips.

More Pain, Less Activity

Naturally, when it hurts to move, activity levels plummet. This commonly leads to more joint stiffness, weaker legs, and poor balance. Feeling unsteady on your feet can make everyday tasks like walking, cooking, cleaning and showering more difficult.

As balance confidence declines, the risk and fear of falling grows. This leads to a vicious cycle of less activity, more atrophy and decreasing functional capabilities from head to toes. Cognitive impairments go hand-in-hand with less movement because of reduced stimulation and blood flow.

Where do you start when it hurts to move, and you are afraid of falling?

Simply start by moving joints in a comfortable, pain-free range of motion from your head to your toes! Seated exercise removes the fear of falling so you can enjoy moving more while gradually restoring confidence. As you feel stronger and steadier, progress to standing exercise with adequate support within close reach of a kitchen counter, wall, sturdy table or chair.

Regaining flexibility and strength does take a consistent effort and time, but the return on investment of moving more freely and living more fully is definitely worth it.

Start Regaining Strength, Balance & Mobility

Moving joints through a full, pain-free range of motion can improve joint health, alignment and strength so you can move with greater ease, efficiency and better balance.

Joints love circles! Moving this way helps to gently lengthen tight tissues and strengthen weak ones surrounding joints making them more mobile and stable. As joint range of motion increases, more muscles are activated to increase strength. When joints can move more freely in all directions, they are better able to sense and respond to the dynamic environment so you experience better balance in all directions.

Joint health can improve as more blood flow delivers nutrients and oxygen for healing and repairing damage while taking out the cellular trash. Synovial fluid or “joint oil,” is released to lubricate and nourish joints. Structural alignment can improve with greater freedom of movement. This all adds up to greater movement efficiency so you can experience increased energy and more confidence with each step you take.

One Simple Practice to Open Joints from Head to Toes

Start seated in a sturdy chair with hips aligned with or slightly higher than knees. Do not move into pain; pain is your body’s signal to STOP as it is sensing an unsafe position that may cause injury.

Sitting tall, away from the back of your chair; begin by taking a deep inhale and exhale. As you inhale, lift up from the crown of your head to lengthen your spine and exhale to relax body and mind. Continue breathing comfortably throughout the exercises.

Make 3-5 slow circles in each direction , as small or as large as desired. Take a moment to notice how you feel before and after this simple practice.

1. Neck: Make clockwise circles with your nose; repeat in the opposite direction.

2. Shoulders: Roll shoulders forward and then back.

3. Wrists: Clasp hands together and with your knuckles, make circles in a clockwise direction; repeat with counterclockwise circles.

4. Torso: Keeping your trunk solid like a cylinder, focus on the top of your head and make circles on the ceiling, moving in one direction; repeat in the opposite direction.

5. Hips: Lift your right knee, make circles with your knee in a clockwise direction as if tracing the numbers around a wall clock; repeat in a counterclockwise direction; repeat on your left side.

6. Knees: Lift your right knee slightly and with your foot raised, make small circles as if tracing them on the ground; repeat in the opposite direction; then switch to the left knee.

7. Ankles: With your heel on the ground, lift the toes of your right foot; pretending your big toe is a pencil, make clockwise circles; repeat in a counterclockwise direction; repeat on the left ankle.

How do you feel now? Following this simple joint opener practice, clients consistently say they feel “better,” “looser,” “more energy,” and more vibrant” and you can too! It just takes a few minutes and is a great way to release tension, increase energy and improve joint range of motion for better mobility.

When you are looking to increase your flexibility and strength, try one of our MoveMor exercise videos. Please let me know how these simple moves improve the way you move and feel!

Cheers to you moving more freely and living more fully!

1. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2018/p0816-disability.html

2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7282252/

Papadopoulou SK (2020). Sarcopenia: A Contemporary Health Problem among Older Adult Populations. Nutrients.

3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5386774/

Gomes MJ et al (2017).Skeletal muscle aging: influence of oxidative stress and physical exercise. Oncotarget.
4. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5142a2.htm

Mobility & Mitochondria: An Intimate Connection

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 02:31:23 GMT

We all love our mobility because it offers us the freedom to move more freely and live more fully. When we are young we can run, jump, climb, skip and move our body in all directions, freely and easily. As we grow older and more sedentary, our mobility begins to decline gradually.

We barely notice the small incremental losses until we are challenged to perform out-of-the-ordinary tasks like walking uphill, dancing at a wedding or climbing several flights of stairs. That’s when we feel fatigue, stiffness and weakness. Difficulty performing an activity that was once easy is a marker of diminution and a wake-up call to be proactive to regain vitality.

We have control over how we age, and we can prevent functional decline regardless of what we are repeatedly told. I find it disturbing that many friends and colleagues in the healthcare world chalk up difficulty walking, climbing stairs or performing activities of daily living to “just part of aging.”

Mobility disability might be common, but it doesn’t mean it’s inevitable. Forty percent of Americans 65 years of age and up have difficulty walking ¼ mile and climbing stairs (1). People in the Blue Zones live healthier and longer, largely because of positive lifestyle choices including daily physical activity and a healthy plant-based diet. Let’s pull the curtain back on where mobility comes from, so we can see that our lifestyle choices play a starring role in how well we age or how rapidly we decline.

Mobility Systems

Every day we find ourselves walking, bending, squatting, lifting, carrying, twisting, turning and reaching as we perform our daily routines. While these tasks all sound simple, they are incredibly complex because a network of systems need to work in a specific way to coordinate movement. On demand and simultaneously, the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), peripheral nervous system, muscles, bones and joints, sensory and energetic systems all need to function together to accomplish each activity successfully.

Mobility Decline

Losing mobility as we age is accelerated by inactivity and is usually the result of multiple impairments in one or more of the body’s systems including: bone and joints, muscle, the central nervous system and energetic systems (2). All systems depend on energy production. Just like talking on a cell phone requires a charged battery and driving a car needs gasoline in the tank.

We need energy to fuel our body’s entire metabolism to function properly. Research over the last decade is pointing to mitochondrial dysfunction as a huge factor contributing to the age-related loss of muscle mass, strength and function (sarcopenia) and mobility loss (3).

Mighty Mitochondria

Recall from Biology 101 that mitochondria are the “powerhouses” of the cell; converting carbohydrates, fats, and proteins from the food we eat into energy. (They also carry out a wide range of critical actions, but that topic is beyond this article’s scope.)

There are approximately 1,000- 2,500 mitochondria in each cell! (4) The higher the energy demand, the more mitochondria the cell will contain. Our brain, heart, muscles and nerves are densely populated with mitochondria, making up about 25% of each cell’s volume (4). When the cell can’t keep up with energy demands, the mitochondria can become damaged; and we’re left feeling tired, forgetful and weak.

Supporting Mitochondria

Altered mitochondrial function is associated with free radical production, inflammation, accelerated aging, chronic disease (5) and sarcopenia (3). As we grow older, our ability to produce energy decreases but we can make it more efficient by adjusting our lifestyle, environment and diet (5). Here’s how:

Eat plants and proteins: Fill your plate with about 30 grams of protein and a rainbow of fresh vegetables at each meal and enjoy 1-2 fruits daily.
Move more daily: Move joints through their full range of motion to boost circulation and reduce stiffness and inflammation.
Cross-train alternating aerobic and resistance training: Helps strengthen mitochondrial function, build muscle and improve energy production.
Breathe deeply into your belly: This decreases stress and inflammation.
Explore supplementation: A high-quality multivitamin/multimineral and antioxidants like N-acetylcysteine, alpha-lipoic acid, CoQ10, plus acetyl-l-carnitine, resveratrol, and vitamin E have been shown to help jump start mitochondrial function (4). (Educate yourself and consult with a qualified healthcare practitioner)
Avoid or eliminate environmental toxins: Pesticides, Teflon, BPA and phthalates to name a few.
Review medications with your doctor: Prescription and over-the-counter drugs like acetaminophen, antibiotics and statins can damage mitochondria (4).

It’s a lengthy list but start by exploring one at a time. Exercising to the point where you feel energized is highly recommended. Avoid exercise that leaves you feeling exhausted; it’s too much and causes mitochondrial damage. Start moving more and build a new habit to benefit your mitochondria so you can move more freely and live more fully!

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2018/p0816-disability.html
Stenholm, S., et al. (2015). Physiological factors contributing to mobility loss over 9 years of follow-up—results from the InCHIANTI study. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 70(5), 591–597. doi:10.1093/gerona/glv004
Coen, P. M., et al. (2019). Mitochondria as a Target for Mitigating Sarcopenia. Frontiers in physiology, 9, 1883. doi:10.3389/fphys.2018.01883
Pizzorno J. (2014). Mitochondria-Fundamental to Life and Health. Integrative medicine (Encinitas, Calif.), 13(2), 8–15.
Bland, J.S. (2014) The Disease Delusion. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Inflammaging: The Link Between Sarcopenia and Cognitive Decline

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 21:47:15 GMT

Awareness is the first step to making changes to live healthier, stronger, and longer. Being a life-long learner is essential to aging well because it typically takes 17 years for what’s discovered in research to be applied in clinical practice. Who wants to wait 17 years for a blueprint to better health? That’s why we are focusing on the phenomenon called “inflammaging.”

So what is inflammaging and why should you care? First and foremost, inflammaging is a key concept to understand because it contributes to the global decline of the body and brain, threatening functional independence, and increasing the risk of a devastating fall.

In 2000, Italian researcher Claudio Franceschi coined the term “inflammaging” to describe the chronic, low-grade, and systemic inflammation that accumulates over time and drives age-related diseases, disabilities, and mortality.

Acute inflammation is short-lived and is how the immune system heals and repairs the body from an infection or injury. When you sprain an ankle, the swelling that follows is a sign of the immune system working to heal the ligament damage. When you cut your finger or catch a cold, it’s your immune system that responds to mend that cut and fight off the viral infection. Acute inflammation is restorative.

When inflammation becomes chronic, the body’s cells, tissues, organs and systems begin to breakdown. Chronic inflammation is degenerative. Being systemic in nature, damage occurs throughout the body and brain. As the years and decades pass, the “wear and tear” accumulates and is also known as the “allostatic load.” The higher the body’s burden, the greater the risk of dysregulation and malfunctioning of the body’s systems. This damage may go unnoticed until a clinical diagnosis of a chronic condition like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, or even sarcopenia: the age-related loss of muscle mass, strength, and function.

Inflammaging is a constant stress on the body, causing it to break down more than it can repair.

This gradual chipping away at the muscular and nervous systems can literally shrink muscles and the brain. With progressive degeneration, clients may notice more fatigue, brain fog, fuzzy thinking, aches and pains, as well as feeling unsteady on their feet. This commonly leads to less activity, further accelerating the withering of both body and brain.

Muscles are the motors that move us, and as they atrophy it can become more difficult to walk, climb stairs, and perform activities like getting up from a chair. Crucially, muscles are also “glucose sponges.” When we lose muscle, blood sugar levels can spike higher, fueling more inflammation and degeneration. It’s estimated that with each decade, muscle declines by about 5%. At age 70, it jumps to a 15% decline. This is an example of muscle atrophy accelerating along with the accumulating damage.

The brain is particularly sensitive to hyperglycemia or high blood sugar. In fact, Alzheimer’s is often referred to as “Type III Diabetes.” This means muscle is an essential element for mental and physical health. Building muscle strength through resistance training is foundational to effectively extend one’s healthspan and age optimally.

The human body is incredibly resilient and can heal and repair itself at any age.

Managing, slowing down, or even reversing muscular or neurological conditions begins with practicing an anti-inflammatory lifestyle. While there are many pillars of health, including stress resilience, quality sleep, nutrition, hydration, and social well-being among others, here are three top tips to empower, educate and encourage you to take action in reducing inflammaging:

1. Exercise Activity: Exercise reduces inflammation and maintains muscle; put simply, “move it or lose it.” Exercise with resistance using body weight, elastic resistance or weights, 2-3 times per week on non-consecutive days. Perform exercise with good body alignment across all three planes of motion to strengthen muscles and optimize functional mobility. Even performing light activity like housecleaning, cooking, or gardening can reduce the risk of mobility disability by 40%!

2. Protein Power: Older adults commonly do not eat enough, and it is vital to build muscle. Consuming protein at each meal also helps to regulate blood sugar levels. Research shows that a low protein diet can cause muscle atrophy (Campbell & Leidy 2007). Try eating high quality protein with an average of about 30 grams of protein at each meal.

3. Breathe Deeply: Deep breathing activates the diaphragm, the main muscle of respiration. It delivers life-giving oxygen to every cell to produce energy. This can positively impact mental and physical health. Breathing deep into the belly, the front, back and sides can increase intraabdominal pressure for greater core stability and better balance.

While aging is inevitable, functional decline is not! Taking small but mindful steps towards reducing inflammation can be life-changing and life-saving. The best time to start is today!

Irresistible Resistance Training

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 21:36:24 GMT

Did you know that strength or resistance training is as effective as aerobic training to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic conditions? Resistance training doesn’t get the attention that aerobic activity like walking does, but it should and here’s why. As we age we lose muscle in a process called sarcopenia. As muscles shrink, the nervous and sensory systems that are essential for coordination and balance wither away too. Weak legs and poor balance result in a higher chance of falling which is public enemy number one!

While we can’t stop sarcopenia with aging, we can slow it down by building and maintaining muscle strength with resistance training. Anyone who wants to live long and age well performs resistance training 2-3 times per week. It doesn’t have to be hard or time consuming. Working with a highly credentialed personal trainer makes the process safe and simple. Over 10 independent clinical studies show that using the MoveMor® Mobility Trainer for as little as 10 minutes 1-2 times per week, results in stronger legs, better balance, greater ankle flexibility (where balance and mobility begins!), improved independence and a reduced fall risk. If preventing falls isn’t enough reason to do resistance training, research demonstrates a solid link between strong legs and a strong mind (1).

Many seniors and older adults are concerned that resistance training will increase blood pressure. This is understandable since it does temporarily increase blood pressure while performing the exercise. This is the body’s natural response to get more blood out to working muscles. The great news is that with consistent training resting blood pressure actually decreases helping to relieve hypertension. This happens because resistance training makes the heart and blood vessels a stronger pump and more efficient delivery system. Choose moderate resistance (weights or elastic tubing), use proper technique and breathe continuously throughout the activity.

Here are a dozen more research-based reasons to add resistance exercise to your life:

Maintain and gain muscle
Stay strong
Boost metabolism
Lose weight
Improve insulin sensitivity
Manage blood sugar levels
Increase gastrointestinal speed
Better blood lipid profiles for heart health
Denser and stronger bones
Decrease lower back pain
Arthritic and joint pain reliever
Builds confidence and relieves depression

Last but not least, resistance training can increase your energy levels and who doesn’t want more energy? Strength training done as part of circuit or interval training has been shown to improve mitochondrial function. “Mito what” you might ask! Mitochondria are the little powerhouses that create energy in each of your trillions of cells. As the years go by, these energy engines can get damaged and don’t work as well. This results in fatigue, lower physical function and a decreased ability to perform daily activities. Incredibly, resistance training can reverse this dysfunction so you can experience the energy production equivalent to a moderately active young adult of about 21 years of age (2). How’s that for a fountain of youth?!

Don’t wait another day to grab some weights, elastic resistance or a MoveMor board and start strengthening today for more energy, better health, and fall resilience.

References

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/brawn-and-brains/?_r=0
Melov, S., et al. Resistance Exercise Reverses Aging in Human Skeletal Muscle. PLoS One. 2007 May 23: 2(5):E465.

Joint Function: The First Step to Better Mobility

Tue, 02 May 2023 19:51:46 GMT

When it comes to improving mobility, muscles typically get all the glory while joints are largely ignored. This is a big mistake! Yes, muscles are the motors that do the moving, but without joints, movement simply can’t happen.

Imagine what it would look like walking a white sandy beach without ankles, climbing stairs without knees, or rising from your favorite easy chair without hips. Movement happens where two bones meet, making joint function fundamental for good mobility.

It stands to reason that when joints move well, you can too. On the flip side, when joints are stiff and painful, walking, balance and posture become compromised. The ability to walk and move well literally hinges on joint mobility and stability. This dynamic duo works in harmony so you can move fluidly with balance, precision, speed and confidence.

Free Movement for Full Function

Consider the cheetah, with their unparalleled mobility as the fastest living runner on earth. Their secret is the springiness and flexibility of joints in the spine and hind limbs that allow extensive freedom of movement. This way, the attached leg muscles are able to produce more force around the joints with every step. Like cheetahs, we have joints that need to move freely to function fully.

Joint Structure & Function

Joints are where two or more bones join together providing a certain range of motion (ROM), allowing movement in a specific distance and direction. There are different types of joints, but here we’re talking about the freely moveable joints responsible for mobility, including the ankles, knees and hips.

Joints are held together by strong connective tissue, including ligaments that attach bone to bone, tendons that connect muscle to bone, and joint capsules that enclose synovial joints. These joint connectors need to be flexible to achieve good mobility. The “Goldilocks Principle” comes into play here; not too much, not too little, but just the right amount of flexibility is needed to optimize movement patterns.

Flexibility, Mobility & Stability

As we have seen with the cheetah, flexibility significantly influences mobility. Flexibility is the ability of connective tissues like ligaments, tendons, and muscles that cross joints to lengthen properly. Being flexible plays an important role in influencing the distance and direction a joint can move in.

Mobility is the ability to move a joint freely through an appropriate ROM before being restricted by soft tissue. Do you see how flexibility plays a foundational role in joint mobility? Aging and inactivity cause a loss of joint ROM, with soft tissues shortening and negatively impacting flexibility, mobility, and stability.

Stability is the capability to control joint movement and position. This occurs by the coordinated actions of the surrounding soft tissues and the neuromuscular system. According to functional movement expert Gray Cook, MSPT, “Mobility must precede stability” (1). Joints that can move through their full ROM, can fully activate connective tissues, nerves, and muscles surrounding joints. This translates to being stronger, steadier, faster, more agile and resilient to injury.

Aging & Inactivity

Inactivity, aging and chronic conditions are common culprits that limit mobility, leading to stiffness, dysfunction and pain. To improve mobility, the best place to start is by mindfully moving joints through a full, pain-free ROM. With practice, tight muscles and connective tissue can be lengthened, reducing joint compression, inflammation and pain. Yoga, Qi Gong and Tai Chi are gentle and powerful practices that move in all directions across the three planes of motion to help build better balance and mobility.

Mobility training can be progressed by adding resistance to stimulate more muscles, nerves, and connective tissue. Resistance training has been shown to increase strength and joint ROM (2,3). Using an elastic resistance band or the MoveMor® Mobility Trainer can be valuable tools to regain joint function safely and quickly. Better joint mobility and stability means more balance, strength, and agility in less time while leaving the pain behind.

References

Cook, Gray: Functional Movement Systems, On Target Publications, Aptos, CA, 1st edition, 2010.
Leite TB et al. (2017). Effects of Different Number of Sets of Resistance Training on Flexibility. Int J Exerc Sci. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5609666/
Wen-Sheng Z et al (2019). Effects of Dynamic Stretching with Different Loads on Hip Joint Range of Motion in the Elderly. J Sports Sci Med. Mar; 18(1): 52–57. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6370971/

movemor

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“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” ~ Hippocrates

Here are 5 simple steps you can take today so you can feel, move and age better:

References

BIO

Reducing Fall Risk: Your Home Safety Checklist

Improve Physical Function

Improve Home Environment

Perform a Home Inspection

1. Stairs and Steps

2. Bedrooms

3. Bathroom

4. Kitchen

5. General Home Hazard Checklist

References

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Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 4

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Vestibular System:

Proprioceptive System:

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References

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