New Year Exercise program

With the New Year beginning you might be interested in starting an exercise program.  Actually, your medical doctor and chiropractor would be thrilled if you started an exercise program.  By exercising regularly, you can really help your health and relieve a lot of your aches and pains.  Anyone can exercise and YES you can do it.  Those that are suffering from chronic pain need to exercise the most but are the most afraid to try.  The chance of regular exercise harming you are very small, it may make your sore but that is a normal response.  So here are some tips to start exercises.   Each decade of life after age 30 we start to loss muscle mass, strength and function (this is called sarcopenia) .  It is about a rate of 3-8% a year.  After the age of 60 this loss of muscle accelerates   One way to check your exercise progress is to measure your percentage of body fat.  It is not just losing weight but gaining muscle that makes us healthier.  We have a device that will measure your percentage of body fat and there is not charge to have it done.  Just call us at 512 556-8223 and we measure your percentage of body fat.    What are my three favorite types of exercises?  Well swimming is number one, it will exercise more muscles at any given time than any other exercise, but it requires a pool which could be a problem.  My second is bicycling whether it is stationary or on the road.  Great for heart and lungs and joints.  Third is walking, anyone can do it and it is very accessible for anyone.   Here are some tips on starting an exercise program from the Mayo Clinic. 1.        Start slow and progress slowly 2.       Build activity into your daily routine.  Take the stairs or park a little further away from work or shopping. 3.       Try different activities too much of the same thing can lead to boredom. 4.       Allow time recover.  Many people will start out with a zeal and become too sore. 5.       Write it down on paper, your exercise plan. 6.       Monitor your progress measuring weight loss is one way but also percentage of body fat. Here in Lampasas we have a couple of personal trainers one is George Hopkins at DayOne Fitness and his number is 512 564-1744.  Another one is Rhonda Cockrell she can be reached at 512 566-0205.  If you don’t know where to start reach out to one of them and they can help you.