In the last newsletter we looked at the 24 hour availability of food. We discussed the importance of planning meals and the timing of those meals. Activity is no different. Like eating meals, exercise can be done at any time and at any place, but to have the most effect, it needs to be planned and timed appropriately and done consistently.

Why is activity important? Let's look quickly at what muscle does. Quite simply muscle is responsible for moving the body and maintaining position and posture. It gives us form and shape. We are able to walk, pick up objects, move our eyes, breathe, digest food, balance and circulate blood because of our muscles.

As we age, our body wants to give up muscle. Notice I said give up. Muscle is very "costly" for the body to maintain so it is all too ready to give it up. What I mean by costly is it requires a lot of resources from the body to keep it active and healthy. Besides your normal bodily functions (breathing, digestion, blood circulation, hormone management and cellular maintenance), muscle is the only other tissue in your body that burns significant calories.

Think of it like this: the bigger your house is, the more you have to maintain and the more costly it is to you in terms of time and money (your resources). The more muscle you have the more costly it is to maintain in terms of energy and nutrients. When you downsize to a smaller house, so do your maintenance requirements.

This gets a bit tricky here, so stay with me. If we downsize to a smaller house but don't downsize our spending habits we start to collect things that don't all fit in the house. So we get a storage unit to hold the stuff we don't need right now so we can use it later.

The same thing happens with our bodies. When the muscle tissue starts to go away, our maintenance goes down. If we continue eating the same amount despite our smaller size, the food has to be stored in our body's storage unit called fat cells. It stays there until we are ready to use it later.

The only way to get rid of it is to eat less and move more. Sound familiar? So the bigger the house (not the storage unit!), the more stuff you can hold and use on a daily basis. Having said that...

Please hear this loud and clear: you cannot do enough exercise to compensate for bad or careless eating habits. Regular exercise does allow you the latitude to eat more than non-exercisers but the magnitude is only 400-600 calories a day. Congratulations if you are able to eat more and stay in shape. Chances are good you have the right size house and are putting just enough stuff in it.

To others out there I'm not implying that if you have some bad eating habits that you might as well not exercise. I'm not saying that at all. Exercise has more benefits to the body than just weight loss as we learned above.

So what's the bottom line? Muscle is vitally important to your health and quality of life. All of us need muscle tissue to survive and thrive.

How do we get muscle tissue? That's easy... you were born with it. How do we keep muscle tissue? Move it. Move it some more. Move it fast. Move it faster. Move something heavy. Move something heavier.

Challenge yourself this month to do more weight-bearing exercises to start rebuilding your "house". You will feel so much better and you will like the results. Be patient though, it's not a short-term construction project. You are in it for the long haul.

Consistent attendance, effective workouts at appropriate intensity and a positive attitude will help you achieve the health and wellness you seek. If at any time you are unsure about your workout program, please talk to a staff member. We are here to help you.

A muffin 20 years ago was 1.5 ounces with 210 calories.  

Today's 5 ounce muffin has 500 calories-almost 300 calories more.

You would need to do Intermediate Pilates for 45 minutes to burn those extra calories.

These exercise examples are approximate and are based on a person weighing 180 pounds.