Train for your Life, Whatever Age

NOURISH

Train for YOUR LIFE, Whatever Age

by Cathy Clements, Nutritionist and Life Coach, NASM CNC, CPT, FNS, WFS

How do you approach your fitness and nutrition — as exercise and diet or transformation and lifestyle?

I like the latter because exercise and diet provides the appearance of something temporary and restrictive. You do specific exercises or you change your diet for a specific result.

Transformation and lifestyle are longer term and start with goals. As our maturing population prepares for or enters retirement, setting goals becomes even more important. I watched my mother-in-law slowly become unable to do certain activities because she sat and watched television most of the day.

I am not saying that everyone should be running marathons, but having personal goals with the fitness level to accomplish them can be very fulfilling.

Those goals need to start where you are and incrementally get you to where you want to be.

If walking to the mailbox is difficult, then that is where you start. Goals can be for any number of activities: balance, flexibility or stretching.

The goal most likely is not to have better balance but to be able to travel and walk on uneven surfaces without the fear of falling. Flexibility gives us the ability to catch ourselves and not fall and become injured. Stretching regularly aids us in maintaining our core and not injuring our backs.

Training for life is a positive way to look at it. Whether your goals are to travel, garden, play with grandchildren or go out to lunch with friends, having the strength, flexibility and balance to do those things are important to us.

TrainforLife.me is a customized fitness program organized into 90 day sprints based on a proven PACE method: Practice, Accelerate, Challenge, Elevate. Start training where you are and get you where you want to be!