This is the first in a series of posts on the best things baby boomer women (actually women of ALL ages!) can do to improve their fat loss efforts. In our efforts to get and stay fit, we often do some things that may be counter-productive. Today’s tip for accelerated weight loss is……

Switch your “steady state” and low level cardio to INTERVAL TRAINING
Interval training is a superior form of exercise for fat loss for many reasons. Before I get into these reasons, let’s first define interval training: Interval training can take many forms, but it is usually described as a method of exercise that alternates periods of very hard effort with periods of easy to moderate effort. When I refer to “steady state” exercise, I’m referring to a cardio workout where you get your heart rate up to a moderate level, and keep it there. An example of this would be running on a track or on a treadmill at the same speed for your entire workout.

Examples of interval training:
-Segments of fast walking interspersed with segments of moderate walking
-Segments of running (hard effort) interspersed with segments of slower running (moderate effort).

Interval training can be done with walking, running, biking or swimming programs as well as on cardiovascular machines such as treadmills and stair climbers.

The benefits of interval training for women who want to shed body fat are tremendous! Here are just a few:
-Greater improvements in fitness
-More calories burned per session
-Greater fat loss
-Higher metabolic “afterburn” (you’re still burning calories after the exercise is over!)

Research hasn’t given us the ideal hard work/moderate work ratio yet. I suggest you mix it up. One day you might do 30 seconds hard/90 seconds moderate, and another day, you might just do an interval based on distance (for instance, on a track you might go really fast on the straight parts and recover on the curved parts). With interval training, the sky is the limit! You could have a different workout each and every time. This really challenges your body, which is another way to keep stimulating it to improve. If we always do the same thing when we work out, our body adapts. Interval training provides a wonderful change and really fires up our metabolism.

Interval training can be difficult, so it’s best to start it slowly. A great way to start an interval training program is to exchange an interval workout for just one “steady state” cardio workout a week, and then work up from there. Start with just 4 or 5 intervals the first time you try this and work up slowly to 8-10 intervals per workout.

Another great thing about interval training is that you can do a much shorter workout and still get wonderful benefits from it. This is one of the greatest features of interval training for busy women like us, as far as I’m concerned!

If I could only give one tip to a boomer women on how to spur on fat loss, interval training would be it. I encourage you to give it a try!

Stay tuned for my next fat loss tip for boomer women.

Becky

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I was at the gym early this morning doing a cardio interval workout on the stair climber and saw something really interesting. I see a lot of interesting things at the gym, and from time to time, I’ll pass them along to you to illustrate a point.

In front of the stair climbers at my gym is a row of treadmills. In front of me on one of these treadmills this morning was a woman who appeared to be in her early to mid-sixties. I don’t know this woman. I’ve actually never seen her before. She appeared to by in good health, was perhaps 25 pounds overweight at most, and did not walk as if she had any type of physical disability.

First of all, kudos to her for being at the gym and moving her body. For all I know, it could’ve been her first day at the gym. Any movement at all is better than nothing.

Now for the reason for this post: This woman was wearing a nice pair of black patent leather flats (with about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch heel) while she walking on the treadmill. I’m no shoe expert, but they looked a lot like Ferragamo shoes. Maybe Cole Haans. In any event–nice shoes. Really nice shoes (like, about $300+ nice). This caught my eye. So I kept observing her.

I was able to read the speed display on her treadmill: 1.9 miles per hour, which she increased to 2.0 mph a little later on (FYI: When we are “strolling”, most of us are walking at about 2.0 to 2.6 miles per hour). She had on a nice pair of capri pants and a shirt with collar on it. They looked to be made of a breathable fabric, so I give her points for being dressed somewhat appropriately with regard to clothing. She also wore beautiful, large gold earrings and a lovely, thick (probably an inch wide) heavy gold bracelet as she worked out. She looked just great. Definitely has nice taste in jewelry. She looked very put together and very comfortable (except for the shoe part–I could see her heel being rubbed by the back of the stiff leather shoes).

So, what’s the problem?

First off, the shoes. The shoes she had on, although very nice shoes (really nice shoes), were absolutely wrong for a workout. Her shoes had no right to be on a treadmill! Good, supportive athletic shoes and quality absorbent socks are a must. The only place we should see a “loafer” type shoe in a gym is in the locker room for after your shower. Never, ever, on a treadmill or anything else in the gym. Never.

Second, the workout intensity. Again, I don’t know this woman. It’s possible she’s just getting back into the gym after a health issue. If so, bless her for getting herself to the gym and for exercising. But assuming no health or mobility limitations–the 1.9 miles per hour is just not going to effect change for her with regard to her fitness or fatness level (could be beneficial for stress reduction, though). Granted, any exercise is better than none. But we need to break a sweat and exert ourselves to some degree to force our body to adapt and change.

Frankly, the speed at which anyone walks on a treadmill isn’t my point. The point is–how hard are you working when you exercise? A good cardio workout should get you to the point where your breathing is somewhat rapid and you’re breaking a sweat. Whether it takes a treadmill speed of 2.5 miles per hour or 8.5 miles per to do that is irrelevant. This woman in front of me on the treadmill today just looked too comfortable. As my friend and fitness colleague, BJ Gaddour, in Wisconsin says “If you work out comfortably, you’re gonna look comfortable” (think soft and squishy).

My third and final point: Leave the bangles and dangling earrings at home. I don’t own a lot of fine jewelry. But what I do own doesn’t go to the gym with me (except sometimes my wedding ring). Heavy, cumbersome fine jewelry doesn’t belong in the gym. You’re there to work, sweat and move your body. Your shoes and clothing need to be up to the task.

We boomer women are very busy women. We need to use our time wisely. When you exercise, make your time count for something. Burn some serious calories. Lift some weight that really tires out your muscles. Ladies, we may be older, but most of use aren’t that fragile.

Get into it with your workouts and break a sweat. Get a little breathless. This is how we keep the “middle age” inches from creeping up. We don’t do it by walking on a treadmill at a terribly slow pace wearing designer shoes and solid gold jewelry.

Committed to your success,

Becky

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Whether you were an Obama supporter or not during the election process, I’d like you to consider adopting one of the phrases used during the campaign: “yes, we can”. In listening to his acceptance speech, and hearing the chant “yes, we can” over and over, I realized it’s a great one for us boomer women to stick in our heads (along with all the other thoughts running around in there!). It has nothing to do with politics, though, and everything to do with creating better fitness outcomes for ourselves.

We tell ourselves “we can’t” a lot:

• We can’t lose weight because we’re older now
• We can’t run anymore because we don’t have the lung capacity
• We can’t wear sleeveless shirts because of flabby arms
• We can’t touch our toes because our muscles have gotten too stiff
• We can’t exercise because we don’t have the time

Let’s change that self talk. As 40, 50 and 60 year old women today, we’re a LOT younger than our mothers and grandmothers were at our ages. Although we may not have the body of a 20 year old anymore, we certainly shouldn’t put ourselves out to pasture (verbally speaking!). Statistically speaking, there’s a good chance we’ll be around a long time.

So, let’s adopt the mantra, “yes, we can”.

Okay, all together ladies………….

• Can boomer women lose the weight that’s crept on over the last 10 years? Yes, we can!
• Can boomer women enjoy a fit active lifestyle, unencumbered by stiff muscles ? Yes, we can!
• Can boomer women touch their toes (and stand back up again!)? Yes, we can!
• Can boomer women do things to make them feel and look younger? Yes, we can!

Just like anything worth getting in life, these outcomes take COMMITMENT. They take a PLAN. They take CONSISTENCY.

Can we look and feel better next month than we do today? Yes, we can!

I’m committed to your fitness success. Are you?

Becky

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Some women tell me that it gets harder for them to shed unwanted weight as they get older. There’s no doubt that pre- and post-menopausal hormonal changes can put a wrench in a woman’s weight loss efforts. However, getting older isn’t a good reason to allow ourselves to get fatter. I believe that many women over 40 struggle to lose weight because we’re approaching it all wrong. Sometimes we just need to “tweak” the program a bit.

Many of us “boomer” women have lived through some amazingly horrid diets and preposterous exercise programs over the years. Remember the ladies “spas” back in the 1970’s that had machines with belts that were supposed to jiggle the fat off of our rears? Remember the grapefruit diet? If only they had worked………

But I digress. My point today is we boomer women have been brought up with a lot of misinformation about proper nutrition and exercise for weight loss. Even today, I hear my personal training clients and boot camp participants say that their doctors are recommending they add several hours of moderate cardio to their week in order to lose weight. That’s a huge time commitment. Now, I don’t think there is anything inherently bad with long, moderate cardio workouts, per se. But boomer women need to understand one major flaw in the “do tons of cardio to lose weight” mantra. Cardio does indeed use calories while you exercise. And then you’re done. Muscle, however, uses calories while you exercise AND all day long. Muscle is your metabolism.

Women of a certain age should do strength training exercises to lose weight! Did I just say that?? Yep. I did. Many women cringe when they hear me say this, as they believe they will “bulk up”. They cringe again when I show them how to do a proper squat (”won’t squats make my butt bigger??”). No, they won’t. They will make your butt stronger, and they will help you burn more calories all day long, when combined with other full body strength training exercises.

Should you ditch cardio workouts? Absolutely not. Cardio workouts should be part of a well rounded exercise program. I prefer short cardio interval workouts over long, steady-state cardio workouts, though. I’ll share some tips on cardio interval workouts in my next post. For now, hit the free weight section of your gym and pump some iron to keep the post menopausal body fat from creeping onto your body!

Need some help getting started?? Look up in the right hand corner of this page–there’s a workout there for you. Just fill in your first name and your primary e-mail address and I’ll send you a quick upper body workout you can do at home or at the gym!

Becky

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