There are many sources of support for the understanding that improved physical fitness equals a longer life and a better quality of life. Though many individuals and products claim they can reverse or stop the aging clock, evidence shows that the best we can do is to slow it down. Boomers are one group who can experience very noticeable benefits from a good personal fitness program.
As we reach midlife we notice our parents becoming less physically able to complete and enjoy the activities of daily living. We look down the road at our own final decades and see that we, too, may not be as mobile, healthy, and vigorous unless we start now to change our fitness habits for the better.
As you prepare for the second half of your life you want it to be as long and prosperous as possible. You want ease of movement in your activities of daily living, flexibility, strength, independence, mobility, health, and peace of mind. You want the fitness strength and stamina to meet the demands of every day life, to pursue your dreams, and juggle the activities of the life you’ve built.
Regardless of what you’ve done in the past, you have to start living differently now, right now. To do this you need to protect and maximize your health, prevent catastrophic illness, manage degenerative disease, and maybe make up for years of neglect. This can be a daunting task, and you’re legitimately concerned about how you’re going to manage it.
A Balanced Fitness Program
Many Health professionals often focus only on the single part of the person that needs healing in our world of specialized training and education. This is important in the emergency room, however your general health depends more upon the personal health practices and dietary choices you make daily.
A more effective approach to personal fitness training addresses the whole person in a balanced program that includes coordination of your personal care team of primary healthcare practitioner, nutritional counseling that includes adequate diet and hydration, physical therapist, and other trained complimentary healthcare professionals.
By having a whole systems teamwork approach to your fitness all of your individual needs including your present level of wellness, your prior surgery or injury, current medical conditions, whether it’s your heart, a rotator cuff, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, medications you are taking, stress factors in your personal life like work and family, or even your daily diet that affects your health are considered in your personal fitness program.
Your personal fitness program will provide an approach to health and fitness that is a comprehensive program of exercise, nutrition, stress reduction, and medical care designed to ease you into the best shape of your life and slow down your aging clock. We all want to live a healthy, low stress life but most of us never do this because we think it’s just too hard.
Getting Started with Physical Fitness
Switching suddenly from a sedentary lifestyle to joining a gym in pursuit of the “hard body” fitness model is not only unrealistic for most people, it could result in injury when your body is not used to any exercise at all. A better option is one without stress and without pressure. Begin where you are now, and you move in your own way, spontaneously and naturally with specific instruction and directions for each exercise.
A program that is designed for your unique needs provides a time each day for you to give to yourself and to rediscover the kind of movement that makes you feel good. Your program is one that nurtures you, bringing warmth to your muscles, and better circulation for a clearer mind.
You start where you are now and design a program in response to your personal goals. You begin improving your physical health by including all the factors in your life that affect it. It is okay if you are a beginner, as we were when we started, managing only a few minutes of exercise each day and do not have the physical endurance to do more. As you do some new physical exercises each day you get stronger, more flexible, and develop greater balance. With gradual step-by-step progression, you will experience yourself wanting to do more and feeling better as you do so.
Nutrition Counts
You will find that diet and nutrition will play an important part in your physical, mental, and emotional progress. With education and guidance you shift away from processed and pre-prepared foods to foods that are fresh and healthy. These new food habits feed you with real comfort foods that help you age healthfully.
Enlisting a Personal Trainer
If you haven’t been physically active or done regular exercise for a while, it may be hard to know what to do. If you have been exercising, you may have reached a plateau of progress. This is the time for an evaluation that gets you moving toward your goals.
If you find yourself discouraged, yet know there has to be a better way to experience the quality of life you desire, you may need help. This is what a personal trainer gives to you. A personal fitness trainer provides an assessment, goal setting, program design, personalized instruction and training, and personal fitness coaching for results with regular adjustments to your program as you make progress toward your goals.
Maybe you have tried to do some fitness things on your own and have found yourself discouraged after experiences of failure after failure. Before long, you begin to doubt your self and loose hope of future success. Unfortunately, friends and family often join you on this downward spiral of disbelief. This is the point when a person needs someone to support them the most. A Personal Fitness Trainer has the knowledge and experience to develop a personal program and guide you in the step by specific step phases of your personal success.
I think we have all had a person make a difference in our lives, whether we have experienced it with a teacher, a parent, or a loved one. We can look back at how that particular person impacted our lives. Personal Fitness Trainers have that same opportunity everyday. Although a trainer’s job is centered on an exercise routine, an equally important part of their job is to help you to believe in yourself again.
How can they believe in you? Because they believe in the “system” and the “system” is a well-designed fitness program that works because it is built upon a good foundation of exercise science. Professional athletic teams have developed the science and we benefit by using the same principles to achieve personal fitness goals for our every day activities of daily living and personal sport programs.
A Personal Fitness Trainer believes in your ability to change and adapt because they believe in the science, the system, fitness principles, and in you. They know it works and they absolutely know it can work for every one of their clients. Their job is to get you to know it and believe it, so you can live it.
You could ask a teacher the same question. How can a teacher believe in a student in the middle of failure? Teachers can lean on the fact they have a hundred other students the same age succeeding at the same task. When a teacher is a student’s only source of encouragement, it can make their job awfully challenging, but equally rewarding.
Personal trainers are basically teachers of fitness. They are like a coach who sees your potential and all they have to do is teach you the game. They are the ones that say “you can do it” and eventually you begin to believe them.
You believe in the system that your trainer designs for you. You listen to what your trainer tells you, apply to the best of your ability the skills you acquire in each moment, and trust them to see you through to the attainment of your goals. If you truly believe in your trainer, you can begin to believe in fitness. Then, you will see results and discover what fitness can do for you.
Kris Klohe, BA, NSCA-CPT, NPTI, believes that health, fitness, and wellness can be a functional part of every day life. He has a BA in Education, Human Services, Western Washington University; is a National Strengthen and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Certified Personal Trainer; and a graduate of the National Personal Training Institute (NPTI). Kris provides training customized for the individual with a holistic focus. You may contact Kris at (206) 913-2630 and iamb@yahoo.com