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Category: Muscle loss

What’s your reason to get fit this year?

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People exercise for all sorts of reasons.

Everyone who trains at 20 Minutes to Fitness is here for a reason.

Of course, everyone wants to improve their physical fitness. They love that 20 Minutes to Fitness makes it possible to build strength and endurance with just ONE 20-minute session a week. They also appreciate the encouragement they receive from their personal coach, who stays by their side, setting each machine and making sure they use safe, proper form.

 Dig a little deeper, and you will learn that everyone who trains at 20 Minutes to Fitness has a reason why they want get fit. These reasons usually fall into one of several categories. What is YOUR reason? Or reasons? Many people have more than one!

  •  To meet a goal.

Some people want to be more competitive in sports. Or perhaps they want to be able to finish nine holes of golf without back pain. Or to walk three miles without fatigue. Some want to build strength so they can keep up with their children. Or their grandchildren. Or their great-grandchildren. For all these people, exercise is part of the solution.

  • So you can maintain your independence.

Most advertising for “people of certain age” focuses on senior living communities, reverse mortgages, medical alert devices and other reminders of their mortality. Some people don’t give up so easily. They exercise because it helps to keep them young. Building strength helps live independently, travel and check off items on their bucket list long into their golden years.

  • To look better.

There is often a bit of vanity behind the decision to get fit. Some people want to lose weight. Others want to maintain the weight they are at. Some want to build muscle because makes their clothes fit better. By helping to shape and tone the body, strength training does all these things.

The truth is people tend to carry themselves more confidently and have a better self-image when they look and feel strong. Strength-training also supports a healthy metabolism, helping efficiently burn fat long after a workout is complete. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!

  • To feel better.

Exercise increases the flow of oxygen in the brain and releases positive, mood-altering chemicals. Both can help reduce pain and increase brain function, as well as help combat anxiety and depression. Some people exercise to relieve stress and manage anxiety. Or because it improves the quality of their sleep and memory.

Regular exercise also boosts endurance and overall energy levels. Some find that can enhance their ability to cope with life’s challenges. In addition, meeting milestones provides a sense of accomplishment. Training at 20 Minutes to Fitness, some say, just feels good!

  • Because someone told you to.

Sometimes, the motivation to exercise comes from an outside source. It could be a doctor who is concerned about your blood pressure or bone health. Or a rehabilitation specialist who says you need to rebuild muscle following a surgery or illness. Or a physical therapist who thinks exercise will help reduce pain and improve mobility.

That “someone” could be a friend or relative who has reaped the benefits of exercise and wants you to experience them, too. Or it could be a stranger who opens a door or offers to carry a package, reminding you that you aren’t as young and strong as you once were. Some people listen to this advice because, deep down, they know the person giving it is right.

  • Because you’re looking ahead.

Unless we exercise our muscles properly, we can lose five to seven pounds of muscle tissue each decade of our adult lives. We also tend to gain fat as we grow older due to the slowing of our metabolisms and a decline in activity. The good news: strength-training can reverse muscle loss.

Exercise also helps maintain flexibility and reduces the risk of age-related joint issues. It may even contribute to a lower risk of cognitive decline in older adults. It can help stave off osteoporosis and control diabetes. In fact, next to quitting smoking, doctors say that building muscle is the best thing you can do to give yourself the best chance for a long and healthy life. For many, exercise is a long-term investment that delivers excellent return on their investment.

  • Because exercise is fun!

We hear from plenty of people who admit that they don’t like to exercise. At least they didn’t like it until they came to 20 Minutes to Fitness. Now they see getting fit in a whole new light. It’s not easy. But because the entire workout takes just 20 minutes, start to finish, they know they can do it.

Plus, some people say they enjoy the social interaction they find here. They get to know their coaches, most of whom have worked here many years and have a knack for making each 20-minute session fly by. Some become friends with other people who train at the same time as they do, week after week. Training at 20 Minutes to Fitness, they decide, makes exercise fun.

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Want to learn more about the people who build strength and fitness at 20 Minutes to Fitness? Check out this article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which profiles three great examples. 

What’s your reason for getting fit in 2024? (stltoday.com)

Resolve to stop exercising in 2024

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You read that headline right. I’m here to tell you that 2023 can be the year you resolve, once and for all, to stop exercising. That’s because “exercise” – or at least what most people think of when they hear the word “exercise” is a chore.

Let me explain. Exercise is something many people don’t enjoy. Exercise takes time – at least three to six hours a week. It is tedious. It requires you to put on work-out clothes and go to places where you are forced to sweat in front of people you don’t know – or worse, people you DO know. And when you’re exercising, you’re never sure if you’re doing it correctly or safely.

But because they know it’s “good for them,” many people resolve to exercise on January 1 each year. A month later, when they’re tired, or busy, or haven’t seen the results they hoped for, they quit.

The truth is, most of us don’t really want to exercise as much as we want the benefits that exercise delivers:  We want to be strong and physically fit. We want to slow the aging process and lower our risk of disease. We want a good self-image.

What we really want, in other words, is MUSCLE

Doctors now believe that, next to quitting smoking, the single most important thing an adult can do to live a longer, healthier, pain-free life is to build their strength.

Muscle, it turns out, is the body’s master switch, the gatekeeper for long-term health. The good news is, you can build muscle without exercising – at least in the traditional sense. A scientifically based strength-building method known as slow cadence weight training makes it possible to achieve in one 20-minute session what might otherwise require three hours or more in the gym a week.

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness reports that slow cadence training results in a 50 percent greater strength gain than conventional weightlifting. It’s proven to build muscle better than aerobics, jogging, walking, biking and other traditional forms of exercise. In St. Louis, Sarasota and Tampa, this form of strength building is available at 20 Minutes to Fitness, a medically based center for people of all ages and fitness levels.

Build strength in just 20 minutes, just once a week

Depending on which studio you visit, you could train with a physical therapist or physical therapy assistant, an exercise physiologist or an experienced/certified personal coach. 20 Minutes to Fitness uses top-of-the-line MedX physical therapy equipment and safe, scientifically based training methods. There is no sweating, no workout clothes and no competition with the people who go to gyms to show off their physiques. And, again, all it takes is ONE 20-minute session a week. Your own trainer stays with you from start to finish.

When making your New Year’s Resolutions for 2024, don’t resolve to exercise. Resolve to get fit the smart way instead.

Contributed by Casey Schulte, P.T.  Casey is a physical therapist and general manager for 20 Minutes to Fitness in St. Louis.

We TOLD you that exercise would help keep you young!

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And here is (even more) proof that you will benefit from our 20-minute, once-a-week workout. 

“The muscles of older men and women who have exercised for decades are indistinguishable in many ways from those of healthy 25-year-olds,” according the New York Times.

The Times reported on research that studied the muscles of active older adults. They found that the older men and women who exercised “had much higher aerobic capacities than most people their age…making them biologically about 30 years younger than their chronological ages.”

The New York Times also reports:

“The muscles of the older exercisers resembled those of the young people, with as many capillaries and enzymes as theirs, and far more than in the muscles of the sedentary elderly.

“The active elderly group did have lower aerobic capacities than the young people, but their capacities were about 40 percent higher than those of their inactive peers.

“In fact, when the researchers compared the active older people’s aerobic capacities to those of established data about “normal” capacities at different ages, they calculated that the aged, active group had the cardiovascular health of people 30 years younger than themselves.

“Together, these findings about muscular and cardiovascular health in active older people suggest that what we now consider to be normal physical deterioration with aging “may not be normal or inevitable,” Dr. Trappe says.”

You can read more about the study, conducted by researchers at Ball State University and originally published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, here.

When you’re finished, contact us to schedule a visit.

We’ll show you how you can build muscle safely and effectively in just 20-minutes a week.

A New York Times report looks at the impact of muscle loss as we age — and how to rebuild it.

If you are a woman over age 50, this NYT article may be the most important article you read all month. It explains the impact of muscle loss on functional decline. The good news is, the article reports, it is possible to regain lost muscle mass through strength training. And 20 Minutes to Fitness can help — no matter how old or out of shape you may think you are!

Some excerpts on muscle loss:

“I, like many people past 50, have a condition called sarcopenia — a decline in skeletal muscle with age. It begins as early as age 40 and, without intervention, gets increasingly worse, with as much as half of muscle mass lost by age 70.”

“As Dr. Jeremy D. Walston, geriatrician at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, put it, “Sarcopenia is one of the most important causes of functional decline and loss of independence in older adults.”

“But — and this is a critically important “but” — no matter how old or out of shape you are, you can restore much of the strength you already lost. Dr. Moffat noted that research documenting the ability to reverse the losses of sarcopenia — even among nursing home residents in their 90s — has been in the medical literature for 30 years, and the time is long overdue to act on it.”

Read the entire New York Times article here.

20 Minutes to Fitness builds muscle strength

20 Minutes to Fitness has clients in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. All have benefited from our safe, supervised strength training program.  Our workouts are performed one-on-one on MedX physical therapy equipment under the guidance of a personal coach.  Our staff includes physical therapists and PT assistants and other highly trained professionals.

As the NYT reports, “Proper technique is critical to getting the desired results without incurring an injury.”  Contact us today about a free consultation and workout.

Sue Matlof

“My bone density had been decreasing, and I decided I had to add strength-training to my exercise. After 14 years, I keep coming because it’s fun, and I can do a lot for my health in just 20 minutes.”

Sue Matlof 14-year client of 20 Minutes to Fitness St. Louis