The Power of Exercise

Real adventurers are few these days. Steve Fossett was one.

He was declared dead yesterday, months after went missing on a routine flight. Fossett had set many world records, among them he was the first person to circumnavigate the globe alone in a hot-air balloon and the first fly solo around the world in a plane without refueling. He competed in the Ironman in Hawaii, considered the toughest of those races.

But here's what struck me when I was reading his obit this morning in the New York Times: "As a child, he suffered from asthma, but he pushed himself athletically. He loved hiking and other outdoor adventure."

Theodore Roosevelt also was sickly as a child, until his father bought him a set of weights.

I never stop being amazed at what exercise can do for us.

The Gym as a Sanctuary

Here's the text of an email I received from a friend today: "If I don't get to the gym tonight I'm going to kill someone."

Sure, it's over the top but I understand the sentiment. The gym, or wherever you train, does more than keep us in shape. It's an escape from everything else in our worlds, a way to work off all that stress. In the gym, it's about us, about making ourselves healthier and better, not solving someone else's problems.

I never fail to walk out of the gym feeling better, and often what it does for me mentally seems to outweigh what it does for my physically.

So my friend calls it his sanctuary. That seems about right.

Age is Meaningless, Part 6

An 82-year-old woman who does 45 bodyweight squats? Yep. A 70-year-old man who plays competitive baseball and throws a 70-miles-per-hour fastball? Yep.

Super-trainer Keith Scott has trained both, and he has some great tips in this post about how to make sure you train at 40 and beyond.

One of his best tips is the value of recovery, something I still have to remind myself about.

Age is Meaningless, Part 5

The reasons to take up -- or continue -- training as you age are growing.

The New York Times recently had a article headlined Staying a Step Ahead of Aging that talks about what you can expect if you stick with a solid program. The article's two key points are that you can keep the deterioration of aging largely at bay by exercising and that you can even start working out later in life and still see great results.

Why Weights are Good for Women

Super-trainer Alwyn Cosgrove is getting more attention for his new book "The New Rules of Lifting for Women," which he co-wrote with Lou Schuler and Cassandra Forsythe. I wrote about the book recently.

Now, a good friend just wrote about the book over at her U.S. News and World Report blog On Fitness. Katie offers a great rundown of the key points in Alwyn's book.

The Problem with Gym Machines

There was a time when I used machines at the gym in every workout. But that was before I actually knew what I was doing. Today, I rarely use them.

Yes, they do have a place in workouts. The cables are good for some core work, for instance, such as the woodchopper. But most gym machines take your body out of its natural alignment.

Then there's this other issue, which super-trainer Craig Ballantyne points out -- they're too easy.

Training isn't supposed to be easy. After all, in almost everything you have to put forth effort to get results.

A Different Approach to Intervals

Because I was even more pressed for time than usual tonight, I tried Tabata intervals for my cardio session after lifting. Tabata intervals involve about four minutes of work. Yep, four minutes.

The idea stems from studies by Dr. Izumi Tabata in Japan, who found that eight sets of 20 seconds of intense work, each followed by 10 seconds of rest, boosted aerobic capacity and metabolism. It did it by doing multi-directional work, sprinting to one cone, side sliding to the next, backpeddling to another and so forth. And yes, I was winded.

It certainly was shorter than my usual 45 seconds to one minute intervals with a minute of rest. Give it a try.