Princeton Longevity News

If your child becomes overweight or is at risk for becoming overweight/obese, what do you say to them? Do you tell them they are getting fat? Do you keep your mouth closed and make different food shopping choices? In this article you will find some interesting results on what happened when parents voiced their opinion; as well as ‘how’ it was voiced.

Fresh off the press early this morning from The New York Times you’ll find this interesting article that provides a view on how influential parents comments can be on their children’s dietary actions. The article can be accessed here: http://nyti.ms/1UAyEtq

Unfortunately, this is an ongoing battle with national obesity and it continues to become more and more prevalent within our nations children.

What would you do, or what have you done, in this situation?

The question always arises whether weight lifting (or resistance based training) should be performed before or after aerobic exercise. Before you decide to take the plunge on one or the other you should consider your overall goal; whether it be weight loss, improving lean mass, or a bit of both.

During a single bout of aerobic exercise the body utilizes energy stores consisting of fat, glucose stores, and circulating glucose (blood sugar) for fuel. Some fuel sources will face an imbalance following exercise depending on the intensity/duration, which will require a rest period and/or dietary replenishment to recover the stores. If your goal is weight loss, greater emphasis should be placed in the aerobic exercise category while continuing to engage in resistance training for overall health benefits. Studies have shown that aerobic exercise encourages greater excessive post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC); meaning your body burns excess calories after exercise has ceased therefore promoting weight loss. On the other hand, resistance training in larger volumes (ie: more sets and less repetitions) promotes muscular hypertrophy and lean muscle building. So, if your goal is to improve muscle mass, your focus should be primarily voluminous weight lifting with some aerobic activity for overall health benefits. Finally, if your goal is to lose weight and improve lean muscle it may be advantageous to have a balanced program that focuses on either each of the exercise types in an alternation or that involves mixing the two together.

Overall, whether you decide to resistance train or exercise aerobically first, just know your performance may suffer in the latter. For example, if you were to weight lift prior to jogging/running, you will face muscular fatigue and poor performance due to your energy stores being somewhat depleted. If you were to run prior to lifting weights, your lifting form may suffer putting you at risk for injury as a result of muscular fatigue. Unfortunately, it may take some time for trial and error before you find what works better for you. Just keep in mind your overall goals and how you can adjust your training plan accordingly with the information provided above.

Happy and healthy training!

Adding yoga into your weekly exercise routine can help ward off mental decline.  Although your mental status can decline as we age, we can help slow the process in the way we move and workout.

In a recent study, individuals who meditated daily and did yoga for an hour each week for 12 weeks did significantly better on memory tests and improvements in mood, depth perception and communication.

The reduction in stress hormones and anxiety from the yoga could have been the reason for this change.

Below is a link to how to meditate and use yoga for 12 minutes daily in order to help boost your brain power!

Kirtan Kriya Yoga Singing Exercise

Looking for an easy, healthy, portable meal that includes ingredients you love? Then, make a Do-it-yourself (DIY) bowl! Making a DIY Bowl is quick and easy since there is no set recipe; you can customize it based on your food preferences and/or on what you have on hand! Just follow these simple rules:

1. Include a whole grain or starchy vegetable choice
2. Pick a protein
3. Load it up with vegetables
4. Top it off with flavors that you love

Here are some ideas for ingredients:
1. Whole Grain/Starchy Vegetable Options (add about a 1/2 to 2/3 of a cup, cooked)
– Brown rice
-Quinoa
-Barley
-Millet
-Farro
-Corn
-Sweet potato (cubed or sliced)
-Butternut squash (cubed)

2. Protein Options
– Beans (garbanzo, black, pinto, kidney, soybeans) or lentils
– Chicken (use a rotisserie chicken for convenience)
– Fish or shellfish (any kind, canned wild tuna or salmon are convenient options)
– Pork tenderloin
– Lean beef like sliced filet or sirloin or even extra lean ground beef
– Egg like 1-2 hard boiled eggs

3. Vegetables
Load up on as many as you want; the more, the better!
– Greens like spring mix, baby kale, spinach, etc.
– Roasted, sautéed or steamed veggies
– Raw veggies
– Avocado

4. Flavor Options
Top with any flavor you enjoy like a small amount of olive oil, some balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, lemon or lime juice, hot sauce, teriyaki sauce, peanut sauce, etc.

In this day and age, most of us fall victim to having to jobs that make us sit for most of the day.  The Annals of Internal Medicine recently reported that the amount of time a person sits during the day is associated with a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and death; regardless of regular exercise.  Their research does suggest that those participating in daily exercise programs are better off, but that 30 plus minutes a day is not enough to completely offset the other 23 hours of the day.

So, what can you do?  Stand as much as possible while you are at work, try talking to your employer about the possibility of getting a stand up desk.    If that’s not an option, make sure you get up and move around for at least 5 minutes for 30 minutes of sitting.  Need something from that person down the hall?  Rather than email them, take the opportunity to walk down and speak to them in person.  Use your lunch break as an opportunity to walk around and stand up.  Most importantly, be consistent with your exercise program.  On weekends be as active as possible and go for a long walk or hike if it is nice out.  If the weather isn’t great then find an indoor activity that you can be active with.

Little efforts, each and every day, will make a huge difference in the long run.

There are several forms of core training techniques to help improve your core strength and power. What many overlook is the importance of stability when it comes to maximizing rotational power production from the core. Which would you prefer…firing your cannon from a canoe or a battleship? I think we all know the answer to that question. Whether you are simply training for injury prevention or you play tennis, softball/baseball, golf or bowl, listen up!

Planks and Side Planks are popular exercises to help build core stability, with gravity being the external force the abdominals and obliques must fight against. Once the exerciser feels they can properly stabilize their spine and pelvis, they will often matriculate to the horizontal chop or diagonal chop and lift. Pump the breaks right there! Why not work on stabilizing the spine and pelvis with external forces in the horizontal and diagonal rotation movement patterns in mind first? When you stop and think about how the body is an alternating sequence of stability and mobility and we zone in on the hip (mobility), lumbo-pelvic (stability) and thoracic spine (mobility), the core needs to be a stabilizing force to help create the power we all seek.

Here are a few of my favorite exercises that focus on Anti Rotational Core Stability Training. The idea is to activate your core muscles to prevent your body from rotating (giving in) to the external resistance/forces. Feel free to google video or you tube these exercises for video footage. Fire your glutes! Fire your core!

1. Single Arm Plank with Shoulder Taps
2. Quadruped
3. One Leg Romanian Deadlift
4. Tall Kneeling Cable Push and Pull
5. Half Kneeling Cable Chop without Rotation
6. Half Kneeling Cable Lift without Rotation
7. Renegade Row
8. TRX Single Arm Row
9. Band or Cable Anti Rotational Walkouts
10. Landmines

Who said we have to be laying on a mat to perform core exercise?!  Give the above exercises a try (2-4 sets of 10 reps with a challenging weight is a good place to start ) to make your core battleship stable and strong.  Good day and good training!