Unlock the secrets to a vibrant life as the years advance with me, Rob Maxwell, your guide in the transformative journey of Graceful Aging. Embrace the strength and vitality that can be yours as we explore the pillars of physical fitness—balance, flexibility, strength, mobility, and cardiorespiratory health. This isn't just about sweating it out at the gym; it's about seizing the control levers of our personal well-being to dance through life's experiences, whether it's trekking across new lands or scoring that winning point in tennis. Acknowledging the hurdles, especially in weight management, I'll highlight the subtle art of self-care that keeps the physical decline at bay, even when I'm not there to watch over your shoulder.
Feel the power of intertwining strength with mobility and flexibility, as they collectively form the foundation of a healthful, active lifestyle. I'll regale you with tales of resilience, from biking mishaps to triumphs over potential injuries, proving how strength training coupled with a full range of motion exercises can be your armor against life's unexpected tumbles. Learn how to fine-tune your heart's health through submaximal heart rate training, ensuring your engine runs smoothly without the risk of overexertion. So tie up those laces, gear up for an invigorating ride and let's pledge to make every heartbeat count towards a future bursting with energy and joy.
Unlock the secrets to a vibrant life as the years advance with me, Rob Maxwell, your guide in the transformative journey of Graceful Aging. Embrace the strength and vitality that can be yours as we explore the pillars of physical fitness—balance, flexibility, strength, mobility, and cardiorespiratory health. This isn't just about sweating it out at the gym; it's about seizing the control levers of our personal well-being to dance through life's experiences, whether it's trekking across new lands or scoring that winning point in tennis. Acknowledging the hurdles, especially in weight management, I'll highlight the subtle art of self-care that keeps the physical decline at bay, even when I'm not there to watch over your shoulder.
Feel the power of intertwining strength with mobility and flexibility, as they collectively form the foundation of a healthful, active lifestyle. I'll regale you with tales of resilience, from biking mishaps to triumphs over potential injuries, proving how strength training coupled with a full range of motion exercises can be your armor against life's unexpected tumbles. Learn how to fine-tune your heart's health through submaximal heart rate training, ensuring your engine runs smoothly without the risk of overexertion. So tie up those laces, gear up for an invigorating ride and let's pledge to make every heartbeat count towards a future bursting with energy and joy.
Welcome to. There is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell, I'm an exercise physiologist and I work as a personal trainer. I own Maxwell's Fitness Programs and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to talk to you about the science, to talk to you about what really works, what doesn't work and, most importantly, why things work. Hence the name the Method to the Madness.
Speaker 1:
Let me thank our sponsors, jonathan and Lynn Gildan of the Gildan Group at Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service and home selling and they have the sales and the reviews to back that up. If you need any help in real estate, give them a shout 386-451-2412. I personally vouch for them. They're absolute professionals at what they do and I think that's what we really want in this day and age. We want professionals to help us. So I'm going to pick back up on our series that I started last week Graceful Aging. I think that's really what we want, right? We really want graceful aging. We want a good quality of life.
Speaker 1:
I heard a great quote the other day that said what is the point of wealth if we don't have our health? I mean, that is so true, I talked about how one of the podcasts I was listening to, the guy made a great point about he wanted to visit one of his I don't know big goals in life. He wanted to visit one of his I don't know big goals in life. He wanted to go check something out and he went there. It was one of those places where you have to climb up the steps and everything and get to the top and it really struck him that when he was up there and he was checking it out, he was a part of it. You know what I mean. Like he was doing it, he was experiencing it. He wasn't there taking pictures of it. He went there and experienced it, went to the top and it struck him how so many people were down at the bottom and they're in their cars and they're staring and they're taking pictures and what he realized was they really couldn't go up there. They just weren't physically able to do that. And I just thought that was a really, really telling story about, like, quality of life and graceful aging and all that. And look, yes, there are circumstances people don't have control over, but there are many things that we do have control over and we can age, gracefully, we can take care of ourselves to where, when we get older, we can continue to do the things that we want to do. Times on this podcast I've said that that is one of my.
Speaker 1:
It probably is my most favorite goal that I get, because it's so tangible, it's so doable. It happens all of the time when somebody comes in and they say you know, I'm simply not moving like I used to. I want to be able to do this. I want to be able to do that. I'm going to travel the world with my wife and I want to be able to do this. I want to be able to do that. I'm going to travel the world with my wife and I want to be able to do these things. I'm going to go out west and I'm going to go on these hikes and I really, really want to be able to do it.
Speaker 1:
I want to like walk around, not being in pain all the time. I want to climb the steps in arenas. I want to continue to play tennis. I want to play pickleball. I want to play pickleball. I want to play golf. I want to play softball, like whatever these sports are that people want to continue to do. They want to continue to run and do 5Ks, they want to do triathlons, they want to enjoy their life.
Speaker 1:
I mean, to do that we really have to do. We have to keep our body in shape. We have to keep our body in shape. I mean we just can't let it go and then expect later on that everything is going to be okay. We definitely have to remember that if we don't use it, we're going to lose it. So some of the things that I talked about that we have control over is balance and flexibility and strength and mobility and cardiorespiratory fitness, like these are things that we absolutely have control over.
Speaker 1:
Now, yeah, I mean, everybody focuses on weight and body composition is one of the health components of physical fitness, for sure. But the reason why I left it off of here is because we always talk about that Like that is a part of it. You can't turn on the news without seeing something about Ozempic or some of these other weight loss pills that are going around. I mean it's pretty obvious that if we put on a lot of weight, life is going to be harder, and I think everybody kind of knows that. That doesn't mean that everybody wants to do something about it. I'm just saying.
Speaker 1:
It's in front of you all the time and, as a trainer, it's a very difficult goal to work with people on because I have limited control about how much and what you eat. Now, I know how much you should eat, I can tell you down to 50 calories, how many you should consume during the day, and I can tell you how to break those up in the macronutrients and I can tell you how to break that up into meals. I could tell you all of these things. I could tell you the foods that'll get you there. The problem is I have zero control over what you do when you leave my presence and, as a person who really wants to get results with people, like this is what I do. Sure, I get paid, of course. I mean I have to get paid, it's my job, but I don't put everything in life on if I'm going to get paid. Like, I get a lot of satisfaction over getting results with people, and so, as I've said before and I'll say it again, and then I'll leave it alone because the podcast listeners are probably tired of hearing about it.
Speaker 1:
So that is a goal that, like, I roll my eyes at pretty much. When people talk to me about it. I say, look, here's a book I wrote about it. Take it and do it, because I just know that to lose weight, we have to put in our homework, and the homework is much more than the gym work. We have to watch what we eat. But, getting back to these other variables, I have control over that. When you come to the gym, I can teach you the skills and drills that you can do to improve graceful aging. I can show you what you should be doing on your own and then we can do it, and then I can build it into part of your workouts. Because here's the thing, those things I just mentioned are all part of you working out All right. So I talked a lot about balance last time and I was trying to get everybody to understand that balance just is an equilibrium and inner ear stuff. That balance also has a lot to do with our synergistic muscles and our stability muscles, so I spent a lot of time on that. Now, these other ones we absolutely have control over as well and can build into the workout. Now let's just take them one by one Strength.
Speaker 1:
I think we all know we should be stronger. If we're stronger, we can do the things that we want to do. Now there's been two instances, unfortunately, where I've crashed on my bike. One of them wasn't that long ago, it was maybe six, seven, eight months ago, and I'm talking about my bicycle, I'm talking about my racing bike. This time it wasn't during a race, Previous time, like 20 years ago it was. But the emergency room physicians both times said you know, it's a good thing, you're strong, because you were able to absorb a lot of the blows with your muscles and you didn't break bones. Now I don't know how I didn't either time, but I didn't. So strength really, really matters. It is so important to keep ourselves strong and it is something that we absolutely have control over.
Speaker 1:
If we go to the gym or we work out at home and we are using resistance, whether it be through the machines, whether it be through free weights, whether it be through dumbbells, bands, whatever, if we are overloading those muscles, meaning using a little bit more stress than we have the past time or maybe two weeks ago, whatever doesn't necessarily matter what the progression cycle is, but as long as we are progressing, we are getting stronger and that's cool, right. That's like the total opposite of progress, me having no control over what you put in your mouth. If you come to the gym and I'm watching your form and let's say you're doing 12 repetitions on something and I notice that you get through that set, and you got through that set with great form or good form. And if I go up next time on your load which I just make a little notation in your chart then you're getting stronger. And you know, we keep our workout charts in the sense of 10 or 12 workouts and at the end of each I look at it and go look, you went up 10 pounds here all month. You went up 30 pounds here, you went up whatever. Yes, we get to a point where we plateau, but that's okay. That means we're plateauing at a very high weight or a weight that was higher than it used to be. We have overloaded the muscles. We have control and as long as you are following a good program of strengthening all your muscles which if you have any accredited trainer of any kind, then you are then all of your muscles are getting stronger. So that's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:
The next is mobility. I mean, how well do you move? Well, all these things pretty much go hand in hand with each other. I mean, when you're working on one, you're typically working on the other most of the time, and once you become aware of what you should be doing, then you're working on it all of the time. Now, mobility is simply range of motion and how well we move. Well, strength training and strength exercises can absolutely help us with that as well.
Speaker 1:
I don't know what I say more during the day, and it's not a bad thing. I mean, it's my job. I'm coaching you on your form. I don't know if I say slow down more or if I say increase your range of motion more, in the form of either saying lengthen it out a little bit or go down a little bit further or stretch that out. However, you know, I don't know because I say both all the time but the reason why I'm coaching you to go through a full range of motion is because that is helping you with your mobility.
Speaker 1:
Like when we squat. If we have a hard time squatting down, say, just 45 degrees, which is technically halfway down on a squat If we have trouble doing that and keeping our chest up, we're having mobility issues, and if we're having mobility issues, we are more prone to injury. That is why we like to try to strengthen all of the muscle groups in all of the joints in its, because every joint is different in its full range of motion. That's very, very important. And when we do that, we motion in the sense of what you normally do with load. You are increasing its range of motion, which is as important, if not more important, than flexibility, and both are important. But when we do that, we are increasing the range of motion, hence improving your mobility, because now you are going, say, further down on an exercise with load, which means your body is becoming more pliable and more mobile.
Speaker 1:
And there are other things we can do in the gym to work on our mobility. I mean and, like I said, all of these things affect each other, but we can do step-ups. Step-ups is teaching you how to move that foot up again. Look, we forget, we use it or lose it. When we were a little kid, kids, we were jumping on and off of curbs, we were going up and down steps, we were climbing rocks and climbing trees. We knew how to move our bones and limbs in specific directions. Then we get into our adult lives and we stop doing what we used to do. So now we have to learn how to do it again. So we do a lot of step up training at the gym, because it's important to learn how to move again. So we can do mobility drills that not only strengthen muscles. So when you're doing a step-up, you're strengthening your quadriceps, you're strengthening your gluteus maximus, but you're also working on the mobility You're learning how to dorsiflex or pull your toes up and lift your leg in the manner that you should, because a lot of people, as they get older, fall because they're not picking up their feet.
Speaker 1:
I mean, we've seen so many people struggle with that. You know the ladder that you use for, like younger athletes, and they can do specific speed drills in the ladder. We'll do that with some of our seniors, our older population, just learning how to walk through the ladder, picking up their feet. We can work on mobilities and those examples are ways that we can do that. I want you to understand don't wait until it's getting too late to train our body, to do these things that we want to continue to do. We have to work on it in your younger years, in your middle age, because when you get older, you want to have these skills. No, it's not too late, but we want to start on it earlier.
Speaker 1:
Flexibility is important too. I see so many senior citizens that can't touch their toes. I know that's like kind of a you know, not that overly important, like it used to be the big thing. Oh, can you touch your toes, look? No, it's not the kiss of death if you can't and it doesn't make you a yoga queen if you can. But it certainly doesn't hurt to work on it. We want to be able to improve our flexibility.
Speaker 1:
Now, of course, flexibility and mobility and range of motion do all work with each other. They're correlated to each other, but they are slightly different, because with flexibility, we're talking about stretching in a passive position, meaning that it's not necessarily active. Flexibility it's passive, meaning we are pushing ourself into a stretch and we're holding it. We do want to have more pliable muscles, so it is great if we can lengthen those muscles when they're at rest, and essentially that is what flexibility is is trying to lengthen those muscle fibers when they are at rest.
Speaker 1:
There are some studies that indicate that you could be less prone for injury, and it's simply good to keep your range of motion as good as it can be, and I see so many people that struggle with that you think, well, what's the big deal? Well, I mean, you want to put your own shoes on, you want to be able to get dressed. I mean, all these things are important and keeping our flexibility top tier the best we can be is important and it's something that we have control over. And it's not hard. I mean, look, I'm not saying everybody can become like a yoga queen where you just have amazing flexibility. No, but it can get better. And what I mean by it's not hard isn't how good we get. No, that very much is a product of genetics sometimes. But what I mean is it doesn't hurt to stretch, right? I mean you're not supposed to stretch to the point of pain. And it's not like it's the most vigorous thing we do. I mean, heck, sitting around watching TV at night, you can work on some stretches. And absolutely, when you're trying to recover after a hard set at the gym you just did some squats it's a good time to stretch those muscles. It gives you like 30 seconds of getting some air and you're doing something productive. We call it active rest.
Speaker 1:
One of my clients, garrett, like he's so good about that He'll do his stretch, he'll do his squats and then he'll stretch his quads. He'll go to the leg press, then he'll stretch his quads again, then he'll go to the leg extension, then he'll stretch his quads again, then he'll do the leg curl and he'll stretch his hamstrings. I mean, he's doing it because there's a method to the madness and that we taught him that and that's really really good. Now some people because you know they're not really doing it for the most earnest reasons will sit there and try to stretch when they're simply trying to take a break. And we look at them and it's like you're hardly stretching anything. So of course, we don't want to use stretching as an excuse, but what I'm saying is stretching can be thrown in at any time, meaning it's not that hard. It's not like somebody's asking you to go for a four mile walk which is going to take you an hour or something like that. It can take just like 10 minutes all day if you spread it out, and I promise you it's worth it.
Speaker 1:
And then, of course, there's cardio. I always say that strength training and cardio are the king and queen of fitness. Which one to put higher? Who the heck knows? I mean, probably they're a toss up. They're both so important and we have to do it. There are people that hate cardio. There are people that hate weights. Well, I love both and I think they're well. I don't think I absolutely know the benefits of both, but we do have to do our cardio and we just can't go for like a casual walk every day. I mean, is that better than nothing? Of course, but my argument is well, when people say it's better than nothing, it's like okay, but at the same time, if you're going to do it, you might as well do it right. So cardio does have to be done at a certain level of intensity.
Speaker 1:
Most studies show that your heart rate needs to be at least 60% of your maximum heart rate to get some cardiovascular adaptations. That's not that high. Like for me at 58, that's a heart rate of about 100. So it's not that hot. We, but we do have to go out and elevate that heart rate for around 30 minutes. Most days of the week sound like like a lot, okay, I mean, but really there's much worse things you could be doing all day. If you are, say, a Gen Xer or younger, you're probably on your phone a lot, so that's not very productive. It'd be more important to go out and get some cardio going in there.
Speaker 1:
You know it doesn't matter what time you do it there isn't a perfect time of day but cardiovascular exercise is so important and it's not just about burning calories and burning fat as a matter of fact, it's not about that. It does help. But what it really is about is strengthening the heart. The heart is a muscle. So when you get older, if you want to go and enjoy the theme parks, if that's your gig with your grandchildren, but you're gassed just walking from your car to the tram, it's going to be a long day for you, it's going to be a long day for everybody, and it doesn't have to be that way. The heart is a muscle.
Speaker 1:
When we exercise it, when we keep it elevated above, say, 60% of its maximum for at least 20 minutes, good things start to happen. We get what's called left ventricular hypertrophy. So what that means is the left ventricle of the heart starts to hypertrophy, it starts to get a little bit bigger. If it gets a little bit bigger and I'm not talking about cardiac myopathy, where your doctor's telling you you have an enlarged heart I'm not talking about that I'm talking about where the left ventricle starts to get a little bit bigger and stronger, it pumps more blood per beat and that is called stroke volume. So if it pumps more blood per beat, it doesn't have to beat as frequently to get the blood to the muscles that you're trying to use. It's simple math. You are simply lowering the idle, you're working less at the same capacity. That's what we want and that's what cardio does. We absolutely can improve our cardio, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
I love when I see people starting to work out and training and they start telling me how they notice their resting heart rate's lower, their blood pressure's lower. Well, of course it is. Again, that's what I'm talking about. That's submaximal heart rate training. So, in other words, if your heart was beating, say, at 120 minutes at level three on the recumbent bike when you first started exercising, but now it's beating at 110 at the same level, you've gotten in better shape. Your heart does not have to beat at the same level that it used to to provide the same amount of oxygen. It's not working as hard. If it's not working as hard, it has more area to help you. If it's tapped out at a low intensity, what are you going to do when you're starting to strain around, walking around the theme parks or whatever you're doing, there's nothing in the bank to help you. So we can improve that.
Speaker 1:
That's part of Aceful Graging. So all these things we have absolute control over. We can improve our balance, we can improve our flexibility, we can improve our mobility, we can improve our strength and we can improve our cardiorespiratory, improve our cardio respiratory fitness. These are things I want everybody to take serious and to start working on and, like I said, it's fun. We can go to the gym and do challenging exercises and they don't have to be boring. These are fun things to work on and I promise you it's worth it. Now let me wrap this up by thanking Overhead Door of Daytona Beach. Jeff and Zach Hawk are the utmost professionals. They're great at what they do. Overhead Door is the best garage door company in the state of.