It’s taken a while, but I have finally converted my book, If I’d only known I’d live this long.. into an e-course.

The book contains 69 tips for living a long, healthy and happy life. If you’d like one tip delivered to your inbox every week for the next 69 weeks, than sign up here.

The course is valued at AU$69 but for subscribers to my blog, I’m offering it at only AU$20.

To start receiving it sign up here.

I had an email from someone recently asking if it is okay for her walking group, who are ‘senior’ women, to add some intervals to their regular coastal walk that usually takes an hour.

The question implies two parts -

1. Is it safe (for older exercisers) to do intervals
2. Is it beneficial (for older exercisers) to do intervals

For anyone new to the Stay Sharp newsletter, interval training is where you intersperse short bursts of higher intensity exercise into your session.

Is interval training safe?

Any exercise has a risk. While you are exercising you are at an increased risk of a cardiovascular event. However, your overall risk (ie even when you aren’t exercising) is much lower than someone who does no exercise.

A few years ago, Norwegian researchers treated heart attack sufferers with the same intense training methods used by competitive athletes (American Heart Journal, June 2009). They had them run on a treadmill very fast for a few seconds, rested and then repeated their intense intervals. Some of the patients only ran fast for 30 seconds every five minutes.

The interval-training heart attack victims were able to use more oxygen maximally (VO2max) and their heart rates returned toward normal faster than other heart attack victims who did slower continuous training. Both of these changes are indicators of improved fitness and this improved fitness lasted for 30 months after the patients completed their 12-week rehabilitation program.

The same researchers have now shown that high-intensity interval training reduces high blood pressure more than continuous exercise does. (European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation, June 8, 2011).

Researchers at the famous Mayo Clinic in the US have started to get heart attack patients to do 30-second bursts of exercise using faster speeds and steeper inclines, gradually increasing the number of intervals and their duration.

The top medical experts believe that it is safe for heart attack patients to do high intensity intervals and that the fitness improvements are better than continuous exercise.

Is interval training beneficial?

More and more, the research is showing that short bursts of high intensity exercise improve fitness more than slow continuous exercise. Not only are there greater improvements in fitness but the time required for exercise is less.

Studies have also shown that intense exercise is far more effective in reducing belly fat than less intense exercise (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, November 2008 & Metabolism May 1991). Fat around the middle is more dangerous to heart health than fat stored in other places on the body.

Intervals also result in better total fat loss. Many people do not lose weight when they exercise because they don’t do it vigorously enough to raise their body temperatures and increase their metabolisms (International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. January, 2001).

Intense exercise can raise body temperature enough to burn extra calories for up to 18 hours afterwards meaning you are burning more calories even after you have finished(International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 2001).

Studies from Yale (Journal of Applied Physiology, January 2006) and Norway (Circulation, July 2008) show that intense exercise is far more effective in preventing and controlling diabetes than exercising at a leisurely pace. Intense exercising diabetics have lower blood sugars levels, better contraction of their arteries, better muscle growth, less cell damage, and lost more fat than casually exercising diabetics.

German researchers have also shown that 50-year-old men who ran more than 50 miles per week at a fast pace had telomeres (chromosome caps) that were more than 40 percent longer than those of inactive men of the same age and almost the same length as those of 20-year-old runners on the National Team (Circulation, December 2009). Shortened telomeres represent aging.

The bottom line on intervals

All the evidence shows that intervals are safe for older exercisers and more likely to improve fitness. Too many people, especially older exercisers, spend too much of their exercise time and effort just going through the motions and not really ‘exercising’.

By putting in a handful of short intense bursts, you can get fitter faster and reduce both your fat levels and your health risk.

Are you so busy trying to earn more money so you’ll be happier, that you haven’t got time for exercise?

If you are, you might need to rethink your priorities.

I’ve just read some fascinating research that found freedom and personal autonomy are more important to people’s wellbeing than money.

The study looked at data from 63 countries, involving 420,599 people, that had been published by the American Psychological Association.

The researchers were asking the question -

What is more important for well-being, providing people with money or providing them with choices and autonomy?

What they found was that providing individuals with more autonomy appears to be important for reducing negative psychological symptoms, independent of wealth.

Although money leads to autonomy, it does not add to well-being or happiness.

Previous research has shown that the effect of money on happiness plateaus. Once people reach the point of being able to meet their basic needs, more money leads to marginal gains at best, or even less well-being as people worry about “keeping up with the Joneses.”

More autonomy and freedom however, is associated with greater well-being.

So… what does all this have to do with exercise and fitness?

When talking to individuals or groups, I emphasise that the real benefit of exercise is that it gives you greater capacity to do the things you want to do. And that means greater choices. The older you get, the more significant fitness is in maintaining autonomy and choice.

The thing that stops most people from doing what they want as they get older, is not lack of money but lack of fitness. For some this shows up as poor health, but poor health is often the result of poor fitness.

If you are struggling to find the motivation to exercise regularly, think about the things you want to do in 5 or 10 years from now.

If are so busy trying to earn more money that you can’t find time to get fit, perhaps you need to rethink your priorities. The money will be of little value if you aren’t fit enough to use it.

If you are motivated to exercise but just can’t seem to get the results you want, give me a call or drop me an email. A personal session to come up with a strategy that works might be what you need.

Getting your priorities right is important for long-term health and happiness.

Do you find it harder to get up when it is cold, dark and possibly wet outside.

I know I do.

It’s quite common for many people to let their exercise routine fall away during the winter months and for a few extra kilos to accumulate. Younger people in particular, don’t notice the day-to-day difference, but they may be setting themselves up for problems later in life.

Research, and common sense, tells us it’s better to maintain your activity and fitness if you want to avoid losing fitness and gaining fat over winter. Not only is it harder to regain your fitness, but over many years it can make a big difference to your health.

A recent study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that young adults, particularly women, who maintained high levels of moderate and vigorous activity over a period of 20 years experienced smaller gains in weight and waist circumference during the transition from young adulthood to middle age, compared to individuals with lower activity levels.

The researchers from Northwestern University in Chicago conducted a study to evaluate the relationship between maintaining higher activity levels and changes in body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference over 20 years in young adults.

The study is a prospective study that started in 1985-1986 and followed up participants until 2005-2006. The study included 3,554 men and women, ages 18 to 30 years at the beginning of the study.

Participants were categorised into three groups; maintaining high, moderate, and low activity levels based on sex-specific groupings (by thirds) of activity scores at the beginning of the study.

The results showed that over the study period, maintaining high levels of activity was associated with smaller gains in Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist circumference compared with low activity levels after adjusting for race, baseline BMI, age, education, cigarette smoking status, alcohol use and energy intake.

Over 20 years, men maintaining high activity gained 2.6 less kilograms and high activity women gained 6.1 fewer kilograms. High activity men gained 3.1 fewer centimeters in waist circumference and women maintaining higher activity gained 3.8 less centimetres.

The researchers noted that weight gains in participants with moderate or inconsistent activity levels generally were not different from the low-activity group.

Ladies take note, women seemed to benefit the most from maintaining higher activity. The magnitude of weight change was more than twice as large among women compared with men.

Similarly, participants who maintained the recommended 150 minutes of moderate activity per week gained significantly less weight compared with participants who did not.

So with cold and wet weather finally arriving (in Perth anyway), its time to put in place strategies to make sure you do’t slip back on your activity and fitness over the winter months.

Here’s three tips that might help.

1. Find friends who like to exercise in winter

I have a cycling mate who loves riding in the rain, so I know regardless of the weather he will be there for our designated ride. Find someone with the same commitment and be there to exercise with them.

2. Have an alternative

Sometimes it is just hard to get out the door when it is cold, wet and windy. It may even be dangerous to be out on the roads when visibility is poor and common sense tells you to stay home. Having an alternative, such as some weights or exercises to do at home means you can still do something. Even putting on your wet weather gear and going for a walk is better than doing nothing.

3. Change your mindset to wet weather

I know it is hard to step out the front door when it is raining (see point 2) but not exercising because you might get wet is a slippery slope to a sedentary life. Just changing your mindset about exercising in winter might be all it takes to keep you active all year round. Focus on how good you’ll feel when you have finished and how pleased you will be with yourself knowing many others stayed in bed or skipped their workout while you were doing your thing.

Don’t let the thought of getting cold and wet deter you. You can only get wet once.

Just five minutes of exercise in a park, working in a backyard garden, on a nature trail, or other green space can boost mood and self-esteem, according to a new study.

The study was been published in the Journal of Environmental Science & Technology.

The researchers explain in the study that green exercise is physical activity in the presence of nature. Abundant scientific evidence shows that activity in natural areas decreases the risk of mental illness and improves the sense of well-being. Until now, however, nobody knew how much time people had to spend in green spaces to get those and other benefits.

For the first time in the scientific literature, the scientists have been able to show dose-response relationships for the positive effects of nature on human mental health.

From an analysis of 1,252 people (of different ages, genders and mental health status) drawn from ten existing studies in the United Kingdom, the authors were able to show that activity in the presence of nature led to mental and physical health improvements.

They analyzed activities such as walking, gardening, cycling, fishing, boating, horse-riding and farming. The greatest health changes occurred in the young and the mentally-ill, although people of all ages and social groups benefited. All natural environments were beneficial including parks in urban settings. Green areas with water added something extra. A blue and green environment seems even better for health, Pretty noted.

From a health policy perspective, the largest positive effect on self-esteem came from a five-minute dose.

This doesn’t mean that you only need five minutes of exercise, but just getting ‘green’ for five minutes gave the most benefit per minute.

So if you exercise predominantly inside, in a gym or at home, try to get outside, preferably into a natural environment for at least five minutes. Even if this is after your workout.

It’s when your body is relaxing after exercise that the changes happen and it seems that both exercising and relaxing in nature has added benefits.

So go green and get fitter.