Functional fitness exercises supposedly mimic every day activities…
WHENEVER THERE IS a void something comes along to fill it, and it is usually something old with a new label. And so it is that now we have Functional Fitness – and as Harvard Health newsletter describes it: Discovering Functional Fitness: Exercise to keep you active as you age, make everyday tasks easier, and even improve your game.
With this NEW report you can build strength and power to easily:
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- Bend over and pick something off the floor
- Turn in your car seat to put on your seatbelt
- Get off the floor or out of a chair
- Lift heavy packages or bags
- Wash your hair or button your shirt
And as someone else said, “Use it or lose it.”
Function: to Operate
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- To have a function: serve
- Is your body functioning? Is it operating the way you would like?
- Is it serving you well?
I just turned 87 and I can do the things listed above without a problem. I can also climb stairs, negotiate ladders to trim my hedges, walk the Atlanta airport, use my back pack Black and Decker leaf vac, clean my own house, cut my toenails, etc.
Many of us who are over 50 have given up doing what we used to do. We used to:
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- Chop the wood and bring it in. Now we buy it or maybe we even have a gas fireplace.
- Bend down to put on our shoes. Now Sketchers has a slip on.
- Iron, clean, wash. Now we push buttons.
- Have a garden. Now we drive to the store for expensive, and for the most part, tasteless vegetables.
- Walk to the library or the store. Now we open our Kindle and drive to the nearest parking space to the store where the doors open by themselves.
- Walk up the stairs to the office. Now we take the elevator.
- Play tennis, and golf. Now we push the power button and watch the flickering screen.
We don’t even have to hold the gas handle when pumping to fill the tank.
So there went our bending, twisting, grasping, strengthening, power, endurance, flexibility, balance, coordination, and more.
I am lucky. I discovered Bonnie Prudden’s fitness program when I was 24, turned on the black and white TV and watched her exercising a baby. Right then I started my own three month old on his exercise with every diaper change as Bonnie suggested. Then I bought her book How to Keep Slender and Fit After Thirty and started doing the exercises shown.
So although I too push buttons and drive to the store, I also take the stairs when possible, hold the gas handle pump, park at the far end of the store lot, carry the 35 package of bottled water into the house, and bend down to put my shoes on. Most importantly, I can do this because I’ve never stopped doing Bonnie’s program of exercises. It combines strength, endurance, flexibility, bending, twisting, weight training, coordination, balance and relaxing in a common sense way that gets the job done without injuring you. It brings into play all the muscles in the way they were used so long ago. If you don’t use it you lose it UNLESS you replace the no longer used tasks and muscles with an exercise program to take its place.
And as Bonnie reminds us: “You can’t turn back the clock but you CAN wind it up again.”
Wind up your clock with Keep Fit, Be Happy Vol. I, and Bonnie Prudden’s After Fifty Fitness Guide.
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If you have questions or need help, email me at enid@bonnieprudden.com.
For more information about Bonnie Prudden®, Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy®, workshops, books, self-help tools, DVDs, educational videos, and blogs, visit www.bonnieprudden.com. Or call 520-299-8064 if you have questions or need help. Enid Whittaker, Managing Director, Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy®