The Magic of Exercise!

I meet clients everyday who are dealing with chronic pain or disease and when they show up in my class, smiling and ready to take on the days fitness challenge, I am humbled.

At 48, I have the regular aches and pains as I inch toward the big 5, 0. I have some health issues that have kicked my butt over the last five years, but nothing compares to the student who has battled breast cancer and won, or the plentitude of broken hearts from the loss of a spouse or child. I have watched many of my students rise up from what appeared to be unsurmountable odds and return to my classes with smiles in tact.

So whenever I feel like giving up, and staying in bed, I think about all of my students and the loads that they are carrying to class. I am reminded that it is all about our attitude toward life.

We cannot change what happens to us but we can change how we react.

It may be hard to get to class but if we can just get ourselves there, the smiles around us and the laughter will carry us through the exercise.

This is when the magic happens.

We forget our troubles and concerns for just a short while and in that space, we feel lighter and momentarily relieved. Yes, I said relieved. Even when we are doing sit-ups or push-ups, our minds and hearts get a break, as our muscles meet the challenge.

Exercise makes us feel better. When we feel better, we make better choices about our food and our health in general. When we make better choices, our bodies respond and our pain is alleviated. Over a period of time, we become happier and healthier.

Magic!

See you soon,
Beth

What is your story?

 

I am writing a fitness book and I would love to have a few sentences written by you, my student, on how you feel regular exercise has positively affected your life.

For years my students have been asking me for my workout routines, and/or a DVD that they could follow at home. Well I am happy to say that it is in the works.

What I would love is to have one or two sentences from you, telling me how you feel that exercise has changed your life.  I can talk about the benefits until I am blue in the face, and sometimes I do, but there is nothing like having living proof to back up my claims.

Perhaps your balance has improved or your edurance. Maybe your flexibilty or strength has increased or perhaps you have lost 10lbs. How did these changes make your life better?

You can email me at:
betholdfield01@gmail.com

Only I will see these emails and please let me know if I can quote you. If you are comfortable listing your age I would appreciate this, as I am very proud of the abilitites of my students. My students who are over 50, 60, 70 and 80 years old are performing beyond expectation.

Even if you do not want me to put any of your words in print, perhaps just send me an email anyway to motivate me to continue on with this project. Your trainer could use some inspiration. Will you help me out?

Have a great day and see you soon,
Beth

Do I exercise when in pain?

I get asked this question for two different reasons but the answer is always the same: you must listen to your body and above all else do what feels right for you.

Arthritis sufferers know that even when they are tired they need to move or they will feel worse. The trick for this clientele is knowing when it is a rest day and when they should push themselves a bit to workout or to do a bit more activity.  So in this case, I always tell my clients to first follow the doctor's orders and then to listen to their heart. It would not be right for me to insist that this type of client force themselves through a workout, when they may be in a flare up that results in making the condition worse.

What I will tell you however is that through my reading and listening to recent lectures, working your muscles with weights, takes the load off of the joints that are in pain. Your muscles need to be strong if you have arthritis so that they can absorb the impact of daily living and not your joints. My clients with arthritis tell me how important it is to move every single day.

The other reason that I get asked if we should move when in pain, is when people have trained really hard and their muscles are so sore that they have trouble walking up and down the stairs or raising their arms etc.  This type of discomfort can be normal up to 3 days after a hard workout.  The key here is to know the difference between injury and muscle fatigue.  If when you push on the pain point and it is extremely painful, red and tender you may have an injury. If your whole thigh muscle simply feels sore than you probably did too many squats or had not done any in many weeks or months and just getting back into the routine will be a bit painful. In the later case it is always better to be active and move those specific joints by taking a yoga class or by doing a lighter workout.

When we are in pain our body is giving us messages.  We have to listen and do what feels right for us.  I will say with the utmost confidence however that I have never had a client say to me, that they are sorry that they worked out!

It always feels better to move than to sit and feel miserable and focus on our pain. Just chose the type of activity that feels right for you at the time and get moving.

See you soon,
Beth

The Best Exercise

In my business, I hear a lot said about "the best exercise."

While it is true that if you have an injury, or if you are physically limited in some way, there may be 'better' exercises for you to do than others, I believe that the best exercise is the one that you will actually do everyday, or three times per week.

I love being in the gym and can be there for hours teaching or taking different classes. If someone said that the best exercise was cross country skiing or kick boxing and that nothing else can compare, I would be very discouraged, as I do not like either one of these activities. We are all motivated by different things and none of us will continue an activity that we do not like.

You have to find that one thing that you love so much, you will do it when the weather is unpleasant or you are very busy. It is so easy to make excuses for not taking care of ourselves, that we need to tap into that one type of fitness that will keep us committed. Often we are our own worst enemy when it comes to commitment, so choose an activity that you enjoy and if you have not found it yet, keep looking.

Once you have found that perfect exercise class or activity, you still need to train in a balanced way.

Make sure that your whole body is being trained and not just the muscles used in the said activity. Remember to train for strength, balance and flexibility. You need to work on all the components of physical conditioning, to be able to do that activity, to the best of your ability, for as long as possible.

This might be the one thing that is missing in your routine because you do not like to formally workout but it is very important if you want to stay healthy and avoid overuse injuries from your favorite sport.

You have to keep your health in balance, to continue to live pain free. So while walking may be your favorite activity, your muscles upper body muscles and core are atrophying if you are not training them. This fact can set you up for physical problems down the road which may take you away from walking.

Find your balance.

Have a wonderful day.
Beth

Confronting Your Issues

What I love most about yoga is how it forces us to face various issues in our lives. It is not just about sitting down and relaxing.

Yoga is not always easy.

Discovering that you cannot touch your toes like someone else your age or older, is a pretty sobering experience. Discovering that your wrists, knees or your hips are too tight to hold certain poses with any degree of confidence or comfort, can be quite discouraging. Past injuries can make certain poses completely unattainable.

Confronting these issues is part of learning acceptance, for who we are, at that very moment.

We cannot change the things that happen to us but we can change our reaction.

Instead of beating ourselves up for not being able to do perfect poses, yoga affords us the time and space in which we can learn to relax into who we are today. If we wish to improve our physical or mental state, yoga can help us to do so at our own pace, whether this means becoming more flexible or simply accepting our limitations.

Lets face it, having limited flexibility is stressful on our joints. Not being able move with ease can cause us to avoid living. Perhaps we do not participate in family activities because of various physical limitations.

This stress can erode our health in more ways than one.

I remind my students that even though we may experience challenges during certain poses, learning to simply breathe and accept, ultimately teaches us how to deal with with stress better in our daily lives.

"All that matters is our ability to breathe in and breathe out.


Yoga practice is a great place to start accepting and loving ourselves.

Have a great day.
Beth

Counting Your Steps!

 

I am so impressed with all of my students who have these little gadgets on their wrists or hips, that count their steps. Some of you are in teams as you try to beat others everyday and some of you are just working at it solo.  In either case, I want you to know how very proud I am of your efforts and how fascinated I am when you come up to tell me how many steps my workout gives you!

I have heard rumours that my 25 minute aerobic class measures out at over 3000 steps and my hour long line dance clocks in at over 5000 steps.  I just love watching you all compare your numbers and get excited about the amount that you are moving in a day.

February is a hard month to get through in Montreal.  We have just come out of a deep freeze and now we are expecting 10 cm of snow and then freezing rain. Please note that I know how hard it is for you to get yourself to class.  I was amazed that I had as many students as I had in class yesterday when the temperature was -25'. 18 people made it out to my Stability Ball class at nine am. Some arriving late as the car would not start.  Then we were 38 in aerobics and 36 in Yoga/Stretch.  Bravo!!!

You all keep me motivated to get myself out on these cold mornings. If you can make it there, so can I. Without you, I would be quite lonely.

Have a wonderful day..and keep counting and telling me your success stories.  I love hearing them.

Beth