Aging Well Begins With Maintaining & Building Your Lean Body Mass

Do you remember what your New Year’s resolutions were?  Research has shown that New Year’s resolutions on average last for about 3 days.  Still, some make it to the gym consistently, typically until the second week in February when gym attendance drastically drops.  How do we really change our habits?

The process of changing habits has been studied extensively.  The pattern of a habit looks like this: a particular cue signals a behavior (for many, overeating or sitting on the couch), which results in a specific reward (mindlessly numbing the day’s stress).  Our brains will never “unlearn” this habit.  All we can do is create a new habit, which needs three things to survive: clear direction, ample motivation, and a supportive environment.  That really comes down to a strong “why.”  Why do you want to change?  What is your vision of how this change will affect you and others in your life?  How will accomplishing this change impact you on a daily basis and what does that look like?

I will give myself as an example.  As I learned more about health and wellness, something always stuck out in my mind: “The number one predictor of how you will age is how much lean body mass you have.”We naturally start losing muscle mass in our 20s, so if you aren’t actively working to rebuild muscle mass, you are losing it as time passes.  Many of the people we see in our practice are “skinny fat.”  While they look like they are of a healthy weight, when we do body composition tests, we find out that their fat mass is too high, and their lean body mass (muscle) is too low.

Think of your family members.  I am sure you, like me, have family members that have fallen, broken a hip, gone into a long-term care facility, and have passed away from something like pneumonia.  How could this have been prevented?  Was it a bone mass issue or a muscle mass issue?  BOTH!  Weak bones are due to the muscle not being actively engaged.  As the muscle is challenged, it stresses the bone; this is good stress and if done correctly, muscle mass and bone mass increase.  Many of my patients tell me that they walk for exercise.  That can be a great thing, as long as it is in combination with other activities that challenge your muscles.

As this started to sink in, I realized how important it would be for me to actively start working on building lean muscle mass.  I joined a gym, but like many Americans, every time I went, I did the same thing.  The body adapts to that quickly, so after a couple of months I didn’t see results.  Asmy practice became more demanding and a child came into the equation,I eventually dropped my newfound habit.

While I had a clear direction, I didn’t have ample motivation or a supportive environment.  Two things were life changing for me.  First, I found my “why.”Americans are too often dying young or suffering old.  How I personally interpret this information (as a health care provider) is that if I am not actively building health, the American way of life (too little exercise, too much stress, poor nutrition) will bring about an ugly result as the majority of Americans die from heart disease, cancer, and stroke.  Diabetes is on the rise as well as Alzheimer’s and dementia.  I want to be active, vital, and strong as I age.  I want to know my name and be independent.  I don’t want my husband’s or my son’s quality of life to be affected by my lack of strength, balance, or coordination.   There’s my “why.”

The next thing I needed was a supportive environment.  I need someone to expect me to show up and call me on it if I don’t.  I need someone that really specializes in exercise to be changing my workouts and challenging me.  That way, my body is constantly changing, building muscle mass, strength, agility, and coordination.  With the what, the how and the why, I have a fitness habit that makes me feels good.  I am not going down the path of disease.  Instead, I am creating health, wellness, and longevity.

The fun part is now I get to help people make these types of changes every day.  With our 8 Weeks to Wellness practice, we use body composition testing, blood work, functional fitness testing, spinal testing, heart rate variability, and many others to determine how someone is moving, handling stress, and eating.

Our philosophy comes down to “Eat Well, Move Well, Think Well”.  By determining someone’s strengths and weaknesses, we can tailor a program for that individual to strengthen weaknesses and gain health.  Check out Julie’s changes below–anyone can change a habit with the right why, what, and how!  Call us at 303.215.0390 to see if 8WW is right for you!

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Monday
8:30 am - 11:20 am 2:30 pm - 5:20 pm
Tuesday
8:30 am - 11:20 am
Wednesday
8:30 am - 11:20 am 2:30 pm - 5:20 pm
Thursday
8:30 am - 11:20 am 2:30 pm - 5:20 pm
Friday
Admin Hours 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
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