This blog is primarily concerned with health, fitness, diet, personal training, and human performance. Not unrelated to health is the env
ironment where you live and the opportunities presented.
According to this Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine article, 10 Best Cities For The Next Decade, Austin Ranked # 1
A study designed to 
test the efficacy of exercise in lowering metabolic risk factors consisted of three groups. One group used a less-intense regimen called “moderate continuous-training” (CME). Another group did not exercise, and the third group used a high-intensity aerobic-interval training for four months.
From this article High-intensity exercise better at improving metabolic syndrome risk factors the results:
“• Short bursts of high-intensity exercise, rather than longer spells of moderate-intensity, exercise may improve the health of people with metabolic syndrome.
From this Science daily article Brief, Intense Exercise Can Benefit The Heart, Study Shows:
"More and more, professional organizations are recommending in
terval training during rehabilitation from diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, peripheral artery disease and cardiovascular disease. Our research certainly provides evidence that this type of exercise training is as effective as traditional moderate intensity training," says MacDonald. "We wouldn't be surprised to see more rehabilitation programs adopt this method of training since it is often better tolerated in diseased populations".
From this NY Times article Full-Service Gyms Feel a Bit Flabby:
“Up to 45 percent of fitness-club members quit going in any given year, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association [IHRSA].”
And this
“Up until the last six years, it’s been relatively easy to sell memberships, and to replace people going out the back door with people coming through the front door.”
From this Science News article Muscles remember past glory:
"Muscles hold memories of their former fitness in nuclei (green, shown on muscle fiber) that help the muscle bounce back to fitness when training begins after a period of inactivity.
Pumping up is easier for people who have been buff before, and now scientists think they know why — muscles retain a memory of their former fitness even as they wither from lack of use.
That memory is stored as DNA-containing nuclei, which proliferate when a muscle is exercised. Contrary to previous thinking, those nuclei aren’t lost when muscles atrophy, researchers report online August 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The extra nuclei form a type of muscle memory that allows the muscle to bounce back quickly when retrained.
The new study suggests that pumping muscles full of nuclei early in life could help stave off muscle loss with age."
What to do? Follow the PT recommendations and exercise.
A few years back I broke my arm near the elbow in two places. After a few weeks in a sling I began physically therapy. They were very knowledgeable and with their help I significantly increased my arm function.
When my stint with physical therapy was finished I had regained all but 14 degrees of extension of my arm. I was told that was a good result; the limited range would not hamper me much, and it would be hardly noticeable.
I resumed my strength training regimen as usual. It was a once a week full body workout. I would stretch occasionally, but this was not a regular part of my weekly routine. I limited my range of motion on the arm exercises to a pain-free range; I gradually increased my range.
A few months later I stopped by the PT to see if I had increased my range. They were amazed to find I had regained all but two degrees.
We lose flexibility in our backs as we age. To avoid injury to our backs we become increasingly less inclined to go to the fully contracted or stretched position position. It's a classic case of if-you-don’t-use-it you-lose-it; we lose considerable strength in the fully flexed and extended positions.
Strength training helps you burn calories four ways:
1. Calories burned after the exercise stops. Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) occurs after the workout. After running your body replenishes sugar stores. Strength training produces a larger post-exercise calorie demand as the body replaces sugar and rebuilds muscle as a result of the micro-trauma that has been imposed on the muscles.
2. Added muscle burns additional calories. Muscle is metabolically expensive to maintain and will require calories 24/7.
3. The workout itself. All forms of exercise burn calories, but not really as much as people think. Those who exercise with lesser intensity will burn less calories that those who exercise with more intensity.
On August 27, 2005 I boarded up my house and my business, New Orleans Ultimate Fitness Trainers, and then loaded up the car with three days worth of clothes and headed north. Two days later in New Orleans the 17th Street Canal broke. My home situated three blocks from the canal was under water. I just had moved there four months earlier. My business, five blocks from where the waters stopped rising, suffered minimal damage.
Six weeks later I returned to New Orleans stuck with a mortgage payment, renovation payments, working in a business that was showing a negative cash flow, and no place to live. I decided to try to keep the first business going and explore that option of opening a second business outside of New Orleans. I spent months scouting out locations and decided on Austin.
A real estate agent was asked by a prospective buyer what the neighbors were like in the area where he wanted to buy. The agent replied with a question, “What were the neighbors like where you used to live?”
The buyer replied, “They were really friendly”.
From this Science Daily Muscular Heart Failure Patients May Have a Better Chance at Survival, Study Suggests:
“University of Alberta research has discovered heart failure patients with more muscle have the potential to increase their length of life.”
I would also suggest that even those who did not experience heart failure and have more muscle will have greater potential to increase their length of life. As this blog is fond of saying people are not generally put in nursing homes for
