Montauk Pioneer - January 16, 2009 -

The new year is here and again you've made those resolutions to take better care of your body. Let 2009 be the beginning to a commitment to yourself and your health. Follow through with your intention and don't let the cold and gloomy days give you any excuses. The winter usually brings nights that get darker earlier and the cold doesn't help you to stay away from the comfort food you crave. These are easy traps to fall into but dedicate yourself to fitness this winter and by the time summer comes, you'll be glad you did.

This time of year a lot of people take vacation too. You can still work out while away which is what I did while I visited my family in California for Thanksgiving. One thing I noticed since my last visit there in September is my strength and my energy. I have been working with my personal trainer, Bob, as many of you know. It has paid off in ways I wasn't even aware of. I usually bring two carry ons and one of them I store in the bin above my seat which requires me to lift it over my head. In the past my arms would feel like spaghetti and someone would wind up helping me. This time I picked it up, held it over my head and put it in the storage area with no problem and no help. This had not occurred to me until I sat in my seat and I thought, wow, working with the weights and strength training is indeed paying off. I also noticed that before when I played with my one year old twins (niece and nephew) that I would tire easy and they felt heavy to carry. Well, I had as much energy as them and holding them wasn't a big deal either. So I want to stress the importance of weight training for women.

Weight training is usually associated with men who want to gain muscle and bulk up. Although that is true, women reap important benefits from it. One misconception is that women think they'll bulk up. Relax ladies because our make up is different where we have ten to thirty times less of the hormones that men have that would make us bulk up. Not only that but just for an example if you strength train two to three times a week, you'll lose on the average a half pound of fat and gain a little less than a quarter pound of lean muscle. It's important to note that muscle burns fat so by gaining the muscle you are also increasing your resting metabolism which in turn means you'll be burning calories all day long.

And since muscle weighs more than fat, try not to look at the scale too much but rather take your measurements. I was getting frustrated that my weight was stagnating but then when I measured myself, I saw the inches going down and that's what is key.

The muscle will also make you stronger for daily activities like I mentioned before and watch out guys because girls develop their strength at the same rate that men do. Osteoporosis is a concern for women so working out with weights will increase the bone density that we have. Diabetes and heart disease are also two other areas that can be helped by this. Strength training helps to increase the utilization of glucose and improve your cholesterol and blood pressure. If you have back pain like I do, you'll find the pain lessens when you start working with weights. Arthritis pain is calmer and joints are strengthened so you can move better. Mentally it helps if you have any level of depression because you start to feel more confident and capable in every day life. I can tell you that my confidence in myself has improved and I have felt more useful where I'm finding myself thinking, I can do this to whatever the task is.

The good news is that you can start this at any age. If you're fifty, sixty even seventy years old it doesn't matter at all. I wish I would have started this in my twenties but doing it in my forties is still worth it. I can't do anything about the past, but I can improve my health for now and for my future.