You have to be involved in your health!

It is truly buyer beware when it comes to our bodies and our health.

I had a frightening situation with my son Evan recently. He was not feeling well for a couple of weeks, then finally went to the doctor where they “did some tests.” He was told they couldn’t find anything.

After suffering through a miserable one-month business trip abroad he went to another doctor and was quickly diagnosed with Lyme disease and with the medication began feeling a little better. I then suggested he go to a specialist where he was told he was only tested for two types of Lyme, and there are three!

He is now on what we hope is the right medication and seems to be feeling much better.

If we hadn't been proactive, Evan might still be suffering through tests and medications, and no closer to feeling better.

Let's face it, every day people's lives are saved by the medical community while others are placed in harms way, whether by mistake or misdiagnosis. You may have heard how the actor Dennis Quaid has become an advocate for improved medical care after his twin baby sons were given a huge overdose of the wrong medication, very nearly killing them!

When it comes to caring for your health and the health of your loved ones you need to be the advocate conducting your own research. Please use me and our staff if we can help. It’s certainly not easy but with our health and the health of our loved ones hanging in the balance we need to make the effort.

To the next 50 years!

Mike

Whose dash is it anyway?

It's all about the dash.

After posting my last blog, several members told me about their favorite songs to work out to. It seems the soundtracks of our lives are also key to maintaining interest and motivation at the gym.

One song that struck me was by Jon Bon Jovi called 'It's My Life,' a motivating tune that claims while life's not meant to go on forever, it is meant to be lived to the fullest, and on one's own terms.

Click here to view It's My Life by Bon Jovi

The song got me thinking about a story I once heard about how we measure our lives. When our lives end, our birthday and the day of our death are listed with a dash in between. Our lives are essentially that dash - and what we do with the dash is up to us.

For over 30 years I've led a team of people whose mission has been to make regular exercise a permanent part of your life - doing everything we can to make your dash the best it can be.

We know we can't cheat death, but we do want to make sure we don't cheat ourselves out of living a good life. Together, we're redefining how to live long, happy, healthy lives, together.

As the song says:
It's my life
It's now or never
'Cause I ain't gonna live forever
I just wanna live while I'm alive

To the next 50 years, and your dash!

Mike 

The Power of Music

Just finished my 12 noon Ride class and was thinking about what a great workout it is and why!

For years I’ve done cardio workouts on a bike. Between the music and instructor, I always find I push myself much more in a Ride class. High-energy music definitely helps motivate you to work harder.

It got me thinking about an article I read where a large group of laborers in Africa were struggling to lift and load truck by hand onto a barge to cross a river. Then one of them started to chant a rhythmic native song, they all followed in unison and were able to quickly load the truck.

Music can be a powerful force; it does something to our unconscious mind that seems to empower us and help our exercise time fly by.

By the way, I hear people say all the time that they feel they can't do Ride because it's too difficult. The reality is anyone can do it because you completely control your resistance and speed.

If you haven’t tried a Ride class you really should. Join me at noon Tuesday or Thursday, or try one of the other classes!

To the next 50 years!

Mike

Balance exercise with recovery

You should know nothing good happens during a workout!

Working out stresses your body, tears it down, and leaves you measurably weaker when you leave the gym. Only during the recovery period following your workout do your muscles begin to rebuild stronger than before. Without enough time off you will actually become weaker, less fit, and prone to injury.

I had the pleasure of discussing this once with Dr. Dick Brown who coached numerous Olympic and World Champion runners. He saw how many top athletes hurt their performance by over training. These athletes are generally driven and tend to think more is always better. When they saw a dip in their performance they would put in more training time making the situation worse.

Dr. Brown’s program was 12 weeks of carefully planned training with the 13^th week completely off! He said it was awful fighting with his athletes to take that week off.

You don’t have to be an elite athlete to suffer the effects of overtraining. If find you have less energy despite regular workouts, or even if you’ve hit a plateau and feel like you’re not progressing, these are classic signs of overtraining.

Remember, we’re here to help, so let a team member know if you have any concerns or questions so we can help you design a balanced approach to your exercise and recovery.

To the next 50 years!

Mike

Trip to Italy

Sandy and I just returned from an amazing trip to Italy's Amalfi Coast and Tuscany. It was a fantastic trip to this beautiful and ancient country.

Believe it or not the pictures below are from a 2000-year-old health club in the city of Pompeii! Sandy and I had the good fortune of exploring the city of Pompeii that was buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the first century A.D. Our Italian guide took great pride in emphasizing the fact that the Romans who lived in the city had a very strong belief that regular exercise and relaxation were essential for good health. These pictures are of the interior of the gym. The one with the curved seat is from the steamroom, they also had a cold room!

We believe we are the generation that discovered how important exercise and relaxation are for health, but in fact this ancient civilization already realized this important fact. They were a brilliant people, so many of their customs and structures, including bridges, are still standing after 2000 years. Makes you wonder if any of our buildings or bridges will still be standing in 2000 years.

To the next 50 years! Mike

Break free from your scale!

The scale is driving me crazy!

I naïvely thought we could get away from the scales when we got rid of them in the clubs, but I guess it was a pipe dream.

The scale is a horrible tool! It is discouraging and totally misleading.

When we talk about losing weight we really mean losing body fat. The scale is totally inaccurate at measuring body fat.

Okay, you may be asking, then how do you measure body fat loss?

Most guys tend to accumulate fat around their waist first. When they drop a hole on their belt they are losing body fat. Women most often add fat to their hips first, so as their hips go down in size they are losing body fat.

A scale measures total body weight, which you can decrease a number of ways without losing any body fat! Sweating off water in the sauna, taking a diuretic, or going on a diet that can cause severe dehydration (like the Atkins diet) reduces weight without reducing an ounce of body fat.

This method of weight loss has nothing to do with fat loss. It’s strictly a reduction in water, which will go back on with the next drink of water you have.

If you’re concerned about reducing body fat, measure your waistline or your hips and watch that number. Don’t refer to a scale!

Throw the scale away and you’ll have a better chance of achieving your goals.


To your health! Mike

The secret of aging

Work to be younger than your age.

As a famous hair coloring company said, “aging…I’m going to fight it every step of the way.”

In the magnificent best-seller “Younger Next Year,” Dr. Henry Lodge presents a cutting-edge concept of aging, claiming that we really don’t know what healthy aging is!

Prior to this generation, 60 years old was considered ‘ancient.’ The common belief at the time was that we should ‘slow down’ to live longer. Now with the availability of healthier diets and better methods of exercise, many of the things considered part of aging have been disproven.

I had the good fortune of taking a ski trip out West with some good friends a few weeks back. Everyone in the group was an excellent skier and we all love to ski black diamond bumps. We spent six days, seven hours a day, skiing bumps. If you told even me 30 years ago at the age of 60 I would be skiing black diamond bumps for six days straight with a group all over 50, I would’ve told you that you were crazy.

I’ll let you in on a little secret - the key to these changes is a change in attitude. There are now many examples of people in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s performing amazing physical feats.

For those of us who are optimists this changes what we believe we can do. So we stop thinking, “I’m getting old” and start thinking, “I’m as strong as I was when I was thirty why shouldn’t I be able to do the things I did then?”  Scientists on the forefront of aging believe we’re just scratching the surface. With the advantages of better diet and better forms of exercise they have no idea how high or how long people can perform as they age.

At Mike Arteaga’s, we don’t get “older,” we just get ‘better’ because we know the secret to aging successfully.

To your health! Mike 

Don't be scared...

Don’t let the new study on exercise and weight gain that just hit all the media scare you! 

Dr. I-Min Lee of Brigham and Woman’s Hospital in Boston and her colleagues found that in order for women to prevent weight gain over time, they need an hour of  moderate exercise each day.


If you read carefully, there is some good news.  

First, this study along with other new research is finally beginning to distinguish between being fit and being thin, making it clear that fitness - not thinness - prevents disease.  Thinness and fitness are two different goals, and  fitness requires a lot less exercise then 60 minutes a day. 

Secondly, 60 minutes a day of exercise is required only if you are consuming, as they termed it, "the usual American diet," which contains too much fat and too many calories. If instead you choose to eat a more healthy diet and consume fewer calories then “the usual American diet” you can maintain low body fat and good weight in less then 60 minutes a day.


The bottom line is, you can exercise less than 60 minutes a day if:

• You already eat a healthy diet and just want to be fit.
• You want to lower your body fat, get fit and are willing to reduce your calories and eat a healthier diet.

However, plan on spending more than 60 minutes exercising if:

• You are thin and want stay thin while continuing to eat “the usual American diet.” 
• You are already overweight and want to lower your body weight and continue eating the “usual American diet.”

Check out this attached video with a brief interview of Dr. I-Min Lee.

http://wcbstv.com/video/?id=140246@wcbs.dayport.com


Mike

Small action, big results

Sometimes, the smallest actions we take have tremendous impact on our life.

Frank, a long-time member, was exercising regularly, doing everything he thought he should be doing, yet when it came time for spring cleaning he discovered he had a lot more difficulty setting up his ladder then he had in the past.

In his 80's, Frank is very active, still skis regularly, but now he felt like he was getting weaker!

Frank had injured his shoulder a few years ago doing the Lateral Raise Machine, so he decided to lower his weights on all the machines to make sure he didn’t injure himself again. When I asked how he was training, he remembered jerking the last repetition in order to “finish the set.”

It is a common misbelief that when you use heavy weights you will be injured. The reality is that you can’t get stronger without using heavier weights.

Even with lower weights, injury can occur...when the weight is jerked.  When you jerk a weight the resistance it provides is amplified momentarily by 400 to 500%. Slow deliberate form must always be used to prevent injury. The focus should be on tiring the muscle out, not doing a certain 'number' of repetitions. When you’re lifting a weight slowly and you get to a point where you can no longer lift it, you are done. Exhausting the muscle is your goal, not reaching a specified number of reps. It is almost impossible to injure yourself when you move the weight slowly and it produces the fastest results.

Frank's decision to lower his weights significantly changed the results of his strength training program. If you have problems with a particular machine or exercise, discuss it with one of our trainers. They will help you work around the problem. Eliminating or lowering the weight on all the machines will prevent you from getting the benefit from the exercises, especially when you need to recover from an injury, or do some ladder work around the house.

Ironically, another member sent me this link to a New York Times article that addresses this very issue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/health/06real.html?ref=science

Please email me at mikeart48@gmail.com with any questions or comments.

See you soon! 

A long way in 30 years

Imagine gyms with no women, physicians persuading patients not to exercise and absolutely no means to reduce the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.


That's exactly how things were 30 years ago, and I'll say those 30 years have been an exciting time to be involved in the fitness industry.


It's hard to believe when I started virtually no women worked out and the “health” and medical community were urging people not to exercise because it would wear out their bodies. In fact, when people retired they were told they were "old" and the less they did the longer they would live!


Today, more women are exercising than men and most of the health and medical community are urging people to exercise because it is now known to be essential for health. Exercise rebuilds healthy tissue; we will literally rot without it.


As for Parkinson's disease, for many years people were again told not to exercise because it would worsen the symptoms. Recently, researchers did just the opposite by suspending Parkinson’s disease sufferers over treadmills and had them power walk as fast as they could. It was discovered their symptoms improved. And at the Mayo Clinic they discovered that hard cycling which could be replicated on a stationary bike, actually eliminated some symptoms entirely.


Check out this amazing short video clip!
http://www.theracycle.com/parkinsons

Please e-mail me at mikeart@gmail.com with any questions or comments!See you soon! Mike

On a Mission

People always ask me how I started in the fitness industry, so I thought I should start with a little of my story.I grew up in Northern Jersey and first came to the area to attend Marist College in 1966. I decided to try something new so I went out for the Marist crew team. To my great annoyance, I was cut.

Looking back I don’t blame the coach. I was marginally fit, but being cut so incensed me, I began working out with a vengeance. When I tried out again in the spring I made the first freshman boat and we placed third in the nation.
I loved crew and kept working out to improve myself. To my amazement I was elected team captain in my junior year, then again as a senior. Being a shy kid I wondered how I could lead anyone! It soon became clear to me when you are on a mission you are passionate about, people will follow you! This changed my life and focused me on following my passion.

After graduation I very fortunately stumbled into a job with a new startup company called Nautilus. After a few years with them, I decided to open my own Nautilus fitness center. My wife, Sandy, and I began in a tiny 600-square-foot rented space, where we began helping people improve their fitness and heal themselves with exercise.

My mission with future articles is to help support all those who are working to make regular exercise part of their lives!