Nanaimo and surrounding is blessed with a wealth of wonderful, passionate health and fitness professionals like Tasha who inspire others, helping them to overcome obstacles and live healthier lives. These Yoga teachers, Fitness Instructors, Massage Therapists and others deserve to be more widely known because they have so much knowledge and insight to share. This post was part of a newsletter I received from Tasha who own the Gabriola Fitness center. I found the information below so inspiring I’ve asked Tasha if I could share it with you all. Thanks, Tasha, for writing this post.

Exercise and again, how does it work together, especially as you get older?  You may be surprised by how many people in their 60’s and 70’s tells me that it just keeps getting better.  (by ‘it’ they are referring to exercise and how it feels to be in their body) You may not be surprised by this when you know that I work in a fitness centre – of course I would hear this.

Let’s think about that for a minute… working in a fitness centre, I hear people say that fitness keeps getting better with age…One thing I should mention is that the people I hear this from are people who are dedicated to their health.  The people who say this come to the gym many times per week and also have another activity (or two or three) that they enjoy on a weekly basis.  Some of these people have dealt with major injuries or being overweight.  The good news is that a person can start at any time.  Isn’t that exciting?!

I can tell you from my own experience that the first steps are THE HARDEST, then it gets easier, then the results start showing up.  Sticking to an exercise and nutrition program for a full year will show you something you didn’t know possible – transformation.  Sticking to an exercise program for 2 years will show you something that will amaze you – bone density, joint health, strength, endurance and a huge genuine smile on a regular basis.  Sticking to an exercise program for longer than 2 years (lifestyle at this point) and you will be in your 60’s and 70’s saying that it just gets better with age.

“Not Exercising May Be Worse for Your Health Than Smoking, Study Says”(article from Time.com)

“It’s common knowledge that there are many benefits to being fit, but one large new study found that skipping out on the gym is particularly bad for your health.

In fact, the study claims not exercising may be more harmful to your health than smoking.

New findings, published Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open, detail how researchers at the Cleveland Clinic studied 122,007 patients from 1991 to 2014, putting them under treadmill testing and later recording mortality rates. Researchers found a clear connection between a longer, healthier life and high levels of exercise. The report calls for health care professionals to encourage patients to achieve and maintain a robust fitness routine.

“Cardiorespiratory fitness is inversely associated with long-term mortality with no observed upper limit of benefit,” the study says. “Extremely high aerobic fitness was associated with the greatest survival and was associated with benefit in older patients and those with hypertension.”

Although it is widely understood that an active lifestyle can lead to a healthy life, the study concludes that a sedentary lifestyle is the equivalent of having a major disease and the simplest cure is exercise.

Dr Wael Jaber, co-author of the study, called the results surprising.

“Being unfit on a treadmill or in an exercise stress test has a worse prognosis, as far as death, than being hypertensive, being diabetic or being a current smoker,” Jaber told CNN.“We’ve never seen something as pronounced as this and as objective as this.”

The study also took a look at the risk of being overactive and found that “ultra” exercisers do not face higher risk of death: the research consistently found that the more a person exercises the lower their mortality rates.”

Watch this video -> Lifting weights at 72 years old

Seriously, don’t miss out on this short video about an inspiring 72 year old woman who lifts weights!! (who is also a doctor)

Make sure you also check this post about How to get up from the ground safely?