Thursdays with Andre

“The overall deterioration of the body that comes with growing old is not inevitable. We now realize that some aspects of it can be prevented or reversed.” New England journal of Medicine.

Last night I took a seminar on healthy aging in the 20th century. It was put on by Infofit and taught by Andre Noel  Potvin (one of my most influential teachers). These people know what they are talking about and having been making fitness accessible to everyone for years.

One of the point discussed was the difference between “exercise” and activity. What is the difference? the answer: structure. When you commit to excercise, you are putting into action a plan for your continued health. As opposed to activity which can be walking, playing etc. Exercise is the persuit of cardio; muscular strength; endurance; flexibility; better body composition.

The American College of Sports Medicine requires 5 hours of moderate exercise per week to combat stagnant lifestyles.

Does this mean that you have to lift weights 7 days a week? Of course not. I remember Andre once saying that “you’ll never have to set foot in a gym if you become an adventure tour guide“. If your job in life is movement, mission accomplished. However most of us are not adventure tour guides so what do we do for our continued health?

Disease is unrepaired cellular molecular physiological damage. An impairment of normal functioning.

what we are looking for is “Optimal Performance, without limits” the highest quality or best yeild of health.

Now here are some thing that are in you rcontrol. These are testable and changable with diet and activity:

• Resting Heart Rate
• Blood Pressure
• Blood Lipids
• Waist Girth
• Liver Enzymes
• Hormonal Ballance.

All indicators of Health and risk factors for heart disease.

Did you know that if your waist girth measurement is greater than 40 inches as a male(35 inches female) that you are at an increased risk for cardiac disease? And that Waist Girth is the greatest indicator of cardiac health that we have?

Well now science is taking it a step farther!  What if we could see into the futur and predict this cardiac risk factor before it ever happens?

By taking 2 inches off this predictor, we can! The reason is something called “Creeping Obesity” Studies have shown that those two inches take about two years to be put on. So, by using 38 inches for men and a guidline(32 for women) we now have an indicator tht possibly can see into the futur. AND STOP THE PROBLEM BEFOR IT EVER STARTS!

Have your fitness professional or primary care test you for these factors.

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