Age Strong Live Well Edition 2
First up: Questions from last edition!
Question 1:
“HOW am I supposed to get 100 grams of protein a day. How!?”
I know. That sounds like a lot - and it is! Do not be overwhelmed. If your usual intake is 20 grams of protein a day, even getting up to 40 or 50 will help you tremendously. Rome wasn’t built in a day so start small.
Secondly - shakes and smoothies are the way to go. Whey protein is delicious and if you mix it with milk, berries, a banana and even some peanut butter you’re well on your way to getting to your protein goal, especially if you have two and spread them out throughout the day.
Question 2:
“I can’t handle dairy…am I out of luck when it comes to making protein shakes?”
Not at all! I also don’t eat dairy so I use a pea protein substitute (chocolate is pretty good) and I use a protein-enriched oat milk mixed with berries, bananas and greens. It takes 2 minutes to make in the morning and has about 50 grams of protein. I slowly drink it throughout the day and it makes hitting my protein goal much easier :)
Don’t be overwhelmed! You can do it!
If you have questions that you want answered in the next edition, just send me an email at Dan@ChapmanPT.com and I’ll happily answer them!
Big topic for this week: Avoid the sprint mentality.
Motivation is great. But sometimes, it can get the best of us. As a physical therapist I know that my evaluations are going to go through the roof a few times a year:
February and the week after the Baltimore Marathon.
Why?
Because we like to jump in with two feet. We’re told that when you start a fitness routine you have to dedicate yourself and hit the ground running….so to speak. Unfortunately, this isn’t really the best for our bodies. So sometimes, those who haven’t exercised in years get motivated to hit the gym hard for their New Years resolution. Unfortunately, if their bodies aren’t up for the task, they end up in my office come February. And for the Baltimore Marathon … that’s pretty obvious. The marathon is the quintessential running goal and sometimes those who start their training a little late don’t quite have the time to get their body up to speed…so to speak. This can leave them needing some physical therapy afterwards to help put them back together again.
So what should we do? Avoid “the sprint” mentality. Fitness…exercise…training…it’s all a marathon and slow and steady wins the race. I would like to break this down in my own words but truly I don’t think anything I could write here would be as helpful as this phenomenal short video that I truly hope you take the time to watch.
Please trust me - it’s worth 4 minutes of your time.
Research Corner! Hip Strength and its relationship to falling.
If you know me, you know I love research. So here is the quick break down of this fantastic paper.
Don’t want to fall? Hip strength is where it’s at.
From the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging in May of 2020 came a phenomenal paper investigating whether or not researchers could predict which research subjects were falling by only measuring hip abductor strength (lying on your side and lifting your leg up towards the ceiling while keeping your toes pointed straight ahead.)
Turns out…..
They could.
By just measuring that one motion, researchers could accurately predict which older adults had fallen in the last year. Why? because hip strength is integral to our balance, it’s integral to our ability to walk, hike, squat, lift items off the ground, go up and down stairs etc etc….and when we do trip and fall, we need good hip strength in order to catch ourselves.
Big take away? Strengthen those hips! I’ve included a link here to the paper if you want to read it as well as a link to an infographic released by The Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy (full disclaimer, I’m an Associate Editor for JOSPT) covering good hip strengthening exercises you can perform at home.
Keep your hips strong and you are well on your way to living your best life.
