Helen Blair Health & Fitness

27/03/2023

It'd be really hard to put this any better. If you do resistance training, keep doing it and prioritise it above other kinds of training. If you don't, midlife is a FANTASTIC time to start!

Resistance training triggers hormones that increase abdominal fat burning.

When women come to me wanting to change their body composition, I direct them straight to the weight room. Contrary to the old “cardio to burn fat” “resistance training to build muscle” dogma that mainstream fitness magazines dished out for decades, resistance training is superior for burning fat–especially belly fat.

I recommend that all women strength train at least twice a week, regardless of age! Young women should incorporate lighter weight/higher repetition through a full range of motion and movement patterns to help with body composition and biomechanical changes that occur with puberty. Women in their reproductive years should look to power and hypertrophy training to improve body composition, bone density, and overall strength. Women in the menopause transition and beyond should prioritize strength-power training in their exercise routine, as hormonal changes make it harder to maintain muscle mass and strength (and the hormone changes increase belly fat storage). Strength training is looking to be the cornerstone and foundation across ages for optimizing body composition and health.

#​LHS #​LiftHeavy

13/03/2023

In midlife, we need to choose our priorities. We don’t have the time or the energy to do everything even if we want to.

So my advice is to choose activities that give biggest bang for buck not just in the short term, but for the long run.

My choice has been to look after my body composition. Good muscle mass and carrying a healthy amount of body fat will keep doors open for me for further down the track. It means doing resistance training with heavy weights and putting good foods into (and prioritising protein) my body.

It’ll be my ticket to
- being able to do and perform at the stuff I enjoy
- keeping strength and power
- avoiding trips, falls, breaks and fractures that can be life altering
- a healthy brain

So for this phase of my life, I’m putting that ahead of lots of other health and fitness goals.

If you’re wondering where to put your limited time and energy, ask yourself where you want to be in 20 years and work back from there.

08/03/2023

Happy ! I decided to let USA's awesomely irrepressible Rose Green, 80, set the tone. This is the moment she joyously celebrates becoming in the women's event, 80-84 year old age group, back in Malaga, Spain, in 2018.
Go Rose! We salute your smile, your spirit, your achievements and the all-round cool example you set us for what's possible at 80 and how it can look and feel 😎👏👍💕
Happy International Women's Day everyone! Go Rose, we love you, and go all of us too👊😀❤️

07/03/2023

Start your day with a dose of bright sunlight.

It makes you feel better, more alert and eventually at the end of the day, helps you sleep better.

19/02/2023

Spoiler alert!

Not all workouts are perfect, or even feel good.

My Saturday workout left me feeling a bit ‘meh’. I like to feel like I’ve given my workouts my best shot and I didn’t that day. It was a beautiful morning, the water was lovely but for some reason I didn’t hit the intensity I wanted to and I felt a bit ‘unco’.

Just left me with a feeling of having gone through the motions but not really got the benefit I should have for my efforts.

Why am I telling you this?

Because it happens. Life is full of the imperfect. So are workouts. While it feels unsatisfying when it happens, it’s one day and one workout. So it helps to accept that you weren’t at your best for whatever reason and move on.

Don’t let it put you off. Don’t allow your mind to dwell on it and make unhelpful stories about it. It’s one day. Something didn’t work.

Accept, learn and move on.

You won't be any worse off for having shown up!

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15/02/2023

Muscles attach to bones. Every time you put a muscle under load (move, lift, push, pull) those muscles tug on bones.

Stronger muscles, stronger bones. The more force they exert on your bones.

And they don’t keep themselves strong by themselves in midlife. You’ll have to load’em up a bit.

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14/02/2023

It's a good thing not to have too fixed a sense of identity.

A runner, cyclist, paddler, lifter. Whatever you're favourite activities are, they become part of your sense of self. I'm a [.....] . Too much attachment to any one thing makes being flexible more of a challenge. Because you see yourself as a runner and not a lifter.

These last few weeks with all the poor weather in Auckland I've seen myself back on my bike on an indoor trainer to get a good workout without getting blown or washed away.

A few things have struck me about being on the bike.
- Variety is refreshing
- A range of different demands on my body is good for it ... different stimulus, different adaptation
- If I keep the intensity high and time short, the indoor trainer is nowhere near as boring as I remember it.
- It's been good for my knee while a little ni**le settles down.

Being able to be flexible is very valuable in midlife. You'll find aspects of how you train/exercise need to change with your body. And your body needs different prompts to keep strength and power.

So if you are too fixed in what you believe you 'are' and do and don't do, you're likely to miss out on the benefits of being open to the benefits, joy and surprises of different ways of moving.

And that applies to a lot more than just exercise in midlife because lots of other roles in life can be changing too!!

Stay flexible in mind and body!

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09/02/2023

Midlife is the time to focus on quality over quantity of exercise.

There's no need and generally, much less benefit, in doing more exercise. You'll get better all round health and fitness outcomes from high value, well directed workouts.

What does that look like:

Cardio ... short and hard. A total of about 30 minutes or less with hard efforts like sprints or hills balanced with good recovery time. Warm up, hit it hard for 15-20 minutes then cool down. If you aim to go longer, you'll drop the intensity and miss out on the benefits.

Resistance Training ... 4-5 exercises that work big muscle groups (squats, chest press/push up, pulls and rows). Pick a weight you can do the exercise with good form for only 6 times. You should feel like if you continue beyond the 6th rep the 'wheels will come off' ofr you just wouldn't be able to complete the lift again. So the weight will and should feel heavy. That's about a 30 minute workout too once you've completed each exercise 3-4 times.

More is not better. Lower volume of higher quality is what will make a difference for heart health, muscle mass, brain health, body composition, bone density, fat loss etc, etc.

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09/02/2023

I've been learning to surf for the last 9 months or so.

A great thing for any coach to do. Go do something new to you, experience the emotions, being coached, the wins and challenges. It always brings me back to what it's like to being trying something different.

For a bit of inspiration last week I watched a short documentary about Kelly Slater, a very famous, successful surfer. A GOAT no less (greatest of all time).

Something he said struck me. "Compete and live life like you have nothing to lose".

When we worry or concern ourselves about what we could lose, we look for threats. When we live like we have nothing to lose, we're way more likely to try new experiences and look for opportunities. And it releases some of the pressure we put on ourselves too.

What would you do differently if you lived like you had nothing to lose?

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06/02/2023

Inflammation is a thing as we go through midlife hormonal changes.

Our bodies like to be in predictable patterns and when that's thrown out of whack, our body's response to this stress is inflammation.

It will affect us all a bit differently and to varying degrees however, systemic inflammation in our bodies isn't a good thing from a general health perspective.

One battery of anti-inflammatories we have ready access to is in our diet. Anti-inflammatory foods .. which also happen to be foods that are good for us for any number of other reasons.

So here's a menu of some different foods that will help your body reduce it's overall inflammation levels.

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01/02/2023

So what is a whole grain?

You’ll all be familiar with white rice. You get enough to feed a family of four with each takeaway portion.

It has a lot of the nutritional value stripped off it when it’s processed. It’s husk, bran and germ is milled off and that means it lasts longer in storage.

It also means it’s ‘easier’ to digest. Which is part of its problem for us as women in mid life. It means all the carbohydrate is ‘easy’ to digest and it releases its energy quickly.

A whole grain by contrast hasn’t had the bits with lots of fibre and micronutrients removed. Whole-grains are ‘harder’ to digest because they have more ’layers’ to them and for harder to digest read keep you fuller for longer.

And among those micronutrients is a good % of magnesium which is very beneficial for midlife women. You also get a little bit of protein and all sources of protein get a ✅ from me.

So, practically how can you use whole grains. This is one of the ways I use them:
- measure out enough for 5-7 days (that’s about a cup for me between lunch and dinners;
- heat in a pot
- cool quickly once all the water is absorbed (paper towel is good to lay it out on).
- box up and refrigerate to use as you need.

It is important with rice to cool it quickly and then refrigerate to prevent any bacterial growth amongst all that moisture.

This method means if others in your household want white rice, they can do their thing and you can do yours without any extra fuss.

You’ll need to use much less of these whole grains… cover only a 1/4 of your food plate. That’s because they are more nutrient dense and because of that more calorific.

And much more tasty 😋.

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31/01/2023

Do you have an evening wind down activity? I do, a stretching routine that includes relaxing breathing patterns.

I’m 100% sure it helps with my sleep as well as keeping joints and muscles healthy.

And in midlife, our bodies need more focus on recovery.

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ROMWOD