Learn To Get Healthy

If you are looking to get fit, there are two areas that exercise equipment falls into. Equipment specifically for aerobic fitness and equipment for resistance training. For a total workout, a home gym, therefore, should comprise both types of equipment.

Equipment specifically for aerobic fitness aids in heart health and body fat reduction. The most popular aerobic exercise equipment includes rowers, elliptical trainers, exercise bikes and treadmills. Using these, aerobic exercise helps in strengthening your heart muscle along with losing body fat.

Equipment that helps overload your muscles will get them to form at a respectable rate if you put in a consistent effort. The scope of resistance training equipment is large, including barbells, dumbbells, benches and an array of single and multi exercise machines. Our basal metabolic rate is also increased as we make more muscle, thereby allowing us to increase our overall strength as well as our aerobic fitness.

The home gym is the most well known multi exercise machine. A home gym is convenient because they are available in a range of prices and sizes for every budget. In addition, home gyms offer a myriad of exercises that work every muscle in the body.

Home gyms come in a few unique designs. Bowflex gyms, for example, uses power rods that bend like a bow when the exercise is performed creating progressive resistance that increases as the rods flex. Popular gyms from this brand include the Bowflex PR1000, Bowflex PR3000 and the Bowflex Blaze.

The Total Gym 1800 Club and the Weider Total Body Works 5000, on the other hand, use a bench with pulleys on an incline that generates resistance directly from the user’s own body weight.

Finally, the popular Trx Suspension Training Pro Pack is designed as a portable gym that attaches to any door and uses gravity and body weight for developing resistance.

When beginning a home gym exercise routine there are a few steps you can adopt to make sure your progression stays on track. The first is to write down some short term and long term goals, the details of the program you are to follow, including the time frame.

To correctly valuate your progress, some before and after information can be useful. This includes body composition, strength levels, body part measurements and before and during pictures. Then to track your progress suitably, you can use an exercise and nutrition journal. Keeping detailed notes aids in evaluating how well the program is working and how close your are to your goals. Good luck with your fitness goals!

Having a home gym offers you the freedom to do a full body workout with a single machine, the privacy to workout without any embarrassment, the motivation to get the body you desire, and the convenience to do all of this in your own home. Check out our inclusive reviews on the Bowflex PR3000 and the Total Gym 1800 Club.

Malnutrition is a very threatening condition in the old, because it seriously reduces life expectancy. Similarly, once an older person loses weight due to malnutrition, that weight is typically not put back on ever again.

Since old folks have a tendency to become ill more easily and are absorbing their nutrient elements rather poorly, they’re at high risk of malnutrition.

Common signs of malnutrition are:

- Weight loss
- Muscle wasting
- Skin bruising
- Dry skin
- Oedema
- Poor blood nutrient profile like iron deficiency, etc

In order to protect against malnutrition in the aged, there are five main causes to watch out for:

1. Health problems - Most older individuals have some diseases or their immune system is compromised. Their diseases may lead to reduced appetite or no desire to eat at all. Reduced intakes naturally cause further decay of the immune system making them far more susceptible to developing illnesses. This is likely to present a dangerous cycle causing malnutrition.

2. Depression - Dementia and Parkinson’s Disease are commonly associated with mood swings and personality changes. On top of that, older individuals are commonly isolated, alone, hurting, anxious and sick making their depression worse. Depression is associated with thoughts of death or no wish to live. Typically depressed individuals also stop eating or have no desire for food, making them highly susceptible to malnutrition.

3. Dysphagia - Trouble in swallowing is commonplace among older people. This condition is connected with neurological disorders like stroke, Parkinson’s disease and dementia. Swallowing issues can lead to aspiration or the misdirection of food, drinks, saliva and stomach content into the wind pipe leading to pneumonia (lung infection), dehydration and malnutrition.

4. Dry Mouth (Xerostomia)/taste disturbance - Reduced saliva production is a common result of the ageing process. This condition is exacerbated by prescription medicines frequently given to the aged. Taste disturbances frequently go with dry mouth and that leads to reduced desire to eat as “food simply doesn’t taste good”.

5. Cognitive issues - Poor food recognition, not remembering to eat, food refusal or just inability to open food packaging can be great barriers to adequate nutrition.

In conclusion, while there are plenty of varied reasons for malnutrition in the aged, these 5 are the key ones to look out for. If you know a senior who appears to have any of these conditions, please seek professional help.

Giselle Brand is an accredited practising dietitian and director of Aged Care Nutrition Services. She provides expert services such as aged care menu review and nutrition and hydration accreditation for aged care facilities in Australia.