If Not Now, When?

THIS ISSUE: Too Good To Be True?

Table of Contents:

1) Editor's Note
2) Food for Thought
3) Feature Article: Too Good To Be True?
4) Teleclasses
5) Question & Answer
6) Our Services

Editor's Note

Hi,

Well, here I go again. I had my second knee surgery for this year on July 23. It was arthroscopic surgery on the left knee this time. They had to go in and clean up some torn cartilage and smooth up a few surfaces, just like they did on the right knee back in May. Now I have to start my rehab all over again. Hopefully by early Fall I should back to full functioning joints without any pain or other concerns.

As I told you in my last newsletter, my wife and I went back to Chicago in July for our youngest grandson's 5th birthday. We got to see lots of family and friends at the party, and we also got to spend some quality time with all four of our grandchildren. The older two, a boy and a girl, are 15 and 12 respectively. They are getting to the age where going out with their grandparents isn't too cool. Oh well, we'll take what we can get and just continue to find different ways to spoil them.

When ever I watch TV I always marvel at all the ads for exercise equipment, arthritis cures, and diet products. This month I decided to address these issues in my main article. I hope you find the information interesting and useful.

Good luck, keep exercising, and remember – "If not now, when?".

Best Wishes,

Tom Manfredi


Send any comments you may have to tom@fitness-after-50.com

My site fitness-after-50.com

Food for Thought

Feature Article - Too Good To Be True?

The number of advertisements for exercise equipment, diets, and supplements that are on TV, in papers, and in other forms of print and electronic media are mind boggling. And, more importantly, I think that many of them are very misleading, if not outright lies.

Many of these ads trade on false hopes by promising quick cures and easy solutions. We've all seen them. They tell you that if you use their new piece of exercise equipment for just 15 minutes, three times per week, you can have a body with sculpted muscles and six pack abs just like the models they are showing you pictures of.

Or, how about taking the advertiser's special pill once a day to lose all the weight you want while not worrying about what you eat. And, without doing any regular exercise.

Then, there are claims for all the different supplements that can cure your arthritis, make you more manly, or get rid of all your wrinkles.

Is there anyone out there who hasn't heard of at least a few of these types of products? I don't think so. Not unless you don't watch TV, read a paper or magazine, or browse the internet.

And, I hope no one thinks that just because you see it on the net, on TV, or in a magazine, that is must be true. You can't even begin to imagine the many ways that people and companies can “legitimately” mislead you.

Here's a simple example. A number of years back, I bought a book on weight training written by a woman who represented herself as Jane Doe, PhD (obviously I'm not using her real name). It was actually not a bad book. But, that's not my point. In doing a little research I found out that she did in fact have a PhD, but it wasn't in any biological or exercise science, it was in Literature. So what gave her the right to represent herself as an exercise expert who had all the knowledge to write this type of book. If she told people up front that her PhD wasn't related to the field she was writing about, do you think many people would have been interested in what she had to say? By indicating “PhD” after her name on the cover of the book, she implied that she had expertise that she really didn't have. This is a simple example of how someone can tell a “truth” that misleads people for their own benefit.

One of my other favorites is the myriad of diet/weight loss products that are advertised everywhere. In some form or another, most of these products imply that if you use them with normal diet and exercise, you will lose lots of weight and end up with a taught, muscular body. What they don't tell you is that you can get most of the same results just by eating sensibly and exercising regularly. And, in case you didn't know, in order to get the lean, muscular bodies that you see in most of these ads, you would have to do enough exercise and dieting to get your percent of body fat down below 10%, which is not realistic for most people. How do I know that? Because I have an advanced degree in exercise science, and I have done a lot of independent research in this area.

Another interesting set of ads, are the ones that tell you to use their new piece of exercise equipment just a few minutes a day and you will have a perfect body in a very short time. I think they use the same models for the exercise equipment as the people who do the diet/weight loss products. Once again, none of these pieces of equipment can get you the results they claim without a lot more work then they suggest. Don't get me wrong, some of the exercise equipment is useful, but, more as a supplement or aid to your overall exercise program rather than as the center piece.

So, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

(c)2005 - 2009 Thomas D. Manfredi, MS

Teleclasses

I will be announcing upcoming teleclasses in this section in the future.

If you have a topic that you would be interested in hearing about in a teleclass, send an e-mail to teleclasses@fitness-after-50.com

Questions and Answers

Answer - Yes. A good set of resistance/weight equipment (dumbbells, barbells, stretch tubes, or multi station weight machine) can take care of most of your strength training. Add a good stretching program and aerobic exercise to the mix and you can have a well rounded exercise program. And, remember, resistance/weight equipment doesn't have to be expensive to get the job done. A few different size dumbbells, or resistance tubes can work almost as well as an expensive multi station weight machine, if you know which exercises to do and how to do them properly.

To get more information on various fitness and health issues, please go to my site – www.fitness-after-50.com


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If you have a fitness or nutrition question you would like me to consider answering here in the newsletter, just send your question, along with your first name and city, in an e-mail to quesandansw@fitness-after-50.com

Obviously, I can't answer every question submitted. I will choose one question each month to answer here.

About Our Services

On line fitness coach Tom Manfredi is the creator of the site "fitness-after-50". This site is designed with the mature adult in mind. There is a lot of information available on the site for anyone looking to start or restart a sensible exercise program. Learn more by going to www.fitness-after-50.com



Tom Manfredi, 1218 Easy St., Ste 101, Wickenburg, AZ 85390

Other Services and Information

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