Most of us spend nearly a third of our life sleeping. Yet for many people they do not get enough quality sleep and their health pays a big price for it. As a Personal Trainer for over 15 years now, the number one goal most people want is nine times out of ten to lose some weight and get fit. More recently it has been to overcome some chronic pain or injury, and only then can their fitness goals be tackled. And for many Personal Trainers, physical therapists the most obvious solutions to these goals is to start exercising more and eat better. And why I agree with this too and highly recommend it I have found this is only addressing a part of the puzzle. And I also believe that people must be very careful with how hard an exercise program is if they are not getting enough sleep. The areas that are often neglected when starting a health and fitness program, is reducing a person's Stress, which I have talked about many times before, (see our article on why people have trouble losing weight even when they exercise) and also improving the amount and quality of sleep.

Neck Pain and Back Pain are some of the most debilitating, stressful and life changing injuries anyone can suffer from. And when the pain remains for long time and becomes chronic it can affect your work, home life, it can even affect your relationships as it changes your moods and ultimately starts to wreck your life in more ways than one. This means having a program to firstly prevent chronic pain, and secondly to rid yourself of pain if you already are in this situation is critical. Unfortunately most therapists and rehabilitation programs focus only on removing the pain, or treating the symptoms. This WILL NOT help the chronic pain sufferer at all because it has not addressed the real problem or the cause of the pain. After spending 12 years of working with hundreds of clients who suffer from all types of chronic pain, sciatica & piriformis syndrome, bulged disc in neck or low back, knee problems etc, I have found that there is a common theme in the people who get on top of their pain, versus the people who continue to suffer and go from therapist to therapist, searching for the magic pill that we all know does not exist.

We have spoken about Strength Training For Older Adults many times before, and the value not to just to our muscles and bones but our overall health and well being. When we say exercise can slow the ageing process we are not necessarily talking about how you look, but more how you function in life. When an older adult comes to see me for the first time and in many cases are very stiff, lack confidence walking up and down stairs, balance is a huge problem and they are noticeably weak, and they feel as if it is too late. Some are on powerful medication with damaging side affects that are merely treating symptoms and speeding up their rate of disability. In many cases older adults are often treated by society as it is too late and an inevitable part of getting old. But it is very important to realize that it is NEVER TOO LATE and that older adults are not merely the sum of their chronic diseases. And they should never be treated as such. Nor should it be assumed that just because they are older they are going to have a whole bag of disease conditions. They may, but they might not. The most important part of understand about exercise is, its impact on "functional capacity" which is what I am going to talk about next. This article we are going to show you real life examples and give you proof of why we ALL should be using Functional Strength Training methods to live a healthier life.