The Truth: Women and Exercise: Part 1

STEPHANIE JOHNSON, Maximum Performance Physical Therapist

For far too long, women have exercised and dieted as a way to “get healthy”. We’ve been brain washed by magazine covers with photoshopped models and media-driven fad diets and exercise programs. For those of us over 40, we just can’t shake the Jane Fonda image of leotards and step aerobics. But the truth is, we haven’t been told the truth about health and fitness, and it’s why we put the science into all we do at Maximum Performance. 

Let’s go over a few key terms – body mass, lean muscle and bone density – to separate the myths from the science. 

Body mass is simply the weight of all our parts added together. Lean muscle is your body weight minus bone, organ weight and fat mass. Bone density is a measurement of the amount of minerals (think calcium) in your bones. The higher the mineral content, the stronger your bones are.

These are critical factors to determining your health. That’s why Maximum Performance offers body composition testing. You stand on a computerized scale, and it produces a report covering 15 metrics, including your weight, body mass index and bone mass. This service is available to anyone, whether you are a member of our fitness center or not, and clients tell us it was well worth $20. It is an outstanding tool.

Next time, we’ll talk about how body mass, lean muscle and bone density are interrelated. Until then, please contact me about body composition testing or just stop by. You’ll be happy you did!