Staying Healthy in the Fast Lane

the triad exercise program

your body, all parts of it! In the elderly, it is more important to live
by the popular phrase “use it or lose it!”

TRIAD Exercise Phase III (Step 6):

Efficient Flexibility Training

DO SOME type of flexibility exercises four to seven days per
week for fifteen to sixty minutes. In fact, any way you look at it,
flexibility needs to be incorporated into your TRIAD Exercise
Program for some or all of the following reasons:

• To keep you limber so you can do the normal activities of
  daily living with ease.


• To prevent repetitive-use injuries to muscles, tendons, and
  joints that you use frequently for work, daily function, or rec-
  reation.


• To prevent back pain and help preserve what spinal disk in-
  tegrity is left with the pumping of fluid in and out of the disk
  area.


• To prevent shoulder and neck pain and headaches from the
  chronic tension caused by the sedentary lifestyle of the aging
  Westerner.


• To de-stress you and provide a sense of relaxation and peace.


• To allow you to keep doing the other two phases of the TRI-
  AD Exercise Program (aerobics and strength training).

Here are some “flexibility pearls” for this important third phase
of the TRIAD Exercise Program or sixth Step to Optimal Health.

¾ Do some light aerobics or your aerobic workout before

you stretch, if possible. It generally feels better to stretch

with warm muscles.

¾ Always ease into your flexibility exercises: stretching,

yoga, or Pilates training.

¾ Do a short, fifteen- to twenty-minute yoga, Pilates, tai chi,

or qi gong DVD if you don’t have the time for an hour or