As one of the premiere active retirement communities in the country, it's no wonder that the overwhelming number of Garlands members are aging remarkably well. This is thanks impart (if I do say so myself!) to our highly personalized fitness program. A remarkable 75 percent of Garlands members actively participate in a regular fitness program! As their trainer, I try to tailor a plan to meet each individual resident's needs-something that caters to their likes, personalities and abilities.

We offer something for everyone-from Tai Chi, Body Flow, Body Pump, Walking club, pool aerobics and conditioning classes. Plus our cardio and weight equipment are top notch! This blog will detail all the fun exciting fitness activities going on at The Garlands.

I hope to see you back!

Labels: active retirement communities, active senior living, Chicago estate planning, chicago retirement community, Fitness and Activities

Many members are telling me about the changes they see since beginning an exercise program in The Garlands fitness center. I thought it might be fun to share with you what they have to say. Here are just a few of the comments I have received:

"My pants are looser."
"I've had to buy new shirts because the old ones don't fit anymore--I've lost so much weight."
"My doctor was able to take me off of my sugar medication."
"My back feels better."
"I no longer sway from side to side when I walk."
"It makes me feel better mentally."
"My legs feel looser and more relaxed."
"My knees don't bother me when I'm exercising."
"I just feel better overall."

What is really exciting is that these people are not spending long amounts of time exercising. They are simply taking a 30-minute resistance or strength training exercise class two or three times a week in addition to using the NuStep on a regular basis.

The NuStep is a very gentle yet effective piece of aerobic equipment that is fun and easy to use. Many members report how their balance has improved by using the NuStep. I highly recommend it! It's gentle on the knees and gives a cardiovascular workout for the heart while strengthening the arms and legs a bit too.

However, while the NuStep is great for aerobic exercise, it's still necessary to use strength training equipment or bands and balls and do an additional 10-20 minutes resistance training routine to maintain muscle mass and bone density. I am here to help you design and learn your own personalized workout program. So while working on the NuStep is a great start to exercising, ideally we'd like to add in resistance training as well.

Labels: Fitness and Activities

Q: Will I bulk up and develop big muscles that I do not want if I start lifting weights?

A: The answer is no. If you use light weights and high repetition this will not happen. Furthermore, women in particular are not genetically designed to build up big muscles. What you will do is firm and tone muscles, prevent atrophy and decrease risk of osteoporosis.

I also think that taking classes is a great way to build strength, stretch and improve balance.

Labels: Fitness and Activities

Garlands members enjoy a tour of enchanting Lake Geneva.


Dolores Gray, Delores Lobraico and Betty Catlin enjoy the view from the "Belle."


After a delicious lunch, Lois Haselwood, Florence Wysocki and Cookie Cook listen to the Captain's narration aboard the "Belle."


Members board the bus after a beautiful day.

Labels: chicago retirement community, Fitness and Activities, senior retirement communities, upscale retirement community, upscale senior living

"Images from Tibet" features the photography of Brian Ziegler, son of Garlands' member, Gregg Ziegler. For over ten years now Brian has pursued an avocation of photography from his international travels. This exhibit presents works from his trip to Tibet in the fall of 1999. Each image was captured on color negative film, transferred into digital format by scanning, and then printed onto canvas with an inkjet plotter. Join Brian on September 9 to discuss his travels through the lens. "Images of Tibet" Art Reception with pictures.

Right to Left: JoAnn, Gregg, Brain & Lyra (Brian's Daughter) Ziegler.

Labels: Chicago estate planning, chicago senior living, Fitness and Activities, upscale retirement home, upscale senior living

Garlands member Mary Barnes studied with Barnet Rubenstein at the School of Museum of Fine Arts as well as Fred Berger from the Evanston Art Center. Mary attended Bowling Green University in Ohio and the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition, Mary has won numerous awards and honors for her work and has exhibited her work in many museums across the country. An accomplished painter, Mary is generously teaching other members in the art of still life painting.
We're proud to have such a talent artist among us, and excited to see what other budding painters she might unveil with her class!

Labels: active retirement communities, Chicago assisted living, Fitness and Activities, upscale retirement community

Dancing is great for body & soul, and Garlands' members aren't shy about cutting the rug on a regular basis. Staying young at heart is a big part of active senior living, and as such, dancing is a big part of The Garlands Lifestyle. Check out some highlights from our recent Big Band Dance.

Sam and Scootie Jeffers show their footwork on the dance floor.

Members have fun doing the Chicken Dance.

Labels: active retirement communities, active retirement community, Chicago independent living, Fitness and Activities

If you've been following our better balance report since it started in January, here's a review of what we've learned:

• Your sense of balance needs to be used often to stay in good shape.
• When you were younger, your daily activities exercised your sense of balance and kept it in good condition.
• As you get older, and your activity level decreases, your sense of balance gets less stimulation, causing the quality of your balance to deteriorate.
• Strong legs can help prevent falls and improve quality of life.
• There are many simple changes you can make to your home to decrease your chance of falling there.
• The combination of doing balance exercises, increasing leg strength, and reducing tripping hazards gives you the best chance of avoiding falls, maintaining independence and enjoying a high quality of life.

~Mike Ross, author of "The Balance Manual,"

www.balance-exercises.com

Labels: better balance report, Chicago assisted living, Chicago independent living, Fitness and Activities, senior retirement communities, upscale senior living

The number of retirees that are taking control of their health and joining fitness centers is growing every year. In this installment we will look at how a traditional senior fitness program affects your balance. The chief reason people go to the health club is because their daily lives don't provide enough movement to keep them in good shape. The various machines at the club help fill that activity void. Since we don't have very much time, we try to fit an entire day's worth of movement into an hour or two at the fitness center. Walk on this. Pedal that. Pull this down. Press that up. Go home.

The only problem is that when you use machines for cardio and strength training, you are leaving out one crucial ingredient--balance. Think about the treadmill. You are walking, but you are also holding tightly onto the handles to keep you balanced. There are no curbs or potholes to dodge, no rabid dogs to get away from, just you in a perfectly controlled and unchallenging environment. How about a typical exercise bike? What are the chances that it might tip over? I would say about slim to none. As far as balance goes, most exercise bikes are about as demanding as lying on the couch. What about strength machines? Almost all of them require you to sit during use. Some even have seat belts (why don't they include cup holders while they're at it).

You get the idea. If you use these machines like many seniors do, you may become strong, and you may improve your endurance, and I think that's great. Unfortunately, they won't do much for your balance. Having strong muscles and good endurance without good balance is like having a truck that has four hundred horsepower and gets fifty miles per gallon but tips over every time you turn a corner.

That's why you need to train your balance with balance exercises. Better balance will enhance the benefits of both strength and cardio training. In just ten minutes a day, you can train your sense of balance to keep it in shape or even improve it. You can do balance exercises at your health club or in your home whenever it's convenient for you.

Stay tuned for Part 4 where we'll take a closer look at balance exercises.

Mike Ross
Author of "The Balance Manual"
balance-exercises.com

Labels: active retirement communities, active senior living, better balance report, Chicago assisted living, Fitness and Activities, senior living facility

In part 1 we looked at why balance deteriorates as you age. All too often, as people's balance worsens, they tend to reduce their daily activity level out of a fear of falling. They don't want to do anything that might cause them to fall. However, this only causes more problems. Last time we learned that the activities of your daily life help keep your balance in shape. Therefore, decreasing those activities means that your sense of balance does not get as much use, allowing it to deteriorate further (due to the "use it or lose it" principle).

This can develop into a vicious cycle: Decrease in activity over the years = Balance gets worse = Further decrease in activity out of a fear of falling = Balance gets even worse.

The end result of this cycle is a person who can't walk anywhere without having one hand on something sturdy, like a couch, the wall, a cane, or another person. This is the type of person who will routinely not participate in outings that their family and friends are going on because they think they might fall. Poor balance is now causing a lower quality of life. The problem is, you can't completely quarantine yourself from falling. Even if you don't go out much, and you try to avoid any potentially hazardous situations, life will eventually throw an unexpected scenario at you that will challenge your balance.

If your balance is not used to being challenged, this situation can result in a fall, and it often does. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), for people over sixty-five, falls are the most common cause of injury and the number one reason for admission to the hospital. By now you're probably thinking, "Okay, Mike, I understand that the activities that I used to do were also training my balance, but I can't just go out and start running around like a teenager just so my sense of balance will get some exercise."

You're right. At this point, a lot of those things you used to do might be dangerous for your body. That's why I developed balance exercises, so we could challenge your balance while in a safe environment. That concept is called "Controlled Instability." More on that in Part 4. Stay tuned for Part 3 next month, where we'll discuss traditional senior exercise programs and their impact on balance.

Mike Ross
Author of "The Balance Manual"
balance-exercises.com

Labels: active retirement community, better balance report, Chicago estate planning, Fitness and Activities, Midwest retirement home, senior living, upscale retirement home

Do you have a fear of falling? Do you feel less steady than you used to? Many would say this is just a natural part of getting older, but there's a lot more to it than that.

You've probably heard of the "use it or lose it" principle in regards to health and fitness. It basically states that if you don't get enough physical activity, your heart, bones, and muscles will get weaker. This principle also applies to balance. If you don't regularly put your body in situations where it needs balance, your sense of balance will get worse. You are telling your brain and body, "Balance is not important to me." Your body will adapt to your lifestyle. The brain generally does not see any reason to keep certain capacities adept if those capacities are not being used very much.

After a certain age, many people start to move less and less. This usually happens after retirement. Take a minute and think about how much activity you get on a typical day compared to twenty years ago. Generally, as we get older, activities that involve a lot of movement (like sports, yard work, and playing with kids) are slowly replaced with activities that involve a lot of sitting (like reading, watching TV, playing cards, and going out to eat).

Here's the problem--movement requires balance, sitting does not. The activities you were doing when you were younger were not only keeping your heart, bones, and muscles strong--they were also keeping your balance in good shape. Over the years, as time spent moving decreased and time spent sitting increased, your sense of balance got less "exercise," which allowed it to deteriorate. Now here you are, years later, with a sense of balance that is a shadow of its former self.

The good news is that the "use it or lose it" principle is a two-way street. Everyone knows that you can train your heart and muscles to make them stronger. You can also train your balance as a part of active senior living lifestyle. Stay tuned for Part 2 in the series when we will examine a common ways to help with poor balance.

Mike Ross
Author of "The Balance Manual"
balance-exercises.com

Labels: active senior living, better balance report, Chicago assisted living, chicago retirement community, Fitness and Activities, Midwest retirement home

The trek may be virtual, but the benefits are real.

A group of Garlands members are on a their way to Paris (more than 4,140 miles away from Barrington) by walking, swimming, biking, even climbing! About 40 men and women--all senior citizens--are participating, counting the miles logged while exercising against their goal. They're currently just over half-way. Members report that having a goal makes exercise easier and more fun.

Au revoir! See you in Paris!

Labels: active senior living, Chicago assisted living, Fitness and Activities, senior living facility, senior retirement communities