- Welcome to the StrongWomen program.  Today we are going to do the StrongWomen program, talk about all the evidence and the support around this program.  I have a family of participants that's going to participate with us today, so let's get started.  My name is Angie Flickinger.  I'm the Family Living Educator for UW-Extension in Rock County.  So if all of you guys could stand up.  And we are going to start marching in place to get warmed up.  So the first thing about this program, it's an evidence-based strength training program for older adults.  It benefits five-year-olds, seven-year-olds, 10-year olds, and we've also had 102-year-olds in our classes.  So it benefits anyone. 

 We're going to meet you where you're at.  And hopefully at the end of this program we're going to be a little bit stronger than before we came in today.   The StrongWomen Program is-- it was established at Tufts University as part of a research project that went on, and the mission kind of of the national and international program of StrongWomen is to increase the safe and effective use of weights in women and men abroad.  So this program is in Canada.  It's in Australia.  It's in the United States, and it's in Mexico.  So we expect that this class we're going to do today is going to look the exact same as what people are doing in Australia and Florida and California.  So, welcome to the program.  We're going to get started now.  So first of all, we're going to stand behind our chairs-- or stand in front of our chairs, sorry. 

 The first exercise we're going to do is a wide-leg squat.  So we're going to strengthen our quadriceps.  We want to do that so we can get up and down, out of the stairs, out of the chairs, off the toilet.  So then what we're going to do is really slow count.  We're going to stick our behinds out.  What it's going to look like is we're going to have our arms here.  If you feel like this is going to be too easy, grab some hand weights, and you can add those two, too.  And we're going to go down, two-three-four.   Skim your booty right on the chair, and then push up with your heels.  Up, two-three-four. 

 Down for two.  We're going to do two sets of ten of all of these exercises.  Hold it, hover right over that chair.  Push up with your heels.  Up, two-three-four.  Down for three, two-three-four.  Hold it.  Up, two-three-four.  Great, looking good.  Down for four, two-three-four. 

 Up, two-three-four.  Down for five, two-three-four.  Push up with those heels, up, two-three-four.  Keeping going.  Down for six, two-three-four.  Up, two-three-four.  Make sure your knees aren't coming over your toes.  You want to really push your behinds back into that chair like you're squatting in the woods.  Up, two-(laughing) three-four.  What are we on? - Seven. 

 - Good! Seven.  Up, two-three-four.  Big breaths; don't try to hold your breath.  Down for eight, two-three-four.  Up, two-three-four.  Down for nine, two-three-four.  Up, two-three four.  Last one, down for ten, two-three-four.  Hold it.  Up. 

 Nice and slow.  Good.  So did you feel that in your quadriceps? This is good.  If we feel a little bit of burning, this is good.  This is making our legs and muscles get better.  We know that we want to kind of max our muscles out each time.  So if you were able to do about 15 more of those, then you need to grab some hand weights and make the effort a little bit harder if you want to get the best bang for your buck.  So the next thing we're going to do is do another set of 'em, okay? So let's get ready.   We're going to go down, two-three-four.  Hold it. 

 Up, two-three-four.  Down for two.  Legs should be about shoulder-width apart.  Push up with your heels.   Check your knees when you're going down.  Make sure they're not coming over your toes, and then push up with those heels.   Down for four, two-three-four.  Up, two-three-four.  Down for five, two-three-four.  Up, two-three-four. 

 Down for six...good...two-three-four.  Up, two-three-four.  Down for seven.  Three more.  You should start feeling it now.  Up, two-three-four.  Down for eight, two-three-four.  Hold it.  Up, two-three-four.  Down for nine, two-three-four. 

 Up, two-three-four.  Last one.  Ten, two-three-four.  Up, two-three-four.  Great! All right.  So you should feel that right in your thighs.  Okay.  So the next one we're going to do is a shoulder press.  So you can grab lighter weights.  You should have, you know, two sets of weights underneath your chairs. 

 So today we're going to strengthen all of our muscles.  So we're going to, you know, we're going to do our legs, our arms, our abs, our back.  We're kind of gonna cover all of them.  So for this one, I should see your wrists.  You can do this one without weights, if you'd like to.  If you have a shoulder problem, make sure that you have the same amount of weights in each hand.  Okay, big breath.  Make sure your legs are loose.  And we're going up, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four. 

 Good.  Up for two, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for three, two-three-four.  Wrists are in neutral position.  Up for four, two-three-four.  Down nice and slow.  Up for five, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for six, two-three-four. 

 Down, two-three-four.  Up for seven, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Eight, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  N-i-i-n-n-e (laughing).  Down, two-three-four.  Up for ten, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Good you can put your-- you can keep 'em in your hands and rest. 

 So with this exercise you want to strengthen your shoulders so you can reach for things, grab things out of the kitchen counter.  You know, anything that you're doing above your head, you really want to strengthen those shoulders.  It also helps with your posture, too.  So there's lots of reasons that we would do physical activity.  We all know we should walk.  We should swim and bike and, you know, do cardiovascular stuff.  What we don't know, or that we haven't figured out as Americans yet, is only about seven percent of women strength train on a regular basis.  And the recommendation is that a hundred percent of us should be strength-training.  Men, there's a slightly higher number, but still not, you know, meeting that hundred percent.  So we know there's this gap between what is going on and what we know we should do. 

 So this kind of fulfills that need for strength training, especially post-menopause, which we'll talk about a little bit later.  All right.  Second set.  If that was too easy and you weren't feeling it when it was kind of difficult at nine and ten, then definitely grab some heavier weights.  Otherwise we will begin.  Up, two-three-four.  Down, nice and slow, two-three-four.  Up for two.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for three, two-three-four. 

 Down, two-three-four.  Up, two-three-four.  Down, nice and slow.  Great! Up for five, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for six, two-three-four.  Your shoulders should be getting a little bit tired now.  By the time we get to nine and ten, you should feel the burn and barely able to push it up.  That way we know you kind of maxed out that muscle to maximum capacity and strength-building.  Eight, two-three-four. 

 Down, two-three-four.  Nine, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Last one, up for ten, two-three-four.  Down, nice - and - slow.  Good.  You can put those hand weights under your chair and grab heavier ones.  So we're going to do a bicep curl.  So your biceps are a little bit stronger than your shoulders.  So we're going to do that one next. 

  All right.  Again, if you feel like you would like to sit instead of stand, you can do that.  Otherwise you're standing in front of your chair.  Legs are nice and loose, not locked-out knees.  Legs are shoulder-width apart.  And this one we're going to do bicep curls.  So we're going to strengthen our upper arm, and we're going to curl up.  So we're going to go up, two-three-four.  Keep your elbows tucked nicely in.  Down, two-three-four. 

 Curl back into neutral position.  Back up for two, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for three, two-three-four.  Good, looking good! Down, two-three-four.  Up again, two, nice and slow.  On your back down make sure it's nice and controlled.  So you're keeping your bicep nice and tight all the way down, keeping that pressure.  All right, up four, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four. 

 Good.  Up for six, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for seven, two-three-four.  Keep those wrists in neutral position.  Down nice and slow.  You should be able to keep a piece of paper between your arm pit and the side of your body.  Down, nice and slow, two-three-four.  Nine, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four. 

 Last one.  Up for ten, two-three-four.  Down nice and slow.  Down, two-three-four.  Good.  So we're going to do another set of those.  There's a lot of reasons you would want to strengthen your arms.  That's for lifting, pulling, pushing, all kinds of things, carrying things.   This is a group of women.  So the StrongWomen program is a-- it's a state-wide program. 

 So it was brought to Wisconsin about seven years ago.  We have over 500 trained leaders around the state.  We have about 200 active leaders that are teaching the program all around the state.  I'll show you later a little bit of a map about where all those classes are.  Here's some of the leaders that have been trained.  All right, second set.   Legs in neutral positions.  And let's start.  Up, two-three-four.  Down nice and slow. 

 Loose grip on your weights.  Make sure you're not holding them too much with your grip.  And we're going to go down, two-three-four.  Up for three, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for four, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Good.  Up for five, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four. 

 Up for six, two-three-four.  Great.  Down nice and slow.  And up for seven, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Eight, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Nine, two-three-four.  Ten, two-three-four.  Perfect. 

 You can put those weights underneath your chair and grab your lighter weights.  The next one we're going to do is a wrist curl.   So you can sit-- have a seat in your chairs.  We're going to be leaning forward.  Forearms are going to be on our legs.  Wrists are going to be just drooped right over your kneecaps.  The motion we're going to do is just up and down.  Just do your full range of motion.  So depending on your range of motion, that's how much you're going to extend your wrist.  We want to keep our knuckles up. 

 We want to go nice and slow, and like I said, grab your lighter weights for this one.  All right.  Up, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for two, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  So there's lots of reasons that you would want to strengthen your wrists, especially if you're at a desk and you're doing a lot of computer work.  You want to make sure you keep those bones and those muscles strong around the wrist.  Also we know that when we fall, we usually fall and use our wrists or our hands to protect ourselves from the ground.  And so that can be an easy fracture. 

 So we want to make sure that we keep those muscles and bones strong.   We are on...  - Two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Seven, two-three-four.  Keep your forearms down.  Just moving your wrist.  Up for eight, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Good. 

 Up for eight, two-three-four.  You should start to feel a little bit of fatigue in your wrists.  Nine and ten should be difficult, like I said.  If nine and ten aren't feeling very difficult, then we're ready for heavier weights.  And that's the whole purpose of this program is to start where you're at and then to get stronger.  Down, two-three-four.  Good.  So this program is supposed to be twice a week or three times a week.  We know we should strength train not sequential days in a row.  So Monday/Wednesday, Tuesday/Thursday. 

 But the recommendation is that we're strength training as women and men of all ages at least twice a week.  The other thing I'd like to note is that a lot of times we used to think that aging was the reason for all these things that happen to our bodies.  We know that a lot of times it's inactivity associated with aging that's responsible for some of these detrimental things that we feel like are happening to our muscles.  So we know that as we get older, our fat mass-- our fat mass kind of does go up.  And that is because of aging.  Our glucose intolerance, sleep problems, cognitive decline, cholesterol levels, those kind of go up.  But we know when we're not active, that our muscles and our aerobic capacity and our bone density and our balance is actually because of our inactivity and not necessarily because of our aging.  Okay, second set.  Same thing, wrists over your kneecaps.  And let's do ten of 'em. 

 Here we go.  Up, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Good.  You should feel it right in your wrist.  If you have carpal tunnel or have any wrist issues where it's causing sharp, shooting pain, stop the exercise.  You can also do it if you have some wrist problems.  You can do it from the opposite direction and do it this way.  Up, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four. 

 Up for five, two-three-four.  Down, nice and slow.  Keep it controlled.  Keep that pressure on your wrist as you're going down.  Six.  We're going down nice and slow.  Down, two-three-four.  Good.  You should start feeling it in that wrist.  Up for seven. 

 Down, two-three-four.  Up for eight, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  For nine, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Last one, great job guys.  Up, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Good.  So you should feel that in your wrist, yes? This is good. 

 Okay.  The next one we're going to do is a bent-forward fly.  So we're still going to be seated.  I would grab your lightest weights or actually no weights at all if you haven't done this one before.  We're going to be strengthening our upper shoulders and our back muscles.  And this one is kind of difficult to do because we want to use our arms so much.  So I'm going to have you-- if you have any lower back issues, I'm going to have you sit straight up in your chair and do the exercise from the seated position.  If you have-- your lower back's feeling fine, I'm going to have you lean down at about a 60 to 70 degree angle.  Find a spot on the floor to look at, and then you'll doing the exercise from this angle.  Okay? So grab the weights that you would like to use. 

  Lean forward in your chair, otherwise you're straight up.  I want everyone to hug something out in front of 'em, big, wide arms.  I want you to put your shoulders up in your ears and relax 'em.  Okay, leave 'em there.  We don't want 'em up in our ears.  That means we're all stressed out. Okay? And then what we're going to do is just pull our shoulder blades together.  So don't worry about your weights in your hands, we're just pulling our shoulder blades together.  Try not to come up in your chair.  So you want to keep at that angle and pull your shoulder blades together.  Arms don't have to go past perpendicular with your body. 

 They should go right about there- not like this, like this.  Okay? Okay, now.  This one's a little bit more difficult.  So if you heavier weights, grab some lighter weights.  We're going to do ten of 'em.  Relax shoulders.  Arms out in neutral position, about a foot and a half in front of you.  And we're going to pull those shoulder blades together for one, two-three-four.  Squeeze those shoulder blades together like you're trying to squeeze a tennis ball between them.  Forward, two-three-four. 

 Great.  Back for two, two-three-four.  Forward, two-three-four.  I want loose grips on your weights.  Back, two-three-four.  Forward, two-three-four.  Back for four, two-three-four.  Forward, two-three-four.  Good, keep going.  Back for five, two-three-four. 

 You should feel it right here.  Forward, two-three-four.  Back for six.  So you're pulling those shoulder blades together.  Forward, two-three-four.  What are we on? - Seven.  - Seven, two-three-four.  Forward, two-three-four.  Back for eight, two-three-four.  Perfect. 

 Forward, two-three-four.  Back for nine, two-three-four.  Forward, two-three-four.  Last one back for ten, two-.  Squeeze those shoulder blades together.  Hold it there.  Forward, two-three-four.  Great.  So you should feel that in your upper back.  So that's an upper back muscle. 

 So you want to strengthen all those muscles right here to help with posture, help you standing up, help your movement, your flexibility in your upper body.   So there's lots and lots of reasons that we strength train.  So they know all the benefits of exercise, but they also have found that people that just strength train and don't do anything else also have decreased risk of depression, have better sleep, which everyone would like to have improved sleep, especially post, perimenopausal.  It helps with self-confidence, self-esteem.  It increases your glucose panel, your blood cholesterol.  It impacts everything, just as much as cardiovascular exercise does.  So strength training is a really critical part to that piece, too.  Okay.  Second set.  Lean in your chair 60 degree angle. 

 Hands out wide.  Everyone relax those shoulders.  Good, and then shoulder blades together for one, two-three-four.  Hold it.  Loose grip on your weights.  In, two-three-four.  Keep your core tight.  Back, two-three-four.  Elbows should be angling down in a neutral position.  Back for three, two-three-four. 

 Forward, two-three-four.  Think about those shoulder blades.  Back, squeeze 'em together.  Try to squeeze a pencil between 'em.  Forward, two-three-four.  Back again four.  - (inaudible question) - I have no idea.  Let's try that again.  (laughing) Back for six, two-three-four.  Forward, two-three-four. 

 Relax your shoulders, guys.  Back for seven, two-three-four.  Forward, two-three-four.  Loose grip on your weights.  Back for eight, two-three-four.  Forward, two-three-four.  Back for nine, two-three-four.  Forward, two-three-four.  Back for ten.  Last one. 

 Squeeze those shoulder blades together.  You should really feel it now.  Forward, two-three-four.   Good.  Great, great, great.  Shake out those shoulders.  The next one we're gonna do is standing behind our chair.  We're going to do a toe and calf raise.  So for this one, if you feel like your balance is pretty good, you can grab some hand weights to go with.  Otherwise, you can stand behind your chair, and we're going to do a calf and toe raise. 

 So this one you can have weights in your hands if you'd like.  We're going to be going up and down, full range of motion.  Otherwise, you can drop your weights and just do right behind your chair.  So depending on your balance-- if you're feeling your balance is good, then I just want to have you hover your hands and keep it like this.  But if you feel like your balance is a little bit not-as-balanced, then I want your finger or your hands on the chair for safety.  Okay.  So we're going up, two-three-four.  You should be on your tip-toes.  Hold it up there.   And then we're going to go down nice and slow. 

 Try not to rest those heels on the ground.  And then we're going to go back up for two, two-three-four.  Hold it up there.  Down, two-three-four.  Good.  Up for three, two-three four.  So you should feel your ankles kind of shaking around.  Those are all your stabilizer muscles waking up, trying to make sure that you stand straight up.  That's a good thing, we're waking 'em up.  Down, two-three-four. 

 Try not to rest that heel.  Back up.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for six, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  You should start feeling it in your calf muscle.  Up.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for eight, two-three-four.  Hold it up there. 

 Down, two-three-four.  Depending on your flexibility, you may be able to get four inches off of the ground.  Some people might only be able to get one inch off the ground.  That's okay.  Back up for ten, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Good.  So I'm going to have you lift your toes up.  So lift your toes up to stretch out that calf muscle that we just built up.  It's going to stretch out your shins a little bit. 

 We want to strength our lower leg so we can walk longer.  Walk more distances.  We're going to hold that for a couple seconds.   We have a picture of some of our participants in our classes on the screen.  This is one of the hundreds of classes that are going around state-wide.  All right.  Good.  So rest your leg.   So this is a picture of sarcopenia.  So if you know what sarcopenia is, this is cross-section of a thigh. 

 So if you took somebody's thigh and you split it in half and then looked at it, you can see the young, active person on the right has 80 percent muscle and the light grey part is fat.  And on the other wide, it's the same size thigh.  So they might both wear a size 12.  But this one-- you'd probably want the one on the right, right? 'Cause this one is about 50 percent fat and about 50 percent muscle.  So even though it can be the same size, the composition of your muscle is really important for your health.  All right.  Second set of ankles and calves.  So grab a weight if that was pretty easy for you.  Grab some weights.  Get your balance. 

 Nice and sturdy legs.  And we're going up, two-three-four.  Down, nice and slow.  Nice and slow and controlled.  That's where the strength is built.  Up, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for three, two-three-four.  Full range of motion.  Great job. 

 Down, two-three-four.  Up for four, two-three-four.  Nice job.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for six, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for seven, two-three-four.  Hold it up there.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for eight. 

 Down nice and slow.  Like I said, you should feel those stabilizer muscles.  Up for nine, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Last one, great.  Up, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Good.  Again, pull your toes straight up.  You should feel that stretch in your calf muscle. 

 We're going to hold that for about 15 seconds.   The next exercises we're going to do are on the floor.  So if you're able-bodied, you can get on the floor, on your mat.  If not, you can stand or sit behind your chair.   Great.  So if we can transition to the floor.   The exercise we're going to do is our ab muscles, so our abdominal muscles.  So we're gonna actually be on our backs to start with.  If you are standing or sitting, you're going to be in your chairs.   Okay. 

 So the exercise we're going to do is just a very simple pelvic tilt.  So we're going to have our backs flat up against the ground.  We're going to have our knees bent, feet flat on the floor.  And so we're going to tilt our pelvises inward, so in that motion that we're going to tilt our pelvis, it's almost like you're bringing, drawing your belly button to the spine or to the floor.  So you're pushing that lower back straight up against the floor.  One other way you can do it, to queue it, is to put your hands on your thighs and kind of push.  So push your hands on your thighs, and automatically you're engage that lower ab muscles.  Okay? From the chair, we're going to sit in the chair.  We're going to do the same thing.  So you can sit back in the chair, tilt your pelvis in, and then I want you to bring up one leg. 

 And we'll do that for six seconds and then switch legs, okay? So for you all on the floor, I will be walking around.  Take a deep breath in.  Exhale, tilt that pelvis in.  Hold those abs tight.  Hold it for five-four-three-two-one.  Rest.  Good.  Big breath in.  Try not to use your legs and tilt that pelvis in.  Belly button to your spine. 

 Hold it tight for five-four-three-two-one.  Relax.  Big breath in.  Exhale.  Push on those thighs if you can't feel your body engaging, push on your thighs.  That will automatically engage that lower pelvic muscles.  Hold it.  Hold it.  Hold it.  Rest. 

 Good.  Big breath in.  Tilt that pelvis in.  Let's do it again.   Great.  Rest.  Big breath in.  Push on those thighs.  Tilt that pelvis.  Relax. 

  Big breath.  Exhale like you're exhaling out of a straw.  Let all the air out.  Tilt that pelvis in.  Belly buttons to the floor.  Also make sure you're doing a Kegel.  So you're, you know, kind of engaging those muscles like you're going to pee yourself, but you want to cut off your pee stream.  We don't want any pee on the floor right now.  So... hold it tight.  Relax. 

 Big breath in.  And again, make sure you're doing a Kegel.  Hold it tight.  Bellybutton's tight to the floor.  Relax.  Last one.  Big breath in.  (inhale sound) Bellybutton's to the spine.  Hold it tight.  Let's hold it for five-four-three-two-one. 

 Relax.  Did you feel that in your lower abs? So you should feel that in your lower ab muscles.  We can advance this one to bringing up our upper body, but this is the very basic one.  We want to strengthen all those lower pelvic floor muscles to strengthen up our urinary tract issues.  Also to strengthen your lower abs which helps with posture, and also helps with all those core exercises.   Okay.  So on the screen is a picture of a young man that has-- he's actually a marathon runner.  So his cardiovascular, his respiratory system is probably very, very healthy.  But he doesn't strength train, so he hasn't kept up with that muscle building and mass.  And you know, after we hit a certain age or after menopause, they've shown that we have to be very intentional about building our muscles. 

 So they will go away if we don't use 'em.  So this guy, marathon runner, but because he doesn't have, you know, upper body strength is probably going to miss out on some of those daily function activities because of that unintentionality of strength training.  All right.  Second set.  Again, bellybuttons to your spine, tilt your pelvis in.  The lower back is pushed up against the floor.  Big breath.  Let's start it.  And go.  Push up against your legs. 

 Hold it for five-four-three-two-one.   Relax.  Big breath in.  (inhale sound) Again, tilt that pelvis.  And hold it for five-four-three-two-one.  Relax.  Big breath.  Tilt that pelvis in.  Hold it tight.  Make sure you're doing a Kegel. 

 Hold it for five-four-three-- hold it tight-- one.  Relax.  Big breath in.  Tilt that pelvis in.  Everything's all tight.  Hold it five-four-three-- almost if you had a weight on your belly, you're trying to keep that weight up.  Relax.  Big breath in.  Tilt that pelvis in.  This is five, hold it for five-four-three-two-one. 

 Relax.  Big breath (exhale sound), blow it out.  Bellybutton's to your spine.  Make sure that you're holding all those lower pelvic muscles together.  Hold it tight, three-two-one.  Relax.  Again for six.  Bellybutton's to your spine.  Hold it tight, five-four-three-two-one.  Relax. 

 Good.  Three to go.  Big breath in.  Exhale.  Hold it for seven.  Try not to use your legs.  You're just using those ab muscles.  Relax.  Big breath in.  Bellybutton's to your spine. 

 Pushing that small of your back right up against the floor.  Hold it for three-two-one.  Relax.  Again for nine.  Tilt that pelvis in.  Hold it tight for five-four-three-two-one.  Relax.  One more.  Big breath, and tight as you can.  Tilt that pelvis in. 

 Hold it tight, hold it tight.  Five-four-three-two and one.  Relax.  Great! So we just worked our ab muscles.  Now we're going to transfer to using our back muscles.  So what we're going to do is roll over on our mats.   So this one-- what we're going to do is we're going to have opposite arm.  If you're standing up, you're going to be behind your chair doing opposite arm and leg and engaging that lower back.  So we want to do opposing muscles when we're strength training.  So if you're on the ground, you're going to have one arm forward, one arm back. 

 And you're going to have your spine nice and neutral position.  Your goal is to lift your chest off the ground.  So your goal isn't to fling your arm and leg together.  Your goal is to lift that chest off the ground so you're creating some space.  And you do that by using your lower back.  Okay.  So we're going to go up, and we're going to hold it for six to eight seconds.  Okay? So one arm forward, one arm back.  Noses towards the ground.  And we are going up two-three-- your opposite arm and leg will come up slightly. 

 Hold it.  Two-one.  Relax.  Great.  Take a deep breath.  And again, use that lower back to bring your shoulders-- both shoulders should be coming off the ground.  Bring 'em off the ground.  Noses should be towards the ground.  Hold it.  And down. 

 Good.  You should feel it in your lower back.  Again, up for three.  Let's hold it for five-four-three-two-one.  Great.  Relax.  Again for...  Relax.  And for five-four-three-two-one.  Relax. 

 Up for six.  Hold it for five-four-- think about that lower back, strengthening those muscles.  Relax.  Up for seven.  Five-four-three-two-one.  Relax.  Good, keep breathing, keep breathing.  Up for eight, five-four-three-two-one.  Relax.  Up for nine, five-four-three-two-one. 

 Relax.  If you're standing up, make sure you're nice and erect.  Up for ten.  Hold it for five-- make sure your noses are pointed to the ground, spine in neutral position.  And relax.  Great! Take a deep breath.  Stretch out your back.  So you should be feeling it in your lower back.   On the screen we have a picture of John Turner at age 67, and he strength trains on a regular basis.  And you can see you can maintain your muscle mass if you're intentional about it. 

 This is him when he is 79 years old-- still able to maintain that muscle mass because of being intentional about it.  So women's muscles typically don't, you know, look like this because we don't have enough testosterone in our system to do that.  But that's what it typically looks like.  This is Helen.  She's dead-lifting a lot of weight.  And we don't typically see people that are aging dead-lifting or in the gym using hand bells and dumbbells and weight machines, but the face of aging is definitely changing.   All right, second set of those back muscles.  So we're going to do opposite arm.  So if you were doing your right arm, let's do your left arm.  And body is in a straight line. 

 Spine is nice and neutral.  We are going up, two-three-four-five-six.  Relax.  So try to get the chest off the ground as high as you can.  Up for two, two-three-four-five.   Up for three, three-four-five.  Relax.  Up for four.  Hold it up there for five-four-three-two-one.  Relax. 

 Up for six.  Hold it for five-four-three-two-one.  Relax.  Up for seven.  You should feel it right in your lower back.  Up and down.  Up for eight.  Hold it for five-four-three-two-one.  Relax.  Up for nine, five-four-- keep breathing-- three-two-one. 

 Relax.  Last one.  Up for ten.  Hold it for five-four-three-two and one.  Good.  Great.  So stretch out that back.  So we did our abs and our back.  Now we're going to focus on our hips.  So we're going to strap on your ankle weights. 

 If you have some ankle weights, strap on your ankle weights.  You're going to be laying on your side with the ankle weight on the top side of your leg.  (sound of hook-and-loop fasteners ripping open) If you're going to be in your chair or behind your chair, that is fabulous.  We're going to just be doing a motion outward.   Okay.  So bodies are in a straight line.  Hips are stacked up together.  Knees are together.   Lower leg is bent out.  Feet are flat. 

 And when everyone gets in position, we can start using our hip muscles.  So body's in a straight line.  Bend this leg back.  Bend it.  Knees are together, hips are together.  Try to straighten out your body.  Perfect.  You can be in neutral position, so you're-- whatever feels best for your spin.  So you can be up on your elbows.  Otherwise, you can have your head laying right on your arm. 

 So I'm going to have you straighten out your legs.  I'm going to put this leg back.   Yup.  Great.  Okay.  So the motion that we're going to do is going up with our legs about eight or nine inches off the ground-- maybe 10 or 12 inches off the ground.  We're using our hip muscles and then going back slowly down.  So we don't want to go too far up in the air.  Nice and controlled movement in your hip, and we're going to strengthen that hip muscle.  Okay? So, knees together. 

 Feet are flat.  And we are going up, two-three-four.  Hold it up there.  Down, two-three-four.  Try not to rest that foot on the ground.  Hover it over the carpet.  Up for two, two-three-four.  Hold it.  Down, two-three-four.  If you're standing up, nice and straight. 

 Up for three, hold it up there.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for four, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for five, two-three-four.  Feet are flat.  Down, two-three-four.  You're almost leading with your heel.  So kind of twist your heel up like you're leading up with it.  Great. 

 Up.  Down, two-three-four.  Up four, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Good.  You should feel it in your hip.  Up for eight, two-three-four.  Down, nice - and - slow.  Up for nine, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four. 

 Last one.  Up for ten, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Good.  So you should feel it.  You can pull your leg up.  Stretch out that hip.  You should feel it right in your hip bone.  So we want to strengthen those muscles in your hip and around your hip bone to strengthen that bone density.  Because if we fall and break hip, bad news for you. 

 So we really want to strengthen those muscles up.   Okay.  We're actually gonna to do that same side and do another set.   So the stat for bone density right now in American is that it-- osteoporosis affects women 80 percent more than it affects men.  And so a lot of this strength training is targeted towards women, but we know that it's just as beneficial for men.  So there's about 44 million Americans, men and women, who have low bone-density or osteoporosis.  And that's because we're living longer.  So if we're living longer, we have lower bone density 'cause every year after menopause you lose about two percent of your bone density.  So if there's a big gap between when you go and when you hit menopause, there's a lot of years to lose bone density.  The good news is, if you're intentional about it, that you can maintain your bone density where it's at or even improve it. 

 Okay.  So, leg's straight.  Feet flat.  And we're going up, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for two, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Nice and controlled going up and down.  Up for three, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four. 

 Up for four.  Hold it up there, keep breathing.  Down, two-three-four.  Great.  Up for five, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for six, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for seven, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four. 

 Up for eight, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Great.  Feet are flat.  When it gets hard, we want to point those toes.  Down, two-three-four.  Ten.  Up, hold it up there, hold it up there.  Down nice and slow.  Down, two-three-four. 

 Good.  You can pull that leg forward, feel that burn in that hip.  That's good.  That means your muscles are going to be bigger and better.  All right.  We're going to flip to our other side and do the other side.   So the picture up on the slide is a picture of a healthy bone.  So this is microscopically what really healthy bones look like.  It's a 43-year-old with a healthy bone.  And I'm going to show you the next picture. 

 This is what an osteoporotic bone looks like.  So you can see that the bones, microscopically, are thinning down.  And they start to break.  And thus, you know, if you ever had an aging parent or grandparent get shorter as they age, the process is because those bones are crushing and their spinal cord is crushing a little bit.  We used to think this was pretty normal, that that's what grandma looked like as you got older.  But we know now that it's a preventable disease of osteoporosis.  So this is a preventable thing.  And that swaying of the back and the hump in the neck, is that's those bones crushing.  And we can definitely prevent that with physical activity and strength training.  Okay. 

 So, other leg.  Hips are stacked up.  Knees together, one leg out.  If you're standing up, we're going to do the opposite leg.  Get all that weight on opposite leg.  And we are going up, two-three-four.  Lead with the heel, so slight with the heel.  Make sure your feet are flat.  Good.  Hover that foot over the ground. 

 Up for two, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Great.  Up for three, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for four, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Good job.  You should feel it in that hip.  Up for five. 

 Down, two-three-four.  Up for six, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for seven, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for eight.  Down, two-three-four.  If you're standing up, make sure your knee isn't locked.  Up for nine.  Hold it up there. 

 Down, two-three-four.  Great.  Last one.  Up for ten, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Whoo! You should feel that in your hips.  Stretch it out a little bit.  We're going to do one more set.  So all of these exercises that we're doing today lasting six to eight seconds.  Because we know that if we slow down and use that whole range of muscle and use exertion and the-- the both exertions of the muscle that we can strengthen 'em more efficiently. 

 So if we're spending an hour strength training, you might as well do it the most efficient way to build muscle up.   All right! Ready for your second set? Ready or not, we're going to do it.  (laughter) So feet are flat.  Knees together, and we're going up, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Great.  Up for two, two-- think about that hip bone.  Down, two-three-four.  Great.  Up for three. 

 Hold it.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for four, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for five, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for seven.  Down, two-three-four. 

 Great.  Up for eight, two more.  I meant three more! (laughing) Down, two-three-four.  Nine, two-three-- You should really feel it now.  Down, two-three-four.  If you're not, you need more weights on your ankles.  Up, hold it.  Down nice and slow.  Down, two-three-four.  Whoo! Stretch out those hips. 

 Nice job.  The next one we're gonna do is chest press.  So we're going to focus on our chest muscles.  This one is a pretty strong muscle in our body, so I want you to grab your heavier-- heaviest weights.  And you're laying on the ground.  If you're standing up, you can do a wall push-up.   So for a wall push-up, you're going to find a wall, a nice sturdy wall.  You're going to put your feet out.  Your hands are going to be right where your chest is going to drop.  So where your chest drops towards the wall, and then you're going to push back out. 

 So you want your hands where your chest is going to fall towards the wall.  You're going to be doing the same count as we're doing on the floor.  If you're on the floor, you have your knees up.  Backs are nice and neutral position.  You've got your hand bells or hand weights out to the side.  Pretend you have a bar in your hand, and you're pushing that bar up straight up from your chest.  So not over your head.  Straight up from your chest.  Okay? So you can get your elbows in a little bit more neutral position.  You should be like in goal post position. 

 So it should look like a goal post on the ground.  And we're going up, two-three-four.  Hold it up there, and then down really slowly back into the goal post.  Down, two-three-four.  Perfect.  Don't rest those elbows, just hover.  Up for two, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-hover-four.  Great.  Up, two-three-four. 

 Down, two-three-hover right there, yup.  And push back up, push up.  Up, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Two-three-four.  Good.  This is a chest muscle, so think about working that chest.  And up for seven, two-three-four. 

 Down, two-three-four.  Push up for eight.  Good.  If you're at the wall, your hands should be pretty low.  Good.  Down, two-three-four.  This is nine, two-three-four.  Keep breathing.  Try not to hold your breath.  Down, two-three-four. 

 Last one, push it up for ten, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Good.  So the muscle that we're strengthening is that chest muscle right here.  So any pushing activities and pulling activity.  If you want to advance this one, you can go up to 10, 15, 20 pounds doing this one.  And then you'd flip yourself over and do a modified push-up and then a regular push-up.  But for now, we're just trying to kind of basically start out with that chest muscle.  So they've done studies for strengthening-- So this is a randomized control study that's on the board right now that they did in 1994 with post-menopausal women.  They had 20, about 20 that were sedentary, that didn't do anything. 

 And had 20 that were strength-training.  And the greatest benefit of it was that, after four months, they had a lot more muscle mass-- which you would expect if you exercised for four months twice a week.  Their fat mass increased-- or their muscle mass increased, which was really good.  Their fat decreased.  Their balance improved, and their physical activity increased too.  And the best thing about it, as we do our second set-- getting ready for our second set, is that their bone mineral density actually improved.  So the, the group that didn't do anything, their bone mineral density went down by two percent.  This is post-menopause, which will happen.  They've been, you know, proven to do that.  And the ones that were participated in strength training, even just after four months, their bone density either leveled off or got better. 

 Okay.  So ten more.  Goal post position.  And we're going up, two-three-four.   Down, two-three-four.  Pretend there's a bar in your hand, and you're pushing it straight up towards the ceiling.  Yeah, get it a little bit more relaxed.  Down, two-three-four.  Good.  Up for...two-three-four. 

 Down, two-three-four.  Up for four, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for five, two-three-four.  Great.  Down, two-three-four.  Up for six, two-three-four.  Up for seven, two-three-four.  Down.  Hover those arms right over the carpet. 

 Try not to let 'em rest.  Back up for eight, two-three-four.  Nice and controlled.  Down.  Nice...and...slow.  Good.  Up four, two-three-four.  Down, two-three-four.  And ten.  Last one, push it up, hold it up there. 

 Down nice and slow.  Think about that chest muscle.  And relax.  Great.  That was the second set of those.  So now we are going to actually roll up your mat.  We're going to put your weights underneath the chair, and we're going to do some balance exercises.   So part of this study that they did at Tufts University is that they had mothers participating.  And they brought all their daughters in after the four weeks, and they strength-tested all the mothers and then all the daughters.  And in every single case, in all 20 cases, the moms were stronger than the daughters after this four weeks of strength training. 

 So, age doesn't matter.  We can build our strength at every age.  The other thing is is that diabetes-- we know that 16 million Americans have pre-diabetes, 17 million have full-blown diabetes.  We also know that diabetes is very-- Type 2 diabetics are typically because of behaviors that we have or lifestyle that we have.  And we also know in the world of dietetics and public health that being pre-diabetic is kind of like being pre-pregnant.  There's no such thing.  You're either a diabetic, you should be living like a diabetic and living, you know, to improve your diabetes even way before you get maybe even diagnosed with diabetes.  So they also did some research around Type 2 diabetes, and so we're going to talk about that in a little bit.  So the next one we're going to do is actually a tandem walk.  And so this one is a balance exercise. 

 So for safety, make sure everyone's weights are tucked in behind their chair.  And we're going to go-- if you have some balance issues or not feeling very good with your balance today, you can go against a wall.  But what we're going to do is try to have our eyes up, heels-toe, toe-to-heel, toe-to-heel.  We're going to take about six or seven steps forward, and then I want you to turn around and go back to your chair.  And I want you to do that twice.  So everyone, eyes towards me.  Heel-to-toe.  Eyes up.  Good.  This is a focus exercise, too. 

 Good.  If you need to take a little stutter step in between, you can.  Turn around.   And again.   So on the slide is a picture of Bernice who's actually a StrongWomen participant in Boston.  And she has a bowling ball.  She's living independently.  And she's living independently because she is, you know, been very intentional about her strength training.   We also know that many people live with arthritis and osteoarthritis, and that strength-training improves arthritis and the symptoms of arthritis, so it doesn't need to be so debilitating.  The next activity we're going to do is actually a balance activity. 

 So it's going to be a... stork.  So if you've done yoga or any sort of balance activity, it's going to be a stork.  Depending on your balance, you can-- we're going to try to do this one for two minutes.  Typically we're silent during this one and we, you know, keep it silent so everyone can focus and focus on-- in on their balance.  I'm going to probably chit-chat during it, while we're doing this.  So there's not silence.  But you can just lift a leg up.  We're going to do each leg once.  So you can just lift one up.  And if you're feeling like your balance is pretty good, you can, you know, go up like this. 

  So I am going to start the clock for two minutes.  And if not, just hands above the chair, kind of hover with one foot elevated, otherwise we're up.  Let's get started.  So the picture on the right is actually Dr. Mariam Nelson, and Dr. Nelson has been-- is the founder of the StrongWomen program.  She's the one who wrote the book, "Strong Women Stay Young," "Strong Women, Strong Bones." She's written seven or eight books from Tufts University.  And that's her sister-in-law with rheumatoid arthritis who was, at one time, bed bound and unable to, you know, get up out of bed and move.  And she was blest enough to have Dr. Nelson as her sister-in-law.  So they started exercising and strength training, you know, ten, twenty, five minutes at a time.  Her goal was to climb the summit of Mt. Washington.  And as you can see they are at the top of Mt. Washington. 

 She still has rheumatoid arthritis, but her symptoms are less, you know, dark-into-the-valley, she can kind of maintain and ward off some of those, those bad or worse days because of her strength training.   This is half-way done.  We have a minute left.  This is a picture of one of the original StrongWomen classes in, in a neighborhood in Boston.  They were some of the original women who participated in the Boston area right outside of Tufts.  This is a woman who participated in StrongWomen, and her great-granddaughter got her involved as a test subject.  She was one of those women.  She actually has nine children and 21 grandchildren and a whole slew of great-grandchildren.  And like many women, she took care of everyone else but didn't-- or wasn't intentional about taking care of herself in that way.  So after the study, she sent Dr. Nelson a picture of her in-- her in Hawaii where she was surfing and said she was only surfing because she had the confidence to do so. 

 She would have never done that without that class.  And here's her parasailing, which is pretty awesome.   So we also know that the age of-- we are done (laughing).  Switch legs.  So again, one leg or up if you feel like your balance is good.   We know the face of aging is changing.  So you might not have seen your grandparents or great-parents riding a bike or swimming, but we know that that's changing and we live a lot longer.  And women are staying-- and women and men are staying fit a lot longer.  We also know that women are a little bit nervous about gaining muscle mass 'cause they think they're going to be bigger.  So we need to make sure that we educate women that we are never going to look like this. 

 It's not possible unless we take some drugs and spend hours and hours and hours at the gym.  So as much as we strengthen our muscles, we, it's-- you know, we don't get bigger.  Our muscles get bigger, but we also get more fit and so we actually-- not necessarily will change sizes.  This is a picture of all the StrongWomen classes currently.  If you go to the StrongWomen Wisconsin UW-Extension website, you can click on a map that has all the current classes in it.  The current classes, you can click on a star and you can find a class for anyone around the state who wants to participate in this program.  One minute to go.   There's a couple websites you can visit for more information.  So there's the StrongWomen.com, which is the Tufts University website.  If you're interested in becoming a StrongWomen leader, Wisconsin has four trainings a year to train leaders to go back into their communities or go back into their neighborhoods and teach this program. 

 And if you're interested in the StrongWomen Wisconsin website, it's fyi.uwex.edu/ strongwomenwisconsin as seen on the board.   A couple more seconds left.  If you feel your ankles shaking, this is a good thing.  It's all your stabilizer muscles.  As you get stronger, your balance gets better.  We know as we strengthen our legs and our-- and our bodies and our core, our balance gets better too.  And you're done.  Okay.  So the last thing we're going to do is stretch.  So you made it through the program. 

 Congratulations.  First we're going to take our arms.  Stretch it out.  It's good to stretch after you exercise.  You know, like you're pushing up against a wall.  You should feel it in your upper back.  Hold that stretch.  And we're going to grab our hands behind us like you're pushing up against a wall behind you.  Stretch out that chest muscle.  You can use the chair in front of you;  we're going to stretch out our hamstrings. 

 So either fingers to the floor or fingers on your chair.   Hold that stretch for about 20 seconds.  Then we're going to come up nice and slowly.   Use a chair for balance.  I want you grab a pant leg or a foot or you can stand in front of your chair and put your-- like on your chair.  We're going to hold that, so try to get your knees together.  Push down with this leg or tilt your pelvis and you really feel that stretch in your quadriceps.   Great.  Very last stretch.  Switch legs. 

  Try to get those knees together.  Push down with that knee towards the floor.  Hold it.   Awesome.  Arms up.  Big breath in.  And let it go.  And congratulations! (applause) We are done. ECHO is on.