STAY younger than your biological age by being active. Your activities depend on your personal preference, fitness level and what you enjoy most.
Take Marilen Concepcion, Rina Go and Mesh Villanueva, fit and active women who look years younger than their real age. Their body fat percentages are significantly lower than others in their age groups. Their bodies look strong and well-defined. Such tremendous results were worth the years devoted to fitness.
The three women do strength training two to three times a week, 45-minute cardio exercise thrice a week, have proper hydration, healthy diet, enough rest, disciplined lifestyle and well-focused mind.
Pilates body
Marilen Concepcion, 48, one of the owners of B and B Pilates studio (Bonifacio Technology Center, 31st St. corner 2nd Avenue, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig), has been doing Pilates for more than eight years. Although she’s been teaching Pilates for five years now, her weekly exercise also includes one-on-one Pilates sessions with their in-house instructors thrice a week.
Concepcion started working out at 18. Since then, she has tried tennis, dancing, power lifting, badminton, aerobics and running. Her current exercise regimen: 45-60 minutes, six times a week of cardio exercises (stationary cycling, treadmill, elliptical trainer and rower) and outdoor running, 2-3 times a week of Pilates, twice a week of weight training and once a week of badminton.
“Pilates keeps me young. It’s the exercise I really enjoy the most since it tones my body and improves my posture. It teaches you proper breathing and gives you awareness of movements which are important in firing correct muscle groups. Engagement of the core is the foundation of a safe and effective execution of daily activities, exercise and sports,” Concepcion says.
Boxer’s body
Businesswoman and fashion designer, Rina Go, 46, loves to do weight training to keep her body toned. She also enjoys boxing since she considers it a whole body cardio workout. She’s been working out since 2000, after giving birth. Her formula to stay young and fit is to have sufficient rest and nutrition to be able to do her regimen. She’s been maintaining a body fat percentage of 21 to 22%.
Rina works out at 8 a.m. She does two to three times a week of weight training, focusing on different muscle groups. Her trainer also combines it with a few minutes on cardio machines. Twice a week, she does boxing drills at Boxing Fitness Gym (MC Home Depot Stall CS 312 Barangay South Side, Fort Bonifacio). Sometimes, she joins dance classes with gym friends.
“If you want to stay young and fit, you really have to make a decision about changing your lifestyle. I have sacrificed my night life just to wake up early in the morning to exercise. Taking care of your body also involves enough rest of at least seven hours, eating healthy meals and of course, sufficient hydration. If you want to develop more muscles and lose body fat, exercise moderately and do not starve yourself,” Go says.
Runner’s body
Thirty-five-year-old Mesh Villanueva, entrepreneur and my running partner, started running a year ago. She already joined several 10 km and 21 km races. She’s training for a full marathon in Singapore next month.
Villanueva used to be an active swimmer, but stopped for a while and gained weight due to a busy work schedule.
At this point, she already lost 12 pounds mostly because of running and proper diet.
Villanueva does two to three times a week of weight training, three times a week of outdoor running (easy run, tempo and long runs) around Fort Bonifacio and once a week of swimming as cross-training.
“I usually judge the effectiveness of my running on how I feel after the activity. Since I do it early in the morning, I feel and look energetic for the rest of the day. But I make sure to have enough rest, healthy diet and proper hydration.”
E-mail the author at mitchfelipe@gmail.com
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