By Ron La Fournie

One of the biggest mistakes people make in fitness is believing they need to use all the tools.

They don’t.

Fitness isn’t about collecting methods — it’s about choosing the right ones for your body, your health, and your stage of life, then using them consistently.

That’s common sense.

Start With Where You Are — Not Where You Used to Be
Many people choose fitness tools based on who they were, not who they are now.

“I used to run.”
“I used to lift heavy.”
“I used to play sports.”

There’s nothing wrong with that history — but your current body gets the final vote.

The right tools meet you where you are today and help you move forward safely.

Your Body Is the Filter
Every fitness tool should pass a simple test:

Does it cause pain during or after?
Does it feel sustainable?
Does it help you move better in daily life?
Can you recover from it?

If the answer is no, it’s not the right tool — right now.

That doesn’t mean never. It means not yet.

Match Tools to Outcomes
Dif...

Summary

Fitness tools are not machines or gadgets — they are simple methods of movement that humans have used for thousands of years. Walking, lifting, stretching, breathing, and resting are all tools that support strength, mobility, balance, cardiovascular health, and mental clarity. When used consistently and with common sense, these tools help slow aging, prevent disease, and preserve independence. This is not about doing everything. It is about doing the basics, repeatedly, for life.

When most people hear the term fitness tools, they think of equipment — machines, programs, or expensive solutions. That was never my definition.

In common sense fitness, tools are simply the ways we move our bodies and recover from life. Nothing fancy. Nothing extreme.
Just what works — and has always worked.

Walking – The Foundation Tool
Walking is the most natural human movement. It improves cardiovascular health, joint mobility, posture, circulation, and mental clarity. If walking were a pill, it...

By Ron La Fournie

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Oxidation

A Simple Introduction to Getting Started

If you are new to fitness, or returning after years away, let me start with this: fitness is not complicated—we’ve just made it that way. You don’t need fancy equipment, a gym membership, or a perfect plan. You need a few basics, some consistency, and the willingness to start where you are.

I didn’t find fitness early in life. I found it when I needed it most. And that’s why I teach it the way I do—simple, practical, and sustainable.

What Is Fitness, Really?

Fitness is your ability to move your body through daily life without pain, fear, or exhaustion. It’s bending, lifting, pushing, pulling, walking, reaching, balancing, and getting back up when you’ve gone down.

True fitness includes strength, mobility and flexibility, balance and coordination, cardiovascular health, and posture and body awareness. You don’t train these separately—you train them together by moving your body the way it was de...

Nutrition Fundamentals

Nutrition saved my life long before I realized it.

For years, I thought fitness was mostly about exercise. If I trained hard enough, often enough, everything else would take care of itself. I was wrong. Exercise matters, but nutrition is the fuel that makes exercise work—or fail.

Nutrition and exercise are equal partners. One without the other simply doesn’t get you where you want to go.

Calories: Your Body’s Fuel
Every bit of energy your body uses comes from calories, and calories come from three sources:

Protein
Carbohydrates
Fat

These are called macronutrients. Understanding them—even at a basic level—gives you control over how you feel, how you age, and how your body performs.

Protein: The Rebuilding Nutrient
Protein is best known for building and repairing tissue. Every gram of protein provides four calories, but its real value isn’t energy—it’s structure.

Your body is constantly rebuilding itself. Muscle, bone, skin, organs—all of it is in a constant cy...

If you want to improve your walking, running, swimming, golf, or any physical activity, then you need to think about about how important your core is.

If you want to look younger and actually feel better, then core exercises are critical. Many older people are afraid of falling and injuring themselves. Working to improve your balance through core exercises can prevent a dangerous fall, and the resulting injuries. That's how important your core is!

Strengthening your core through core exercises can help make the daily tasks like bending, turning, reaching out easier so that working around the house, and cleaning your yard, shovelling your driveway stay within your realm of possible activities? Your core will determine your participation in these activities, and help you to deal with many types of back pain.

What Is "The Core"?

The core is the entire group of muscles around our mid-sections. It is not just the six pack, which we all have by the way, though some of us just hide it re...

Common sense tells us that being overweight might not be in our best interests.

I think we all agree with that, right? But, is being a little bit overweight bad for you? And how much is a little bit? Is it 5 lbs., 15 lbs., 20 lbs., more? So, what is the cut-off point? And would the cut-off point be the same for everyone?

 We are seeing an increasing number of articles in magazines and newspapers these days about managing your weight! They make it sound like being overweight is ok, it’s normal, and they offer suggestions to help you ‘Manage Your Weight’. Which of course you can do by following whatever diet or exercise program they are peddling at the moment.

 The truth is, “it is not healthy to be overweight”.

 And Managing your excess weight is not the best way to handle this problem.

This is just making the situation seem normal, rather than solving the problem.

 Trying to make general health rules that apply to everyone is extremely difficult. As we age we become increasingly ...

• Most falls can be/or could have been prevented!

• Fall prevention is something you can do yourself!

We have grown up watching and hearing about older people falling and suffering broken wrists, forearms, and hip fractures and then require long-term care and a lifetime of complex medications. These are common injuries from falling. We have seen so many injuries we often think it is normal for older people. 

However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Read on to find out more and ensure you stay injury-free for years to come by reducing the risk factor with injury prevention.

Myths

1. Many people believe that falls just happen and they cannot do anything about it.
2. They also believe that falls are more likely to happen as they age.

Facts

1. Falls are not part of the aging process, but they do often happen to older people! Ever Wonder Why?
2. Falls are the leading cause of serious injuries in older adults.
3. Adults over the age of 65 have a greater chance for fall injuries than
...

As you begin this program, you will become very familiar with 'DOMS', delayed onset of muscle soreness. It happens when we use muscles we haven't used in a long time or we use them in a different way.

Doms is caused by some degree of muscle damage that becomes noticeable approximately 8 hours after exercise and can last 2-3 days in my experience. The exercising has caused microscopic tears in muscle cells, (perfectly natural as the result of working muscles).

The inflammation is your body’s healing response which results in some swelling, thus the pain.

This is part of the mechanism of muscle adaptation to training.

It is also why we exercise different muscle groups on alternate days. It gives what you worked yesterday a chance to adapt and heal. That is how muscles grow stronger. In addition as your body get used to the increased activity level, Doms should lessen.

There is a concept called ‘hard-easy’ that refers to following a hard workout with an easy one. That’s one way to re...

Author:  Alissa Hamilton
Publisher:  William Morrow
Year: 2016
Edition:  Kindle, ibooks
Price: $17.72

I bought it on Amazon Prime.

Introduction

My interest in nutrition gave me the desire to read this book because I wanted to be aware of the questions asked. And to see if there are valid reference sources backing up the claims made. The book deals with the question, "Is milk good for you?"

The author’s purpose is to discuss how milk has come to occupy its position in our world today. She also wants to have us question our own position on this product and its place in our food supply.

Questions Raised

1. Why has there been so much government support for the dairy industry?
2. How did the facts get so twisted? Did they get twisted?
3. Does milk really contribute to a healthy lifestyle?
4. Are dairy industry claims about nutrients in milk true?
5. Can those same nutrients be more readily obtained elsewhere?
6. Are those same nutrients more economically available elsewhere?
7. We need calcium, but co
...

Blood Pressure

Blood Pressure is the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your arteries every time your heart pumps. Each pump creates a wave that you feel as your pulse. But this is not the same as blood pressure. The pressure against your arteries is greater when the heart pumps than it is between pumps. Both are measured because both are important. The blood the heart pumps out is oxygenated and full of nutrients for your body.

How Is It Measured?

Blood Pressure is measured at it's highest and lowest points. The highest is when the heart pumps and is called the systolic blood pressure (pronounced sis-tall-ic). This is the top number or the largest number in a blood pressure reading. The lowest blood pressure is when your heart relaxes between pumps and the pressure drops. This is called diastolic blood pressure (pronounced die-as-tolic). This is the bottom number in your blood pressure reading.

A reading is normally stated as 120/80 or 120 over 80. 

Any elevation in...