Functional Fitness with Suzanne Andrews

How Fit Are Your Abs?

by Suzanne Andrews

I Want Stronger Abs, But Don't Know Where to Start?

How Fit Are Your Abs? Take the Women's 60 Second Ab Test! (For Women 36 years+). If you've been told not to do sit ups because you have osteoporosis, check out the modified version of the sit up test!


You can get Younger Muscles , Younger Joints and a Healthier Heart in 30 Days with Suzanne Andrews Functional Fitness Younger in 30 Days DVD! Start today for a younger you tomorrow!

Healthiest blessings,

Suzanne Andrews is a licensed Occupational Therapy Clinician with 30 years exercise expertise. Airing to over 49 million on Public Television, Suzanne Andrews, a licensed Occupational Therapy Clinician, (they specialize in function) creates evidenced based fitness programs for specific health conditions. Originally created in 2008 with it’s first run on WDSC TV, Functional Fitness with Suzanne Andrews broadcasts on 113 Public Television stations.

I Want To Exercise BUT I Don’t Have Money for a Gym or DVD

by Suzanne Andrews

What is Your Health Really Costing You?

We often think of medical expenses at a time when we are least capable of coping with them - when we're sick. With healthcare costs increasing as we age, the sooner we plan for our health, the sooner we'll start saving more money.  According to the National Foundation for anti-aging, "most aging is premature." Poor posture, low energy, brittle bones are not aging, but a disease.  Most of my patients with complex medical problems end up needing care as a result of an actual medical diagnoses called, “Generalized Weakness,” leading to frailness and aging at a much faster rate.

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a woman retiring at 65 and living until 85 means she'll need $88k to $146k for insurance premiums and out of pocket expenses.  So what does this have to do with you if you’re younger than retirement age? 

Nearly 70% of what is wrong with us can be avoided by changing daily habits!

By incorporating healthy lifestyle choices, you will save hours, days and months in the doctor’s office, hospital and/or operating room. 

By 2030, 40.5% of the US population is projected to have some form of Cardio Vascular Disease. Between 2010 and 2030, total direct medical costs of Cardio Vascular Disease are projected to triple, from $273 billion to $818 billion. Real indirect costs (due to lost productivity) are estimated to increase from $172 billion in 2010 to $276 billion in 2030, an increase of 61%. 

My patients often say they can’t afford a $45.00 a month gym membership, more expensive but leaner cut of meat or a $19.99 Functional Fitness DVD.  These same people think nothing about spending $200.00 – $400.00 a month eating out.  All that money literally flushed down the toilet!    I’m not saying it’s all totally avoidable, but nearly 70% of what is wrong with us can be avoided by changing daily habits. Your daily actions are your best health care plan.  

Health is accumulative.  How you treat your body today affects your life tomorrow.  You are working long and hard for your retirement and you can't afford to lose it all to overeating and a sedentary lifestyle.  So next time you are thinking you can’t afford it, change your mindset to, “I can’t afford not to workout.”

In her newest DVD, Arthritis Relief Walking Workout, licensed Occupational Therapy Clinician, Suzanne Andrews, guides you to make the change and live the richness of life as it was intended:  one of balance, joy, pleasure and the new exquisite awareness of who you truly are – a fully functioning adult with a life of abundant energy, functional strength and restored balance ahead of you.  

Start today, save the $105.00 weekly co-pay with a Functional Fitness DVD and Suzanne Andrews will be with you every step of the way!

I Want to Work Out "BUT" I Have Osteoporosis

I Want to Exercise, BUT How Can I With Arthritis Pain?

by Suzanne Andrews

We all know exercise is good for us. It allows us to feel younger, sleep better, and control our weight. Unfortunately joint pain as we age can leave you asking “I want to exercise, but how can I with arthritis pain?”

Why Functional Exercise Fights Joint Pain 

Joint pain can make everyday activities difficult. This may tempt you to sit still, but the throbbing, aches, and hurting can actually be reduced by movement. Lack of movement weakens supportive muscle and tissue surrounding your joints. As these weaken, stress is created on the joint. This stress causes more pain.
In addition, movement and exercise triggers a response by the synovial membranes to produce more synovial fluid. This oil-like substance keeps joints healthy through lubrication. Synovial fluid keeps the cartilage, the cushion between joints, from drying out so that they aren’t as achy. I tell my patients to imagine a raisin – all dried up and no moisture.  That’s what cartilage looks like in people who don’t exercise.  Now imagine a juicy plum, that’s your cartilage when you move. Age is not the only deciding factor to having younger joints – movement is.  As a rehab therapist, I’ve seen 40 year olds walk older than 90 year olds – all due to lack of movement. As a grandmother to a 16, 11 and 1 year old, I know exercise keeps you moving.   

How Walking and Strengthening Exercise Decreases Joint Pain

Even though painful and stiff joints make the thought of walking or enjoying moderate exercise seem impossible, these activities ease joint pain. Your first thought may be that exercise will only aggravate the joints that are already painful. In reality, a lack of walking and strengthening exercise will lead to more pain and stiffness. Functional Exercise makes you feel younger by allowing you to postpone or even eliminate surgical relief. As the strength builds and pain lessons, you’ll find you can once again do many activities you had removed from your life due to pain. You’ll end up looking and feeling much younger!

Check Out Suzanne Andrews Arthritis Workouts Available at Collage Video!

The Importance Of Breathing Exercises

by Suzanne Andrews

Q: I love your show and watch it regularly on my PBS channel, But Why Do You Include Breathing Exercises in all of Your Functional Fitness Workouts? 

Jenny P. Orlando, Florida

A: As seen in Suzanne Andrews Functional Fitness Arthritis Relief Walking Workout

If you're like many people, you've probably never given much thought to breathing.

It's just one of the body's natural functions, right? How could paying attention to your breathing possibly help you look younger, lose weight and ease joint pain?

The most powerful muscle for breathing, your diaphragm, is responsible for 75% of the volume of each breath you take.  In just one red blood cell, there are one billion oxygen molecules being transported throughout your entire body.

Diaphragmatic breathing increases your body's supply of oxygen, eliminating the brain's stress response... and by curbing stress, it sets the stage for effective weight loss, retards arthritis, and helps reduce wrinkles.

During an interview for Functional Fitness, Margaret Chang, MD revealed, “Stress causes cellular aging, stress prematurely ages the body, and ages the DNA in the cells of the body, so stress can retard the process of aging. Since osteoarthritis is a disease of aging, by retarding stress relief, you retard osteoarthritis as well.”

Now, lest you think that you have to spend your whole day in a sort of meditative trance, diaphragmatic breathing can be practiced anytime, anywhere.

1. Inhale through your nose for 2 counts like you’re smelling flowers.

2. Exhale through your mouth for 4 counts like you’re blowing out  your birthday candles. 

Repeat three times whenever you feel stressed. Do you want to know how to look and feel younger – ask!

Healthiest Blessings,

Suzanne Andrews

The Best Weight Loss Food to Stop Hunger

by Suzanne Andrews

Does your stomach call out to you with hunger pangs late at night making yesterday’s leftovers look like a five star meal for two eagerly awaiting to be devoured - alone? Does the whisper from your pantry turn into a loud-mouthed echo in your head repeatedly crying out for you to “just go take a little peak and see what’s in there” because you’re just so darned hungry? Stop a second before you have seconds and eat this to quiet the ‘but’ that can’t be ignored: ‘But’ I’m so hungry, I just have to eat!

Since the television adds ten pounds, I always look for ways to get rid of those ‘extra’ pounds before we begin taping my PBS TV series, Functional Fitness with Suzanne Andrews ®. Since being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease, (a thyroid disorder that slows the metabolism) getting the weight off has become quite a challenge. The hardest part is at night when I’ve eaten all of the allotted daily calories and I’m still hungry. Therefore, I always make sure to keep plenty of this filling, delicious and nutritious fruit in my fridge to stop hunger pangs.

Watermelon: Weight Loss Superfood!

1. One Cup = 46 Calories

2. Excellent source of Vitamin C and Potassium

3. Helps boost your immune system

4. Helps protects your body from harmful free radicals

5. Helps protect from heart disease

How to Lose Your Big Bad But!

Sometimes we become our own worst enemies when it comes to changing our lifestyles, eating healthy and losing weight. Consequently we accelerate our body’s internal clock aging us before our time. We start down an earnest path to achieve our fitness goals, and succumb to our big - bad – BUT! As time goes by our waistline and our ‘BUT’ gets bigger and bigger: I want to exercise ‘But’… I want to lose weight ‘But.’ I want to lose these love handles ‘But.’

Suzanne Andrews, PBS star of Functional Fitness, shares motivational tips in this sometimes funny and always factual blog with a no more excuses guide on cutting edge, non-surgical techniques to put passion back into your mind, youth back into your body, and vitality back into your spirit by reversing the effects of aging with medically proven techniques for middle age to seniors. Feel free to ask questions and comment!

Occupational Therapy Practitioner/L and creator of PBS TV’s popular Functional Fitness series, Suzanne Andrews specializes in increasing mid-life to senior’s quality of life through evidenced based functional fitness techniques with two to three fitness levels. Whether you need to decrease stiffness and pain caused from arthritis, improve your balance, increase bone density due to osteoporosis, Suzanne Andrews vast therapeutic exercise knowledge supercharges your health with a special consideration on safety and injury prevention in all of her DVDs offered right here at Collage Video!

New Exclusive: Functional Fitness Blog with Suzanne Andrews

Suzanne Andrews is the President at  Healthwise Exercise, LLC. Licensed Occupational Therapy Clinician, Suzanne Andrews is the founder of Functional Fitness airing to over 49 million on Public Television. Originally created in 2008 with it's first run on WDSC TV, the series has aired on over 113 Public Television stations. After sustaining back and neck injuries from a major car accident and bilateral shoulder injuries from a work accident, Suzanne regained full function through an integrative health plan that included functional fitness and sound nutrition. Now a rehab professional herself, Suzanne Andrews is constantly updating her medical knowledge to insure each exercise program demonstrates carefully researched and medically proven techniques. She has also contributed to numerous books, major magazines and written over 200 health and wellness articles for midlife to older adults.