Feeling your best and staying healthy is a top priority at any age and shouldn’t change just because it’s getting harder to blow out all your birthday candles in one go. As we age, there are an increasing number of major life changes, career transitions, retirement and of course physical changes. The key to staying healthy is handling and growing from these challenges.
Don’t fall for the myth that aging automatically means you’re not going to feel good anymore. It’s true getting older involves physical changes, but that doesn’t mean discomfort or not being able to live life to the fullest. Exercise, eating right and looking out for yourself can help maintain and prepare your body to overcome the associated challenges of aging.
It’s never too late to start! A recent study found that exercise is the number one contributor to longevity; even if you’re currently inactive or feel unhealthy starting some daily exercise adds extra years to your life. Through exercise you can help maintain your strength, mobility, increase vitality, improve sleep, boost mental health, diminish chronic pain essentially adding life to your years.
Getting started is simple, just 30minutes of exercise a day should help you look after your aging body. It helps offset osteoporosis, hold on to muscles mass, maintain your mobility, lower your risk of heart complications and maintain a healthy sex life. Start slow and work your way up to a higher intensity.
What should you be doing in those 30 minutes? Mix up the options below –
Resistance training: After the age of 40, we lose about 1% of our muscle mass each year on average. This has a profound affect of slowing your metabolism, weakens our bony structures and we lose our power and strength. “Pumping Iron” is your friend; I don’t mean lifting in excess or training like Arnold Schwarzenegger, I mean low intensity, relaxed movements. Using manageable weights and focusing on compound movements (whole body movements). Simple exercises like squats, lunges, planks, cat stretches are all an excellent idea. This will help the body send the right messages and hold onto its hard-earned muscle mass. The only precaution is do not overwork yourself and never train to failure, as this is unnecessary and is harder to recover from. Supervised group exercise classes with an exercise professional can be a great way of getting some resistance training in during the week, whilst making sure you aren’t overtraining. It’s also a good social gathering.
Yoga/Clinical Exercise: A big mistake we all make during our younger years is overlooking our mobility. We sit for hours at a desk, or in front of the TV or Computer, then partake in a social sport without even considering a single stretch to warm up. We also neglect stretching after our sports as the beckoning cold beer or glass of wine in the clubhouse is to hard to ignore. So how can we stop becoming not so upright, planks of wood? Yoga or Clinical Exercise are both great options, they both protect your muscles, spine, cartilage and tendons. Stretching regularly will make you a lot more resilient to injury. Now which one? Clinical Exercise is very outcome dependent and its more traditional in protocol and is great for training lumbo-pelvic and core stability. Yoga is more of a mind and body practice where mindfulness is just as important as the physical benefits. A combination of both are great exercise options for staying flexible as we age. Again, small group classes are an option for guided yoga or Clinical Exercise and getting you started with mobility and stretching exercises to help ensure you don’t get stuck in a ‘deer in headlights’ situation.
Cardio: Yup I said it the dreaded ‘Cardio’ word. Incorporating cardio into your daily routine can make all the difference, it can burn fat, lower your cortisol levels and again lowers your risk of heart related complications. Cardio can include, brisk walks, gentle bike rides, dancing, swimming, tai-chi, jogging, tennis the options are endless, so you can get very creative with your daily cardio.
Attitude is everything. Like all beings, you do best in supportive conditions. If you constantly feed your body a diet of negative thoughts – especially about your body – it will respond from that diet of negativity. The better you feel about yourself, the better you age. Remember you are only as old as you say you are.
In Summary –
Stay physically active with regular exercise.
Stay socially active with friends and family and within your community.
Eat a healthy, well-balanced diet — dump the junk food in favour of fibre-rich, low-fat, and low-cholesterol eating.
Don't neglect yourself: Regular check-ups with your doctor, podiatrist, physiotherapist and Exercise physiologist are even more important now.
Get the sleep that your body needs.
If you’d like to have a chat about exercise, the aging body or would like a little more information on how to future proof yourself drop by Back In Motion – Bribie Island and ask for Samara. I will gladly discuss your best options and make sure you’re correctly adding life to your years. Back In Motion also have a range of group classes on offer which will be a great starting point to your exercise journey.
Written by Samara Emett - Accredited Exercise Physiologist. She is available by appointment at our Bribie Island practice five days per week.