As we age in the second half of life there are some fitness pillars that we need to work on. These pillars when paid attention to, well keep you on a solid fitness foundation.
These are the 5 Things in fitness to work on after the age of 45;
Balance or Proprioception – you can only stand on one leg at a time…
As you age (after 65 or so) you have a better chance of dying from a fall, especially when related to a hip fracture. Time to prepare your body now for the inevitable aging process.
A good balance program will help your Proprioception (the ability to sense stimuli arising within the body regarding position, motion, and equilibrium). Ever step off a curb and eat it, or trip over something that you thought you avoided. These are issues that can be helped with a good balance program.
Simple things like standing on one leg to advanced programs like yoga can help with balance. Start now on working on your balance and as you get older you will notice a huge difference. Of course my best advice to help with this is to do free weight resistance training.
Speed – learn how to go fast…
You work on speed to increase your velocity or how fast you can do things. Along with balance, this can help you avoid falling, tripping, or other hazards as your body is quicker to react to things.
Speed training can be done as easily as skipping, jumping rope, to more advanced training like an aerobics or cycling class. Personally I like boxing, the speed bag works wonders!
Strength – muscles hold all the stuff together…
As we age we lose muscle mass. And as we get older we need all the muscle we can get, it helps hold everything in place, makes movement easier, and gives you more strength to daily tasks.
Of course building strength can be done as easily with push ups and air squats at home, but nothing beats a good resistance training program with free weights or machines in a gym. Even a home gym will work, but free weights help with balance, strength, speed, and endurance.
Endurance – who doesn’t want to last longer…
This is about training for longer periods such as walking, biking, or on a stair climber machine. Get your body up to 45 minutes of sustained endurance training.
Do it indoors or outdoors it does not matter, but stay away from things like jogging or running, the injuries versus benefits are just not worth it. Again resistance training with little or no rest is also a great endurance training exercise.
Flexibility – were talking in your body, but in life its good too…
Flexibility will help prevent soreness and allow for greater range of motion. Stretch hamstrings, glutes, and hip-flexors as they tend to bind up and seize.
Avoid sitting for long periods. And move, move, and then move some more. Life is about movement and as you move more you will naturally stretch those muscles.
For additional stretching do Yoga or Pilates, or several Massage places are offering stretching sessions. Again as an advocate for resistance training a full range of motion under resistance is a wonderful way to stretch as well.
Conclusion – this is how we sum it all up…
These five things are important to work on after the age of 45, start now so as you age you wont be playing catch up. Of course my recommendation is a good 5-6 day resistance/cardio training schedule as it will help with all of the things above.
Remember start early and you will reap the benefits far much later in life. Look around there are a lot of great examples of people over the age of 60 who look like they are in their 30s, all because of a healthy eating and exercise regimen.