This morning I felt every day my age. A bruised rib from a kayaking mishap and a stiff knee from a biking accident had me tossing and turning all night. When I rose out of bed this morning, I thought “so this is what football players must feel like the day after a game”. It’s true – what used to take days to heal now takes weeks, and sometimes months. But with the exception of my recent outdoor adventure miscues, I’m almost 50, and must admit, I feel pretty good.
As a personal trainer for the last 24 years, I’ve worked with hundreds of clients over the age of 50. In fact, it’s who we specialize in helping the most. Here are four important lessons I’ve both from helping them and from being almost 50 myself:
1. Muscle is Precious. According to the Harvard Medical School, after age 30, we can lose up to 5 percent of our muscle mass every decade. This process, known as sarcopenia, can be delayed by progressive resistance training (progressively trying lifting heavier weights to stimulate muscle growth). No matter your age, any exercise program must include a plan for increasing strength and power. And as our hormones change due to aging and sarcopenia rears its ugly head, strength training as well as getting adequate protein intake becomes vital.
2. Recovery Matters. There’s a saying, “You don’t get stronger by exercising, you get stronger by recovering from exercise”. During exercise, we may break muscle down. Through recovery, those muscle fibers repair and get stronger. Some rules
for recovery are:
- Give the muscles that you train at least a 48-hour recovery window before training them again.
- Leave a day or two in between high impact exercise like running to allow joint and connective tissue inflammation to reduce. This can help lower your chance of tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, and other overuse injuries.
- Stay hydrated, eat plenty of healthy protein, and avoid inflammatory foods like refined carbs and alcohol.
- Try to get at least 8 hours of good sleep a night.
3. Consistency Trumps Everything. Too many times I’ve met folks wondering how they got to be overweight or so out of shape. And it almost always boils down to one thing: inconsistency. Whether it’s maintaining a reasonable exercise routine or following a realistic and healthy approach towards nutrition, being consistently good is better than being sporadically perfect. If it’s a workout or nutritional approach you can’t sustain for many years to come, then it’s probably not going to work for the long haul. Find a plan you can live with and that works, and don’t’ quit.
4. Don’t be So Stiff. Strength training builds and preserves muscle. Cardiovascular training strengthens our heart and lungs and burns calories. But stretching allows us to continue to exercise safely for years to come. Connective tissue is much like a rubber band – as we age, it can get drier and more brittle. Much of this loss of flexibility is due to lack of use, and once we get to a certain age, it becomes more important for us to have an extended warm-up before exercise and cool down and stretch afterward. By staying active, keeping your muscles strong enough to move your joints through their full range of motion, and stretching or doing yoga, your body will be more limber, move more easily, and not hurt as much.
These aren't the only keys to staying fit over 50, but they are some of the most important. Now back to putting that ice pack on my ribs.
Andrew Henderson is the owner and operator of Fitness Together, with locations in Bearden, Farragut, Hardin Valley, and Northshore Drive. Learn more at KnoxFT.com.