Over 50 and Looking for an Fitness Guide?
Getting and staying fit as we age is a challenge. While you may know the benefits of exercise by heart, the motivation to actually do it can still be hard to come by. Getting pleasure out of what you do to stay fit is essential for most people to stick with any fitness program. And sometimes that means doing more than the minimum to stay healthy. Some people need to get fit for the adventure it provides, not just the health benefits. They want to be athletes and they may even want to compete.
To remain an athlete as you age requires wisdom, education and patience in order to progress safely and avoid injury and setbacks. And if you’ve got a competitive spirit, you may be itching to stay in the kind of shape that helps you stay at the top of your “game.” Jim Sloan, author of Staying Fit over Fifty: Conditioning for Outdoor Activities says you need to use your intelligence and experience to keep up with younger athletes. In other words, you must train smarter, not necessarily harder.
Sloan covers running, cycling, rowing and paddle sports, swimming, walking, cross country skiing and hiking in his book, along with lots of tips on how to train effectively, what to eat and even how to train your brain.. Here’s an obscure tip I never heard before: Getting foot massages triples the flow of blood to the brain! Sloan also emphasizes the need to relax and kick back, to help your body recover and avoid burnout.
Bicycling rates high on Sloan’s list of fitness friendly activities for people over fifty who’ve been sedentary for a while or put on some extra weight. Riding a bike is a lot friendlier to your joints. Most people know how to ride a bike, even if they haven’t done it for years. And it’s not hard to reach aerobic levels. Plus growing numbers of trails designated just for bikers is making it easier to find safe places to work out. Stationary bikes allow you to train indoors when it gets too hot or too cold to ride outside. In fact, many cyclists will use an indoor bike or a group stationary bike workout to complement their program all year long.
Many people have the misperception that serious recreational bikers are lean and mean, but that’s not the case. Cycling is more forgiving of body type and you may be fooled into thinking a cyclist with a bulging waistline can’t keep pace, until he or she passes you. And unlike running, cycling is something you’re more likely able to stay with as you get older.
For a recent bicycle tour in Tuscany, journalist Gina Kolata was told to train at least 100 miles a week and to find as many hills as possible to get ready for the trip. She was expecting to find lean and mean riders on the tour, but instead found ordinary looking men and women in their 50s and 60s. These “ordinary looking” folks rode as much as 90 miles in a day and tooled up 15 percent grades for as long as 15 miles. The good news for heavier cyclists? You’ll go faster than your lean counterparts on the down hill side.
If you want to get serious about staying fit and having fun as you age, Staying Fit Over Fifty will help you do it safely while motivating you with stories of exceptional athletes in their 50s to 80s. The book is available on Amazon.com.
