Fitness Over 50 – Living Longer and Better in an Older Body
by Bob Hannum Sept 16, 2013
| Table of Contents – Exercise – Balance – Best Exercise – Best Intensity – Strength – Bulk – Joints – Pain – Nutrition – Stretching – Breathing – Music – Variety |
“The best part of a donut is the hole.” Jack LaLanne
I just turned 60!, I’m happily reaping the benefits of decades of regular exercise. My baby boom generation is flocking to gyms wanting to live healthier and longer. Indeed recent research shows that even a little extra weight can shorten your life! And I’ve learned that exercise isn’t enough, you have to have healthy eating habits as well. So here is an overview of the important exercise and nutrition facts I’ve learned in decades of searching for what’s key to health and a long life, especially for the older adult!
Yes it’s as important as ever! The good news is that if you haven’t started exercising it is never too late to start! The body is incredibly resilient! I have seen 50 year olds in terrible shape – overweight, inflexible, and suffering all kinds of aches and pains – get healthy and limber and full of energy! It’s not too late! 
The bad news is that walking the dog or weeding the garden or a job where you are on the go all day DOES NOT COUNT! This is not exercise. It’s burning calories but does nothing to restore muscle tissue or provide cardiovascular conditioning. And it does nothing to stretch those tight muscles. However, if you don’t exercise at all, starting with walking the dog is better than nothing and a great start, especially since a recent study shows that walking 2 or more miles a day reduces the risk of dementia. But remember that this is only a start!
Shame on any doctor who lets their complaining patients off the hook! If you have joint pain, if you are overweight, have diabetes, arthritis, hip or knee surgery, shoulder tears, any neuromuscular disease, and even asthma – exercise has been proven to be a tremendous help. In many cases exercise is better than any other treatment. Pilates has been found to relieve more than 80% of lower back problems compared with 30% effectiveness for our best surgical and pharmaceutical treatments. Rigorous aerobic activity is now the treatment of choice for childhood asthma. And strength training in men and women has been shown to reduce and even eliminate the pain of arthritis. If you are a doctor and you don’t prescribe exercise for all of your patients, you are violating your sacred Hippocratic oath. Researchers now suggest that all doctors prescribe exercise whenever they prescribe anything else!
For us lucky ones who have an exercise routine the good news is that the hardest part is done – making time and establishing a routine. The bad news is that all this health has created an acute awareness of the slightest changes that age brings, and these age-related effects hit us like a ton of bricks! The first sign of age for professional as well as amateur athletes is slower reaction time which begins in our early thirties! Shortly after that comes the realization that it takes more work to maintain the same level of strength, more time to recover from an injury, joint pain and stiffness, and on and on! But it’s not all bad. Research shows that the older body needs less food and sleep.
The important point here is that daily exercise is as important as ever – probably more so now because it’s your best defense (and medication!) for a host of age-related problems. The leading cause of injury-related death is a fall, especially among older adults. Quite simply the ONLY way to reduce the risk of a fall is regular strength training exercise. Pilates is the best because it directly strengthens core muscles which have the most influence upon balance, and you can do it at any age. But any strength training routine will improve balance.
Personally I no longer want to engage in contact sports though my best friend still does ice hockey and lacrosse in his late 50’s! No more boxing for me! Neither do I enjoy (or need) the extreme workouts – the P90X type workouts. They are great but better suited to a younger body.
The best exercises for the older body are the ones that provide the 3 things your body needs to be healthy – strength training, stretching, and cardio vascular conditioning. A few combine all three such as Pilates mat exercise, and circuit training using hydraulic equipment (Curves). Combinations of exercises such as yoga, jogging, swimming, and aerobics classes using cushioned surfaces are also quite healthy on the joints and in combinations provide the 3 exercises that you need.
My mom and dad are in their 80’s and still exercise on a regular basis – my mother is a member of Curves, which is hands-down one of the best workouts on the planet especially with the addition of the computerized “Curves Smart” system of immediate feedback during each exercise. My dad does his “mile around the track” of intermittent walking and jogging followed by weight training several times a week. I’m trying to get him to add stretching of some kind – “we’ll see.” That’s not to say go easy and stop your rigorous routines. On the contrary older bodies tend to tire easier and have less interest in the rigorous routines of the past. But rigorous exercise is as important as ever. So consider turning your favorite exercise into a rigorous routine on a regular basis. For instance, if you love hiking, find a trail that includes 2 or 3 short steep parts. Or take your Pilates routine which already includes stretching and strength training, and add cardio by taking out all of your pauses (or use my Cardio-Pilates workout video and workout with me). Or if this is too harsh walk with your golf bag once a week, take the stairs rather than the elevator, or pick one day a week to push yourself in circuit training or Pilates. Don’t let rigor disappear from your workout – it doesn’t have to be every day or even every other day but it should be regularly. Two times a week is my speed at 59.
The best way to measure the right intensity for your exercise is the simple “talk test” or “perceived exertion”. Research concludes, “Not only does the Talk Test provide a very useful tool for establishing and monitoring exercise intensity, but it may also contribute to the safety of exercise training.” Instead of the rather complex and time-consuming process of timing and calculating your “target heart rate” simply use this easy and surprisingly accurate measure: if you can carry on a conversation you’re exercise is not as intense as it could and should be. If you can’t talk at all it’s too much. If you can just manage a one-word answer to a questions such as “yup” or “nope”, it’s the perfect intensity!
Rigor is important to keep in your workout but be sensitive to the fact that your body can’t take as much as it once did and needs more time to recover. I used to teach Pilates classes 4 mornings a week, but after pulling some back and chest muscles doing nothing more strenuous than usual I realized that I should listen to my own advice! I do strength training 2 times a week now instead of every other day and I feel equally strong and have had no injuries since!
Be careful about creating strength that you don’t need. I’m talking about body building. It may be fun in our youth but the extra muscle converts to fat when we stop maintaining it. Again Pilates is a great alternative because it creates tremendous strength without bulky muscle tissue.
As we get older, our joints begin to talk to us! Not only about the injuries and illnesses we gave them, but also about certain exercises that are harmful in our later years!
There are activities that cause wear and tear on our joints. As we get older it’s time to decrease or eliminate them. I love hiking and jogging but now that I’m 59 I notice the ache in my knees and lower back after I do these exercises. So now I am getting myself ready for the day that I say good-by to them. Not too soon I hope but someday! I’ve found plenty of exercises that don’t damage my joints to take their place such as Pilates, yoga, walking, swimming, biking, circuit training using hydraulic equipment, running and jogging on cushioned surfaces, and dancing, to name a few. Pilates in particular is healthy on your joints at any age – read more about the benefits of Pilates.
Even our mildest forms such as aspirin and ibuprofen are dangerous before we exercise because they mask not only the pain that hurts but the same pain that makes us back off before we cause injury. So any painkiller before an exercise greatly raises the risk of injury because our older muscles, tendons, and ligaments are simply not as pliable anymore. On the other hand supplements such as shark cartilage, glucosamine and chondroitin, and other compounds readily available at your local pharmacy and health food store, may be helpful. My mother who is approaching 80 and still travels the world and loves to walk, swears by them. I just can’t eat the same way as I did in my 20’s when I ate anything, any amount, and anytime! Now I can no longer eat a big meal at night without feeling bloated before bed. Research shows that the later we eat the more those calories are converted to fat instead of energy. See my article for more about the importance of “when” you eat.
And research into dieting most recently by Curves International, has proven that the best way to lose weight is by eating small meals throughout the day and never a big one anytime! Research in a number of areas is pointing to the fact that less food is better. Epidemiological studies in several populations in Asia show that those cultures which regularly consume less calories live longer. A fascinating recent study of rats showed that regular short fasts – as opposed to no fasting or long fasting – increase their lifespan by 70%!
Thus eating according to the ancient Irish saying, “get up a little sleepy and go to bed a little hungry” is the way to go for optimum health. I try not to eat after 7pm each night except on special occasions – no need to get rigid about it (or anything?) I also try not to eat beyond feeling full – take the rest of your restaurant meal home and eat it the next day. I’ve begun to substitute one meal a day for a homemade juice of fresh veggies and fruit. I’m about to add a juice fast once day a week to see how it feels. And we find ourselves just not able to eat the same foods we ate in our youth. But keep a good perspective – at all stages of our life from infancy to teens to adult to older adult the body’s nutritional tastes have changed. When you were an infant you couldn’t eat broccoli or asparagus. As a teen I loved milk and now no longer care for it. As a young adult I was allergic to tomatoes and now I love them. I once loved coffee but now any caffeine drink makes me a bit nauseous. And most people become less tolerant of milk as they age. Speaking of coffee and alcohol, research concludes that these are both generally beneficial in small regular quantities. It is simply a cure-all! Do it as much as possible! Daily is my recommendation. See my article for more about the benefits of stretching.
I have one word for you: meditation! And here are the amazing reasons why!
Three decades ago Dr. Herbert Benson wrote “The Relaxation
Response” describing stress relief from a simple breathing technique: inhaling on a count of 5, then hold the breath, and then exhale for a longer count. The effect is that more oxygen enters the body and more carbon dioxide exits. Recent research finds even more benefits especially for the older body.
- Stress: controlled breathing not only reduces stress, but
also prevents damage caused by high stress levels. - Anxiety: controlled breathing stimulates the vagus nerve which releases a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine that causes increased focus and calmness and a decrease in feelings of anxiety. Stimulating the vagus nerve also treats depression,
even in people who don’t respond to medications.
- Blood Pressure: when practiced regularly, controlled breathing results in lower blood pressure and heart rate, which
in turn helps prevent stroke and cerebral aneurysms.
- Brain Growth: amazing as it sounds, consistent controlled breathing as in meditation practice, results in brain growth in areas associated with attention and processing of sensory input. The effect is most noticeable in older people, which is a reverse of what typically happens as we age – gray matter becomes thinner.
- Altered Genetics: most unexpected of all is that controlled breathing alters the expression of genes involved in immune function, energy metabolism, and insulin secretion.
When it comes to help boosting your workout studies show that music really helps.
Boredom is our greatest challenge especially among the long-term exercisers. And repeating the same exercise makes you prone to problems associated with “periodicity” which is the phenomenon that our muscles get used to any repeated activity and will not get any stronger unless the activity is changed in some way so as to “confuse” the muscles.
So the trick is to have a variety of favorite exercise activities in your exercise “tool bag”! Be sure that yours includes outdoor exercise because research shows that this is more beneficial than indoor exercise, because or the fresh air, sunlight, and natural colors. Practitioners of aroma therapy chime in that the natural smells found outdoors particularly as you run or jog a woodland path add even more benefits.
What’s your secret to living longer and better in an older body. Let me know with a comment below!