How Exercise Changes After 50

How Exercise Changes After 50

No matter how much of your life you’ve spent exercising, things are going to change for you after 50.

There are changes to your body that you just can’t ignore and the last thing you want to do is injure yourself.

That’s why it’s best to switch up your routine just a little bit to make sure that you’re still getting the most out of all of your hard work.

It’s always best to consult with your doctor before you make any major changes. Still, here are some of the things that you can expect to change about your exercise routine.

Stretch after every workout

The biggest thing you want to make sure you do on a very consistent basis is to stretch after every single workout that you have. It’s going to become more and more important to your wellbeing as you age. It’s also incredibly important to your flexibility

. If you want to continue to enjoy the range of movement that you have then stretching is the key to it. The best time to do it is right after a weight training exercise, but you want to make sure it happens, no matter what you’re working on in any given routine.

Increase resistance training

Next up is your resistance training. You really want to make sure that it becomes a huge part of your workouts. You have to remember that your bone density is going to start decreasing once you hit 50. You muscle mass is also going to decrease along with it.

That’s going to lead to an increase in calories that get stored as fat. The reason for that is that muscle burns a lot more calories that fat will. This means that you could have two people of the same weight running the same exercises.

exercising in your 50s

The person with more of his or her weight in muscle, as opposed to fat, is going to be burning more calories. That means that it’s best to start your resistance training as early as you possibly can. The more muscle you can build, the better off you’re going to be and the better you’ll feel.

You don’t have to go crazy, though. Cardio is still very important, but you want to add as much resistance training as you can. It’s also going to help you prevents falls whenever you’re out and moving around.

Make Sure You Rest In Your Fifties

With all of your working out, you also want to make sure that you’re resting for as long as your body needs to recuperate.

That means that you may have to give yourself more than one day in between your routines. The best way to really go about it is to just pay attention to how you feel.

If you’re still really sore then you might want to give that part of your body a longer rest. Just let your muscles heal for as long as they need so you can make sure to get the most out of your workouts. If the soreness really lasts for a long time then it might just be a sign of injury and you really don’t want to push yourself through one of those.

The length of time that it takes to recuperate is going to depend on the part of your body that you’re working on and how hard you’re going at it. Just switch to a different section and let yourself heal. Just remember that working out doesn’t matter in the least if you’re not letting your body do its thing and heal the muscles that you’re working out.

Always warm up

Finally, you always want to make sure that you warm yourself up before you start working out. It’s one the most important things that you can do when you want to stop from injuring yourself. Get your muscles nice and loose before you start working and you’re going to be in a much better place for your entire time at the gym.

The best way to go about it is to mix some light cardio in with stretching. It’s going to get your heart rate up and get your muscles ready for all of the strenuous activity that you have in store for them.

When you add this to your after workout stretching, you’re giving yourself every chance of having a successful work out and doing the best thing for your body.

Doing a general warm up is great, but you also want to make sure that you’re warming up the area that you’re going to be working on.

It’s going to end up benefitting you, no matter what you’re doing or how long you’re working out. Just take the time to prepare and you’ll see better results from everything that you’re doing and that’s what you’re after in the long run.

Author

  • Stephen

    Stephen is now retired. He spent 25 years in community welfare and is one of the co-founders of life over 50. He has a keen interest in everything concerning this special age group.....and makes valuable contributions to the site. In his spare time, he enjoys photography, cycling and gardening. Also a keen jazz music lover!


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