12/20/2023
Exercising as you age can get a bit tricky. As we get older, the importance of exercise magnifies. But at the same time, your body starts to react to it differently. So your old workout routine can actually hurt you — if you don’t make a few changes.
So here are the six tips I recommend to women like me who want to continue their regular exercise routine:
1. Get enough rest days: As the years pass, your body recuperates more slowly after intense workouts. Rest days can vary from walking to a light spin on the bicycle to sometimes doing nothing.
2. Learn to cross-train: Since older bodies recover at a slower pace, varying workouts from day to day becomes essential. It’s also important to mix cardiovascular exercise with muscle-building workouts.
3. Keep - or add - strength training to build muscle: Although walking improves your heart health, it’s not a great muscle-building exercise unless you walk steep hills or stairs. Strengthening exercises include moderate hikes, bicycling, kayaking, swimming, weightlifting, stair climbing and strength classes.
4. Transition to low impact activities: The rate of injuries with higher impact sports increases with age. This is something I know from experience, and most of us should transition to low impact activities.
5. Warm up: Muscles tend to start up more slowly as the years go by. Warming up the muscle slowly before an intermediate or intense workout becomes critical to avoid injury.
6. Stretch warm muscles: Stretching becomes more important as our tendons and ligaments tighten and tear more easily with age. It’s best to stretch warm muscles. That means gentle and sustained stretching during or immediately after exercise.
For more details, you can read the full article of "How to exercise as you age: 6 tips from an orthopedic surgeon" on Women's Health Network at https://www.womenshealthnetwork.com/other-womens-health/how-to-exercise-as-you-age/
