In Your 40’s, 50’s and Beyond

By Jamie Bussin and Dr. Stacy Irvine DC

I’m such a creature of habit that I’ve done the exact same workouts, week after week for the past 5 years. But candidly, even though I can still do (most of) what I could do when I started my fitness journey 20 years ago, it’s harder; I require more recovery and I feel differently. 

I sometimes wonder, even though I can do what I could when I was younger…should I? I discussed reasonable workout goals and focus as we age with sports rehabilitation expert Dr. Stacy Irvine DC on Episode #182 of The Tonic Talk Show/Podcast. This is a summary of that conversation. 

 

IN YOUR 40’S

You’re likely incredibly busy at work and for many of us busy with obligations of a young family. How do you squeeze the workouts in when your family schedule is full  and oftentimes out of control as you put your kids first? At work you’re perhaps not in a senior position such that you can dictate what your schedule is. At this time of your life the focus of your workout should be efficiency.

Our exercise goals at this age include maintaining muscle mass, cardiovascular ability and mobility that we had in our 20’s and 30’s…while being efficient with our time.

Stacy’s recommendations: “I think you want to do 1 to 2 hours of strength training a week, 2-3 hours of cardio and 1 hour of mobility training such as stretching, yoga or pilates (because mobility shouldn’t be that big of a problem…yet). I hope that you make time to do group activities with friends and family like basketball, tennis or skiing. Make it fun!”

 

IN YOUR 50’S 

You may notice that your muscle mass is starting to generally atrophy without regular activity. You may also notice that your sleep patterns become less regular and it is difficult to get adequate rest. In our 50’s we see more ‘weekend warrior’ types of injuries such as torn Achilles tendons.

Stacy’s recommendations: “I think you really have to make sure that you stay on a good program for how you sleep. You also want to have a really good focus on lifting weights and doing resistance training, because it’s important to maintain your muscle mass at that age. So I would say 2-3 hours of weightlifting or resistance training a week. I would take the intensity of the games down a little bit. Focus on warm-ups before and cool-downs after exercise. Increase your mobility work to 2 hours per week. Posture also comes into play. Try ballet or pilates and if you are weight training, make sure to do exercises to strengthen your back.” 

The effort you put in at this stage of your life will set you up for success as you age. Because…

 

IN YOUR 60’S (AND BEYOND)

…Things change. Balance and mobility issues tend to come to the forefront of your health and fitness. You’re more susceptible to falls. Bone density decreases.

Stacy’s recommendations: “Incorporate something like Tai Chi or other activities that stress your balance, such as dance or yoga. Those activities train your muscles to keep you upright on your feet if something happens; for e.g.if you step on a slippery surface or something else which might cause a fall. We also want to make sure that we maintain our bone mass. So during this time the bone mineral density can decrease and we want to have a very strong effort in maintaining that now. General exercise will help with our bone mass, but we also have to make sure our nutrition is there; specifically vitamin D and calcium. And then, in addition to that, we want to keep up with the resistance training, because we know that that has the biggest impact on our bone health.”

Cardiovascular health is also important. Studies show that those who keep up their cardio-health in their 50’s and 60’s experience less cardiovascular decline in their 70’s and 80’s.

Maintenance of your health and preventing injury should be your focus. It’s much easier to maintain what you have than it is to build help at this stage of your life. Stacy says, “In our 60’s we have a bit more free time. So I love the outdoors hiking, golfing, things that you would do with your friends because now you get to combine your social life with your active life and I think that that will encourage you to always keep active.”

Because at the end of the day our physical, mental and social health are all tied together.