Thread for older fitness enthusiasts. A forum to discuss unique fitness challenges for us

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lnielsen18
lnielsen18 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am an over 60 person who loves to workout and improve my abilities. There are things I have learned to adapt for my older self and would love to hear others ideas as well. It seems the industry is rightfully geared towards the youthful and different metrics apply. BF % is one. 4%!! come on. I would look like a skeleton. I saw 11% once but I walked by a potato chip and went up to 12.5%. I spent several years running and burnt off a good portion of my muscle mass and am having a hard time regaining my strength and bulk. I would advise any one around 55 to not do excessive cardio and begin strength training. Muscle is very hard to replace after 60 and we’ll need when we are 80. Other comments and insights?
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  • amberellen12
    amberellen12 Posts: 248 Member
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    I don’t go to a gym. Live too far away out in the country and I don’t exercise. I just retire last spring and am getting my butt off the couch. My job was an on your feet moving all day kind. I have arthritis in one hip that makes walking any long distance out. Just hurts too much.

    So any ideas, strategies, pointers you could give me would be very much appreciated. I want to be in great health during this next stage of my life.

  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
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    GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    amberellen12 wrote: »
    I don’t go to a gym. Live too far away out in the country and I don’t exercise. I just retire last spring and am getting my butt off the couch. My job was an on your feet moving all day kind. I have arthritis in one hip that makes walking any long distance out. Just hurts too much.

    So any ideas, strategies, pointers you could give me would be very much appreciated. I want to be in great health during this next stage of my life.

    I don't know about you, but moving makes my arthritis better. I get up in the morning with aching everywhere (and yes, I've got a bad hip too). I get up at 6:00 and go in the livingroom to do 1 hr of stretching exercises. my routine was based on the Jane Fonda book, with modifications over 30 yrs. I've added yoga, squats, planking, and physical therapy moves--anything that helps. After, I'm ready for the day--cleaning, shopping, walking, or the gym or pool. I grew up in the country so I know what it's like to be isolated, but you can drive to a gym or pool, or look at yoga, or other exercises on YouTube. Depends on how bad you want it. Once things start falling apart it's next to impossible to put them back together, at my age.

    Agreed. And once I start moving for the day, I keep moving all day. If I stay still too long, I stiffen back up.

    Staying active is a vital part of managing both my weight AND my arthritis.

    Yes^^^^^^^^^^^^!
  • amberellen12
    amberellen12 Posts: 248 Member
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    [/quote]

    I don't know about you, but moving makes my arthritis better. I get up in the morning with aching everywhere (and yes, I've got a bad hip too). I get up at 6:00 and go in the livingroom to do 1 hr of stretching exercises. my routine was based on the Jane Fonda book, with modifications over 30 yrs. I've added yoga, squats, planking, and physical therapy moves--anything that helps. After, I'm ready for the day--cleaning, shopping, walking, or the gym or pool. I grew up in the country so I know what it's like to be isolated, but you can drive to a gym or pool, or look at yoga, or other exercises on YouTube. Depends on how bad you want it. Once things start falling apart it's next to impossible to put them back together, at my age.[/quote]

    Agreed. And once I start moving for the day, I keep moving all day. If I stay still too long, I stiffen back up.

    Staying active is a vital part of managing both my weight AND my arthritis.[/quote]


    Hey thanks for your responses. I live way out in the bush so no gym or wifi. Just my iPhone. So get moving and stay moving. Will start today.
  • Trina2040
    Trina2040 Posts: 214 Member
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    I'm 69 and all low impact activity works best for me. I have the normal aches and pains of a senior citizen but I have to say that I feel pretty good. The only accommodations I've had to make is to stop my Body Pump classes due to a recent health issue caused by lifting. I'm limited to no more than 10lbs, no squatting, lunging, jumping, or running. What I do is low impact cardio, sometimes with light weights, walk, Tai Chi, Yoga stretching (many poses put too much stress on my pelvic area) and with all these activities I believe I've maintained my muscle mass. I can see them when I flex and I feel strong.

    I'm really more into maintaining my current activity levels rather than improving my abilities. My totally inaccurate scale puts me around 25% body fat so that's probably a higher number in reality but I'm good with that.
  • amberellen12
    amberellen12 Posts: 248 Member
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    Does anyone do Classical Stretch by Miranda Esmonde-White? If so how did you find it?
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    edited November 2018
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    So far, the only unique challenges I've noticed with aging are slightly slower recovery from injury; slightly faster detraining with inactivity; and a need to be slightly more disciplined about consistency, rest and recovery if I want to make progress.

    But I may not have the best standard of comparison because I didn't start being routinely active until I was in my mid-40s. (I'll be 63 in a couple of weeks.)

    Also, I probably mostly do "excessive cardio", so presumably must have burned off my muscles . . . but it's working for me so far, I think.

    I do encourage everyone to strength train, because that's a smart strategy . . . but I don't do much of it myself because I find it boring, and I'm an undisciplined hedonist. ;)

    This describes it perfectly for me. I'm 67.
  • annetteschmidt
    annetteschmidt Posts: 1 Member
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    I should change my pic, that was three years and two different jobs ago. Last job a was working 12 hrs 5 days a week, was exhausted and became so much less active. A year and 20 lbs later, my muscles hurt, im so tight i cant reach back to take off clothing. Did some yoga this morning and have lost so much flexibility and doing yard work, im not as strong a last year. Im not sure where to start to get back to more flexability and stronger.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
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    annetteschmidt wrote: »
    I should change my pic, that was three years and two different jobs ago. Last job a was working 12 hrs 5 days a week, was exhausted and became so much less active. A year and 20 lbs later, my muscles hurt, im so tight i cant reach back to take off clothing. Did some yoga this morning and have lost so much flexibility and doing yard work, im not as strong a last year. Im not sure where to start to get back to more flexability and stronger.

    I would say, start slow and don't injure yourself. As you notice that things are going better slowly up your intensity and or speed. You should see a difference after 2 weeks and definitely after a month.
  • pierinifitness
    pierinifitness Posts: 2,231 Member
    edited March 2019
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    Good morning @lnielsen18, my fellow middle-aged sexagenerian, @PieriniFitness here at age 64 and what you say rings loud and true with me. I shared my insights about where I'm at in my fitness, health and wellness journey to what others are showcasing on social media and what I've done in the past. You may enjoy the read:

    [Link removed by MFP moderator]

    How much muscle do we need as older people? Honestly, we probably have as much as we need. What we need to do is know how to use it to its maximum potential and that's where precision fitness training comes in. And, we've got to want to do the work to make that possible.

    I have a saying, the program has got to match the personality and while I agree with your comments about being on guard against excessive cardio and devoting more effort to strength training, there's room for both in a training program meant especially for you, me and other older guys and gals chasing their fitness, health and wellness, trying to be the best they can be. Be safe and good luck.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,442 Member
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    annetteschmidt wrote: »
    I should change my pic, that was three years and two different jobs ago. Last job a was working 12 hrs 5 days a week, was exhausted and became so much less active. A year and 20 lbs later, my muscles hurt, im so tight i cant reach back to take off clothing. Did some yoga this morning and have lost so much flexibility and doing yard work, im not as strong a last year. Im not sure where to start to get back to more flexability and stronger.

    Working out to achieve better fitness is a long-term investment, not a quick fix . . . even for those of us whose long term has gotten shorter than it used to be. (I'm 63.) Following is my advice, and what I do myself when I've needed to take breaks for some reason (surgery, life factors, whatever).

    It's unrealistic to expect to get right back to where we were before a long break in activity . . . but the good news is, recovering lost capability (especially muscle capability) is usually faster than was gaining it in the first place.

    There's no reason to make yourself miserable. Start gradually, and build up gradually. Start with more rest days, and gradually reduce them (add workouts) as you want to and are able while maintaining good energy level.

    If you lifted before, start with some combination of lower weight, fewer sets, fewer reps, and condition yourself upward in sets/reps over a period of weeks. You will be best served by following a sound program (http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/), but if the program is a little much for you at first, there's no penalty for working up to its official starting routine.

    If DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) happens - which is what you seem to be describing now - recognize that it's temporary, and will subside in a week or so if you keep moving (including keeping up at least some of the stimulus that caused it).

    Start with more moderate steady state cardio that you personally enjoy, in manageable time chunks. You want to feel energized, not fatigued from working out, other than maybe a brief "whew" right after the session. As that gets easier, increase duration, intensity, or frequency (or some combination) to keep it challenging but manageable.

    For flexibility, movement helps, and stretching (including relevant activities like yoga) helps. With time and persistence, your flexibility will come back. I found daily stretching to be substantially more effective for this than a few times a week, but less than daily. Just a few minutes in the morning feels great: Like I've oiled my joints. I was surprised, after decades of inactivity, how fast I went from barely able to touch my toes, to able to put my palms flat on the floor in the same position.

    Exercise is supposed to be fun, and feel good, and be energizing. You will get there, and probably get there faster if you don't try to go from zero to 1000 in one jump. I think gradualism is a good idea for anyone who's starting (or restarting) to build fitness, but I think it's even more important for those of us who aren't kids anymore.

    Best wishes!

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