exercises for middle aged parents?

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Hi all,

I've been trying to get my parents, who are in their early-mid 50's and overweight/out of shape, to be more active. They want to lose the weight, but I think they're at a loss about what to do. My mom recently joined the gym (hurrah!) and had a few personal training sessions, but I think she's a bit overwhelmed. I live an hour and a half away, otherwise I'd just go to the gym with her, but I did show her Couch to 5K and her response was "I'm too old to be running". While I'm under no illusions that her and my dad will become marathon runners, I'm at a loss about what I can do to help them out. They take the occasional walk but other than that they're pretty sedentary. Any ideas?

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  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
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    They're not too old to run. If they really believe that, and are not just making excuses, tell them there are plenty of over 50 people who run and run well.

    You might give them the example of Ed Whitlock. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Whitlock

    Like people at any other age though getting started is hard and requires a lot of internal motivation.