Keep fit past your 50's

When you think back to when you were in your 20’s, you realise that your body can’t quite do all the things it used to as efficiently. 

When you think back to when you were in your 20’s, you realise that your body can’t quite do all the things it used to as efficiently. But exercise will always be the key throughout life, keeping you active, mobile and flexible – giving you the independence you need to live a good quality life. That doesn’t mean we should be running marathons or competing in boxing matched past 50 (unless you want to! So, here are some more manageable exercise groups that will help to increase your range of movement and keep you healthy.

Stretching
Whether it’s the first thing you do when you wake up or before and after exercising, stretching is important to keeping you flexible and mobile as you age. There are many different stretches for all areas of the body, so whether you want to focus on each part of the body individually or focus on all the body a little bit every other day, you will soon notice your range of motion increase.

Warm up
As always, a warm up prior to exercising is essential – but it becomes even more so, as you get older. Warming up will help to increase your circulation, heart rate and body temperature to help prepare your muscles for exercising and not to forget that it will help to prevent any injury. It’s best to warm up the muscles that you will be using for the activity you have chosen, although a full body warm up will help benefit all muscles.

Low impact exercises
Low impact exercises means less jumping and thrashing around, being a lot kinder to your joints whilst still getting your heart pumping and helping to reduce the risk of heart disease! Low impact exercises include swimming, cycling, yoga, pilates, golf, ballroom dancing and walking to name a few – so depending on your current exercise levels and what you fancy doing, there is a nice mix to get you doing something enjoyable and good for your body! If you find that you struggle with some of the other activities, then why not start with a frequent walk, walking football or golf?

Resistance training
Past 30, you will notice that your muscle mass and strength isn’t what it used to be, especially if resistance training wasn’t really your thing. But, resistance training can help you rebuild some of those muscles and maintain them, whilst reducing your risk of arthritis, obesity, back pain and diabetes. Resistance training also doesn’t mean just weights, you can start even with resistance bands, wall squats, leg raises, arm raises and more!
It’s inevitable that we will all age, but that doesn’t mean we will all age well! That’s why it is so important to maintain an active lifestyle and a healthy diet, to ensure that you will remain mobile and flexible throughout your older life, improving the quality of everyday living.

We understand many slow down as they get older, but many of our carer’s are aged over 50 and live an active lifestyle helping our customers – its never too late to start a new career at any age!
Thinking of a change? Call the Bluebird Care team now on 01582 713389