You think getting fit at 40 was hard, it’s even harder to start a senior exercise program. Exercising when your joints ache and you’ve got limited mobility and strength isn’t fun. At least not at first. But it does get better with practice and time. Even after a little time, you see improvements and it becomes rewarding. That is, if you can get over your excuses, even when they’re true!
Ageism is a big hurdle for all seniors. And the biggest hurdle is in the mindset of seniors themselves. I see this in the excuses some of my friends give for why they don’t exercise:
- It’s too late for me to get fit (I’m almost 60…70…80…fill in any age!)
- I’ve got too many aches and pains
- At my age, I’d look silly
- I’ll injure myself
But the truth is, unless we confront our own reluctance to exercise, we can’t take advantage of the biggest anti-aging strategy available to all: senior exercise. We set ourselves up for becoming frail, and for all the nasty diseases of aging (heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancers, dementia).
If you want to stay healthy and live an active, satisfying life, senior exercise is never “one and done.” The seniors we see today looking and moving younger than their years have adopted a regular exercise habit. The ones winning the War on Aging have confronted three difficult obstacles:
1. Senior Exercise Every Day
“What? I have to start exercising every day???”
You do, yes. Well, only if you want to lessen the chance of getting sick, of being miserable, of having physical and mental limitations, and of dying prematurely from preventable diseases.
Get out there and move your feet. You will have to sweat. Whatever you’re doing now is good, but probably not enough. Start where you are, according to your fitness level, and work up to the levels that can help extend your life and health.
2. Senior Exercise—Forever!
Not only do we need to start exercising every day, but we must keep on doing it, every day. I must repeat myself here: If you want to have a longer life with less pain and more vitality, exercise for seniors must be a daily activity. You need to start exercising almost every day, and do it forever.
There’s no end where you sit down and say, “There, I’m fit.” Aim for six days a week, mixing up different kinds of exercises and activities.
To me, that’s not a bad deal at all. But I didn’t always feel that way, and I haven’t been rigorously strict about it. I used to consider shopping all three floors of Nordstrom’s with a credit card a workout. After a lot of reading on the new science of aging well, I’ve shifted my haphazard, “good enough” exercise habits.
The research is clear: all the evidence points to a much bigger role for senior exercise: if seniors want to age well, extend life and health spans, and avoid the chronic debilitations of getting old they must engage in resistance training.
Just like brushing teeth is a habit we don’t have to think about, so should be exercise. We need to repeatedly exercise over a long period to get all the great health and longevity benefits. Some benefits we can see right away, and some we might never see, but they are there, keeping us alive and healthy.
It’s always harder to do things when we don’t see awesome results right away, isn’t it? But then, we’ve brushed our teeth for how many years now? Remember, daily exercise for seniors will build up the immune system, regulate the heart muscle, build new brain cells, and strengthen joints and bones.
3. Our Own Ageism: How to Say NO
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to exercising is that “muscle” between the ears: the brain. We need to confront our false beliefs—those excuses and mindset that come with it. Yes, we’ve all used excuses to not exercise. I sometimes joke I’ve got a PhD in making excuses. But to get healthy and live longer, we have to get smart and outsmart our “stinking thinking.”
What’s it been like for you? Are you already part of the trend of healthy seniors in gyms and sports fields who are winning the War on Aging? Let us know.
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