Connect & Grow Magazine: Issue 15: November - December 2024
As a personal trainer for 30+ years, a common question I get asked is, 'What kind of exercise is right for my age and sex?’ This is a great question, but it is very challenging to answer as so many variables need to be addressed and included.
These are health, fitness, time, preferred exercise, etc.
So, I have addressed the question with a rather broad-spectrum brush in this article!
Of course, our bodies change as we age, and our exercise routines must be adapted accordingly. While there is no magic formula for longevity, understanding the unique needs of each decade can help us stay strong, healthy, and active throughout our lives.
Let’s start:
20s to 30’s, building a healthy routine of exercise
In our 20s to 30s, this is the time to build a healthy routine and regular exercise plan to help set a strong foundation for years to come.
The focus is on all areas, i.e., building muscle mass, improving cardiovascular health, and making these activities a regular habit at least three times a week, but ideally six times a week. Ideal ways of achieving this would be participating in High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), cross-fit, weightlifting, cycling, swimming, and team sports. This is when boundless energy is available, excellent recovery is possible, and limits can be pushed!
Key Points:
● Focus: Building Muscle, enhancing cardiovascular health, increasing bone density (which will happen through resistance exercise and eating right)
● Frequency: 3-6 days a week of some form of exercise, half an hour duration minimum, with rest days for recovery.
● Intensity: Moderate to high, focusing on pushing oneself and going for challenging workouts...
30s to 40s: Maintaining Strength & Flexibility
This is, in one aspect, the most important decade of your life regarding your fitness as it is the time you can set yourself up for life, building on the work you’ve started in your 20s to 30s, or you still have the chance of being a complete beginner, making significant inroads into eating and exercising right.
Whilst recovery may not be quite as quick as in the previous decade, this is the time to lay your foundation for good health for the rest of your life. Focus on maintaining your muscle mass, improving balance and flexibility, and incorporating activities that give you joy! If you haven’t already tried them, now would be the time to add/try classes such as dancing, yoga, pilates, stretching, and flex.
Key points:
● Maintaining muscle mass, improving flexibility and balance, preventing injuries
● activities: yoga, pilates, stretching, dance classes, hiking, strength training, cycling, swimming.
● Still, 3-6 times a week; variety is the key here. Keep up the strength and cardio, and add stretch-type classes if you haven't already.
● Intensity: moderate to higher intensity, concentrating on technique and good form to prevent injury
40s to 50s: Staying Active and Healthy
This is ‘where the rubber hits the road’; hopefully, you have set up excellent foundations at this stage and want to maintain your muscle mass and bone density and prevent injury, prioritising activities that support your joint and cardiovascular health. If you haven't already done so, the time to start incorporating the activities that allow you to keep up the cardiovascular fitness but are lower impact, such as swimming, cycling, yoga & pilates - aim for 2-3 times a week of this type of class. Do not override what your body tells you at this stage, and adjust your workout accordingly.
Key points:
● Strength work for maintaining muscle mass and increasing/maintaining bone density
● Incorporate lower-impact cardio into your routine - swimming, cycling, yoga, tai chi, walking, hiking, and strength training with lighter and heavier weights.
● Frequency: 3-6 days a week, ensuring you become better at listening to the body to aid in rest and recovery.
● Intensity: low to moderate, emphasising correct technique to prevent injury and prioritising to become attuned to what your body wants on any particular day.
The 50s to 60s and beyond...Staying Active and adapting where necessary
These decades can indeed be our best or our worst! This is not so much about going out and running 100 km in one go (although if you’ve always been a runner, keep up some form of this if it gives you joy; be sure to get regular maintenance through physio, massage, chiro, osteo, etc.)
This is the time to focus on balance, flexibility, injury prevention, core work, some form of strength training, and, yes, still cardio but of a lower intensity, with regular breaks built in. Look at working with an exercise physiotherapist if necessary. Walking groups may be something to consider regularly incorporating now, as well as spending time in social activities like dancing with good friends and maybe joining an aqua class or two!
Key points:
● Focus: these decades are about maintaining what you’ve gained in your earlier years, looking at strength, cardiovascular health, flexibility, balance and managing a healthy weight
● Activities: Lower-impact cardio such as walking, swimming, cycling, dancing, stretching and strength classes like yoga, pilates, tai chi, and gardening can still be used to maintain weight training, but with lighter weights.
● Frequency: 2-6 days a week, incorporating all the recovery and rest in between, if necessary; this is where you may be doing more walking and maybe on 2-3 days in a gym.
● Intensity: low to moderate, prioritising enjoyment of exercise, finding your comfort level and enjoying the socialising of exercise classes.
Remember always that regardless of age, the key to making exercise a regular priority in our lives (& it is super important to do this) is to do activities that light you up, give you joy, and incorporate them into your lifestyle to make them a priority! Get all the help required to keep your body in tip-top physical shape at every age, i.e. embrace regular massage or seek the help of an osteopath, physiotherapist, or some other health professional to enable you to keep up physical activities and prevent injury.
Choose activities that are fun and social. Do not force yourself to do something that you don’t enjoy. Seek professional guidance from a personal trainer or exercise physiotherapist to create a personalised exercise plan that meets your individual needs and goals.
Staying active throughout our decades is the key to living a wonderfully flexible, healthy and fulfilling life!
Written by
Vivienne Derwent
‘Inside Health, Outside Vitality’
Vivienne Derwent
B.HSc. ANTA
M:0402 076 103
Email: viv@vnutri.com.au
(C) Break Free Consultancy 2024
Disclaimer: All information is accurate at the time of publication and subject to change