getting fit after 40
the recipe for getting fitter as we age
Have you reached middle age and are you wondering how to stay fit? Or maybe you’re not there yet and you are starting to feel conscious about how aging will affect your health and fitness.
Before we dive into it, let us tell you this: aging doesn’t have to be synonymous with regressing. It is indeed possible to keep progressing and get stronger, fitter and healthier as you age. The key is to recognize you have entered a new phase of your life and to train accordingly.
First of all, it is important to understand that your number of years do not directly dictate how fit and healthy you are. Rather, it is what you have been doing through those years that determine how fit you are today, and it is what you do now that will determine how your fitness will evolve in the coming years.
It is true that there are physiological changes that occur as we age and they impact the way we progress and recover. However, progressing slower doesn’t have to be a fatality and it is certainly not the same thing as regressing. While it may require more planning and patience, it is still possible to keep progressing and get stronger as we age. Take the case of George Hood for example. This ex-marine broke the world record of the longest plank (more than 8 hours) in 2020 when he was 62 years old. This is a man who had always been in great shape since his marine training, but he was able to get stronger than ever in his sixties. This shows us that while we may find it harder to recover and make slower progress, our bodies are still able to improve late in our life, as long as we keep training.
Progressing past middle age comes down to 2 main keys: finding the right balance between training and recovery, and working our way up gradually and mindfully, step by step.
We are only as strong as our weakest link and that is especially true as we age. It is of utmost importance that we train our tendons, ligaments, and every small muscle at least as much as we train our bigger muscles. This can be done by doing functional training and other basic strength and mobility drills regularly. Building strong foundations allows us to push a little harder on our main exercises and increase our overall strength. Once we have consolidated those gains, we are then able to increase the load on our foundational exercises, and then increase our overall strength again in the same way. It is similar to applying mortar before laying each new brick.
Recovery is equally important as the right training method. We actually progress when we recover. This is because workouts are used to stress our bodies in order to force them to get stronger as an adaptation mechanism. This adaptation occurs during recovery periods.
It is best to train strength and mobility 3 to 4 times a week and include cardio training in your regimen for a total of 4 to 5 active days per week. It is preferable to take a rest day between each session, although training two days in a row is still acceptable, as long as proper rest is taken. Remember you will still need to rest even if you train different muscle groups every time. While you might think of different muscle groups as completely distinct agents, they are still part of the same body, nervous system, metabolism etc…
Do not overlook cardio training. Your heart is one of the most important organs you should take care of and even more so as you age, but you probably already know that.
The recipe is simple: build proper foundations, take it slow, prioritize recovery and be patient. While you may not progress as fast as in your twenties, you will still progress, and that’s the most important.
