What If You’re Starting Later?: Ageing With Resilience
Perhaps you’ve read the previous blogs in this series and thought, I wish I’d done all of this years ago.
Maybe you’re in your 60s or 70s and exercise has never really been part of your life. Perhaps you’ve spent decades working, raising a family and looking after everybody except yourself. Your knees are complaining, your back is stiff, you’re taking more medication than you used to and conditions such as high blood pressure, arthritis, diabetes or osteoporosis have started appearing in conversations with your doctor.
It can be very easy to decide the damage has been done.
It hasn’t.
It is never, ever too late to become fitter and stronger.
I am extremely passionate about exercise and it never being too late. I personally look up to fitness ‘influencers’ who are in their 70’s and 80’s because that is where the real goal of being strong lays.
The body retains an extraordinary ability to respond to movement. NHS guidance for older adults specifically emphasises that some activity is better than none and that even light activity has health benefits. Strength, balance and flexibility work become particularly important for maintaining physical function and independence.
So where do you start?
Start with where you actually are, not where you think you should be.
If walking to the end of the road leaves you tired, don’t set yourself the goal of walking five miles. Walk to the end of the road. Do it regularly. Then go slightly further.
If getting out of a chair requires a push through your hands, your first strength exercise might simply be practising standing up and sitting back down. If you’re nervous about your balance, begin with exercises where you have something sturdy nearby for support.
Your starting point doesn’t need to impress anybody.
It just needs to be a starting point
Next, begin breaking up periods of sitting. Get up while the kettle boils. Walk around the house. Potter in the garden. Take the stairs when they’re appropriate for you. Put some music on and move while you’re cooking.
Then, gradually, begin adding some deliberate exercise.
Walking is brilliant, but don’t stop there. Strength matters enormously as we get older. Resistance bands, light weights, bodyweight exercises, carrying shopping, climbing stairs and gardening can all help strengthen muscles. NHS guidance recommends activities that improve strength, balance and flexibility at least twice a week for older adults.
You don’t need to achieve everything in the guidelines next week. Build towards it
And if illness and medications have become part of your life, don’t assume that means exercise isn’t for you. It may simply mean your exercise needs to be adapted. If you haven’t exercised for a long time or you have medical conditions or concerns, speak to your GP or another appropriate healthcare professional before significantly increasing your activity.
This isn’t about ignoring illness. It’s about asking, what can I still improve?
Maybe your blood pressure needs managing. Maybe your joints aren’t perfect. Maybe you’ve had surgery, developed osteoporosis or simply become weaker after years of inactivity.
Work with the body you have
Because improvement doesn’t have an age limit.
You can become stronger.
You can improve your balance.
You can increase your stamina.
You can regain confidence in movements you’ve gradually stopped doing.
Even NHS guidance on strength and balance is wonderfully clear on this: age is no barrier to seeing improvements in strength, balance, stamina and flexibility.
One of my favourite mottos at Astral Fitness is movement is medicine.
Not because movement replaces your medication or medical care. It doesn’t.
But movement is one of the most powerful tools we have for continuing to participate in our own health.
So don’t worry about what you didn’t do at 30, 40 or 50.
Start today
Take the walk. Practise standing from the chair. Pick up the weights. Work on your balance. Ask for help if you’re unsure where to begin.
You don’t need to become the person you were twenty years ago.
You can start building a stronger version of the person you are now.
I offer Personal Training tailored to exactly where you are now, and if you feel there is a bigger issue at play that needs resolution before you embark on a regular exercise regime, then why not book in for a massage instead? Head over to www.astralfitness.co.uk to book a massage, or email me [email protected] to enquire about Personal Training.
Thank you for reading this weeks blog, What If You’re Starting Later?
Thanks for reading,
Chloe