Tips for staying fit after 50

By Silversurfers

Fitness, it’s often assumed, is a young person’s game.

But staying fit isn’t just something you can do when you’re over 50 – it’s something you absolutely have to do. As you enter middle-age, you have an increased risk of contracting particular illnesses and conditions, from high blood pressure and high cholesterol to back and muscle pains, and even certain types of cancer.

Maintaining a healthy body and mind could help you stave off the effects of some of these age-related afflictions. And staying fit is much easier than you think, if you discover the exercise regime that works for you.

Finding the right exercise for you

There’s no one way to exercise: just as your body is different from another person’s, the fitness routine that suits you will vary too. Your friend, for instance, may swear by her regular workouts on the treadmill at her gym – but that doesn’t mean that approach is right for you as well.

Start by considering your likes and dislikes. Perhaps you don’t enjoy the thought of running or jogging: think instead about sports that incorporate running, like football, squash and tennis. Look for a local five-a-side league with a high percentage of older players, or inquire about squash courts in your local leisure centre. This way, you’ll receive the benefits of running while participating in another activity.

But team sports aren’t your only option. Creative workouts like Zumba – which combines Colombian dance rhythms with aerobic exercise – are especially popular with older women because they’re fun and can be easily enjoyed with friends.

Weight training is also important when you’re over 50. This helps maintain your muscle mass, which you lose as you get older. You may need to consult a fitness trainer when you start weight training, to ensure that you don’t start with weights that are too heavy and accidentally injure yourself. If you’re joining a gym for the first time, many offer a few hours with a personal trainer as standard for new members.

Maintaining a healthy body and mind

When crafting your fitness routine, you need to think about activating your mind as well as your body. Disciplines like Yoga and Pilates engage both mind and body, teaching principles of core stability, coordination and helping to de-clutter your thoughts. Practicing even 10 minutes of Yoga or Pilates every day, in fact, can have a rejuvenating and energising effect. Another way to stimulate your brain is to vary your exercise routine – don’t stick to the same workout every day, and experiment with different sports and pastimes. This will make sure your mind stays engaged, and helps ensure that you don’t get bored.

If you’re having trouble motivating yourself, try looking for like-minded over-50s that want to stay fit too. Charity Silverfit, for instance, was created specifically to motivate over-50s to become active so it could be a great place to start.

You’ll also find plenty of resources online to get your fitness regime off on the right foot. Boots Web MD, for instance, has a range of nutrition advice and exercise tips for women over 50, while the NHS’s online Health and Fitness guide is handily divided by both gender and age range.

Orignal Source: http://www.silversurfers.com/best-of-the-web/tips-for-staying-fit-after-50/

Avoid these weightlifting mistakes

Looking out for these warning signs in your weights workout will lead to impressive results.

Lack of concentration
It's easy to let your mind wander when you are resting after a hard set. But relaxing for too long will see you lose your mental focus and let your muscles go off the boil, compromising your efforts to achieve muscle exhaustion.

Get it right: 'It's very important to time your rest periods with a stopwatch,' says Tom Crudgington, director of the Body Development Strength And Performance Centre. 'Aim to rest for 60-90 seconds, depending on the type of exercise.' Single-joint moves such as biceps curls require less time for recovery, while big whole-body moves such as deadlifts take longer.

Always doing the same
Grabbing the same set of dumb-bells each workout means that your programme is standing still. Eventually you'll lose ground and become less strong because you're always inside your comfort zone.

Get it right: 'Master the movement first to avoid muscle and ligament damage - for instance, do squats with an unloaded bar to learn the exercise and increase flexibility,' says James Wild of fitness company Premier Training. 'Then work up to lifting a bigger weight with an increased range of movement.' For muscle growth, you should work your way up to lifting 70 per cent of your one-rep maximum in a set.

Wrong warm-up
Jumping on the treadmill for a ten-minute blast before you hit the weights room might sound like an easy one-stop warm-up, but at best it's an inefficient way to heat up your core and at worst it leaves key muscles unprepared for action.

Get it right: 'Spending four to five minutes on a treadmill or rower to bring up your core temperature is OK, as long as you then warm up specific muscles by lifting a light load for warm-up sets of the exercises that you're actually about to do,' says Crudgington. 'This will help you to avoid injury and achieve the full range of motion.'

Machine obsession
Machines are useful for those new to lifting or returning from injury because their control lets you exercise safely. But spending too long on them will hold you back.

Get it right: 'There's a point on the machine's pulley where it takes over from you, so that you're not working 100 per cent of the muscle 100 per cent of the time,' says Lee Archer, director of Pro Fitness gym. 'Using free weights such as dumb-bells will keep both sides of your body under constant tension to develop your joint stabilisers and bigger muscles evenly.'

Doing too much
Extra workouts or 30 minutes longer in the gym 'just to make sure' won't make you stronger, fitter or leaner. Exercise breaks you down then builds you back up, so overdoing it puts your health and your fitness at risk.

Get it right: 'You get stronger while you're resting rather than when you're working out, so you need to allow time for repair,' says Wild. 'These days, we suggest that 45 minutes per workout is optimal for resistance training and the maximum is one hour.' Leave 48 hours between heavy workouts and every four to six weeks, have a "reduced training week" in which you cut the volume of your workouts by 50 per cent.'

Overdoing the crunches
Squeezing out hundreds of abs crunches won't get you a six-pack, and is more likely to give you neck or back problems than chiselled abs. Apart from that, crunches work the abs from only one angle and they won't burn fat.

Get it right: 'The abs are mostly made up of fast-twitch muscle fibres, so they need to be trained with added weight to make them grow,' says Wild. 'Doing exercises such as deadlifts, squats and multi-directional exercises on two feet activates your abdominals and core as much as a crunch.'

Too much standing around
We know queuing is the quintessential British pastime, but joining the line for the most popular weight station in the gym does more than rob you of time. It allows your muscles to cool, as well as eroding your focus, therefore making the exercise you're about to do an injury minefield.

Get it right: 'Always have alternative exercises in mind so that you can choose a different bit of equipment to achieve the same effect,' says Wild. For instance, a gym ball makes a good replacement bench while dumb-bells can safely stand in for a barbell.

Incorrect form
Pushing your head forwards, wobbling unsteadily from side to side, and lifting your feet off the floor to finish a rep all increase your risk of tearing something or you suffering long-term posture problems.

Get it right: 'You may not have the postural strength to hold a good position in bent-over rows and other exercises, especially if you're sitting behind a desk all day,' says Wild. 'Don't try to lift too much too early. If you work on getting your form right, you'll be able to lift more in the long run and avoid injury.'

Not getting off your arse
Sitting down to do a single-joint isolation exercise sometimes helps you to maximise the weight you're lifting. But if you do it all the time you're actually missing out on a chance to train your core and lower body to stabilise your torso, which is vital for bigger whole-body moves such as the clean and press.

Get it right: 'When you stand up to do exercises such as lateral raises or biceps curls, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent,' says Archer. 'If your feet are too far apart you can't bend your knees and when the exercise gets hard you'll lean back and sway your hips, which will increase the risk of straining your lower back.'

Rushing your workout
Flying through your sets in double-quick time may make you feel like Superman, but if you're lifting for muscle growth you're not saving time - you're wasting it.

Get it right: 'Sets need to last between 40 and 70 seconds for muscle growth,' says Crudgington. 'Using a repetition tempo of lifting for one second, lowering for three seconds, pausing for one second at the bottom and doing at least eight reps will easily help you achieve this.'

Reference: http://www.mensfitness.co.uk/exercise/exercise_tips/2142/perfect_your_weights_workout_to_build_muscle.html