The Approach to Fitness

The Approach to Fitness

Your lifestyle choices in middle age have a direct impact on how you'll spend your latter years. If you're fit at 50, you're much more likely to be healthy into your 70s and 80s. My mother who was always fit and strong in her early years went on to win the national shot put, discus and javelin in the over 70 age category. Mid life fitness is a recipe for a happy old age. Chronic diseases, like diabetes, cancer and heart disease will get delayed unless you are genetically predisposed. You reap what you sow when it comes to your diet and exercise patterns.

You will notice that your friends  been the least fit in their 40s and 50s developed the most chronic conditions early in the aging process. Physically fit people have a lower risk of dying than those who are unfit.  It makes a difference in your quality of life. If you want to spend more of your retired life on golf courses or holidaying rather than in hospital rooms it is time to start working out.

I am not saying you will live forever; but focus on fitness and diet will ensure that you will not die as a bedridden burden to your family. I have seen so many cases of people who stopped exercising post retirement and suddenly degenerated in their old age. Remember exercise reduces inflammation, improves your strength, and protects your brain as you age. Reduced inflammation prevents degenerative changes in our joints. People who exercise are generally mentally sharper. I have seen in the case of my father how his mental faculties slowly degraded after he stopped exercise about 10 years back. It saddens and that is putting it mildly.

As you age, your resting metabolic rate tends to decline; this slowly raises body fat. The only way to speed up the metabolic rate is by putting on muscle mass. Good nutrition and optimal exercise help counter these biological tendencies. Exercising readies your body for increased muscle strength and fat burning.

If you think you need to spend an hour pounding the treadmill or roads every day in order to be fit, then you'll be pleased to learn this is an outdated myth.  The body as we grow older needs strength unless you are planning for a marathon or some endurance event. Simple strength building gives ample scope of improving endurance. The cardio or aerobic fitness will come if you do exercises which make you breathless for very short periods. In nature remember no animal goes for long jogs or attempts to run marathons. Life for them consists of slow movement for foraging or rapid sprints to avoid getting killed or rapid sprints to catch a kill. It is either roam about relaxed or do a high power short time activity. The same rule applies to us as humans. Every game we played as a child consisted of brief periods of intense activity followed by slower periods whether it be football or tennis. Short intense exercise followed by periods of recovery are what nature intended us to do. High power activity is also what animals do when they actually move. That is what builds strength, power and endurance.  Basically what I am talking about is high intensity short duration training.

Finally don't underestimate the importance of proper nutrition and lots of rest as crucial elements in achieving your fitness goals.

Certain Tips to Achieving Your Fitness Goals.

Try to get breathless at least 5 times during an exercise session. Follow each such occasion  with atleast 2 minutes of light exercise.

Set a mix of very short goals each time you exercise. Do not worry about the long term picture. Limit goals to the current exercise session. Deadlines can be motivating. But they can also be incredibly de-motivating if you repeatedly fail to hit them. As you focus on the right things each session the rest will take care of itself.

It’s tempting to think that you need to wait until you “know it all” before getting started. All that happens is that you get bogged down in the planning stage and never reach the point where you actually do anything. The best method is to start and then evolve your approach along the way.

Focus on strength building your cardio will take care of itself. The strength building should be based on squats, deadlift, bench presses, barbell rows and presses. More on that in my next blog.

Stick to roughly the same exercise pattern for at least 12 weeks to see results. Make it slightly tougher each session.