As they get older, men tend to exercise less. They may spend a lot of time sitting if they have a desk job. Also, family responsibilities may use up their time and energy.
They end up relaxing in from of the TV and start to gain weight and lose muscle. Even men who were athletes in their younger years may find themselves really out of shape after age 50.
However, it’s never too late to get back in shape. There are still exercise routines men can do when they’re over 50. It’s still important to maintain some muscle mass and prevent cardiovascular disease.
If you maintain a consistent routine, you may increase your testosterone levels, improve your heart health, and reduce your risk for diabetes, without the need for prescription drugs.
Before you start exercising you should consult with your doctor or other healthcare professional. Let him or her know what you’re planning on doing. Ask if there are any activities you should avoid and see if they have suggestions regarding a fitness regimen.
See if your local hospital’s physical therapy department offers any outpatient classes. Some hospitals may also have some type of fitness center. If you decide to join a gym, look for one that has an exercise physiologist, and not just “personal trainers”.
An exercise physiologist is someone with at least a bachelor’s degree. If you join a fitness program at a gym or somewhere else, they may not work with you during every workout, but they’ll be the ones who initially evaluate you and design your fitness program when you first get started. Afterwards, you may be assigned to a personal trainer for most of your routines.
Start Slowly
If you’ve been inactive for some time, you should take it easy getting started. if you attempt too much too soon, you’ll just end up real sore and maybe with strained ligaments or pulled muscles.
Men may tend to let egos get in the way and try to lift too much or undertake some really strenuous activity to prove their manhood. Three activities/methods you can start with that are less strenuous are Resistance Bands, Yoga, and Pilates.
Resistance Bands are either tube bands that come with handles or flat bands you can wrap around your hands and adjust the length easily. You’d be surprised at what you can do with resistance bands. You can use them to increase muscle strength and even muscle size.
Physical therapy assistants (at hospitals), personal trainers, and exercise physiologists all use these and know a lot about different exercises you can do with resistance bands. Many resistance band sets also come with color charts that show how to do many different exercises. There are also many YouTube videos available that demonstrate exercises. You can start with a light resistance and work your way up to heavy resistance.
Yoga combines stretching and strengthening poses with meditation and deep breathing. OK guys, if you talk to and get to know that attractive woman at work who has a very fit body, you may find out the only form of exercise she does is yoga!
It’s true that more women than men do yoga – about 82 % women and 18% men. However, many people consider yoga workouts more challenging than gym workouts. Also guys, if you’re not married or already in a relationship, you can probably meet a nice woman at a yoga class. You can learn yoga postures from YouTube videos, but it’s probably better to look for a formal class at your local hospital therapy department or gym.
Some benefits of yoga:
• Increased flexibility
• Improvement in muscle strength and tone
• Weight loss
• Stress relief
• Protection from injury, increased mobility
• Improvement in bone health
• Relief of chronic low back pain
• Mental health benefits – it clears and calms your mind
• Improvement in sexual performance
What is Pilates?
It’s a form of exercise developed in the early 20th century by a man named Joseph Pilates. It focuses on you core and maintaining muscle tone. It’s usually performed on a yoga mat. It’s considered mind-body fitness. It helps control your weight, increases flexibility, energy, and improves your posture.
Pilates is great for men because it focuses on the center of your body and developing core strength. This stabilizes your trunk and back and gives you a good foundation for the resistance and strength training that men want.
Since Pilates is low impact, it’s a more suitable exercise for men over 50 and/or beginners. Since it’s more intense than yoga you may notice results quicker. It actually has more advantages than gym workouts, because it affects your cardiovascular system, and works on your flexibility, strength, and breathing at the same time.
Again, you can look for a Pilates class in your area or check out the YouTube videos available. And the Pilates videos are not all geared towards women. Here is a good video done by a man which shows an introductory routine:
Best Pilates Core & Total Body Workout | Yoga Dose
Stretching Every Day is Very Important
If your spine isn’t flexible and your muscles are tight and rigid, it will affect your exercise movements and make you prone to sprains and injury. One of Joseph Pilates’ sayings was “A man is as young as his spinal column.” He also said, “If your spine is inflexibly stiff at 30, you are old; if it is completely flexible at 60, you are young.”
You should include stretching as part of your overall fitness routine. Your muscles get shorter and less elastic as you age, so you need to be proactive in lengthening them. If you just go into your workout without doing any stretching your muscles become imbalanced. This causes some muscles to overcompensate for the ones that are tight (not stretched) and leads to strains, discomfort, and injury.
Stretching also improves your flexibility and can increase your range of motion. For example, stretching allows you to squat deeper down, or bend and extend your arms and shoulders more when doing weight training and other exercises.
It’s best to stretch on a regular basis, at least two to three times a week. You should stretch both before and after a workout. Even 5 to 10 minutes spent stretching can be beneficial. This video shows an 8-minute routine that can be used for beginners and men over 50:
8 Minute Stretching Routine for People Who AREN’T Flexible!
Another type of stretching you may want to try is called Hyperbolic Stretching. This is suitable for all age groups and physiques and includes gentle dynamic and isometric strength exercises that can have a beneficial impact on your circulation, without heart-rate overload.
How to Increase Your Conditioning and Mobility
Remember when you were a kid and ran all over and jumped up and down with ease. You could roll around and tumble on the ground with no problem and it was lots of fun.
As you got older, say into your 40’s and beyond, you might have started groaning just getting up out of a chair, or bending over to pick something up off the floor.
This is because you lost your flexibility with age, along with the ability to “move dynamically”, which means moving from one position to another. So, you’ve lost your agility with age.
To remedy this, it’s good to practice “animal movement exercises”, This video demonstrates 3 such exercises:
3 Gorilla-Inspired Exercises That Will Work Your Entire Body
The video below shows how to do these 10 different “animal walk” exercises:
• Duck Walk
• Bunny Hops
• Sneaking Ape
• Crab Walk
• Horse Walk
• Chameleon Crawl
• Scorpion and Scorpion Jump
• Crouching Tiger
• Bear-Crab Roll
• Monkey Roll
10 Different Animal Walk Exercises
Give these exercises a try. If you have knee problems or other issues, check with your doctor, a trainer, or exercise physiologist, to see what movements are suitable for you.,
The Importance of Cardiovascular Exercise
You should definitely include cardiovascular exercise in your men over 50 routine. It’s one of the keys to preventing heart disease. Adults should be doing two to five hours a week of moderate intensity exercise, and about one to two hours of vigorous aerobic activity.
You can start off with just taking brisk walks. As you get more stamina, you can start sprinting a little. The ideal situation is to use a treadmill, stationary bike, StairMaster, or similar device at your local gym or fitness center.
As far as exercise bikes, a recumbent bike is an excellent choice to start out with. These bikes can be used even if you have back problems. Their design takes the strain off your back and glutes, as well as the joints in your hips, knees, and ankles. And you’ll still get just as good a workout as any other stationary bike.
For those who can afford it, the Life Fitness Lifecycle is a popular stationary bike which will give you a great cardiovascular workout in a short time. These bikes have a special “hill profile” which simulates riding up and down hills. This gives you a chance to relax a little when going “down” hill, and the changing up and down (hills) pace makes your workout interesting.
The Benefits of Resistance and Strength Training
Believe it or not, strength training can help you lose weight and burn calories. It will also protect your joints from injury. And don’t forget that it will build and shape your muscles, so you can show of for your wife or girlfriend.
Some other benefits of strength training are:
• Increased self-esteem
• Lowering of blood pressure
• Improving insulin sensitivity
• Decreased anxiety
• Decreased depression
• Helps with arthritic pain and fibromyalgia
• Lower cholesterol levels
• Decreased risk of dementia
• Improves your balance
Using the resistance bands mentioned above are a great way to start with strength training. When using weights, you can buy dumbbell or barbell sets to use, or work out at a fitness center with a trainer.
If you’ve never worked out with weights before it’s a good idea to initially work with a personal trainer or exercise physiologist. This is because you want to be taught the correct form for doing the movements, instead of just slinging weights around.
When lifting weights or using machines or resistance bands, you should always include basic movements like Curls, Tricep Extensions, Shoulder Presses, Bench Presses, Chest Flye’s, Lat pulldowns, Squats, and Deadlifts. Find out the number of Sets you should be doing for each muscle group (you can look this up online). For example, since Biceps is a small muscle group, you should only do 6 to 8 sets. For chest you would do more sets since it’s a larger muscle group.
You should have 2-3 resistance or weight training sessions a week. If you focus on just the basic movements mentioned above for 3-6 months, you’ll probably be amazed at your strength increase and gain in muscle shape and size.
Make Sure You Include Rest Days
Don’t overdo it by working out vigorously every day of the week. When you get older your body will take more time to heel. You should have at least 2 rest days a week, maybe even 3 rest days.
Pay attention to how you feel. If you work a certain body part and are sore the next day, that’s a sign you’re doing something right. However, give your body a chance to rest. The physiologists and bodybuilders will tell you that it’s actually on your rest days that your muscles are growing.
Pay Attention to Your Diet
This isn’t really an exercise tip, but if you’ve decided to get serious about a fitness program, you should realize eating the wrong food could sabotage your efforts.
So, try to eat more clean, healthy, natural food, and eliminate the bad stuff. Maybe you need to cut down on alcohol or fast food. Eating too much processed or junk food is going to make you feel sluggish and maybe even give you “brain fog” and/or make you feel tired. This will negatively affect your workouts and exercise progress.
Keep Track of Your Progress
It’s a good idea to keep a specific workout journal and right down everything you do regarding your exercise plan. You can even put data on a spreadsheet or Notepad program on your computer.
You may also want to write down what you’re eating, and how you are feeling each day. This allows you to know exactly what you are doing and consuming, and the impact your efforts are making.
It always nice to know what kind of progress you are making. Right down the number of reps and sets, and they weight you’re using for each exercise. That way you can look back and see the progress you’ve made and be encouraged. For example, maybe a week or two ago you did a certain number of Bicep Curls at a certain weight. Now you find you can do several more reps, and maybe even feel like increasing the weight.
You’re In It for the Long Haul
Decide that you’re going to be patient and stay persistent with your efforts. You may be exercising to generally improve your health or to look better to attract the opposite sex.
It’s actually been shown that doing a full-body workout two to three times a week is a good way to slow down your aging process and maintain and build muscle mass. As an added benefit, it will boost your testosterone levels.
Change up your routine and exercises each time you work out, so you don’t get bored. Realize that since you’re middle-aged, it may take some time to lose fat and gain muscle. So, don’t rush the process.
Plan on staying active well into your senior years. You should see visual results within 90 days. In a years’ time you’ll be in better shape than most men your age, and probably be getting comments from both men and women.
