By Andy Thom – all round Gym Legend at Lanes Health Clubs, Rustington
Follow these top 10 tips for those aged 60+ years to help lead a healthy, active lifestyle. These are my own personal tips, having taken circuits and conducting weight lifting classes for past 35 years in either Armed Forces, Police or here at Lanes…
- Consider changing some CV exercises from high impact to low impact. e.g. treadmill to cross trainer or swimming etc. joints become more prone to damage to cartilage etc which is already wearing down.
- Accept that you will receive niggles, injuries and take a longer time to recover. Don’t train through it, you aren’t 21 anymore. Rest can sometimes be as beneficial as a training session.
- Conduct more all full-body workouts e.g. rowing, rather than hitting a single muscle group, placing more strain on them.
- Take some glucosamine, ideal for joints, and enjoy your workouts pain free with this, rather than pain killers.
- Extend your warm-up and cool down times and don’t omit them or you may suffer from pulled muscles.
- Proper extended stretching at conclusion of workout. No matter how long you have for a workout always stretch off, tendons at this age lose some of their elasticity and require increased stretching times.
- Maintain muscle mass rather than attempting to build, i.e. keep reps high and not low or single reps, increasing chances of a tear. Adjust the weight to suit the number of repetitions.
- Keep good form on every repetition, sets of 10-15, remember you may be a role model in the gym to younger members who may turn to you for advice from your experience. Correct form is also essential for injury prevention.
- Enrol in more class base activities, these are fun, social and you are still getting a good workout, rather than training alone. It’s a great way to meet new people, why not grab a coffee in the café afterwards?
- Incorporate cable exercises and machines into your strength workouts. Using only dumbbells can again cause excess strain on body tissues when picking up and putting them back.
