Maintaining your physical fitness as you age is important to living a long healthy life. As your body ages, your bones become weaker, making them more vulnerable to breaks. Keeping fit helps to keep your bones strong, and your body can recover from injuries more quickly. This article will give you some great ideas for maintaining your fitness into your golden years.
A simple way to improve overall fitness can be done right at home. Whenever an individual is at home they can go up and down the stairs an extra time for every time they use the stairs. By doing this one will double the amount of exercise that they would get from using the stairs.
When working out, it is important to keep in mind that shorter workouts are better than lengthier ones. Increase your workout slowly over time and remember that quality training is better than longer training sessions. This will prevent muscle strain and instead will build your muscle strength in a safe and healthy way.
You may not be motivated to go to the gym, but everyone likes to listen to their favorite music. Music will help the time go by faster as well as get you into a rhythm where you can workout to the beat of the music and helps push you to your limit.
It’s a great idea to jot down a few notes about your day’s exercise in a fitness journal. Be inclusive; you should note down not just your scheduled workouts but also any extra opportunities you had to be physically active. Wear a pedometer while working out so that you know exactly how many steps you’ve taken daily, and make sure to add that to your journal as well. Keeping track of how far you’ve come in your fitness routine can keep you motivated.
Make sure you know your limits for your age groups. If you are under the age of 40, you should try and stretch for about thirty seconds. If you are over the age of 40, then you should try and stretch for about 60 seconds to keep your flexibility.
You should take a walk every single night, and try to have a portable music player available so you can listen to music while you walk. Make sure that the music is fast because most people tend to walk to the beat of the music that they are listening to.
To get the best results from your weight training workouts, be sure to limit them to no more than one hour. After you’ve worked out for 60 minutes or longer, your body starts making more cortisol. This stress hormone can block the production of testosterone and lead to muscle wasting.
Psych yourself up! One of the best ways to prepare your body for exercise is to also prepare your brain. Talking yourself into your workout can help the brain release chemicals that help build muscle and lose weight. This is why you see so many bodybuilders talking to themselves before they lift.
Satisfy your cravings. After a workout, your muscles will be craving proteins, but your brain will want sugar. Have them both to make sure you don’t sabotage your workout later with a binge. Limit your sugar intake to about twenty grams, as that should be enough to settle the cravings your body has.
After your workout, if you are in pain, do not take ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or any other pain reliever. Research has shown that these pills do not help to relieve muscle soreness. In fact, researchers believe that taking any kind of pain reliever after a workout can actually suppress any kind of muscle growth.
Arrange a neighborhood DVD swap. If you are getting bored with your same old workout DVD, gather some friends and schedule a swap. Every week or two pass your DVD on to your neighbor and receive a new one from another neighbor. This way, you don’t have to invest in a whole fitness DVD library, but you can still try out different workouts.
To build your arms, make sure that you focus on slow-lifting lighter weights at higher numbers of repetitions. This will allow your body to become toned, which you use to your advantage when your workouts intensify. After a few weeks, increase the weight that you lift.
Crumple newspaper to improve your tennis or racquetball game. Take the newspaper and crumple it with your dominant hand for about thirty seconds. Do the same with your other hand as well. This will help you to build forearm strength, which in turn, will improve your endurance level during the game.
Try using the US Marine Corps’ fitness plan to gauge your level off fitness. See if you can do twenty pull-ups, one hundred crunches, and a three-mile run in under 18 minutes all within a two hour time period. If you can, you’re on par with the standards of the Marines. If not, keep working and see if you can reach this goal.
Boost your fitness by adding little bursts of jogging to your daily walk. It is great if you already have a habit of taking a walk every day. You can increase the benefits you get from that daily routine by increasing the intensity every few minutes and jogging for a minute or two. Not only will you burn more calories overall, but you will also finish your route a little more quickly.
Use a weight belt when you are first trying to dead lift. Incorrect form when dead lifting, or even an especially heavy weight (which can promote improper form due to its bulkiness and mass), can permanently injure your back and result in you never dead lifting again. The back is a very important muscle and can be injured fairly easily. For this same reason, when movers move large furniture they always wear a weight belt.
As stated in the beginning of this article, maintaining your physical fitness as you age is important to living a long healthy life. Bones become more brittle as you age, making it harder to recover from injuries. Apply the advice from this article to help maintain your fitness as you get older, and to keep your bones healthy and strong.