14 Aug How Should My Exercise Routines Change as I Age?
An important topic for athletes to consider is the changes to make in their exercise habits as they age. Though my older friends disagree, when I divide 90 by 3, it puts me solidly in the front side of the middle-aged category. Personally, I think their disagreement is their own denial but it makes for a lot of fun conversations. As I have gotten older, I have had to change my exercise habits to keep the injuries at bay and feel good post-workout.
When I was in grad school, it was nothing for me to go on a long run in the morning and then hit the weights pretty heavily in the afternoon. Exercise is my Prozac and increasing the stress levels, just means I need more exercise to combat it. Some years later, I have been forced to dial it back a bit and have also changed the type of workouts I perform. When I was younger, it was all about aesthetics for me. My main motivation for working out was to look good and feel good. I exercised for image, but now I perform exercises for functional strength and stamina.
It was just over a year ago that I decided to listen to the advice of friends and join a CrossFit box. I’ll be the first to say that early on (especially before I joined), I wasn’t a big fan of CrossFit because I had a tainted view of what it was. I would even talk about it negatively with patients until I experienced it firsthand for myself.
As far as running is concerned, I love running. Not because it feels good on my body, but because its very nature calms my mind. When I developed an awful case of plantar fasciitis a few years ago, it was time to change that up. Obviously, I couldn’t run for awhile however, I fell in love with biking. I still run on occasion with my big dog trotting not too far behind but mainly I bike. My feet, knees and back feel better now and I find it a great stress reliever. As you age, runners need to focus on strength building and rest days from running.
As for feeling better in the morning post exercise, we really need to stretch after our workouts. When you are younger, you can get away without stretching for a short time but take advantage of that too much when you are young and you develop really shortened muscles and a lot of stiffness that doesn’t have to be there. Does stretching always feel good? Absolutely not but you still need to do it. As far as how far to push yourself; if you can’t breathe there, you shouldn’t be there.
One last thing, don’t underestimate recovery days. I fully subscribe to the theory of “everyone needs to break a sweat every single day”. However, some of those days I do it by hitting up a big Three Rivers Park and going on a seven-mile walk. Though I would feel as if I cheated the workout gods when I was 23 by walking, now, that definitely counts as exercise.
The biggest thing you can do to keep your body limber, fit and injury-free is to change what you do every day. Using different muscles and joints in different directions is the key to spreading out the force and keeping your body healthy as you (we) age.