Find an exercise/activity that you enjoy or makes you feel good. Doesn't matter if it is weight lifting, road cycling, or dancing. Once you find it, just keep doing it.
If you get bored, try something else for a while. If that doesn't work, switch back.
Since no two people are the same, no exercise plan works for everyone. For me, weight lifting and technical mountain biking get me going and make me feel great. Tennis used to be a thing I lived for. Running and road cycling is a agony for me. Dancing is great. But I have friends who love to cycle 100 miles in a straight line. I guess there's some mental thing happening, but I just cannot do that.
An activity may really wear you out, but if you feel more energized the next day, then it's a good one for you. And if you start craving that feeling, then you know you found a good one.
Even within one type of exercise, there are many different approaches (which work better or worse depending on the person). Low rep, high weight is my thing. High rep, low weight (like road cycling) is a muscle burn and mind burn killer. So if you try something and it's not for you, make sure you try a variation on that before you decide the entire activity is bad.
Diet is important, but it can be easier to follow a good diet when you already feel better from the exercise. And you may find that you have more discipline after a good workout. On the contrary, a day which sucks and you can't get up and go to the gym is a day you're also likely to order pizza and beer for dinner.
Every time this comes up, someone shows up to say it doesn’t matter what exercise program you follow. That’s not correct.
There’s a big difference between someone lifting weights somewhere near their genetic capacity and someone spending many hours per week racking up long, slow distance on the road. Or someone spending a few hours waving one pound dumbbells around.
If you want to be able to get out of your chair at 95 and not develop osteoporosis, you need to engage in load bearing exercise. If you want to add cardio to that - do it faster. You’ll get your HR to 80%, no problem.
I’m 80. I lift about twice a week for about 90 min each time. On the off days, I walk for an hour, usually over hills, since walking on the flat doesn’t get my HR up enough, and I don’t want to stress my knees by jogging.
I think the lady looks great, probably a lot better than she would if she was a runner.
Can't upvote this enough. Also, you don't need to wait until old age to see that this is true. I am half your age and even though I thought I was "fit", chronic pain from years of sitting jobs revealed when I got to physical therapy that I had weaknesses in multiple muscles, many of which absolutely needed to be worked directly in order to reduce the pain, and my gym and calisthenics habits weren't doing it. Our peak species health as hunter/gatherers had us doing a wide variety of strength maintaining movements that physiology and rehab medicine is only just starting to understand. It's unbelievable for example how there are guys who can squat over 250 lbs. deeply but can't do a single one legged squat even near the same depth. Glad I got my wake up call before I got too old to do much about it.
Relative to TFA, _any_ consistent movement and activity is a net gain. In that perspective, it really does not matter what program you follow as long as it gets you moving.
This wasn't about optimal. If you ask me personally what I think optimal is, I think it's 5 sets of 5 with big weights, squats deads and bench. Mix in some other cardio activity 1-2 times a week, and you'll be a relative superhero.
But we're talking about people who have health problems and no history of exercise activity. For them, just starting to move is a huge step forward.
This lady probably wouldn't have reached 80 if she had continued on her current path. If we tell people like this, "you must lift weights", we will lost most of them. I have taught a few women to lift, even tiny ones, and of course they can learn and be very strong. But there's a serious stigma when it comes to weight lifting and women. They either think it's impossible, or they think they will end up looking like the woman in the article. Now I'm a fan of built women, but most women seem to really NOT want to look like that.
Kind of side topic, but - do you think 5x5 is a good idea for 80+ year olds?
From what I know, at an older age, the chance of injury, not to mention the danger of injury, is way higher. The standard advice afaik is therefore to aim for lower weight / higher reps, because the risk of injury is therefore greatly reduced.
Not saying that 5x5 is necessarily incorrect, just that I would imagine a 8-10 rep based routine would be better for purposes of injury reduction (while still improving muscle conditioning, obviously).
I don’t follow 5x5, I recommend startingstrength.com. I use three sets of five following a good warmup.
Look at The Barbell Prescription book for more details - it’s about strength training after 40. Good form is important, and a trained coach can help with that.
That’s why it’s important to stop miseducating them that all popular forms of exercise are roughly equivalent. It’s too easy to choose the easier/least embarrassing option if the stark differences in outcomes aren’t apparent.
Running, done properly, builds muscle, joint, and bone strength (it seems you are implying that it doesn't). Of course, there is plenty wrong in the world of casual running where runners try to rack up mileage without ever looking at pace or their running form. Serious runners won't disagree with you there.
But the same dynamic exists in other sports, including weightlifting. Plenty of causal weight lifters focus on the weight they are pushing exclusively and never consider their bodyfat, go on "dirty bulks" or permanently injure themselves with poor form or pushing it too far (also see CrossFit).
For most people, having a couple of different and reasonably different physical activities, and sticking to them, is going to be enough. The most important thing is that people actually use their bodies into old age. Exercise isn't the rocket science people make it out to be.
I have nothing against running as a form of exercise, but let's not pretend it builds muscle optimally or is in any way, shape or form conductive to good joint health. It's a repetitive, low-ROM, impact-based sport. It's fun and rewarding and good for your circulation or burning massive amounts of calories, but that's it.
Bodybuilding (done properly) is about as close to perfect for maintaining a functioning body into old age as you can design an activity: It's easily scalable from zero to infinity, has regression and progression to your abilities built in, and huge benefits from even the smallest investment. It can be performed with basically no impact. It improves joint health. It helps you train to perform every day activities. It can easily be modified to cope with injuries, missing limbs, whatever limitation you have. It benefits you hormonally in a massive way. etc etc
I'm 36. I do about 14 hours of tennis/surf every week, plus maybe 2 hours of gym work and lots of moving around during the day for my construction work. I love my sports but my body would be a wreck if it weren't for the resistance exercise I do to prepare/rehabilitate it. I would do a lot more of it if I were smart.
Depends on what kind of running are you doing. HIT all-out interval sprinting is truly extraordinary for weight-loss and muscle gain. I find it far, far more fun than lifting weights. But then I prefer to exercise outdoors after sitting at a desk all day.
Running is super difficult to get right because most surfaces are too hard and runners seldomly have a proper form.
My dad was an elite athlete who ran for the national team. By age 50, many of his cartilages were worn out and he experienced extreme pain while doing daily chores.
Some real Nassim Taleb style advice right here. As a guy in his mid-30s, I'm glad to have come across this kind of advice early on so I can keep up healthy habits for the later decades (assuming I'm not hit by a meteor first).
But, you have to be really careful on the downhill parts - that’s what gets the knees. I was surprised to notice that it takes me longer to go down than up - and I think that’s good.
Jogging is different. I tried that a few years ago and my knees started acting up.
Have you had a look at kneesovertoesguy? He's a trainer specialised in knee rehab, specifically helping athletes who've had multiple injuries/surgeries recover strength and range of motiong. I've done his programs for a while and learned lots of new things - big surprise as I had been lifting for 15 years before. For the first time in my life I have an easy ass-to-grass squat and massively reduced my knee pain.
When I was in my early 70s, I thought I'd work up to jogging again. Started easy, walk, jog, walk, jog, etc. This went on for about six months, until I got to about 50%. I was using a minimalist shoe. My knees started to bother me to the point where I finally had to stop.
The pain and stiffness didn't go away. It got to the point where I was picking up my left leg with my hand to get it into the car like some old geezer! I started searching the web and came up with a supplement containing glucosamine and condroitin, along with a small amount of inflammatories to promote healing. Got gradually better, and in six months the stiffness vanished. I stopped using it, and have been fine since. Sometimes I think about a 5K ;-)
A few years ago, my wife developed pain in her hip and knee joints. I suggested she try the same stuff, and, sure enough, the pains went away. She's still using it.
This is all anecdotal, of course. I've never had an actual injury, just joint issues.
Try getting rid of the padded shoes. They are an abomination. Invented by Nike to make money, but they had no idea what they were doing and that they would ruin everybody’s knees.
Your primary goal (IMO) should be "I will want to do it again tomorrow," not a performance goal. Those are secondary. Go hard enough to feel achievement, but not so much that your are sore or worn out, either physically or mentally. Everything emanates from not quitting anyway, and quitting is the reason most people don't achieve what they want. Willpower is a scarce resource, don't overtax it.
That's a good point. And then if you find something you love so much that you want to go (and go hard) every day, get some advice from someone more experienced. Too much is often detrimental, even if you think you feel capable of it.
Ideally you can end up with a mix of weight building activities and cardio activities. As people elsewhere have mentioned, playing sports can be a really fun way to get cardio without "doing cardio". Same goes for dancing or regular good sex.
top advice, the only two things to add is never underestimate the power of some sort of stretching. Before any work out and after the work out (if your doing resistance training also stretch if you can during the recovery ie build phase)
if you do some sort of workout try and make it symmetrical eg if you excercise your chest then do your back otherwise it will give you a hunch
(As far as I understand, the current research is that static stretching specifically-before working out is contraindicated as it will reduce performance and doesn't actually prevent injury.)
I've never done any form of static stretching before an excercise, for resistance training (10+ years) I just warm my muscles up (20 reps) with the lowest weight - but I do static stretching on the area I've worked on the days afterwards
people who are hypermobile may (or will) have issues with out static stretching my friend is seriously hypermobile - she struggles to do anything without proper static stretching - YMMV
I wish I could be motivated to keep doing yoga or pilates
I have read the same. It does seem that modern advice is to just do some warmup movements rather than static stretches.
After, however, stretches are really important. Without proper post-workout stretching, you can wake up with muscles so tight that you can barely stand up. Not only is that hard on joints, it seems to slow the recovery process.
I'm 63. I know a lot of people who took up running, ran hard for a couple of years (maybe won a few races), got a lot of injuries, and no longer run. I ran for the first time on Oct 1 1971, and the most recent time is 12 miles this morning.
I'm for sure not saying I am better than them, because I certainly am not. But I am saying that there is something to just enjoying yourself. I have little adventures four times a week, and still like it. I'm rarely really worn; I'm just not going for that. So that is one reason to think to stay away from sore.
(Of course, if what you want is to win races then go for it.)
> there is something to just enjoying yourself. I have little adventures four times a week
That's what people often don't get about outdoor exercise. You can combine physical and mental exercise - exploring new areas, impromptu orienteering, just the sheer focus required to run or bike in complicated terrain is a huge plus and makes it easier to stay engaged.
A little sore is ok. Too sore to exercise again is not good. There's also a psychological aspect to it. If you push yourself to the limits of your discipline, you'll overtax it and "run out." It's one thing or another. Injuries. Too busy and didn't return. Burnout takes a lot of forms.
There's a sweet spot where you really want to go in and do it again.
Also, beware of pro bodybuilder regimes unless you are one. (1) They're optimising for that elusive last mile (2) They often assume PED use.
I think the problem with people who are new is what's a 'little sore'? A person who has never lifted will have DOMs that is going to feel a lot more than a little sore after their first workout. It's completely normal, and not dangerous. In fact, a 30 minute stationary bike ride will probably clear it up.
It's actually really hard for someone to overtrain. What normally happens is people use it as an excuse to stop training.
What I tell people is that long term training is a grind - and that's a good thing. Accept that fact early on and find your own enjoyment in it however you have to. The discipline that comes to other areas in your life from accepting the training grind is a benefit many people don't even notice.
I disagree. The enemy isn't not training hard enough. The enemy is burnout and quitting. Train to the point where getting back into the gym requires as little discipline as possible.
There is, especially in weight rooms, a danger of doing stuff that's not really exercise. But if you're swimming, running, climbing, squats, pushups, pullups, tennis and such... it's not really a danger. They're all going to put a beginner on a meaningful progression path. Don't worry about being insufficiently intensive unless your progression has halted.
The grind isn't about training hard enough, it's about consistently training. Doesn't matter which mix of exercises someone decides to do (it does, but assuming the opposite is zero), consistency will eventually become a grind.
You're right the main enemy is quitting. When I tell people I workout nearly every day, people have this illusion that it's easy. It's not. I make time for it in my day, I make it a priority. That's what I mean by the grind. Everyone is different, but I find embracing the uncomfortableness easier than looking for ways around it.
As long as you don't mind it, if it feels like you're suffering or martyring yourself you're crossing a line. You can overdo it and end up demotivated (if you're lucky) or injured (if you're not). And depending on the injury, you'll not be able to do that same sport again.
Soreness really only tells you that you've done something new, not that you're improving. Do the same exercise for just a couple of weeks and soreness will rapidly decrease.
Not necessarily. There is such a thing as overtraining. To get consistent results, you have to allow time to recover between sessions. The older you are, the longer it takes. The more advanced you are, the longer it takes. At my age, it takes two days off to recover.
Really depends. If you are competitive chasing numbers can be motivation. And ofc it‘s easier if you enjoy what you‘re doing, but you also have to be able to just pull through at times. Motivation has to turn into disciplin.
IMO establishing physical exercise as a part of your life should be the goal. It’s as essential as brushing your teeth. And a big problem I see is people are always presented with short term solutions. Do this workout for 6 weeks and get a Men’s Health cover body. Yet the reality is you have to eat healthy, consistently work out and keep working out to stay in shape and healthy.
My advice is for the 90% of us, the serial jan-march gym goers. If you already have that habit, compete, and exercise is a given... don't take advice from me.
That said, I suspect that even for advanced athletes, "Take steps to avoid burnout" is probably still relevant.
It's true that any exercise is better than no exercise.
It isn't true that no form of exercise is better or worse than any other for general health.
If you have to pick one, I strongly recommend compound lifts of free weights. The benefits in terms of bone density, joint health, tendon strength, muscular power, hormone production, are simply irreplaceable with any amount of "cardiovascular" exercise. I put that in quotes because it should be called endurance training, lifting weights will emphatically exercise your cardiovascular system.
I was dancing every weekend and walking a couple miles a day when I started lifting. I started lifting because, in my late 30s, it started to be the case that when I would knock something to the floor, I would hitch up my pants and carefully lower myself down to retrieve it, complete with joint pain in my knees.
I extrapolated where that problem would take me in a couple decades, and decided to do something about it. It worked.
I think yoga might be an alternative for people wanting to maintain their bodies well into the future. I’ve done weightlifting and yoga, I like them both, I think if I was picking one for effectiveness and longevity of practice it’d be yoga.
But why pick one? You can totally mix in some yoga with lifting :)
I've noticed that I lift easier (and it's not a subtle difference) when I do some deep spine-stretching yoga on recovery days.
So I certainly agree! I view stretching (calisthenics, yoga, Pilates, whatever you want to call it) as a natural adjunct of weightlifting, something which most lifters discover is useful, even necessary.
But it's not as obvious to a dedicated yogic practitioner why they might want to lift weights. So in terms of "pick one" I'm going to advocate for the one which naturally points in the direction of both (:
Sure, just watch out for CrossFit, most of those crews have an unhealthy attitude towards workouts imho.
I deliberately left out the word "heavy" because, while I do favor the powerlifting 5x5 style personally, it's not for everyone. Just: free weights, and compound lifts over isolation exercises.
Putting less weight on the bar and combining it with sprints and burpees makes plenty of sense to me, although it's not my style.
You don't have use that much lighter weights. You can do a 5x5 and superset it with burpees or opposing muscles. I'm on a pull-up kick where I want to do 500 pull-ups over the course of a single workout. So in between sets of my regular workouts, I do pull ups. HIIT basically happens as a side effect...
One rule I have for trying new exercises is to try it five times before giving up. This is particularly true for classes with an instructor.
The first time you have absolutely no idea what’s going on.
The 2nd - 4th times you are starting to get the hang of it and will see the slight derivations across different classes.
By the 5th time you’ve probably gotten enough exposure to be able to say “yeah ok this really isn’t my thing” or “these of the parts of this I really enjoy”.
I agree with other commenters that there is something important about weight lifting, though. Certainly having cardio as your main exercise is fine, but I think diversity of exercise is important, too.
Choice of exercise matters because of our age. For instance, a person will start to lose muscle mass after age 35 or something, and the bone density will decrease as well. Therefore, weight training becomes increasingly crucial as we age because it reduces the rate of reductio of our muscle and bone density and it keeps our remaining muscle strong.
It's kinda sad that this is the top comment. Why would that be true, as in, why would enjoyment mean anything here? Most people enjoy eating cake, I sure do, but it's probably a negative to their long term health and well-being.
For an example, my understanding is that weight lifting is better for weight loss than cardio, contrary to the popular perception... if your goal is to lose weight, you'd better do what works best and not what you enjoy, or at least choose the activity that you enjoy most out of the ones best for the job.
I believe I could sum up the original comment as "perfect is the enemy of good, and enjoyment greatly contributes to something sticking". I do think a lot of people (myself included) get hung up on doing it the Right Way (TM) that we don't do anything it all.
(1) Basically any class on offer at your gym, taken daily, will get you fit, sexy & healthy. Pilates, weights, swimming, wall climbing. They all work good, as long as you keep doing them and don't quit.
(2) Quitting is extremely likely. Most of us quit most of the exercise regimes we start.
Given these two points, the only thing worth optimising is "how not to quit." A good start is aiming for that "sweet spot" where you feel satisfaction, but not soreness or burnout. If you have to make yourself take a recovery day, that's a good place to be. Obviously also life stuff. Scheduling, social stuff, etc.
That would be good advice if you are 100% disciplined, which irl usually means that you're under someone else's discipline.
For most people most of the time, running out of discipline and quitting is the failure point. The relative merits of running vs weights vs judo are trivial relative to the merits of continuous exercise habit throughout your life. You'll naturally gravitate towards little optimisations and improvements anyway, if you keep showing up.
If you're a pro athlete, where showing up is a given, then the difference between high rep and low rep matters. Otherwise, it's like premature optimisation.
Even for pros, like professional writers, the most common advice relates to showing up every day.
I'm a huge proponent of weight lifting. I hate cardio. But I do know that if you only do lifting and don't do cardio, stretching, and the other boring stuff, you will get less value from your lifting.
You do the cardio to build more endurance, a stronger heart, and apparently a more efficient use of the oxygen in your blood.
TFA didn't seem to be about weight loss; it was about declining health. And in that case, virtually any consistent exercise would be an improvement. Whatever it is that gets someone off their sofa regularly is a good starting point. If that activity is weight lifting, then perhaps they will enjoy the extra benefits of better strength, higher metabolism, a feeling of more energy, etc.
You will never keep doing something if you don't enjoy it.
So it's better to do something suboptimal that you enjoy, than not do the optimal thing because you hate it.
And cardio definitely helps with weight loss, because all the bodybuilders do it for cutting.
For me it's bodyweight excercises and running. And I don't really care if there would be something else that's better.
And about the cake example, you probably want to replace that with healthy food that you enjoy, not with the most healthy that you detest. Otherwise you will drop out immediately.
1) As for replacing the cake with "healthy food you enjoy", that is exactly my point. You start with what works. Then out of that you can choose what you enjoy. So, you don't eat tons of cake because that's what you enjoy - you first narrow down to what works, then choose e.g. apples, or whatever.
2) The 2nd part about enjoyment vs dropping I just completely disagree with.
2.1) Enjoyment often builds up with confidence and success, especially in the areas where you make rapid progress as a beginner, like weight-lifting or cardio or most PT really.
2.2) In general, this mindset where you only do things as you enjoy and don't try to develop any grit is terrible, especially for people who don't start out with an advantage in a given area (health, financial, smarts, mood, etc). And more so for people who have self-inflicted problems in a given area - the problems that stem from doing what they "enjoy".
I think for 2.2 that I eat veggie soups instead of salads when I want to eat primarily vegetables doesn’t have any correlation on my grit or lack thereof. I think this might be assuming a much more extreme position that was presented. No one is saying “only do things you enjoy”, only “if you’re going to take life choices to improve your health, work on improvements that don’t give you negative reinforcement against improving your health”.
Weightlifting in particular is extremely beneficial for men, particularly as they age because of the testosterone gains and their affect on mood, weight, muscle building, etc...
I have lifted for 35+ years now. The only thing I don't like is how popular powerlifting has become.
Everyone I know that has been into powerlifting for a long time including myself is paying the price with disc herniation, bad knees, etc.
We really need gyms to get belt squat machines or pit sharks so people stop balancing barbells on their spine with huge weights and move up and down. Kind of obvious what is going to happen over time.
Lifting heavier weights than you have previously is super addictive.
I don't think it really helps my mood nearly as much as hard conditioning or even long walks but I don't really know what it is like to not lift at this point.
I'm going to push back a bit on the no powerlifting. Like any other sport or exercise, risk vs reward needs to be looked at, but increasing strength is almost always useful. I would tell everyone to power lift, but also tell them there is zero reason to ever do 1RMs (use 3RM or 5RM and just calculate). And if people are really conservative, then set sane maxes like no more than 2x BW for squat/DL.
I powerlifted for many years, and have only had major injuries from sports - a torn ACL (wakeboarding) and disc herniation (basketball). In both cases, my doctors/PTs said my base strength accelerated my recovery.
“Every runner you know”, as with OP and powerlifting? Or just a few? Because there’s a wide gulf between a subset being injured and injury being a foregone conclusion. To miss that is to miss OP’s point.
My anecdotes (to go with OPs) is that the competitive powerlifters I know have injuries, and the 'gymbro' types who use the big lifts for health and some light bodybuilding, for the most part do not.
Chasing that new ATH is addictive, and a great way to exceed what your body can safely handle.
I think the larger problem is that everybody expects that they have to get better, and they have to get better quickly. That's why people injure themselves doing pretty much anything requiring physical exertion.
Recovery is important. Maybe it will be better if people see
exercise as a secondary tool for improving their health/recovery rate, rather than the primary tool for becoming more powerful.
unless you start overloading it too fast, and lift too close to failure and with bad technique...
I love deadlifts, but It is very easy to mess up your back with them. On the other hand, whenever I didn't deadlift, eventually started getting random back pains (from sitting too long), and wrists pains (from typing) as those muscles were getting weaker.
TLDR: Deadlifting, powerlifting and such are great for your back and posture, as long as you don't push yourself to your limits (keep it within 80-85% of your max) and watch your technique.
Most people want to push their personal envelope, and that's where they get injured.
My 2 cents: Exercise = hard. I hate exercising but love doing almost any sport. Many Sports have side effect of good exercise. I think it triggers my instinct to keep it up when I am tired. Chasing a soccer ball similar stimulus to run and catch prey, or run away from danger. Find a sport you like. Even if your terrible at it, you will get better at it. Both physically and skill wise.
Similarly, I can't bring myself to do exercise for its own sake, but I am quite happy to actually work to make things happen, such as moving furniture for friends or even digging ditches.
Unfortunately, I still have the problem of motivating myself to get started on my own chores. I have a much easier time helping other people with theirs.
I have not, and I'm now trying to imagine what that would look like.
I'm kind of an introvert and haven't really gotten to know my neighbors that well, and most of my friends are too distant for that to be any kind of regular thing.
I have a couple neighbors I could probably ask, though. It's far enough out of my comfort zone that I don't think I'll do it, but thanks for the suggestion!
You're right. Also, yard work is generally unpleasant. I have found that by approaching yard work as exercise, I then enjoy both a lot more (like a _lot_). My whole attitude about squatting down, pulling weeds, cutting, etc. etc. is really a pile of opportunities to squat, bend pull, push as repetitive strength and stretching exercises. I've change my techniques of the actual tasks to make them more focused on muscle groups, etc. The "two birds killed with one stone" benefit is very reinforcing for me, too.
I do this as well, and I have put some weights in a backpack, and I wear that while I'm mowing the lawn or picking up dog poop, etc. Really raises the difficulty level and ensures that my heartrate goes up sufficiently. Right now I have between 35 and 40 pounds of weights in my backpack.
Running painful? Some find it boring, but it's not inherently painful. It can be painful if your form is bad, if you run too often, too long, if some of your muscles are too weak, if you have an imbalance between right and left side (most of it can be corrected with exercise), etc. Basically if you do it wrong.
> I hate running as exercise. It's a painful way to get from A to A,
Couldn’t agree more - and it’s so slow. My completely made up theory is that some people are the wrong shape. I prefer cycling as it’s way faster and doesn’t hurt.
Underneath a great deal of unpleasant associations, I did find a little inherent spark of joy in motion. Many parts of my mind that sometimes bother me don't have to be at work for me to be in motion. It's automatic and quite fun to just think about as you move.
When did you last put your mental attention pointedly, on the various joints and muscles of your leg and foot, as you walked? Tried to feel the minute variations in proprioception most of us can there. How the slightest shift would cause you to fall. But you catch yourself. How far can you lean and still catch yourself without moving your left leg? Or either leg and just your hip muscles?
I used to do that as a child. I think most of us do? Figuring out my relationship to the three dimensions. And gravity. While you should probably take care not to break your ankle maybe we should try to keep that alive long into adulthood?
From a less spiritual (I guess) angle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurobiological_effects_of_phy... I think it's a "learned taste" for some. (If you're now going to go look for the runner's high because you're not sure you ever experienced it, please, see a GP first? Of any age, really. I'm not a medical prof. in any way. But that does seem to be often recommended if you're thinking to switch from light to heavy aerobic exercise.)
> Many parts of my mind that sometimes bother me don't have to be at work for me to be in motion
Another nugget: your body isn’t fly by wire. Powering more muscle fibres requires more action potential. It’s literally more taxing on your CNS, and something your brain must divert resources to power.
The best time to start is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.
I just turned 50 and do calisthenics daily (over 175,000 burpees cumulatively, over 50 per day), requiring no equipment, spotter, money, or risk of injury. I have bought a few kettlebells over the years and a rowing machine.
A couple years ago I accepted a challenge by the rowing machine company, Concept2, to row at least 100,000 meters in the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I made it and felt great, though very tired, figuring in my late 40s I'm behind the curve.
The older you are and the more years of sedentary life you have lived, the more you need to moderate whatever athletic pursuit you attempt. I also highly recommend combining any strength or aerobic activity with joint mobility work (stretching, yoga, etc).
I say these because of my own experiences with failing to follow those rules and suffering physically debilitating consequences as a result. I used to ride 100s of miles a week and now can barely ride and hour. Weight lifting is no longer a matter of how much can my muscles lift, but rather how much can my shitty joints take before they get injured.
Very true. If you notice twinges that shouldn’t be there, take two days off. Come back easy. If they are still there, back off maybe 10% and sneak up on it.
I don't feel myself without cardio. I have many passions - food, programming, nature - but I just don't enjoy anything if I haven't run long enough.
I honestly get very anxious about if I ever get injured. Fortunately there are many ways to exercise - I've gotten injuries before, and I switched from running to biking to swimming and yoga. I feel like even if I can at least walk for hours maybe I can get a similar feeling. But otherwise, I don't see any alternatives.
I took up running a few years back and it was one of the best things I could have done for myself. I did it for just the cardio exercise, but it has done wonders for both my mental and physical health. My immune system improved. I used to be prone to catching colds, but now that is much more rare. I also don't get tired as easily. I'm in much better shape, and the exercise forced me to eat better (not consciously, but I eat much healthier because that's what my body prefers).
But really, I think the biggest benefit is the mental side. If you can stay in your own head for 30-60 minutes at a time, it's a great way to work out problems. I solve most of my problems at work while I'm running. Coding is always easier when you have had time to think through the entire plan.
I definitely see a difference pre/post run. My days seem better when I start them with a run (as opposed to running later in the day or at night).
My rules are simple (got them from a friend): 1) run at least one mile a day - every day.
A theme from many of the comments here has been that a small amount of work consistently done is a better approach. I completely agree. So far, I've been at this for almost 1000 days. I've also gone from 3 miles to marathons, which is another beast entirely.
Streaks are a deceptive motivator with a surprising amount of inertia. For me, it's the fear of breaking a streak that is the motivator. But, when you don't have the ability to push your workout off to the next day, it's somehow easier to do. And if you're already running 1 mile, adding another one is also easier. And then pretty soon, you've moved from 1-2 miles/day to 3-4 miles/day. The key thing is to just start.
Like you, I'm really anxious about what happens if I get injured, but afterwards, I'll probably just start over at day one.
Buy some land and build things on it with your own two hands.
Unlike lifting weights you'll have something more valuable than just your improved health afterwards.
I also find it's far more psychologically rewarding to see your property become more useful, the physical fitness gains become a nice side effect instead of the primary goal.
While building things is great, it isn't a substitute for weight training. If you are training for strength there is no substitute for progressive overload with barbell weights. The best part is that it isn't a tremendous time investment either. I train 3 days a week for about 3 hours at a time. I could possibly do it faster. That leaves plenty of time left to build things with your hands on your own land assuming you have the resources for that.
In two weeks I'll need help with 80 bags of cement. Loading them, unloading them, humping a barrow to the back of my property. There will be mixing and pouring and beer. I've already cleared the roots, shoveled Nd rolled the path, etc. So don't worry, the hard work is already done.
It is difficult to offer a reply to this comment because it is hard to tell what the intent is. It reads tongue in cheek to me. I apologize if that is not the case.
The work you are describing is difficult, but that doesn't mean that it will translate to absolute strength or that it is the same as strength training. Moving 80 bags of cement won't translate to deadlifting 405 pounds a few days later unless the person doing that is already very strong. If the person doing that work does not overexert themselves they'll certainly be adapted to doing more of that type of work though.
Strength training is about making deliberate progression through repeated cycles of overloading and adaptation, and not about making equivalencies from one type of work to another. A bag of cement in the United States weighs 94 pounds. If you move 80 of them, you'll adapt to moving 80 bags of cement that weigh 94 pounds. That will not translate to the ability to lift four or five bags of cement at a time without deliberate effort. Will you empty the cement into a container adding a little more each time with appropriate recovery periods between until you can lift four bags worth of cement? Or will you move them one at a time, or maybe two at a time if you are able, to get the job done?
I know you touched on it but the importance of consistent overload is paramount as well for strength and hypertrophy. 80 bags of cement won't cause adaptation unless it's a regular occurance.
Responding to both at once. Yes, lighthearted comment. You're right about adaptation. The point I'm trying to make is simple: building physical exertion into your daily life is the best way to retain strength, flexibility, health and mood as you age. The habits are easier to keep. Combine that with physical recreation and reasonable habits regarding food, drink, chemicals and rest.
It's entirely likely they do. However, the work done farming serves a different purpose than strength training. Farming requires the strength and endurance to do the work day after day, but there is no particular emphasis on strength beyond what is necessary to do the work. Training for strength differs because the emphasis is developing the ability to lift more weight each session. Endurance is not particularly important because the interval for training strength is short. 3 to 5 repetitions, followed by a break. Will a farmer be able to outlift a novice or even intermediate weightlifter? It's entirely possible. Will a farmer be able to outlift an advanced power lifter or olympic lifter who is approaching the top of they physical potential? Not likely. The farmer is adapted for a different type of work.
I doubt I'm alone in this regard. If I spend an hour lifting weights my mind will inevitably wonder how much useful work I could have gotten done outside with the shovel, pickaxe, and wheelbarrow in the same time.
It's a source of depression, for me, once I understood the value of manual labor expended on my own property. Lifting weights has become kind of a pathetic waste of time if I have access to my land where there's an effectively infinite sink for such efforts.
Perhaps there are other ways to maximize economic output from lifting weights in a way where it wouldn't be a waste of time? An interesting and perhaps a little "out there" proposition would perhaps be mixing the appeal of lifting weights with the OnlyFans demographic? At the very least it seems like there is a far lower capital cost than having to acquire land.
There's been a lot of digging with a shovel and pickaxe, earth-moving with a wheelbarrow, and hauling 100-200lb boulders. (driveway cuts, grade adjustments for water drainage, septic, retaining walls...)
But I also recently rebuilt an old roof, and turned it into a mild climbing+parkour game by not using any ladders. This past month I've gotten quite adept at jumping off a 1-story roof.
There's plans for burying a geothermal ground-loop which will involve digging ~50x10` down to 8', basically digging an in-ground pool by hand, only to fill it back up again.
You can make this stuff as difficult as you want...
Edit: Wanted to mention one of my neighbors has been building underground earthdomes which is very labor-intensive, but has the nice property of turning almost pure labor into thermally ground-coupled housing. Totally unaffected by today's lumber prices for example.
I supplement weightlifting with big gardening and small building projects as well. Fishing can be great exercise as well if you figure out a pattern that serves.
I've not done any form of resistance training for sometime, but during the lockdown (in the UK) gyms were shut.
so beacause I couldn't work out in a gym and for some unknown reason, I started a garden project. I think I've moved over 10-15 cubic meters of clay/ soil/ stones in my garden
and boy the delayed onset pain in the few days after is a real joy
It's hard to make gains after 65, having competed with veterans at various ages it's sad to see the decline at 65+, but they are of course much more vital then their age peers. So don't expect to make the gains this lady has done. Try to find a recreational activity that increase heart rate, work the muscles, (and if possible social), and if you enjoy it - the effects combined will increase overall life quality.
Lifting weights helps a lot. Ive started out young, at the age of 14. I've been off an on again since. I can definitely tell you it improves my mood, my disposition, my self-esteem. The only down side is that people you call you every time they want to move heavy stuff.
But it sure is nice when you have to go pick something heavy up, and it's "easy".
I'm on and off of lifting for 30 years. Inevitably I get to a big glass office building door and think, "wow this is so heavy to open!"... and then I know it's been too long since I lifted.
A couple of months later, and I'm practically looking for heavy stuff :). 4U rack server full of drives?... no problem!
I love weight training, but the number of zealots and narcissists in the community is definitely a big downside that surely discourages a lot of people.
Resistance training has innumerable benefits, but it's not a panacea nor is it a substitute for aerobic exercise; if done properly and sensibly, aerobic and resistance training complement one another. Here's a great summary comparing the two: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Adaptations-and-Health-B...
By all means emphasize one over the other as you prefer, but for health benefits both should be included. And, no, powerlifting exercises with a straight barbell are not irreplaceable. Resistance training is a far bigger world than that.
It’s quite possible she’s doing it natural. My wife is the same age and has about half of that, but she gets lots of exercise outside and has only lifted seriously for a couple of years.
Hormone replacement is probably a good idea once it becomes necessary. That shouldn't be confused with 20 somethings taking 10-100x natural levels of anabolics.
If your doctor won't prescribe some hormones in your eighth decade, find another doctor. What she's doing is absolutely in the realm of what's possible. She's doing it!
Perhaps the article should be more honest about that part? If that's your point I have no objection to it.
I’m in severe need to put on some weight. Not a small amount either, but at least 30-40lbs, ideally more.
Pretty much anywhere this sort of thing comes up, the de facto answer is lifting + calorie increase. I’m not too interested in paying for and commuting back and forth from a gym so often, so is it possible that my goals could be obtained from either body weight exercise or moderately inexpensive home gym equipment? I’m also concerned about the timeframe as I don’t think I could manage to commit to a multi year endeavor.
Since the pandemic started, I've switched from hitting the gym to buying dumbbells so I can train at home. I've made huge strides in muscle mass and strength. Even just 30kg in plates can last you months if you haven't lifted before and I wholeheartedly recommend it.
I'm not sure what you mean with the last part though. Weightlifting isn't just something you do for a few months and then you're done. It's by its nature a long-term process. After a few weeks without training, you start losing muscle mass and strength.
Home workouts can be effective. Building muscle (usually) necessitates tearing up your muscle fibers through anaerobic exercise. But that means lifting weights and doing it with good form. At home, you'll have limited options, but exercise bands and adjustable dumbbells can be effective, if a bit repetitive.
I'd suggest a 3x weekly home workout with one additional session with a trainer in a gym. That'll make sure you're making progress and not hurting yourself, and it as variety.
Eating enough is likely going to be the bigger challenge. Happy to provide supplement recs, but even a meal replacement like Soylent will do fine. You'll want to calculate out your macronutrient requirements to figure out what you should be consuming. A trainer can help with that.
40lbs is probably a multi-year thing unless you’re ok with a decent part being fat. You can build a decent home gym with some kettlebells and dumbbells. A door frame pull-up bar also helps if your frame can hold it.
Eating will be the challenge. You need dense food that you like eating. When I did something similar I drank lots of whole milk and ate peanut butter as a constant snack. Two dinners was also common. Just be ready to eat on schedule even when you’re not hungry.
Yea eating is a concern, but it seems that’s the approach is mostly forward. I love whole milk, but there are certainly side effects from drinking a ton.
My big concern though is I’m convinced I have some form of IBD due to unique combination of side effects, and eating too much quickly will make me nauseous and bloated the whole day.
On top of what others have said, I will recommend resistance bands. Combined with a door anchor, they are an extremely cheap and versatile type of workout equipment. It is surprising how much of a workout you can get with them. They're not a complete substitute for actual weights, but they are good for a home session. As a bonus, if you travel, you can easily stick them in a suitcase
My dad is 75 and his health is deteriorating rapidly. He's never exercised in his life, and I've suggested that maybe he should start, but he's not interested. I wish I could inspire him to make this kind of change, because I am getting worried about him.
BJJ is great exercise! Think of it as extreme yoga with a little chess sprinkled in ;)
I've seen quite a few people who were out of shape come in and start training BJJ and drop weight and get in great shape. Eventually, if you keep training BJJ you will want to supplement some cardio and weight lifting though.
With all that said, for me personally, the biggest benefit from BJJ was mental and emotional.
I've been managing my physical and psychological state with weightlifting since my early twenties. I've never been really ripped but I've always been in pretty good shape. That's more than enough for me and it only takes 3 or 4 hours a week to maintain along with making sure I do a lot of walking and or running.
The rest of my family presents the counterexample and they're all pretty unhealthy. Any attempt to persuade them to exercise fails. At best, occasionally one of them will try but go extreme and injure themselves and then use that as evidence as to why exercise doesn't work for them and that I should shut up about it.
It's not complicated, it's just consistency. Just like almost any other thing actually.
I’ve always loved cardio but found weight lifting to be impossibly boring. Then one day I decided to do 2-3 minutes of power sets, once in the morning and once at night. Every day.
I very quickly became stronger than I’ve been before. It’s such a small time commitment that consistency is relatively easy, but you still accumulate a decent amount of volume per week.
2-3 minutes sounds sublime. What sort of lifts are you doing? I only have free weights at home and have struggled to find a good routine that doesn't take too much time.
I have a barbell at home and ensure I get at least one workout including each of the "big 3" at least once a week. If I time it right and don't dally in between sets I'm done in less than 15 minutes.
The "big 3" are the core strength workouts of bench press, squat and deadlift. These are the workouts recommended by Rippetoe in Starting Strength: https://startingstrength.com/get-started/programs
For me this usually translates to one day per week of "upper body" (bench, abs, whatever ancillary stuff like curls or skull crushers) and one day per week of "lower body" (squat, deadlift, ancillary stuff such as calves). Abs are worked in between on both days, usually with body weight exercises. This is enough to keep me in good shape. If I do the above 4 days per week instead of 2, it's enough to get me into great shape.
All of the above can be done with a set of dumbbells going up to 20kg/50lb. You might substitute squats with lunges if you don't have access to a barbell.
The place I go is a structured workout with row, bike, versaclimber, and strength stuff (free weights, push-ups, core). Agree that row and push-ups would be a great combo.
Proper form is also a problem. I went up to 1k pushups a day but started with shoulder pain. No matter you many youtube videos i watch i guess i would need a personal trainer to teach me.
That's an insane amount that will most likely destroy your shoulders if you don't do any pulling to compensate. It might not be the form, but the imbalance between push/pull.
I do a power set of shrugs, curls, and one other I forget the name of. Then I put on a weighted vest and do a power set of ab roller, dips and decline push-ups.
My cardio (cycling) includes a mix of sprints of various sorts so I don’t bother weight lifting for lower body. Getting too bulky is also not good for speed in cycling so I’m not trying to get super buff so everything is just dumbbells and weight vest.
Heavy compound exercises like deadlifts/squats/ohp will take care of that. If done properly you can have a pretty decent workout even in a 30 min session
Being in shape is mostly a matter of nutrition. If you eat like the average westerner no amount of exercise will save you. On the other hand if you eat the proper food in proper amounts you won't need much to be in shape, even body weight exercises can be enough if you don't want to look like bodybuilder
"Pretty good shape" is subjective - going from sedentary to 15 minutes of exercise a day is going to make you feel quite a bit better, but you wont be winning triathalons or anything. Also note the poster said 3 to 4 hours plus "a lot of walking and or running". I'm guessing this adds up to something like an hour a day of exercise, which is quite a bit. Much more than that and you'd need a proper plan to not injure yourself.
> Sounds incredible, compared to amount of hours people usually spend to be in "pretty good shape".
3-4 hours is pretty standard, actually, from what I know. A fairly standard "beginner" routine is 3 days a week of weightlifting, around 1 hour in the gym each session.
That does lack cardio, but if you do the above and eat well for a few months, you can look and feel vastly better than before (and a year of this gets you in better shape than 90% of the population, I believe).
Anecdata. I work out pretty heavily - 5 sets of pull ups at a time, squats, core muscle exercises for 40 minutes (my disks tend to fall out and it prevents that). I used to run about once every 2 days, but now instead I'm doing about 30 minutes of hip exercises so my joints don't ache. I also have heavy depression and anxiety. And exercise is not enough to lift my mood. I guess I would feel worse if I didn't. I do it out of habit and because on a rational level I know it's beneficial in the long run.
Very common among girls who end up with anorexia, depression and other mental issues (particularly in the internet age, where there's porn, face tune and all sorts of social contagion). I'd hate to be a kid today. Or a parent.
You can replace "lifting weights" by many different type of exercises that suits you (walk, run, bike, ...). What matters is movement, that's why it's harder to stand still than to walk, the body use the contraction of muscle to do a lot of things
If you have weak back muscles, for example, walking is not going to do that much for them - but weight lifting will.
If your quads have atrophied because of a past knee injury, just walking - even very actively - will not fix them (bitter experience here) and the injury may well recur. But gentle goblet squats and light leg presses combined with balance exercises for proprioception will sort that out.
You lose a lot of muscle when you get older, and if you have any injuries you will naturally tend to avoid specific movements in your daily life. This _is_ better addressed by weight training (ideally with physio guidence) rather than just aiming for a goal of "being active".
That's not true. Weight lifting exists in a separate exercise category to cardio and fulfils different roles, triggers different endocrine pathways.
Either way, exercise is better than not, but lifting weights is also better than running in many regards. Been a while since I read about this so I'm struggling to remember specifics - hopefully somebody will come along and expand upon this.
Increased muscle=increased metabolism. Which means it's easier to stay at a healthy weight.
I've been relatively active my whole life, and it wasn't until I started lifting weights (mostly pull ups and chin ups) where I actually started to see a difference.
As other's mention below, weight lifting really is its own special thing. But definitely, just getting moving, consistently, is an excellent place to start.
A lot of people in wealthier countries work until retirement age and then park their asses on the sofa to spend the remaining years watching (awful) TV and getting fat and unhealthy. That's not living, and it's a guaranteed path to sadness (and frustration for the children who have to help the parent). Not to say that children shouldn't give back and help the parents, but it's still super important for all parties involved to be making effort.
I would add that your exercise should strenghten your body core. Having strong core muscles is a game changer. Too many people chase strong arms and possibly legs while neglecting the core.
The wooden dumbbells cracked me up. I guess they appeal to people who need to feel like they're lifting more than they are (10K metal dumbbells don't look nearly as impressive)?
To eliminate the possibility of misrepresentation, I propose we construct barbells out of the densest practical material. While metallic hydrogen has its theoretical attractions, you'll definitely need to buy some new gloves to lift. Uranium is reasonably cheap really, but export is a hassle. Perhaps something like an organometallic ceramic osmium compound? (Or have the aliens not officially released that to us yet?)
Actually a block of wood will do fine. Or vinyl. Brass. Iron. Gravel-filled. Water-filled. Lead shot filled. (Not RoHS). Weight plates have a few standard sizes used in competitive gyms but it's not really standard in any way beyond that Olympic sequence. And at the end of the day the best weight is a weight you have and you can grip well :)
Many people lift weight in order to help improve their self esteem, so if they feel stronger/better by lifting a bigger weight, then that's good for them. Now if you look down on those people in order to feel better yourself - that's also good, so win-win.
Also, it's a lot of wood in the background, in the interior. For a warmer and more inviting experience. Rather than a concrete room with metal equipment.
At this age (well, at every age) it is imperative to get enough rest between exercise days. The heart rate variability (HRV, there are apps for that) is a good indicator.
For muscle growth I can from personal experience highly recommend Glycine (available from vegan sources). It can be used as sweetener while helping keep blood glucose down. One study found it can boost muscle growth 400% in young pigs.
A few years ago I bought some shampoo from Amazon that was very clearly counterfeit. The product and packaging was so bad that if anyone was paying attention to the supply line they should have been able to figure it out.
Since then my general rule has been "If it goes on me or in me, I'm not getting it from Amazon"
If you get bored, try something else for a while. If that doesn't work, switch back.
Since no two people are the same, no exercise plan works for everyone. For me, weight lifting and technical mountain biking get me going and make me feel great. Tennis used to be a thing I lived for. Running and road cycling is a agony for me. Dancing is great. But I have friends who love to cycle 100 miles in a straight line. I guess there's some mental thing happening, but I just cannot do that.
An activity may really wear you out, but if you feel more energized the next day, then it's a good one for you. And if you start craving that feeling, then you know you found a good one.
Even within one type of exercise, there are many different approaches (which work better or worse depending on the person). Low rep, high weight is my thing. High rep, low weight (like road cycling) is a muscle burn and mind burn killer. So if you try something and it's not for you, make sure you try a variation on that before you decide the entire activity is bad.
Diet is important, but it can be easier to follow a good diet when you already feel better from the exercise. And you may find that you have more discipline after a good workout. On the contrary, a day which sucks and you can't get up and go to the gym is a day you're also likely to order pizza and beer for dinner.