Fitness Over 40

Getting older is not for sissies. If you neglected to take fanatical care of your body and your health in your 20s, 30s and 40s, all heck starts to break loose once you hit your 50s and 60s. Joints ache, muscles stiffen and stamina wanes. If you’re like 68% of adults in America, you’re also overweight or obese. It seems unfair that just when your kids go off to school or you start looking forward to retirement your body stops cooperating.

A friend asked me the other day, “What’s the one biggest mistake people make with their exercise?” Unfortunately, I couldn’t come up with just one answer, because I see so many different mistakes. Sadly, there are a lot of exercise myths and misinformation floating around out there. I thought it was a great question, though, so I gave it some thought, and came up with the seven mistakes I see most often.

Are you getting enough exercise, and the right kinds of exercise? Almost any type and quantity of activity is better than sitting, but if you want to maximize your health, be sure you’re getting enough daily exercise, and the right kinds of exercise. The American College of Sports Medicine released a new position paper this week that makes exercise recommendations for generally healthy adults based on the best current scientific evidence.

“Fitness” has many definitions and there’s no single, established threshold of fitness. In fact, athletic fitness involves many different components, from endurance and agility to power and speed. As we age, though, most of us think about fitness in terms of our overall wellness and our ability to manage the activities of daily living: buying groceries, keeping the house and yard tidy, playing with the grandchildren.