Fitness
Don’t make these workout mistakes just because you are over 40!
After turning 40, you’ll notice your body changing. You adjust specific routines, maybe add eyewear that helps improve vision or knee wraps during a run to avoid aches. Aging is a process, and exercising regularly can help you do it gracefully. Strengthening bodyweight exercises are especially important as you get into your forties and beyond.
Doctors, physical therapists, or coaches will tell you the idea that “it’s all downward spirals when exercising in middle age” is outdated. However, when your body changes, it’s a good idea to pay attention.
For example, testosterone levels may decrease along with tendon and ligament vascularity. You might also need more recovery time after challenging workouts.
Fight the urge to make huge, dramatic shifts in your exercise routine. Instead, make smaller changes, such as fixing mistakes or overcoming bad habits. Check out these common bodyweight workout errors to avoid.
You don’t work on your flexibility and mobility
As we get older, it’s easy to forget the importance of exercise. We juggle family and work responsibilities, and exercising doesn’t always fit seamlessly into our schedule. During middle age, staying physically fit becomes even more important. Therefore, we have to get up off the couch and work out, even when we don’t want to.
After all, a sedentary lifestyle will hurt you in a variety of ways. Not only will you put yourself at risk for obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, but your joints will also lose their ability to move through a full range of motion. This will cause you to lose flexibility, something you need for even the most routine of daily activities.
Losing flexibility also increases your risk of everyday injury, limits circulation, and negatively affects your standing and sitting postures. Protect your muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Avoid unnecessary surgeries.
Add regenerative exercises like yoga and pilates to your routine so that you’ll maintain flexibility and mobility as you age.
You skip your warm-up and cool-down routines
Getting in shape at 40 means you must warm up before working out and cool down afterward. This is vital, especially as we age, to avoid potential injuries. If you don’t take the time for this basic self-care, you could lose time to bed rest and muscle loss. It’s not worth it.
Warming up and cooling down don’t have to be time-consuming activities. A few stretches or jumping rope will loosen and warm your muscles. This gets them ready for lifting so your stabilizers and connective tissues work more effectively. Light warm-up sets also sync up your mind-muscle connection to make the most of each movement.
Cooling down after a workout removes lactic acid from your body and slowly regulates your heart rate. Again, this doesn’t have to take a lot of time. Incorporating simple stretches, covering important muscles, or a 6 to 7-minute yoga flow could give you the cooldown you need before getting on with your day.
You take it too easy
It’s common to get into your forties and forget to put some intensity into workouts. Don’t fall into the trap of a mundane, ho-hum exercise routine. You may feel the urge to stick with what you know or do the bare minimum. But never challenging yourself comes with a price.
Sticking with the old routine of two to four sets of six to ten reps while placing too much focus on elements like time under tension can lead to muscle deterioration. Don’t miss out on the benefits of one important essential: power training. Add simple exercises like kettlebell swings into your regimen. Include other adjustments, like using more force with bench presses and squats.
You aren’t consistent
You won’t see improvements or other positive results if you’re not consistent. Think about when you were a bit younger and just starting. You trained with consistent effort and energy. Week after week, you showed up for yourself. And you noticed results.
When you start to miss a workout here or there, you might not think it’s a big deal. You’ll just catch up when you get back at it. But when you reduce your intensity or stop altogether, it gets harder to return to that energy. This is especially true if you’re eating and drinking as if you’re working out when you’ve stopped.
Unfortunately, one lousy week can easily turn into a lousy month. If you don’t hold yourself accountable, it can be difficult to get back to where you used to be. Inconsistencies with the training lead to inconsistencies with nutrition and other areas of life. This is how people lose their way and begin to gain weight and lose muscle in middle age.
You can’t always control external issues and may need to miss a workout. However, you can create alternative plans to minimize the chances of an interruption and, therefore, the effect of it.
Plan social events and workouts so that you can have both without jeopardizing the gains you’ve made in your fitness level.
You don’t use modifications
The kinds of workouts that made sense in your 20s won’t make sense anymore in your 40s. If you do try to hold on to one-rep maxes or rounds in the right, you may risk walking away with soreness and injuries. Sometimes you won’t be able to walk away at all.
Instead of clinging to what no longer serves you, use modifications that involve medium-weight, medium-rep exercises. Even better? Incorporate routines with a large range of motion. Such modifications include using the following:
- Kettlebells
- Yoga
- Swimming
- Martial arts
- Barbell exercises
Unfortunately, too many people over 40 skip certain exercises altogether because they think it’s too difficult for their age group. A better choice would be to use modifications that maximize the results and produce exactly the kind of strength and flexibility your older body needs.
You don’t balance your aerobic and anaerobic exercises
When you neglect the cardio and conditioning portion of your workouts, you’ll lose steam pretty fast. You want to increase your longevity, not deplete it. Since metabolism begins slowing down after age 40, you must burn calories in other ways. Discover exercises and routines that elevate your heart rate.
Start slow. Find a way to include up to ten minutes of aerobic activity every day. Include these short but sweet bursts into strength training toward the end of the workout. Do this by jumping on the treadmill or row machine.
Push yourself a little bit more by adding less than a minute of interval training. A long run, ride, or swim will also add important cardio to your workout. Keep it steady and consistent on a weekly basis.
Editors’ Recommendations
High-impact exercises can benefit those looking to build endurance and strength but can also place undue stress on your joints. Exercises like plyometrics, running, and sprinting are celebrated for their potential to torch calories; however, they can damage your joints behind the scenes. We spoke with a trainer who calls out six high-impact exercises that can damage your joints so you know what to avoid during your training sessions.
“High-impact exercises contribute to joint pain and long-term damage by placing repetitive stress on the joints, especially in weight-bearing areas like the knees, hips, and lower back,” explains Ronny Garcia, CPT, from Blink Fitness. “The constant impact can wear down the protective cartilage, leading to inflammation, pain, and conditions such as osteoarthritis.”
As time passes, your joints may lose their ability to successfully absorb shock, making them more susceptible to injury. Incorrect form or overuse while performing high-impact exercises further heightens your risk of ligament damage, joint strain, and chronic joint problems.
So, let’s explore the six high-impact exercises that can damage your joints, according to Garcia.
Running
Running on pavement can break down the cartilage in your lower back, hips, and knees. “The repeated impact of your feet on the hard ground can also cause inflammation and lead to arthritis over time,” Garcia adds.
An excellent alternative to running is the elliptical. This cardio machine provides a great, low-impact workout and the same cardiovascular benefits as running without straining your joints.
Jumping Jacks
The repeated jumping and landing motions of jumping jacks can be tough on your hips, knees, and ankles.
“Step jacks involve stepping to the side instead of jumping and are a good alternative that reduces impact while working the same muscles,” Garcia points out.
Box Jumps
Box jumps can be hard on your ankles and knees, as jumping onto and off a high surface places strain on these joints. It also heightens your chance of getting injured if your coordination or balance is lacking.
“Step-ups are an alternative that engages the same muscle groups and improves strength and balance while being gentler on the joints,” Garcia tells us.
Burpees
Burpees require you to repeatedly jump, squat, and push up, which can harm your lower back, knees, and wrists. “The fast pace and impact on the joints make it a high-risk exercise for joint health,” Garcia notes.
To lessen the impact of this exercise, a smart alternative would be to replace the jump with simply stepping back into a plank position.
Basketball and Other High-Impact Sports
High-impact sports such as basketball, tennis, and soccer can place substantial stress on your hips, knees, and ankles. “These sports all involve stopping short, jumping, and quick direction changes, and the combination of the impact and twisting motion often leads to joint pain and ligament strain,” explains Garcia.
Opt for low-impact workouts like cycling or swimming instead. Both still offer stellar cardiovascular benefits while being easy on your joints.
Sprinting
Last but not least, you likely knew sprinting would be on this list!
“Sprinting requires explosive power, which can overstress the knees, hips, and lower back, and the abrupt acceleration and short stops place you at risk for injury,” says Garcia.
Head to the rowing machine instead for a productive, low-impact workout that recruits your entire body. “It avoids the jarring impact of sprinting while strengthening muscles and improving endurance,” Garcia adds.
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Alexa Mellardo
Around 39% of adults in the United States deal with back pain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Research shows that lumbar stabilization exercises and stretching and strengthening exercises can help reduce back pain. One of the reasons exercise could be beneficial for diminishing those aches or twinges is because it lowers inflammation. Studies reveal that just 20 minutes of exercise has anti-inflammatory effects. There are different types of exercise, and working out at home is more convenient and affordable, offering you the privacy and comfort of your own space. A new study reveals that a specific type of online exercise class could also help your back pain. Let’s look at the research.
The study
In a study published in Jama Network Open, the researchers categorized patients into two groups:
- Yoga group 1 — participants received virtual hatha yoga classes.
- Waitlist group 2 — participants were on a waitlist for yoga.
The study participants were Cleveland Clinic employee health plan patients in Florida and Ohio. Patients in group 1 were given detailed workbooks and video recordings to help them safely practice yoga at home. The trained teachers demonstrated using supportive props like chairs and blocks to adapt poses when necessary.
The study results
When the study began, the participants reported back pain levels of around 6 out of 10. After six weeks, group 1, who practiced yoga, reported that their pain levels dropped to 4. After six months, pain levels declined to 3. Group 2, who didn’t practice yoga, noted that their pain levels remained the same.
74% of participants were taking some type of pain medicine at the start of the study. Six months on, over half of the patients in the waitlist group were still taking ibuprofen, aspirin, opioids, and other pain medicines. Less than one-third of the yoga group continued taking pain relievers.
Patients with back pain who took 12 weeks of online live-streamed yoga classes also moved more easily and slept better than individuals on the wait list for the classes.
If you’re dealing with chronic back pain, it’s best to consult with your healthcare provider, doctor, or physical therapist to rule out any underlying health problems. It’s possible that for some people, yoga could aggravate certain issues.
The benefits of yoga
Yoga is a meditative movement where you perform specific physical poses and postures while focusing on deep breathing. There are more fast-paced types of yoga that can raise your heart rate higher or slower and gentler practices.
Growing research highlights the many benefits of practicing yoga, such as:
- Lower stress and anxiety.
- Decrease back pain.
- Improve the quality of life in those with chronic conditions.
- Stimulate brain function.
- Help reduce the risk of heart disease.
- Enhance muscular strength and body flexibility.
- Improve sleep.
- Promote and improve cardiovascular and respiratory function.
The takeaway
The study’s senior author noted that pain levels were cut in half when patients practiced yoga. Online yoga classes are more accessible and allow you to be guided by an experienced yoga teacher while still working out from the comfort of your home. You don’t have to travel to attend in-person yoga classes to get the benefits.
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