Last Updated on December 1, 2021 by FS Studios Personal Training

Yes, this is partly going to be a stay active as you get older article but, don’t worry, there’s more to it than just general fitness tips.

Let’s talk about why it’s so hard to stay active as we get a bit older first.

The first challenge is that things start to go wrong.

An ache here and a tweak there can slow you down quickly and have you thinking that being active is a bad idea.

Further, you can find yourself not having the same energy as you used to and that it takes longer to get going once you finally do find said energy.

Whatever the new challenges may be, understand that you need to take them on.

Learn New Ways To Stay Active

You must find new ways to stay active and mobile. Social circles change, activities in the backyard diminish and overall strength levels drop.

These are all things you can counteract if you find safe and progressive ways to stay active.

Many people turn to Yoga, Pilates and stretching as they are “lighter” activities on the body.

These are great starting points.

Others try to keep walks and light jogs or hikes in their routines and these are also good.

You Must STILL Find The Burn

The only other thing you need is some resistance training. Unfortunately, because weight training is a bit more involved and requires some guidance, many people avoid it and or do a tiny bit and then give up.

This is not a great approach because you can’t maintain muscle unless you use it and the best way to maintain it with a bit of weight training.

Yoga, Pilates, Stretching Tai chi, Pickle Ball, Walking, Being Busy around the House and other similar activities do not build much muscle.

This doesn’t mean they aren’t great activities, it just means you need a little bit of weight training in the background.

And yes, you can do body weight exercises. 

The big key here is that you create that muscle burn from doing resisted or loaded reps. This is the big trick to weight training for the elderly in Vancouver.

We’re very active people here but whatever you do, you still need to get a bit of a burn out of some of your activities.

If you’re not sure what to do, you need to ask for help. As we age, we must allow others to help us. Though you can be incredibly self sufficient for long periods in life, sometimes you need a coach.

In general, weight training tends to be one of those times. There’s no need to pick up a needless injury from bad technique or waste time on an exercise that won’t benefit you in the long run.

Keep The Food Going

Yes you may find you’re not as hungry as you used to be and you may skip lunch or breakfast, miss a snack or have a lousy dinner here and there but, do NOT make it a habit.

Your food still needs to be on point. I often find clients thinking it doesn’t really matter what they eat at various ages but guess what, it still matters.

Though it may not seem like consistent eating is still important, it is. Low eating and or poor eating can impact your energy, positivity, vitality and vigor in many ways.

These aren’t areas you want to impact as you’re getting a bit older. So keep eating well and you’ll not only feel better but you will be better off in many ways.

Best of Health,

FS Studios