Safe exercise during your 30’s and beyond
According to The American College of Sports Medicine, adults between the ages of 18 and 65 should remain active by balancing moderate and vigorous aerobic activity with muscular strength and endurance workouts. In other words: physical activity should be a consistent, ongoing part of your routine, no matter if you’re 25, 32, 46, or 65. However, your exercise routine and fitness priorities should adapt as you make more laps around the sun, and as your body and physical needs change.
According to Kathryn Kelly, award-winning fitness competitor and owner of Taste Buzz Food Tours, all people, women especially, naturally begin losing muscle mass in their 30s. To combat this decrease, we can add muscle-gaining, strength-training workouts instead of focusing solely on cardio. Kelly recommends targeting various body sections and alternating throughout the week.
When we reach the age of 30, we may start noticing our balance and endurance aren’t as easy to maintain as they were a few years ago. Flexibility is one of those skills that you lose if you don’t practice, and as you blow out more birthday candles, it may require more time and patience.
Women in their 30s are particularly prone to insulin resistance due to metabolic changes in adrenal and thyroid hormones. To combat this, invest in a cardio routine you can follow and maintain. Whether it’s road or mountain biking, indoor cycling classes, boot camps, or jogging, the goal is to keep your heart rate raised for a prolonged period.
For most people, their 40s are characterized by being extremely busy as we all try to juggle child care, work demands, caring for aging parents, and overall feeling pretty limited with our personal time. These years may be full of memories and progress, but they could also leave little time for a trip to the gym. Once we reach our 40s, our joint health, functionality, and cardiovascular conditioning begin to take a head seat at the table. At this stage, Grebe says we should seek to use our workout programs to enhance our activities of daily living. But many in their 40s start to shift to more of a sedentary lifestyle.
Though, yes, our 50s are when we have our eye on retirement, and we’re starting to enjoy a slower pace of life, that doesn’t make exercise less important. Some may argue it becomes more critical if we want to chase our future grandchildren and cruise around the world. Since bone mass and density diminish over time, this leaves our bodies more susceptible to potential injury. So if you haven’t been staying active and want to start working out more regularly.
Though you may have been a marathon runner in the past, it’s important not to pressure yourself to go full-throttle in your 60s. The goal, simply, is to keep moving, no matter how many laps around the sun you make. While people often think of breaking workouts up into “arm day” or “leg day” as the ideal way to build strength, it’s actually only an approach that should be used for bodybuilding goals.
As you add more candles to your birthday cake, you’re bound to gain a few bumps, scratches, aches, and pains along the way. It’s all part of a life fully lived, but it can sometimes make us stronger on one side versus another.
