Five ways you can improve your midlife fitness

If you’ve started experiencing aches and pains in places you never experienced them before it might be time to reassess your exercise routine.

One of the biggest reasons over-60s give up on exercise is when the feel good factor wears off, when stamina drops and you don’t feel like you’re making any progress, and when your body aches in a way that leads you to think the workout you’ve just completed might not be so good.

It’s times like these you need to take a step back, get some perspective and find your motivation.

According to regular crossfitter, Cathy Lawdanski that’s exactly what she needed to do and so she approached her coach for guidance.

Hoping to be told how amazing she was and that her experience was nothing to worry about, Cathy got a bit of a shock when her coach gave her five tips to better performance.

1. Diet
2. Consistency
3. Stretching
4. Massage
5. Foam rolling

If, like Cathy, you’ve been eating lots of food that you know you shouldn’t be eating — think takeaway more than once a week or processed foods or foods that are high in fat for example — you need to pay more attention to your diet and nutrition.

Another factor in Cathy’s life that could also be preventing you from being your best self is consistency. If you used to work out four to five days a week, but now you find squeezing in 30 minutes of exercise is a chore, there is a problem.

As you get older the more likely it is you will face additional aches and pains if you don’t spend the time stretching properly before and after a workout. In Cathy’s case, she says that while she does the warm-up required of her she had fewer niggles when she spent an additional 15 minutes actively stretching before and after her workouts.

Massage is not a luxury and if you think like that you are overlooking the incredibly important role massage plays in your recovery. You are improving your blood flow and circulation by getting more oxygen to all parts of your body when you get a massage, but also it will help reduce inflammation in your tendons, muscles and joints.

In addition to massage is foam rolling, which helps to loosen those knots in your muscles. You might want to talk to a health professional about the ways in which a foam roll can help with some of the pain and discomfort you might be feeling.

Cathy says that by allowing herself the time to do these five things and maintain her body’s physical condition she has reaped incredible benefits.

What’s your exercise routine consist of? Have you struggled with injury or does it take you longer to recover after exercise?