5 exercises that you should avoid in your 60s

Exercise is an important element for a healthy lifestyle. At any age, you should be getting in some sort of activity in order to keep that belly from swelling. A new year encourages many of us to go out and keep our resolutions of ‘getting fit.’ But if you’ve been off the health bandwagon for sometime now, and you’ve gotten a little older, then there are a few exercises that you should avoid in order to prevent extra wear and tear to vital muscles and bones.

1. Climbing Stairs

Yes, you read that correctly. When you reach the age of 65, your body begins to lose muscle mass. In fact, we can lose up to three to five per cent of muscle mass as we age. When this happens, the balance that we used to have is altered and our stair climbing abilities change. We are all told that climbing stairs is good for us, but this is only true for those whose stair climbing abilities aren’t hindered by age. Stairs attribute to more than 51 per cent of falls in people over 65, and are responsible for over 20,000 deaths a year. So for safety’s sake, when you exercise, steer clear of the stairs.

2. Behind the neck lateral pull downs

Your neck becomes much weaker as you age, so for this reason, exercises where you strain your head and neck should be avoided when possible. There is an important artery in the neck as you probably know, and behind the neck movements presses the neck forward and puts pressure on the artery. The result? Heachaches, dizziness and fainting from a lack of blood flow to the brain. So make sure to avoid these movements.

3. Standing toe touches

Touching your toes is an exceptionally common stretching exercise that we see people using everyday to increase flexibility. Specifically, runners do it before a big jog and nearly all people at the gym do these. However, doing this exercise further on in life can cause serious injury as a joint that connects our hip and lower back can fracture. In addition to this, exercises like these can cause an unhealthy curvature in your spine. This can result in neck problems and general discomfort for months on end.

4. Trunk twists

This exercise move rotates the upper body from side to side and focus on those dreaded ‘love handles.’ Unfortunately, under too much strain, the back muscles can be damaged from performing this movement. While it is important to maintain good trunk rotation, these types of exercises should be performed while lying down rather than sitting or standing.

5. Abdominal crunches

I know. You want to get those washboard abs for summer. But I’m sorry to say, abdominal crunches just cause too much strain on the body when you get older. Everyone wants to do ‘crunches,’ or ‘sit ups.’ But, similar to the toe touching, these exercises bend our backs and necks, causing a curvature of the spine and ultimately leading to fractures. Fear not though, there are other exercises you can do that target the same abdominal muscles. Try performing lying leg lifts and planks, they’ll still make you feel that inner core burn that you are so craving, and have you ready for beach season in no time at all, minus the costly medical bills!

Got any other exercises that you would like to recommend? Let us know in the comments below