Recommended Exercises for People Over 40

exercise above 40Young or old, you need to exercise regularly so that your body can keep its good health and capability to accomplish many things. However, it is important that you know the types of exercise or workout routines that you should be doing according to your age or age bracket. This means that the workouts you did in your 20s is different from those you did in your 30s and those you are now doing in your 40s. It keeps changing as you grow older.

For those in their 20s, they have to focus on power and agility for them to always feel great about their bodies. For 30 year olds, the focus should be on strength and stamina while for 40 year olds like you, your workouts should focus on flexibility and strength. What are the reasons for these differences in the way the body should be worked out? One major factor is the wear and tear process that makes it hard for the body to do things easily.

You may now ask about the best or recommended exercise for people over 40. But before that, it is important to have a clear idea about the kind of body you have when you are already in your 40s. If you’re in this age range already, you have nerve fibers that have lower effectiveness, heart beat that is slower, and muscle mass that is lower than the previous years. These changes cause reduced blood flow and delivery of nutrients and diminished coordination. With these, the workout routines you have to perform must emphasize on flexibility. In this way, you are making your body able to still complete even the complex tasks.

60-minute Workout for Strength and Flexibility

Since you are older, you don’t have to push yourself to exercise on a daily basis. This one hour program can be done three times a week. During breaks, you can still do other activities that can make you sweat. You can jog for a few minutes, complete several laps on the swimming pool, or simple trekking on nearby hills or elevated areas in your community.

During your regular exercise day, do the following:

Cardio for Strong and Healthy Heart

For this goal, you can alternately perform biking, rowing and running. These are recommended for people like you because your body can still deliver and successfully accomplish each exercise. For starters, achieve the pace that can allow you to keep a conversation for around five minutes. Follow this with 60-second sprint and repeat it five times. Allow two minutes for active recovery of your worked muscles.

Core for Well-toned Muscles

The usual core exercise to keep your body in great shape is planks. Do it for 30 seconds and repeat 3 times. For each session, hold your position for 30 seconds. Follow it with side planks. Do three repetitions for each side and hold your position for 10 to 30 seconds. This works the inner part of your muscles, which in turn keeps those sexy curves.

Flexibility for Ease in Movement

Before you do your stretching, complete foam rolling for 10 minutes. Follow it with 10 hip stretches and 10 lateral squats. Then, do hamstring stretches and doorway pec stretches also with 10 counts each. Lastly, do 3 B ridges and hold your position for 10 seconds each time.

Strength for Strong Body

Whether you are 41 or 49, you can still perform strength exercises such as push ups. Make sure that your feet is elevated on a bench with 12-inch height. Follow this with split or single-leg squats, inverted rows, and single straight-leg deadlifts. Perform each type with 3 sets and 10 repetitions for each set.

If you follow these recommended workouts, you can maintain not just a healthy but also an able body. To get the best results, do the flexibility exercises first for 15 minutes. Then follow it with strength for 25 minutes. Lastly, do cardio for 20 minutes.

The key in doing exercises during your 40s is to always start every session with a self-massage for 10 minutes. Use a foam roller to help your body achieve a normal blood flow. This happens when the roller smoothens the tangles and knots in your body that restrict normal bloodflow. The roller is very important because it relieves shoulder tension, stretches tight hamstrings, and soothes back pain.

To supplement your workout program, consume around 10 servings of vegetable and fruits every day. This is to make up for the lost energy and to supply the required amount of nutrients to keep joints and worked muscles healthy.

At the age 40, keeping up a healthy lifestyle is not hard to do. With discipline and determination, this can surely be achieved. Thus, you need not restrict yourself from activities you want to enjoy.