Taking care of your body in your 40s is not that difficult and the longer you stay active, the longer you will be able to stay active
Being a grown-up comes with its share of issues – especially when it comes to your health. After 40, your body takes a drastic turn when muscle building becomes slow, and fat burning is non-existent. For most men and women, joints hurt more, and everything takes longer to recover from. However, that is not a reason to give up fitness.
Taking care of your body in your 40s is not that difficult. Experts say the longer you stay active, the longer you will be able to stay active. Here are 10 commandments of fitness you need to follow as you enter middle age. If you are consistent and regular with workouts, your body will thank you well into retirement.
Focus more on flexibility
Experts say flexible muscles and resilient joints prevent you from sustaining a sidelining injury that you may not fully recover from. And so, the best way to do that is to build a cooldown stretching routine daily that lasts 10-20 minutes at the end of your workout.
Stretching while muscles are warm is a flexibility-force multiplier.
Shift your workouts daily
Rather than exercising like crazy in your 20s to lose weight and make a fit body, your 40s should be more concentrated on medium-weight, medium-rep exercises that involve a large range of motion. You must try kettlebells, yoga, barbell exercises, swimming, and a few martial arts like tai chi.
These exercises produce exactly the kind of strength and flexibility your older body needs.
Prioritize single-limb movement
Most people are asymmetrical and favour one arm or leg over the other – which can lead to imbalances over time. By doing single-limb exercises you can address and improve imbalances as well as core stability and balance. The stimulus also is great for core training when you train with one limb over bilateral due to the anti-rotation component, which makes for a stronger core but also a more resilient body.
Develop power
Experts say as you enter your 40s, your body starts losing up to 10 per cent of strength every decade thereafter – even worse, losing nearly three times that amount in power.
You have to bring your body to the level where you may get off the floor quickly without struggling, walk up a flight of stairs nimbly, and allow yourself to move through your day with relative ease and without discomfort.
Focus more on recovery
Always follow the golden rule that muscles rebuild and repair themselves not just by workout but by recovery as well. Your next workout is only as good as your recovery, so progress will only come when you are consistent and focus more on recovery.
Recovery means incorporating foam rolling, walking, and stretching on non-training days – all of which help you move to enable you to train at an optimal level.
