How old are you? Is that chronological or biological age? If you are someone that takes care of your health, chances are your biological age is less than your chronological…
That’s why you will never see any of my newsletters with a subject line that is age specific. I haven’t had a “How to be Fit After 50” or an “Exercise for Seniors” email.
That’s because at our studio we never design programs based on date of birth. A well designed program isn’t designed based on how many times you have travelled around the sun, it is about how much exercise you have done in the recent past that should dictate what kind of workout you should do.
Well, that’s a bit too simplistic. There are actually three components that dictate what kind of workout you should do:
1) Your current fitness level: Beginner, intermediate or advanced. NOT, young, old and older.
2) Your goals: endurance, muscle gain, sport specific, increased bone density, pain reduction, mobility etc
3) The current state of your body: injuries or preexisting conditions that may require you to add or remove any movements or impacts.
It’s dangerous to base your workout on your age. Why? Because, what you believe you achieve.
Let me say that again…WHAT YOU BELIEVE YOU ACHIEVE. If you have low standards for yourself, you will live up to those standards and those standards only.
There are plenty of people who accomplish amazing feats at all ages. Why? Is it because they were born with superhuman genes? Probably not. Chances are they just know what they want and they consistently go after that goal.
CONSISTENT ACTION CREATES CONSISTENT RESULTS.
Check out this guy. He is 70 years old and running his fastest marathon time in his life.
Or this woman. Canadian Mindi Elmore just turned 40 and she could be bound for the Olympics after she “SHATTERED” the Canadian womans marathon record!
Or Edwina Brocklesby. She didn’t start working out until she was 50 and now at 76 is a triathlete. Whaaat??
And this lady is one of my favourites. Willie Murphy at age 82 is a bodybuilder and actually put an intruder into the hospital after he ‘picked the wrong house’. Talk about maintaining your independence as you age!
These people are examples of why we don’t cater our workouts to anyones age. You can always accomplish amazing things if you set your mind to it and consistently work towards your goals.
It’s never too late. You are never too old. You just have to start and you have to continue to have a vision of how you want to be in 1, 2, 5 or 10+ years from now and continue to take the right actions, day after day that take you to that goal.
To ensure long term results:
1) Be consistent. Lift weights at least twice per week and move at least 5 days a week.
2) Be challenged. Either change your routine or ensure you are continually challenging yourself in new ways consistently.
3) Be patient. Always know that true fitness results take time so focus on taking the right actions and not just the results.
4) Be excited. Your workouts shouldn’t feel like ‘work’ in the negative sense. A great workout should have you leaving feeling excited for the gains you have made or will make!
5) Get coached. If you don’t know where to start or struggle with accountability find a professional that will help you get the results you want.
6) Forget perfect. Perfect is the enemy of good, just because you can’t get the perfect body, or execute something perfectly is no reason to not continue to strive towards your goals. Afterall, we do know that it’s about enjoying the journey right?
