Beat the top 3 barriers to your health over 50

Training over 50 is completely different to training in your 20s and 30s.  What once worked for you just no longer seems to.  Maybe you’re putting on some excess fat, despite trying to watch what you eat.  You find some physical tasks that you never used to even think about, are becoming noticable.

The reality is, exercise and nutrition as we get older needs to be more tailored to each individual.  Why?  Well, first of all it’s just not as easy to burn fat or build muscle as it was in our 20s.  And yet, most of the advise found online and on social media is from young (very enthusiastic) trainers who don’t have much experience training older humans!  Tailoring workouts to each individual helps overcome those natural challenges as we get older because we’re being so much more effective with our time. Much like our palate for food/wine refines with time and experience, so too should how we choose to each and train for optimal health.  Just feeding our bodies with ‘any old’ thing might be fine when we’re 19, but our input should become more exclusive as time goes on.

Additionally, as we age our bodies tend to carry more baggage that needs to be taken into consideration when exercising.  The years will have accumulated extra injuries, surgeries or just nagging niggles which might leave our movement or exercise choices more limited.  Many of these can be worked around or even improved with the right training, but it requires a considered and tailored approach.

As our lives move forward, stress and responsibilities compound and the time we once had for looking after ourselves seems to just run away.  Looking back at your 20s and 30s you often realise how much time and energy you had, and wish you’d made more of it at the time.  As we age we lose muscle, bone density, mobility and joint integrity.  Without consciously making time and energy available to work on our fitness, these will be in decline alongside our quality of life.

The good news is that you can continue to burn fat, build muscle and move better in your body well beyond your 50s.  Incorporating resistance training regularly into your routine, balancing that with some cardio and mobility work, and tailoring your nutrition and supplementation to your needs will get you better results than 20 years prior.

If you’re not sure where to start or need the support and accountability of expert Personal Trainers in Oxford, reach out to use on our contact page for a free consultation.