MATURE EXERCISING

Mature Exercising and Health

Age! It's different for all of us. We are all differing ages. We all age differently. We are all in differing physical conditions. And yet, regular exercise brings us all together for the same reason..... health and life.

Something most people don't realise when they are young is that, as we get older it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain our physical health. Injuries occur. Life gets busier. Our bodies simply wear out.

In our younger years our bodies are still growing and creating all the hormones necessary for health and healing. As age bears down on us, those hormones decrease in quantity. Bones that were once being created and healed faster than they degenerated are now degenerating faster than they are being healed (here comes good old osteoporosis). Muscle tissue that was easy to build now becomes harder to maintain as the body produces less and less of it's natural amino acids. And, the best of all, our metabolism starts to slow so it becomes harder to remove unwanted fatty deposits.

So, as we can now see, getting older can be sooo much fun (lots of sarcasm).

But! It's is definitely possible to slow this down, or even stave it off. For all of us.

So, now you are asking how.

One word. Exercise!

Regular exercise has been proven to extend life, provide more energy, reduce bone degeneration. And a good diet will assist the body to create all those good amino acids and hormones to help it heal.

About now, I'm hoping you are asking that “how” question again.

So, lets look at the 'exercise' part. Cardio type exercises will assist the body with it's endurance and fat loss. It's ability to do activity for long periods such as walking to the shops,playing with the children (or grand children), even playing the odd round of golf. And Cardio can be as simple as walking around the block a few times, or or as extreme as Circuit style exercise. And weight bearing exercises will assist with strengthening bones and muscles. No, you don't have to use actual weights as such, you can just do body-weight exercises. But if you are already strong enough for some of the basics, then using weights is the next step.

How do you know what exercises to do for your lifestyle and/or physical ability? That is where I come in. As a Personal Trainer, my job is to asses exactly this and create a program tailored to your abilities and outcome.

As for the 'diet' part of the equation. This is where a balanced diet comes into play. Our bodies need certain foods to help us grow, and other foods will assist with removal of fats. An example of this is meat. Animal meat (yes, this might upset some of the vegans and vegetarians out there) when processed in the body helps us to create branch chain amino acids. These are then used to create our natural growth hormone. This is used to assist with cell regeneration such as muscle growth. Avocados assist the body to remove 'bad' fats and create a good cholesterol balance. Just as a couple of examples.

How do you know what a correct 'diet' is for your lifestyle? Again, this is where I come in. With my clients I get them to run a Food Diary and we look at their diet and make changes where necessary after assessing their goals.

Ultimately, quality of life can definitely be extended. I have seen both women and men doing things such as body building well into their 70's. I personally know people in heir 40's and 50's who do High Intensity Interval Training and have bodies that make 20 year olds look bad. However, that doesn’t mean that everyone should train the same. As a Personal Trainer my job is to asses the needs of each client and attend those needs as required with personalised and individual training sessions.

In short, working with a trainer such as myself means that you are more likely to meet that end goal, be healthier and happier, and have better quality of life well into your mature years.