How to Start Your Fitness Journey as a Senior

Are you a senior that is looking to reach new fitness heights?

We have all sorts of misconceptions about seniors’ fitness. Often, we think that seniors cannot really be fit because their bodies are not suited for exercise. But this is wrong!

If we think about seniors’ fitness from the perspective of health and wellness, it’s easy to see how fitness is not only possible but absolutely essential for seniors.

In this article, we take you through some ideas on how to start your seniors’ journey towards a healthy lifestyle through fitness training!

Start Slow

If we want to reach the goal of health and wellness, we really have to take on board the idea that it is going to take time.

This is actually a concept that even a lot of young people fail to take into account. If we jump into the gym or start beating the pavement, we can quickly become prone to exercise burnout.

Starting a fitness regime usually means that we are radically changing the way that our body operates. So, we need time for our bodies to adapt to that change.

Another reason why it’s important to start slow is that we can become mentally burned out by throwing ourselves in too quickly. We suddenly start thinking that it’s all too hard and we stop soon after.

To reach your senior fitness and health goals, it can be a good idea to give yourself a long-term plan and use a fitness tracker to get feedback on your progress at each step.

Low Impact Exercises

Next, we need to understand that, as seniors, our bodies are fundamentally different from what they used to be. Most importantly, our bones and joints have changed since our youth.

For this reason, it’s essential that we do low-impact exercises to build muscle while protecting bones and joints.

In fact, seniors’ exercises should focus on building up muscle to protect the body from wear and tear. This doesn’t mean becoming a bodybuilder.

It means focusing on key muscle groups and building up a strong base of strength so that we take the pressure off the weaker parts of our body. There are a lot of different exercises you can do just at home, so you can start slow without joining a gym.

Also, don’t forget to stretch!

Healthy Nutrition

Lastly, when trying to reach our health and fitness goals, it’s essential that we recognize that we need to be providing our bodies with enough nutrients to fuel our exercise.

There are many vitamins and supplements you can take to assist with this. But, also, you should focus on getting enough fresh fruit and vegetables and keeping your diet as clean as possible.

This will not only give you more energy, but it will also help your body recover much more quickly from exercise.

This means that you can get back out there and do more exercise more quickly!

Health and Wellness Is a Journey

As seniors, we are often prone to thinking of health and wellness as a quick fix. We often think it will just take a few months to whip ourselves into shape.

But the truth is that true health and wellness is a long-term prospect. Even after we achieve certain goals, we need to keep on doing things to maintain what we have achieved.

So, make sure you get your mind right and be prepared to stick it out over the long haul!

If you’ve found this information useful, why not check out some of our other articles on seniors’ health?