Exercise For Older Adults - Focussing On Fitness

This post is part of a series on exercise for older adults.

In this post, I outlined how aging affects your muscles, bones, nerves and general movement capacity.

Then in this post I put forward some general principles older adults can follow when seeking to get started in working on their strength and fitness. 

Here I focussed on the practicalities on strength training (How many sets? How many reps? How heavy? How often?).

In this article, I'm going to focus on fitness: training your heart & lungs (and all your systems - the whole you) for the sake of your health.

What Is Fitness?

For the purposes of this article, I'll be using this definition (which is my own).

"The degree to which a person can sustain moderate to vigorous exertion."

Highly fit people can sustain vigorous exertion for a long time. Less fit people struggle to exert themselves for a prolonged time without fatigue.

Why Does It Matter?

Because a high degree of fitness is VERY closely linked to good health.

There is no reasonable doubt that high cardiorespiratory fitness is - in general - STRONGLY supportive of good health.

Here, the Royal College of General Practitioners - reporting on research in The British Medical Journal - states that "cardiorespiratory fitness is a ‘strong and consistent predictor’ of morbidity and mortality among adults."

What does that mean?

People who are really fit are a lot less likely to suffer from preventable health conditions and they are also a lot less likely to die of preventable causes in any given time period (although the grim reaper is coming for all of us at some point).

It is also worth mentioning as a side note that for people experiencing obesity, increasing fitness can have a strongly protective effect against the negative consequences of carrying excess body fat.

What Types Of Exercise Can Help You Increase Your Fitness?

There are numerous forms of exercise you can use to boost your fitness. The general rule is that the activity has to be hard enough (e.g. just walking will be too easy if you're already quite fit) and it has to be something you can sustain (e.g. lifting a really, really heavy weight is not something you can do continuously).

NB: Walking, while it may be too easy for some, is still great in all sorts of ways. It's just that fitter people will get lots more benefit from engaging in something more challenging in addition to walking.

It should be something that uses a lot of muscular effort, so that your heart rate can be elevated for sustained periods of time.

You may be gym-phobic and just want to exercise outside. I that case here's a list of exercise types which you can use for fitness:

• Swimming

• Cycling

• Brisk walking or Running

• Rucking

• Hiking

• Rollerblading

• Nordic walking

• Stair climbing

• Pushing & pulling a weighted sled (on the beach)

• Water running

• Rowing

• Kayaking

• Paddling a SUP (racing style, not surfing style)

• Pool based exercise classes

And here's a list of things you can do in the gym (subject to the right equipment being available):

• Stairclimbing

• Elliptical / Cross trainer

• Stationary bike

• Treadmill running

• Uphill treadmill walking

• Rowing

• Aerobics classes

• Dance fitness classes

• Ski erg

• Arm crank machine

• Pushing & pulling a weighted sled (in the gym)

How Hard Do I Need To Work?

You can experience a great deal of health benefit from doing a small amount of hard training, or a larger amount of moderate effort training.

It is best to have a mix: some time spent working pretty hard (for example, climbing steps at an effort level where you can’t speak in full sentences) and some time working moderately hard (where you are exerting effort, yet can mostly maintain a conversation).

Here is a recipe that would suit many older adults:

Day 1: Stair Climbing

• Go up a long-ish flight of steps that takes about 60 seconds of pretty intense effort

• Take it really easy on the way down and wait at the bottom for 60 seconds (or until your breathing feels quite relaxed again)

• Repeat 4-6 times for a few weeks then progress to 6-8 repetitions.

 Day 2: Bike Riding (on a real bike or a stationary bike)

• Complete 30 minutes of cycling at an intensity where your breathing rate is somewhat elevated but you can still complete a sentence (e.g. say "I feel good, I feel great, I wanna communicate" and you should want to draw breath at "communicate")

• You can break this up into two or three blocks with 2-3 minute rests in between

• If this feels easily achievable for you, extend the duration by 10-15% 

How Often Do I Need To Train? And For How Long?

The Australian government recommends 30 minutes of moderate activity per day for adults over 65 years of age.

BUT, you need to bear in mind that when they recommend this, they are mindful that many people are starting out from a very sedentary position and they want to give them an achievable target. So they probably err on the side of understating how much you need.

(Note: the recommendations - which are pretty standard across the world - put forward this amount of activity for adults aged between 18-64:

• 150-300 minutes of moderate activity per week, or;

• 75-150 minutes of intense activity per week).

If you're not sedentary, or are not spooked by the prospect of becoming A LOT more active, there is no upper limit on how much you can do. The more you do, the more you benefit, within reason.

You will reach a point of diminishing returns eventually, and you also increase the risk of injury if you do too much.

So, in summary, do as much as you can reasonably handle within your own constraints (time, money, fatigue levels, motivation and injury susceptibility).

But understand that a lot of movement (most probably quite a bit more than you are currently getting) is needed for optimal health.

How Do I Prevent Injuries?

Without going into your particular vulnerabilities and injury history, there are a few general principles you can observe to mitigate injury risk quite a bit.

1. First of all, establish what your body can comfortably handle (once you know what you CAN easily do, you can add to it).

2. If you've not been exercising recently, pick a fitness activity you're already familiar with.

3. Progress the total time and intensity slowly (don't add too much extra to your routine at any stage)

4. Don't push yourself too hard when you're getting started (if you're coming off a sedentary base, you may be surprised at how easily you can get injured)

5. Keep your movement under control by restraining speed and exertion initially (your body and brain need time to learn new skills & fall risk is elevated when you're mentally and physically tired)

6. Seek out technical assistance for complicated movement (book in to see me!)

What Simple Steps Can I Take To Get Started?

Here's some ideas:

A Group

If you can, exercise with a group. Other people can support you and keep you accountable (and you can return the favour). Many people find it more fun to make exercise a bit social.

Walking

Follow the pattern I stepped out above. Go for a long, brisk walk or bike ride on one day. Then do some stair climbing on your other training day.

Professional Help

Hire a trainer (again, a blatant plug!). One that specialises in middle-aged to older adults.

Hiking (Or Some Other Challenge)

It can help to make a plan to undergo some sort of physical challenge you need to prepare for. It could be walking the city to surf or hiking the overland trail in Tasmania. It could be skiing, or walking the Camino trail (if you're lucky!).

Either way, making a plan to do this sort of thing is great to give you something to look forward to, and something to pressure you into sticking to your exercise intentions.

How Can I Stay Motivated?

Staying motivated is tricky for many people.

I penned my thoughts on this topic a while back in this article.