Is what you are doing enough?
Declining ability to do things you used to be able to do is a common problem as we age. This is because your body has a “use it or lose it” mentality to specific parts of the body such as muscle, bone, fitness and more. Fortunately we know that increasing your physical activity has a positive influence on these ever changing systems within the body. If you have taken up more walking, started a gym program or even started a group exercise class you have increased your physical activity for the better.
However, have you thought of how you are doing your new found exercise regime?
This is the next step, for many people starting out on their exercise journey a lack of intensity can mean soon the exercise becomes “too easy”. Leading too small but insigificant changes overall. The trick is to manage how hard the exercise is to you based on feelings such as how heavy it is, how out of breath
you are, or even how much you sweat.
A focus on increasing intensity overtime will provide the greatest results and limit any plateaus seen in your training, this is where you see the difference between people who get results and hit their goals in comparison to others
who don’t.
Common myths:
Older people should not push hard. We agree your first day should not be a high intensity weightlifting program, however a progressive program aiming to reach small interspersed intervals of higher intensities is a goal you and your exercise physiologist can work with together.
Start by rating how difficult an exercise or workout is out of 10, 10 being the most intense you could go and 0 being sitting on the couch watching TV. Wherever you are starting just try to increase this score by 1 for the next 3-4weeks. You could implement this with your daily walking route, to try and reduce the total time it takes. This is a good starting point to try and increase your intensity in your physical activity.
If you have any difficulties or questions feel free to contact us or come in and speak with an Exercise Physiologist. Exercise Physiologists specialise in managing intensity and total amount of exercise you are getting each week
specifcally tailored to your individual needs.