I know what you’re saying.
“I thought Mitch hated these kinds of articles!”
You’re right. I do. I even wrote a post about how much I hate them just two weeks ago:
I got you curious, though!
The truth is there ARE some exercises that you shouldn’t do after 50. It’s just that they’re not the kinds of exercises you might normally think of.
The kinds of exercises I’m talking about are ones that really do some long-term damage. In some cases it may be irreparable unless some pretty strong action is taken.
Let’s get to it.
1- Complaining about your age.
Do you know how often I hear someone tell me that some ache or pain is because of their age? All the time.
I rarely hear anything so deflating and disempowering. It would be one thing if it were correct, but it almost never is.
I’ll say it again:
It would be silly of me to say that age has no physical effect on our body, but that effect is incredibly overstated the vast majority of the time.
Here’s the deal: If you take care of your body it will take care of you. End of story.
Train to get stronger (yes, stronger) and get your mindset right and you’ll find it amazing how little age matters anymore. (I’m talking to you backs, knees and shoulders!)
Don’t be like Abe
2- Worrying about what you ate last night/weekend.
Why is it that people seem to think it’s not ok to enjoy what you eat? All we hear from the media is how overweight we are as a society and I hear from people all the time that stress big-time over what they should and do put in their mouths.
Let me suggest something a little crazy here.
All that stress is worse for you than eating a cookie. Or a little ice cream. Or a piece of bread.
Let me suggest something even crazier.
If you continue to deny and demonize these foods you are much likelier to experience a pretty big backlash from yourself when you inevitably eat 1 or, more likely, 10 of them.
That backlash is going to be mainly mental and, like number 1 on our list, very disempowering and mentally damaging.
If you want to read more about this, get this book yesterday!
Click on the picture for the Amazon link.
3- Not strength training.
What do people really fear about aging? Becoming fragile. Losing their independance. Becoming feeble. Losing their mental faculties.
Strength training helps all of this.
ALL OF IT!!!
Too many people don’t strength train or really give it their all in the gym when they do, because they’re afraid of getting hurt. The truth is that if your form is good, proper strength training is extremely safe and effective and very empowering.
More than that it’s the most important thing you can do as you get older!
You want to be able to get right back up when you fall with no injuries or worries?
Start strength training.
I know it can be a little intimidating to get started but I know someone who can help.
I hope that you get the point I’m trying to get across here. In case you didn’t, here it is:
Do things that are empowering and mentally positive and you’ll find that you’ll tend not to care about your age very much.
Can I be any clearer about that?
Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Level 2 Lean Eating Coach, PAS Castro Valley Fitness 2861 Grove Way 510-755-9191 Mitch@CastroValleyFitness.com
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