What It Means To Be Fit

The major building blocks of fitness are often penned the three ‘S’s: Stamina, Strength and Suppleness. So, what gains are there from getting fit and how should we achieve it?

Stamina

In terms of your health, stamina is perhaps the most important aspect of fitness. Aerobic fitness (or cardiovascular fitness) relates to the efficiency of your heart and lungs. Someone who is aerobically fit is not only more able to get through that workout video without giving up, they are also able to deal with daily tasks, stresses and strains without feeling burned out by the end of the day. But despite its name, you don’t have to ‘do aerobics’ to get aerobically fit. Star jumps and grapevines are fine, if that’s your thing, but if not, you can gain and maintain stamina through any number of activities – most commonly ones that use the large muscles of the legs and body, require large amounts of oxygen and are prolonged and repetitive.
For example, walking briskly, running, dancing, swimming or cycling. The harder you work during aerobic exercise, the more calories you’ll burn, but there’s a pay-off to be made between intensity and duration. That’s why it is so important to vary shorter, harder sessions with longer easier ones. It’s also vital to allow your body time to adapt gradually by building up your aerobics workouts slowly but surely, therefore minimising the risk of injury.

Working out for increased stamina

Since cardiovascular fitness is so important to health, experts recommend that we aim to get 30 minutes a day of aerobic activity on most days of the week. That doesn’t necessarily need to be all in one go – in fact, some studies have shown that breaking exercise down into mini bouts, of approximately 10 minutes, actually burns more calories than doing one prolonged session, due to the effect of exercise on metabolism. If you want to go beyond merely safeguarding your health, however, you should aim to work a little harder in some of your aerobic activities. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends two to five sessions of more vigorous exercise, lasting 20-50 minutes.

Strength through resistance training

The importance of strength goes far beyond building muscles and being able to lift heavy objects. Performed regularly, it’ll reward you with a faster metabolism, less body fat, a toned, firmer physique and stronger connective tissues and bones. There is also strong evidence that suggests strength or resistance training can favourably modify several risk factors for heart disease and diabetes, including lipid and cholesterol levels, blood pressure, body composition and glucose metabolism.
Resistance training is also recognised as a great way to burn calories. Even once your resistance training has finished, your body will continue to burn calories as a result of EPOC (Excessive Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption). As the oxygen demands on the body have been high during training, the body will take longer to recover to its resting state. Therefore the body will still be burning calories long after the exercise has finished.

How muscle mass helps you burn calories

One pound (0.45 kg) of fat uses just a handful of calories to maintain itself each day. A pound of muscle, however, is far more ‘energy-hungry’ requiring approximately 45 calories a day. So, replace two pounds of fat with two pounds of muscle and you’ll actually be burning 90 more calories every day, even when you’re not exercising.
Strong muscles have more tone and are denser than untrained ones, too, so even though you may not weigh less on the scales, you’ll look and feel trimmer. Another important benefit of resistance training is that it can help to stave off osteoporosis, because the action of muscle pulling on bone stimulates bone to get stronger.

Working out for better strength

You can perform effective resistance work with just your own bodyweight as resistance, use tubing and elasticated ‘resistance’ bands, hand weights, medicine balls, Swiss balls. To make significant strength gains (and sculpt and tone muscles), you’ll need to work with weights two to three times a week, and increase the amount of weight you lift as soon as it becomes comfortable. Muscles only get stronger when you make them do something that is tougher than what they are accustomed to.

Suppleness through stretching

Being flexible isn’t about being able to wrap your legs behind your neck, or even touch your toes; it’s about having a good range of motion in all your joints, allowing for easy, fluid movement, good posture and muscle balance. Regular stretching increases blood supply and nutrients to joint structures, keeping tissues pliable and elastic and possibly slowing joint degeneration. Flexibility differs from joint to joint. You may have fantastic hip mobility, for example, while you find it difficult to reach your hand around your back to do up a dress, because your shoulders are tight and immobile. That’s why a total stretching program is important, rather than simply focusing on one or two muscle groups. Regular flexibility work can help to offset the effects of aging and slow down the decline in suppleness. It can also help to realign soft tissue structures that have adapted badly because of postural habits.

Training for better flexibility

Ensure you make time for stretching after your activity or on alternate days of the week. It’s a great way to ‘switch off’ after your workout, and you’ll find that the deep breathing and slow, gentle movements involved aid relaxation and bestow a feeling of well-being. Activities such as yoga, Pilates, swimming, Tai Chi and other martial arts will all also help you maintain flexibility, due to the variety of positions and ranges of movement involved.

Core stability

Core stability is a phrase often bandied about by fitness professionals – but what does it mean and how can you get it? In brief, core stability refers to the strength and responsiveness of the muscles around the back and pelvis (the core), from which all other movement emanates. Poor core stability puts you at risk of injury, back pain and muscular imbalances – and is usually associated with poor posture and body awareness. Exercises to improve core stability differ from typical strength, stamina or flexibility exercises in that they are often very subtle, can be repeated a number of times each day and usually don’t require any external resistance. The other difference is that you won’t actually see when your core stability has improved. The muscles you are working lay deep below the surface of the body, so any improvement in strength or recruitment is more likely to manifest itself in improved efficiency of movement, better posture or an absence of discomfort.

Training the core

To get a feel of the core muscles, stand up and place your fingertips a few centimeters in from your hipbones and feign a cough – you should feel the muscles contract involuntarily under your fingertips. The easiest way to initiate a contraction in these muscles is to start by pulling up the pelvic floor (as if you were trying to stop yourself from peeing). This is because the lower fibers of the deep-set transversus abdominis muscle actually intermingle with the pelvic floor muscles. Now imagine you are wearing a corset around your waist, which has a zip in it. Continue to pull in and up, using those muscles you located in the cough, imagining you are doing up the zip from your pubic bone to your navel. Breathe freely throughout and sustain the contraction for a few seconds, building up the length of the holds as you get more used to it.
Fitness is not all about losing weight, entering competitions or winning times, getting fit now might mean that you have the flexibility to carry out day to day tasks when you are older.

Getting to know your fitness level

Before you embark upon an exercise and fitness programme, it is vital you assess your level of fitness. Here's our guide to working out your current exercise fitness level, so you don't jump in at the deep end.
Read the statements for each of the fitness categories below and decide which one applies best to your current exercise situation. Begin at that level and as your fitness and experience builds up, re-check against each fitness category to confirm if you’re ready to move up in your exercise training programs.

Beginner fitness level

• You are starting to exercise for the first time and/or ...
• You are returning to training after an: illness, injury, other commitments and/or… period of inactivity
• You are new to exercise classes (you have never attended an exercise class before)

Intermediate fitness level

• You exercise two or three times per week and have done for at least 6 months and...
• You have attended exercise classes regularly in the last 6 months (perhaps one to two classes per week)

Advanced fitness level

• You exercise more than three times per week and have done for at least six months and...
• You frequently attend exercise classes (perhaps more than two classes per week)
• https://www.realbuzz.com/articles-interests/fitness/article/what-it-means-to-be-fit/ 
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The perfect flexibility workout

Flexibility training, or stretching, is the often forgotten component of fitness and should be an integral component of everyone’s training program. It is frequently neglected in favour of carrying out more resistance or CV training. It is common to think that unless you are getting hot, sweaty and out of breath, you aren’t getting any fitness gains, but just a few minutes relaxed stretching at the end of your training session will bring a whole host of benefits.

Stretching brings many considerable benefits including:

• Elongated muscles
• Reduced risk of injury
• Reduced muscle soreness
• Reduced muscular tension
• Improved posture
• Improved mobility
• Improved sporting performance
• Improved suppleness
• Improved relaxation
• Improved body awareness

Exercise stretching time

To experience all the benefits from your flexibility training, it is important that you stretch at the correct time in your session. There is only ever one time to stretch properly and that is when your muscles are fully warmed up. Consider a piece of cold chewing gum and try to stretch it. It is difficult and ineffective. However, when it has been thoroughly chewed, it warms up, softens, becomes extremely pliable and can easily be stretched and manipulated.
Your muscles react in a similar way. Warm them up and increase the blood flow to them and they become much more elastic. Conversely, if they are cold, blood flow will be reduced and like the cold chewing gum, stretching them will become much harder, unproductive and can result in injuries. Hence for maximum effectiveness and reduced injury risk, all stretching should always be done with warm muscles.

How to stretch for exercise …

To get the most out of your stretching session, simply follow the step-by-step guide below:

Warming up for exercise

The ideal time to stretch is at the end of your workout. This is because you will be thoroughly warmed up, there will be good blood flow to your muscles and minimal muscular tension. Flexibility training can be carried out as an isolated session, or before other training but only when the body has been completely warmed up. Moderate CV exercise for 10-15 minutes is ideal for a warm-up. Additionally, your warm-up should be specifically targeted at the muscles you intend to stretch.
For example: if you are going to follow a program of lower body stretches for the major leg muscles, warming-up using a hand-cycling CV machine will be far less effective than a leg-cycling machine, treadmill or an outdoor activity like walking or jogging.

Relax when stretching

A second important factor when stretching is to be relaxed. Physical and mental tension will inhibit your range of movement and prevent your muscles from stretching as effectively. Hence, you will not achieve maximum flexibility benefits.

Ease into the stretch

Gradually move your body or the limb being stretched into the stretch position. Once you feel slight tension in the muscle, known as the point of bind (the limit of the muscle’s flexibility), hold the position. Avoid bouncing or any other movements which could overstretch the muscle and result in injury.

Relax your breathing

Always keep your breathing easy and relaxed because that will reduce all-round muscular tension, which in turn will allow you to stretch further. Holding your breath will tense up your entire body, making stretching much harder.

Hold the stretch for 30 seconds

To get maximum stretching benefits, you need to hold the stretch for a minimum of 30 seconds. Stretching each muscle for just a few seconds brings no flexibility benefits.

Pain means no gain

Stretching should invoke a mild feeling of ‘tightness’ or tension within the stretched muscle. Pain when stretching indicates injury or a muscle that has been overstretched. Therefore, never stretch beyond a ‘comfortable tightness’.

Rest and repeat your stretching

A single stretch for each muscle is very beneficial, but if time permits carry out two stretches for each muscle, separated by a short break of 30 seconds. The second stretch will help extend your range of movement further.

Frequency of stretching

Ideally, stretch the major muscles after every workout but if that proves too time-consuming, stretching twice a week is a suitable target.

Which muscles should I stretch?

There are more than 600 muscles in the human body but for a balanced flexibility program, the key ones to consider are:
Lower body:

• Hamstrings - back of thigh
• Quadriceps - front of thigh
• Calves - Back of lower leg
• Glutes - Buttocks
• Hipe flexors - front of pelvis
• Adductors - inside of thigh

Upper body:

• Back 
• Neck 
• Chest
• Lats - sides of back
• Shoulder

Flexibility when stretching

The more flexibility training that you carry out, the more benefits you will enjoy. Far from detracting from your other training, substituting some stretching for a few extra minutes CV or resistance training will improve your overall fitness, not decrease it. If you can complete two, 10-minute stretching sessions each week, you are well on the road to keeping mobile, supple and injury-free and the ‘forgotten component of fitness’ will be a thing of the past.
https://www.realbuzz.com/articles/the-perfect-flexibility-workout/
 

The dos and don'ts of stretching

Stretching correctly will complement your training efforts and improve your body's posture and suppleness. Here's a guide on how to stretch more effectively.

Stretching vital muscles

'Use it or lose it' is an often quoted maxim, but it is never more appropriate than when talking about flexibility.
Think of a long car journey lasting several hours. When you arrive at your destination, the opportunity to climb out of the seat and stretch is extremely welcome and initially your movements are stiff and awkward. However, after stretching out, you feel much better and your normal mobility returns. Imagine if you had to undertake a long car journey every day – your flexibility would suffer badly – which returns us to the 'use it or lose it' maxim.
Everyone should have good flexibility, but due to modern lifestyles, frequently our natural flexibility is compromised and we end up far less supple than we could be. A regularstretching routine should be an integral part of your fitness program and it is as important as either cardiovascular or resistance training, bringing a whole range of benefits including:

• Improved mobility
• Greater range of movement
• Greater efficiency of movement
• Reduced risk of injury
• The positive feeling of being loose and supple

However, incorrect stretching technique is worse than no stretching at all, so follow the realbuzz.com stretching protocols and the dos and don’ts below and you will achieve safe, long-lasting flexibility gains.

Safe stretching protocols

Stretch at the end of a workout session

The ideal time to stretch is at the end of your workout. You will be thoroughly warmed-up and there will be good blood flow to your muscles. Flexibility training can be carried out as an isolated session or before other training, but only when the body has been completely warmed-up. Moderate cardiovascular (CV) exercise for 10 to 15 minutes is ideal for a warm-up. Additionally, your warm-up should be specifically targeted at the muscles you intend to stretch.
For example: stretches for the legs should be carried out after the legs have been warmed-up – walking, jogging or cycling are ideal because they all use the leg muscles. Upper body stretches will be far more effective after an exercise such as rowing, which uses many of the upper body muscles.

Relax while stretching

A second important factor when stretching is to be relaxed. Tension will inhibit your range of movement and prevent your muscles from stretching as effectively. Hence, you will not achieve maximum flexibility benefits. Another reason why stretching should be carried out at the end of your training session is that you will be more relaxed after your workout has finished than before, which equates to greater flexibility gains.

Stretch gently

Gradually and carefully move your body or the limb being stretched into the stretch position. Once you feel slight tension in the muscle, hold the position. Avoid bouncing or any other movements, which could overstretch the muscle and result in injury.

Wait 15 seconds and then stretch further

After approximately 15 seconds, your body’s natural stretch inhibiting reflex will relax, allowing you to stretch a little more. Gently ease a little further into the stretch and hold for a further 15 seconds.

Keep breathing while stretching

Always keep your breathing easy and relaxed because that will reduce all-round muscular tension, which in turn will allow you to stretch further. Holding your breath will tense up your entire body, making stretching much less effective.

Hold the stretch

To get maximum stretching benefits, you need to hold the stretch for a minimum of 30 seconds. Stretching each muscle for just a few seconds brings virtually no flexibility benefits. Focus on maintaining correct posture whilst you hold the position so that you don’t over-relax and reduce your gains.

Pain-free stretching

Stretching should invoke a mild feeling of ‘tightness’ or tension within the stretched muscle – and no more! Pain when stretching indicates injury or a muscle that has been overstretched. If you experience any pain at all, stop stretching immediately and never stretch beyond a ‘comfortable tightness’.

Rest and repeat stretches

A single stretch for each targeted muscle is very beneficial but two stretches for each muscle, separated by a short break of 30 seconds will help extend your range of movement further.

Target stretching twice a week

Ideally, stretch your major muscles after every workout but if that proves too time consuming, stretching twice a week is a suitable target. Far from detracting from your other training, substituting some stretching for a few extra minutes cardiovascular or resistance training will improve your overall fitness, not decrease it. If you can complete two, ten-minute stretching sessions each week, you are well on the road to keeping mobile, supple and injury free.

Stretching dos and don’ts

To make sure you always stretch safely, simply consult the dos and don’ts table below and you will get the most from your stretching program.
Stretching ‘dos’
Do ...

• Ensure that the muscles being stretched are thoroughly warmed-up
• Stretch at the end of your training session
• Relax
• Breathe easily
• Hold each stretch for a minimum of 30 seconds
• Follow an all-over body program for stretching to avoid postural imbalances
• Follow correct technique
• Avoid pain, stretching should never be painful

Stretching ‘don'ts’
Don’t ...

• Try and stretch cold muscles – it’s a recipe for injury
• Stretch before your warm-up or workout
• Bounce or rock whilst holding a stretch – you could overstretch and cause an injury
• Hold a stretch for just a few seconds
• Hold your breath
• Focus on just leg stretches or just upper body stretches

Conclusions about stretching

Stretching is a great injury prevention strategy and also makes you feel loose and relaxed. Good quality stretching can also help correct imbalances, improve posture, extend limb range of motion and increase stride length.
Time spent returning shortened, tight muscles to their original length will provide considerably greater and longer term benefits than a few more minutes gym training or a couple of extra miles on the road. By following the realbuzz.com stretching dos and don’ts, you won’t lose it because you regularly use it.
https://www.realbuzz.com/articles/the-dos-and-don-ts-of-stretching/
 

Male health through the decades

Stay healthy throughout your life

Every man’s exercise needs change throughout his life. With this in mind, here is a guide to the lifestyle actions and exercises that you’ll need to do in order to maintain your health during four important decades of your life — your 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.

Life in your 20s

Statistics show that 21 per cent more men than women aged 16 to 24 are regularly active. Young men are generally more likely to be involved in sport than young women, and are more likely to have kept up an activity since school days. However, a gung ho approach can also mean that ‘action men’ put themselves at risk of sports injuries through failing to warm up, overdoing it and showing off! Also, those of you twentysomethings who aren’t healthy and active at this stage may well be getting away with it — at least esthetically. With an average of 12 per cent less body fat than women, and a higher metabolic rate due to higher lean muscle mass, young men are less prone to gaining weight than women.
However, before you relax, bear in mind that bad health habits will be wreaking damage on the inside. Too much dietary fat, sugar and alcohol, as well as too few vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids, can contribute to the furring of the arteries, reduced insulin sensitivity and fatty deposits around the internal organs. But the most important health decision you can make now is not to smoke, as it will become increasingly difficult to give up as you get older.

How can I maintain my health in my 20s?

If your current activity level involves walking to the bar or ripping the packaging off a ready meal, it’s time to wake up to reality. Heart disease is one of the biggest killers of men, and the evidence that a poor diet and insufficient physical activity are the prime causes is irrefutable. If you’ve had a bit of a break from exercise, do ease yourself back in slowly, allowing a period of weeks (not days!) to increase the volume of activity. Always warm up before you step up the pace and consider adding some strength training to your regime to make muscles and connective tissues more robust. Even if you are regularly active, make warming up and stretching part of your routine and don’t ignore aches and pains or try to ‘work through them’. It’s much more sensible to take a few days off instead — and if the problem doesn’t go away, see a sports medicine professional such as a physiotherapist.

Vices such as smoking and drinking excessively can deplete your body of vitamins and minerals. Heavy drinking and smoking increase the need for the B vitamins and vitamin C, and may affect zinc absorption levels. These needs can be satisfied by eating meat, shellfish, dairy products and whole grains. Drinking also increases the need for folate (which occurs in yeast extract, beans and pulses, breakfast cereals, liver, and wheatgerm) and magnesium (in whole grains, nuts and seeds). Smokers may want to up their intake of vitamin E (in vegetable oils, avocadoes, nuts and seeds), as well as stock up on watercress and broccoli, which are high in phenethyl isothiocyanate — a phytochemical that has been shown to reduce the risk of tobacco-induced lung cancer.

Every man’s exercise needs change throughout his life. With this in mind, here is a guide to the lifestyle actions and exercises that you’ll need to do in order to maintain your health during four important decades of your life — your 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.

Life in your 20s

Statistics show that 21 per cent more men than women aged 16 to 24 are regularly active. Young men are generally more likely to be involved in sport than young women, and are more likely to have kept up an activity since school days. However, a gung ho approach can also mean that ‘action men’ put themselves at risk of sports injuries through failing to warm up, overdoing it and showing off! Also, those of you twentysomethings who aren’t healthy and active at this stage may well be getting away with it — at least esthetically. With an average of 12 per cent less body fat than women, and a higher metabolic rate due to higher lean muscle mass, young men are less prone to gaining weight than women.
However, before you relax, bear in mind that bad health habits will be wreaking damage on the inside. Too much dietary fat, sugar and alcohol, as well as too few vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids, can contribute to the furring of the arteries, reduced insulin sensitivity and fatty deposits around the internal organs. But the most important health decision you can make now is not to smoke, as it will become increasingly difficult to give up as you get older.

How can I maintain my health in my 20s?

If your current activity level involves walking to the bar or ripping the packaging off a ready meal, it’s time to wake up to reality. Heart disease is one of the biggest killers of men, and the evidence that a poor diet and insufficient physical activity are the prime causes is irrefutable. If you’ve had a bit of a break from exercise, do ease yourself back in slowly, allowing a period of weeks (not days!) to increase the volume of activity. Always warm up before you step up the pace and consider adding some strength training to your regime to make muscles and connective tissues more robust. Even if you are regularly active, make warming up and stretching part of your routine and don’t ignore aches and pains or try to ‘work through them’. It’s much more sensible to take a few days off instead — and if the problem doesn’t go away, see a sports medicine professional such as a physiotherapist.

Vices such as smoking and drinking excessively can deplete your body of vitamins and minerals. Heavy drinking and smoking increase the need for the B vitamins and vitamin C, and may affect zinc absorption levels. These needs can be satisfied by eating meat, shellfish, dairy products and whole grains. Drinking also increases the need for folate (which occurs in yeast extract, beans and pulses, breakfast cereals, liver, and wheatgerm) and magnesium (in whole grains, nuts and seeds). Smokers may want to up their intake of vitamin E (in vegetable oils, avocadoes, nuts and seeds), as well as stock up on watercress and broccoli, which are high in phenethyl isothiocyanate — a phytochemical that has been shown to reduce the risk of tobacco-induced lung cancer.

Life in your 30s

According to the Harvard Medical School, you're likely to lose five to 15 per cent of your aerobic capacity for each decade after the age of 30. So the rot starts here! But, as the experts point out, exercise regularly and you can combat this natural decline. What’s more, being physically fit can dramatically reduce men's deaths from heart disease, even when cholesterol rates are high, according to research from Queen's University in the United States. Doing the equivalent of four to five 30-minute workouts per week was found to be sufficient to significantly reduce the risk of heart disease.
Those of you who have been regular participants in sports or exercise for the past decade will be faring better than those who have only just decided to take action — but even regular performers may notice a slight decline in performance in the second half of your 30s, as maximal oxygen uptake begins to deteriorate.

How can I maintain my health in my 30s?

It’s all too easy to slip into an exercise comfort zone as you get older — but be prepared to step outside of it regularly. If you want to stay quick, Harvard Medical School recommends adding speed work to aerobic workouts. Using weights, two to three days a week, combats the natural loss of muscle mass as you age, too. A recent study in Sports Medicine also found that weight training helps to stimulate the release of growth hormone, which regulates body fat storage — thereby keeping your beer belly at bay! Another wise course of action — not just to maintain performance but to stave off the risk of injury — is to build a strong core.

Life in your 40s

With your career reaching its peak, your free time limited, your kids growing up and your earning requirements spiraling, stress often reigns in this decade — and there is plenty of evidence that this contributes to the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure. However, research has proven that exercise can help by giving you more energy, helping you become more ‘stress-resistant’, and allowing you to burn off tension and anxiety. But many men are stuck in a catch-22 situation, where they simply don’t feel they have the time and energy to devote to workouts. However, even if you can’t find whole hours to spend at the gym, incorporating more activity into your daily lifestyle will help. Stop driving to work if you can use public transport and walk or cycle; stop working through your lunch break; and ensure that some of your family time is spent out doing active things, rather than slumping in front of the TV.
Doing exercise will also help to control your weight — and this fourth decade is the one in which men are most likely to gain weight as a result of fewer calories being burned and more calories being taken in. Added weight puts added stress on the heart and lungs, and on the weight-bearing joints of the knees, hips, ankles, and feet.

How can I maintain my health in my 40s?

Now is the time to take control of the stress factors in your life. If you don’t even have time to walk for 30 minutes on five days of the week, you really have to re-assess your work-life balance. And as outlined above, calorie-blasting activity doesn’t have to take place at the gym. Playing sports in the park, dog walking, or going on a family bike ride or hike will all help you burn more calories, get a break from daily stresses, and put a smile on your face! Research from the University of Arkansas revealed that the amount of energy spent on daily activity accounted for 75 per cent of the variability in body fat levels among subjects — so the more active you are, the less body fat you’ll have. The other thing to think about — even if you are a regular runner or cyclist — is flexibility. Muscles lose elasticity and the connective tissues around our joints thicken as we get older, leading to a reduced range of motion and a greater risk of stiffness, aches and pains — and injury. Stretching, rotating, bending and extending your joints regularly — along with activities such as tai chi, yoga and Pilates — can help to restore a good range of motion and suppleness.

Life in your 50s

According to Australian government statistics, men in their 50s are in the healthiest state they’ve been for decades. Perhaps with less need to ‘prove themselves’ in the workplace (or just giving up hope of a promotion!), and children growing up, middle-aged men are able to spend a bit more time on themselves and finally do something about that burgeoning waistline or high blood pressure problem. At the VA Medical Centre in Salt Lake City, Utah, physically fit men in their mid 50s were compared to inactive men in their mid 20s. Amazingly, it was found that active older men have lower resting heart rates than younger men — 64 beats per minute versus 85 beats per minute for the younger men — as well as higher oxygen uptake during maximal exercise, and a better recovery heart rate one minute after exercise than men in their 20s. So whether you’ve been an active footy player, runner or gym goer for years or are just deciding it’s time to get fit, it isn’t too late to reap the benefits. And it’s well worth doing so unless you want to end up housebound: in research from the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, the risk of walking difficulties was highest among men aged 40 to 64 who engaged in a fitness activity once a week, compared with men who got active at least three times a week.

How can I maintain my health in my 50s?

While as far as your heart health is concerned, cardiovascular exercise is the key. Resistance training is arguably as essential to good physical health in your later years as it is earlier in life. It strengthens your muscles and bones, and there are indications that it is helpful in lowering cholesterol levels, as well as improving glucose uptake (thereby reducing the risk of diabetes) and strengthening the ligaments and tendons to reduce pressure on your joints. In the past, people with high blood pressure, heart diseases and conditions such as arthritis were warned to avoid using weights, but researchers at Tufts University and Harvard Medical School found that weight training had no adverse effect on blood pressure or heart function. So get pumping! You might end up with brains as well as brawn if you do: two recent studies found that vigorous workouts at least twice a week could reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's by 50 per cent and Parkinson's by as much as 60 per cent. Resistance training — and weight-bearing aerobic exercise — will also help preserve bone density. Also, although the evidence isn’t conclusive, a study from UCLA in the United States found that a low-fat, high-fiber diet and regular exercise may help to prevent or slow the rate of growth of prostate cancer.
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