Fitness Tips for the Older Adult

It’s fairly common knowledge that the older you get, the more important regular physical activity is. Exercise can help in the prevention of a myriad of conditions such as osteoporosis, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The tricky part is that the older you become, the more likely it is that you’ll also be managing one of these conditions – or living with an undiagnosed condition – when you begin a regular physical activity routine. Therefore, it’s extremely important to be aware of fitness parameters that apply to your condition so you don’t injure yourself while attempting to gain control of your health.

If you’re over 50 years old, or you’ve been diagnosed with conditions like high blood pressure or osteoporosis, read through these basic exercise parameters below before you begin any fitness program.

Take the time to talk with your doctor to understand the specific implications of any condition you’ve been diagnosed with. And if you haven’t had a full medical checkup recently, make sure you get one before starting a regimented exercise routine.

Start with the Basics

• 1. If you’ve been diagnosed with hypertension, do not perform isometric exercises. Isometric exercises require you to use your muscles to hold a static position. Statically holding a position can be dangerous for someone with hypertension because they force your body to send blood flow to multiple muscles at once.

  With hypertension, your blood vessels can show a resistance to blood flow. A general guideline would be that if you’ve been diagnosed with hypertension, stay clear of planks, side planks, stationary wall squat holds or any other isometric exercise. But don't despair – this doesn’t mean you can't get the benefits of planks and squats, it just means you have to work though dynamic ranges of motion. For example, if in the past you used a static wall squat to train for ski season, do a 1 1/4 squat. To do a "1 1/4 squat", do a free-standing squat where you lower for four counts.

  Hold briefly at the bottom, do a quarter-rep by coming up part way, and then squat back down to the bottom of the range and then stand back up. You still train your legs for skiing, but you never hold isometrically for more than a couple of seconds.
   

• 2. If you’ve been diagnosed with hypertension, don’t do exercises where you put your arms above your head or do exercises that place your head below your heart. A general guideline would be to stay away from overhead shoulder presses, decline bench presses and downward dog in yoga.
   
• 3. As we age, heart rate function stays relatively unchanged when you’re working at a low to moderate heart rate. The physiological change in the heart occurs mostly at maximal heart rate.

  This is why older adults are encouraged to monitor heart rate and always work in a low to moderate heart rate zone. A good general guideline would be to use the “talk test”. When exercising, you should always be able to talk. Talking signals that the heart rate is at an appropriate level.
   

• 4. An adequate warm-up is extremely important. Perform a gradual warm-up of 10-15 minutes.
   
• 5. Resistance training is extremely important as we age to help maintain bone density. This is because after the age of 35, the rate of bone replacement falls behind bone loss.

  We begin to lose about 1 percent of total bone each year, which leads to osteopenia and osteoporosis (loss of bone density).

  Both become far more common as we age. To prevent and combat osteoporosis, make sure you’re not doing just cardio activities. Pick up some dumbbells and lift some weights.

If you’ve been diagnosed with oseopenia or osteopersosis, keep your spine neutral as you weight train. Do not flex, rotate or side-bend the spine. That means no crunches or oblique crunches. For people with osteoporosis, exercises like front and side planks are healthier for the