10 Fitness Tips

I am in my mid fifties and I consider myself in the best shape of my life now ev
en though I have been active in sports and in great shape my whole life. At age
51 I completed my first half Ironman triathlon and did my first double century.
Here are my 10 tips for staying healthy, fit, and happy in your 50's and beyond.
50's and 60's does not mean senior! Strike that word from your vocabulary. If you
think of yourself as old then you will act old. 50's and 60's means midlife to
me the prime of your life. I believe in a holistic approach to fitness. There is
a mind body connection and in my opinion to be in top shape and in top health r
equires not just physical but mental well being also. Its all about attitude, th
ink and act young and you are young. The placebo effect is real and you can let
it work for you by having a positive, excited outlook on life and believe in you
r heart and soul that you can improve yourself thru exercise or you can let the
placebo effect work against you by being a pessimistic victim. Without further a
do, here are my 10 tips for staying fit and healthy after age 50:
1. Cultivate your passion, retirement is around the corner
Dont be one of those people who goes home from their retirement party feeling lik
e someone died. Long before you retire you need to find your passion and make it
a part of your life so that when you retire you can totally immerse yourself in
it. When you start following your passion, magical things happen. You will find
your energy increases. You will find that as soon as you awaken you JUMP out of
bed excited to start the day. Your mood improves too, you sleep better, and you
are generally fired up about life. If your passion is collecting baseball tradi
ng cards then get started NOW. Read everything you can about trading cards, work
on becoming the worlds #1 expert, join clubs, make a website. Who knows, your p
assion might end up making money so that you can retire early and get paid doing
what you love.
2. Volunteer Do something for others
Be selfish, volunteer! If you ever catch yourself feeling sorry for yourself you
need to drop whatever you are doing and volunteer ASAP. Think YOU have problems
? Find a way to volunteer at a VA hospital or a childrens hospital and it will pu
t your problems in the proper perspective. The volunteers often seem to get just
as much or more out of the charity than the people being helped. Think outside
the box and find something that takes advantage of your unique talents. It would
be awesome if you could couple it to #1, your passion, and kill two birds with
one stone. If as in the above example you are becoming an expert at baseball tra
ding cards, consider make a website to help others learn the joy of collecting.
Or perhaps couple it with your work. If you are a plumber, consider volunteering
for Habitat for Humanity. Whatever knowledge you have, think of a unique way to
share it. Cant think of anything? Try volunteering at the local animal shelter.
3. Read one book a month keep your brain engaged
Reading is a great for many reasons but mainly because it makes you think. It ex
poses you to wonderful and strange ideas you have never thought of. It keeps you
r brain young. It can be an excellent component of a stress reduction plan. Read
whatever you want, it can be brain-candy or serious whatever floats your boat. Do
nt read what you think will be good for you because then its a dreaded chore, rea
d what you *want* to read so its fun! If reading really isnt your thing, come up
with something cerebral that works for you: crossword puzzles, sudoku, or whatev
er but you gotta have some activity you do that causes your brain to go into ove
rdrive.
4. Find your retirement sport
Hopefully you have a sport you love by now but if not you need to find one asap!
It doesnt matter what it is as long as you love it: shuffleboard, hiking, cricke
t, golf, horseshoes. If you already have a sport you love, it might be time to t
hink of a more age appropriate one. Skateboarding is fun in your 30s and 40s but
its probably not advisable for 70 year olds so think about cultivating another
sport.
5. Diet Eat as unprocessed as you can
drink water like a fish
eat vegetables like a rabbit full color spectrum
eat fibrous whole grains like a horse
lean cuts of meat third
full color spectrum of fruits fourth
5g EFAs.
minimize fast food and junk food
6. Make weight training part of your daily life
Bodybuilding style weight training is excellent for older folks as are all bodyw
eight workouts, and many DVD workouts find a style that you like. Workouts like
55, Crossfit and SS are only advisable if you have already been doing them for de
cades as its too late to start this kinds of workouts after age 50 in my opinion
. Being strong helps you have a higher quality of life, for longer. What good is
living to age 90 if you cant do the things you enjoy doing? Strength training n
ot only makes you look and feel better but it keeps you doing the things you fin
d fun longer, be it gardening, golf, or marathon running.
7. Make cardio part of your daily life get a dog!
Over age 50, cardiovascular health is most peoples #1 problem make daily cardio
part of your daily activity. If you have never done daily cardio then you need t
o get a dog, TODAY, and you need to walk it twice a day. Having a dog is a great
way to force you to do your daily cardio and if you havent established a solid h
abit of daily cardio by age 50 then you NEED to be forced and a dog is a perfect
way. Not only that but pet owners live longer, happier lives. Please dont buy a
puppy, adopt a dog from the local shelter! Rescue dogs are the most loving dogs
on the planet.
8. Throw away your alarm clock
Yep, in my opinion alarm clocks only serve one purpose and that is to wake you u
p before you have had enough sleep, in other words, alarm clocks only purpose is
to insure you are sleep deprived! Sleep deprivation has many, many problems ass
ociated with it. Reduced reaction times, increased stress levels, decreased abil
ity to concentrate, increased bodyfat. So, what to do? Throw out that alarm cloc
k! I cant possibly do that, I wouldnt make it to work. Malarky. Alarms are a poor s
olution to a time management problem. Which leads us to #9.
9. Do the important things first and forget about the rest.
Sleep is important, do it first. How do you do this practically? Easy! Go to bed
about 12 hours before you have to be to work and dont set an alarm. When you wak
e up naturally and then begin your days tasks with the most important first. You
have precious little time left in this world, make the time count. Do a time au
dit to see if you are truly spending your time on the important things. Just for
one day, keep a timecard and charge every activity down to the 0.1 hour. Is spendin
g an hour on facebook every day really that important? Will the earth stop rotat
ing if you dont clean your house weekly? Is spending an hour watching the news a
priority when you can read it in 5 minutes? How important is watching those thre
e sitcoms you love? Please read one of my favorite books, the seven habits of hi
ghly effective people. Its a $7 book that will help you insure you are spending
time on the things that are most important to YOU.
10. Take control of health and be minimally invasive
Take control of your health
YOU are the only one who can make and keep yourself healthy, not your doctor. Yo
ur doctor can assist you, but its 95% you. Even when surgery is involved, the ou
tcome is as much more dependent on YOU than it is your surgeon. The surgeon make
s the healing possible but if you dont follow thru with your share of the work, t
he surgery will fail. If you get knee surgery but dont do any rehab other than wh
at they force you do to in those six post-op sessions, then your knee will never
be 100% and its YOUR fault, not your surgeons.
Dont blindly do what the doctor says, weigh the pros and cons and make your own d
ecision. Remember that doctors need to CYA. If they dont order all possible tests
, they could be sued but that doesnt mean that its always in your best health int
erest. Take catscans for example, these expose you to hundreds of times the radi
ation of an x-ray and increase your risk of cancer. If your doctor recommends a
catscan, ask them why, what they expect to learn, and how their treatment of you
will vary depending on the outcome of the test. Its your body and you need to d
ecide if the benefit of the test or procedure is worth the risks. If your doctor
cant explain the risks and benefits clearly, find another doctor and get a seco
nd opinion. If your doctor tries to bully or intimidate you into doing something
you are uncomfortable doing with the If you dont do this you have to sign a wavie
r because I cant be responsible for your death then find a new doctor. A great ex
ample of how to do this is what my 95 year old friend Helen did 10 years ago aft
er she had a cancerous polyp removed from her colon. The doctor said there was a
95% chance that he got it all so she needed to do chemotherapy and to that Hele
n replied no way!. She explained that she was 85 years old and that the decreased
quality of life from the chemotherapy wasnt worth it considering there was a 95%
chance she was fine. Her doctor respected her decision and she is now a healthy
95 years old who knows what problems might have happened had she done chemo.
Be minimally invasive
Stress: Try exercise, yoga, and meditation before medication
Sleep: Try exercise, yoga, and meditation before medication
Joint and back pain: Try PT and Yoga before surgery
High Cholesterol: Try exercise and diet before medication
Thats it. I have a nagging feeling I left out something important but I hope not
because 11 tips sounds wrong and Im not sure what I would cut out of my list! :)