The Fiftysomething Workout: Your 5 Biggest Mistakes
SPECIAL FROM Next Avenue
By Linda Melone
How to avoid the most common exercise errors and maximize the benefits of your workout
Getting fit and staying in shape are crucial to lifetime health. A recent study found that midlife
fitness is a strong predictor of the avoidance, after age 65, of eight major chronic conditions,
including congestive heart failure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney disease, Alzheimer's
disease, and colon and lung cancer. Remaining fit throughout middle age, the study indicates, helps
us postpone and shrink the amount of time we may have to spend living with chronic illness, thanks
to the phenomenon known as "compression of morbidity."
(MORE: Want to Be a Healthy Senior? Get in Shape Today)
But as many of us return to the gym or the track to get in shape, or recommit ourselves to
maintaining our longtime fitness routines, we also need to change some old habits to avoid injury,
accommodate changes in our bodies, and, most important, make our workouts as effective and
efficient as possible.
As you plan your fiftysomething workout, consider these five common mistakes and our expert tips

to avoid them:
1. You Don't Warm Up
When you don't warm up, you limit your ability to complete your workout pain-free, increase the
likelihood of feeling soreness afterward, and raise your risk of experiencing injury or muscle tear.
Think of your warmup as a bridge leading you to exercise, and your cool down as the bridge leading
you back from it, says New York exercise physiologist Scott Weiss, who has trained athletes for the
U.S. Olympic Committee. "As we age, all of our systems take a bit longer to function at peak
performance," Weiss says. "Warming up increases the body's temperature, stimulates blood flow to
every organ, helps increase the uptake of oxygen on a cellular level and prepares joints and muscles
for upcoming exercise."
(MORE: How to Avoid Injuries)
For a proper warmup, kick off each workout with five to 10 minutes of cardio exercise to raise your
heart rate, like jogging on a treadmill at moderate speed and incline. After you work out, cool down
by performing a lower-intensity version of the exercise you performed. For example, if you were
running, take a five- to 10-minute walk.
2. You Skip Stretching
As you've probably already discovered, we can't work out in our 50s the way we did in our 20s.
There was a time when we could just rotate our arms and bend our knees a few times and be ready
to roll. But after age 40, Weiss says, stretching becomes crucial not only for successful workouts but
for preventing soreness and injury every day. Blood flow to our musculotendinous junctions, where
muscles and tendons meet, decreases by 30 to 40 percent as we age, putting vulnerable points like
the Achilles tendon at higher risk of injury. "If you do not stretch all major muscle groups regularly,"
Weiss says, "you risk muscle tears and tendon strains." Stretching also benefits the range of motion
in your joints. "The more flexible you are," Weiss says, "the greater freedom and ease of movement."
When you exercise, stretch for five minutes after your warmup, making sure to include all the major
muscle groups but focusing on the muscles you will use in your workout. And remember to perform
all your stretches slowly and smoothly, and in both directions. (This Mayo Clinic guide to stretching
can get you started.)
3. You Focus Exclusively on Cardio
Aerobic exercise -- like walking and running or using your gym's treadmill or stair machine -- can
reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and help you ward off dementia. But when you focus on
cardio workouts at the expense of resistance or strength training, you miss out on some important
benefits. In middle age and beyond, most of us lose from 20 to 40 percent of our muscle mass. "It's
imperative to reduce or stop this reduction altogether," and weight training can help, says Michelle
Gray, assistant professor of kinesiology and co-director of the Office for Studies on Aging at the
University of Arkansas. Additionally, "resistance training has been shown to reduce rates of certain
chronic illnesses, such as type 2 diabetes," Gray says, "and it also helps increase functional fitness --
the ability to perform everyday activities." You may want to do strength training work in the gym
after a half-hour of cardio exercise, or simply alternate between days of cardio and strength
exercise.
(MORE: Why It's Never Too Late to Start Running)

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Before launching a new resistance training regimen, it's wise to consult a trainer or physical
therapist who can help you design a workout with movements that exercise all your major muscle
groups, and show you safe and proper form. In general, says Benjamin Figueroa, a senior exercise
physiologist at Fox Rehabilitation in Cherry Hill, N.J., your workout should be based on "gradual
progression," sessions involving eight to 10 exercises that amount to a total-body workout, with two
sets of 10 to 15 repetitions for each exercise.
4. Your Workout Is Too Easy
If your workout feels comfortable, it's probably time to up the intensity. "Many exercisers just go
through the motions of performing easy repetitions," Weiss says, "but the only way to trigger
responses that strengthen joints and bones is through effort." If you're running, you should be
building toward longer or faster runs that challenge your muscles. When working out in the gym, the
last few repetitions of every exercise should be a bit of a struggle (but still doable). If they're not,
you should slightly increase the weight. "Only then will you strengthen joints and bones, increase the
proper anabolic, or building, hormones, increase lean body mass and negate the physiologic effects
of aging," Weiss says. Similarly, it's important to vary the exercises you do, even to work the same
muscles.
(MORE: The Fiftysomething Workout: Increase the Intensity)
A recent University of Alabama-Birmingham study found that when three groups of adults age 60 to
75 were assigned three different 30-week fitness regimens, the group following the most intense
workouts got the most benefit, with average gains of four-and-a-half pounds of muscle mass, and no
injuries. The conclusion: Not only do you need more intense workouts, you can handle them.
5. You Avoid Power
As we get older, we tend to shy away from exercises that require power. By "power," we don't mean
the ability to bench-press hundreds of pounds -- we mean exercises that require our core muscles to
move with speed and strength. Avoiding such moves contributes to a decrease in muscle fibers in
our core, and that has ramifications beyond the gym. Walking quickly to beat a red light requires
power, as does walking on uneven surfaces and maneuvering over obstacles.
To add some power exercises to your workout, introduce a speed component to traditional
resistance exercises. The following squat, curl and press exercise is a simple move you can try at
home, after a thorough warmup, to work your legs, biceps and shoulders. Start with two sets of six
to eight repetitions each, once or twice a week:
Stand straight, holding light dumbbells or filled water bottles in each hand, with your arms at your
sides and your feet shoulder-width apart. To avoid injury, make sure the dumbbells are a
manageable weight. The goal here is good form, not moving the heaviest weight possible.
Bend at the knees and hips and lower yourself into a squat position, keeping your back straight and
your eyes focused straight ahead.
Pause in the squat position, then quickly stand up straight, rising onto your toes while curling the
dumbbells up toward your shoulders. Then, while still on your toes if you can maintain your balance,
slowly press the dumbbells overhead.

Gently drop back onto your heels and return the weights to the starting position.
Read more on Next Avenue
The Fiftysomething Workout: The Stairway to Fitness
What is Correct Exercise?
An Introduction to Exercise on Next Avenue
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