The Keys to Staying in Shape after 50 Years

Sleep is a central element to maintain good health, especially as one advances in age. While physical activity promotes it, sleep deprivation affects physical and intellectual performance.

With regard to sleep but also to overall health, “moving” is essential. The contents of his plate too. As for mindfulness meditation, it helps to manage stress and acts on health. Everything is connected!

The Importance of Preserving Quality Sleep

A 20, 50 or 65 years, good sleep is essential. Its benefits (stability of mood, less anxiety), but also the negative repercussions of debt of sleep or sleep of poor quality, are better and better known.

The adult sleeps from 7:30 to 8 am on average. In the elderly, the total duration of sleep is not shortened or little but the depth of sleep – which creates the conditions necessary for our daily performance – is decreasing. If the child has 30% deep sleep at age 10, the average adult age is 20% and then decreases. Sleep gets lighter, becomes unstable with longer and longer waking periods and waking up often earlier.

However, sleep deprivation (less than 6 hours per 24 hours), whether acute or chronic, disrupts physical performance: cardiovascular damage, muscle fatigue, immune disorders, weight gain (obesity aggravates sleep disorders) and risk of diabetes.

Sleep is also necessary for memory, attention, decision-making. Sleep deprivation poses the risk of memory and attention disorders. If the usual tips are not enough (avoidance of excitants – a can of cola soda contains 32g of caffeine, almost as an espresso – and hearty meals in the evening, practice relaxing activities at least 2 hours before bedtime, listening for sleep signals, etc.), it is important to consult a sleep centre where sleep recordings (polysomnography) will be made.

Physical Activity, with Innumerable Benefits

While sleep deprivation affects physical performance and muscular fatigue, conversely, playing sports promotes falling asleep and contributes to the quality of sleep. But the virtues of physical activity do not stop there. His practice reduces the risk of cancer (breast, colon …), hypertension, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Its beneficial effects also include bone density, muscle mass, breathing capacity, and balance. On the other hand, the place of physical activity to limit the risk of dementia is controversial. A very recent study shows no neuroprotective impact of physical activity (low or moderate to intense) on the risk of dementia after a follow-up of 28 years **.

The practice of a so-called recreational physical activity, as opposed to competitive sport, limits the process of muscle loss (osteopenia) that is inevitable after 50 years. An undeniable interest especially as the more you lose muscle, the more you also lose bone. Not to “move” therefore exposes to an overfall of falls but also of fracture and to a state of general fragility.

While some physical activities play more on the cardiovascular side (swimming, cycling, running), others strengthen muscles and flexibility (water aerobics, yoga, gymnastics) or the address and coordination (golf, tennis, etc.). In practice, to take care of your heart, it is advisable to bet rather on the duration rather than the power (at least 20 minutes, twice a week, of a continuous activity).

Food, to Protect your Heart, your Arteries and your Health in General

Food is essential to stay in shape. Monitoring weight is important because obesity but also overweight are responsible for many digestive diseases: gastroesophageal reflux and cancers of the esophagus, pancreas, and colon. For example, the risk of esophageal “adenocarcinoma” increases by 55% for five additional BMI points (Body Mass Index), pancreatic and colon 14 and 15%.

Waist circumference, for its part, is involved in the risk of metabolic syndrome and in the accumulation of fat in the liver, which can be a very bad prognosis (cirrhosis, liver cancer).

As for the qualitative aspect of the diet, there is no bad food, there are only bad habits. Balance and moderation are the watchwords. The amount of protein must reach 1g / kg of bodyweight around the age of 65, slightly less before this age. To protect one’s heart and arteries, dietary rules call for common sense.

Meditate to Take Care of Yourself

The rules of good health are known: balanced diet, physical activity, quality sleep … and Mindfulness! This technique of mindfulness meditation learns to be in the reality of the moment, an antidote to the increasing “attention pollution” to which we are subjected. It’s also a way to take care of yourself, to better manage pain, anxiety, and depression.

How to Maintain Muscle Strength?

If the process of muscle wasting accelerates between 50 and 60 years, solutions exist to counter it. “The first of these and the most important is to do muscle-building exercises,” says Professor Patrick Dehail, head of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University Hospital of Bordeaux.

Choose your Physical Exercise

Senior-most men can choose best spin bikes to make use of their 1^st exercise. It’s never too late to start a physical activity! Still, it must be chosen wisely. If endurance activities are good for health, to fight effectively against muscle wasting, the practice of so-called resistance exercises or muscle strengthening is preferred.

Muscle building training is a series of repetitive brief exercises over a short period of time. At first, and depending on his abilities, he can use his own weight to resist muscle by working against gravity: arm extensions, leg curls, sit-ups, cladding positions, pumps (if it is too difficult it is possible to do them on the knees).

Subsequently, under the initial control of professionals in physical activity or his physiotherapist, different types of equipment (weight or dumbbells adapted, elastic bands or weight machines) can be used.

For Healthy People

Weight or dumbbells can be used to practice different exercises that target different muscle groups. Be careful not to use heavyweights that make it difficult to perform movements or take an improper position.

Elastic bands are excellent for people starting resistance training. They allow a very large number of varied exercises.

For People with Fragile Health

If you are elderly and/or fragile, it is interesting to take the gestures of everyday life as an exercise(getting up from a chair several times in a row, going up and downstairs …)

It is advisable to do as much as possible 3 sessions per week with 8 to 10 different exercises using the legs and arms repeated 10 to 15 times each. Before you begin, submit yourself to an initial medical consultation and get advice from a coach for a correct technique. A muscle-building exercise should not be a traumatic exercise!

Beware of slimming diet: they accelerate the loss of muscle and can be very dangerous when one is older. A balanced diet rich in protein is essential to prevent and fight against muscle wasting. Also along with you need to go to the gym for some daily exercise, so ready your gym bags and start going to the gym.

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Sundar working in mippin.com, as a manager. He is a writer for more than a year. Also working as a freelancer content writer for a Health care institute. He tells “Reduce weight and control your diet by regular exercises, wear best trimmer belts. He helps his clients to grow their business by advising them, how to advertise and market.