Over-50 and Out-Of-Shape - Where to start?

[Anonymous]

Please don't shoot the messenger. OP, I hear your struggle. I *have* your struggle. Please don't attack the poster who noticed that you quit -- you have quit (for valid reasons or not). But we are old now (I'm in my 50s too). Losing weight isn't like when we were 32 and it would fall off. You're not going to start jogging like you did in 1997 and be a hottie in a couple of months. Please think of your challenge as two parts: 1 losing the weight & 2 getting in shape. Go make an appointment with your doctor about the weight. You need the support. Listen to whatever the doctor's recommendations (and possible treatments) are. As for the exercise, the other posters gave good advice. Start slow, but be persistent. My personal story was that my doctor had to help me with the weight loss (yes, Wegovy). That started the process. Exercise finished it. That was 70 pounds ago. Think of it as two separate issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please don't shoot the messenger. OP, I hear your struggle. I *have* your struggle. Please don't attack the poster who noticed that you quit -- you have quit (for valid reasons or not). But we are old now (I'm in my 50s too). Losing weight isn't like when we were 32 and it would fall off. You're not going to start jogging like you did in 1997 and be a hottie in a couple of months. Please think of your challenge as two parts: 1 losing the weight & 2 getting in shape. Go make an appointment with your doctor about the weight. You need the support. Listen to whatever the doctor's recommendations (and possible treatments) are. As for the exercise, the other posters gave good advice. Start slow, but be persistent. My personal story was that my doctor had to help me with the weight loss (yes, Wegovy). That started the process. Exercise finished it. That was 70 pounds ago. Think of it as two separate issues.

So 50's is old now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please don't shoot the messenger. OP, I hear your struggle. I *have* your struggle. Please don't attack the poster who noticed that you quit -- you have quit (for valid reasons or not). But we are old now (I'm in my 50s too). Losing weight isn't like when we were 32 and it would fall off. You're not going to start jogging like you did in 1997 and be a hottie in a couple of months. Please think of your challenge as two parts: 1 losing the weight & 2 getting in shape. Go make an appointment with your doctor about the weight. You need the support. Listen to whatever the doctor's recommendations (and possible treatments) are. As for the exercise, the other posters gave good advice. Start slow, but be persistent. My personal story was that my doctor had to help me with the weight loss (yes, Wegovy). That started the process. Exercise finished it. That was 70 pounds ago. Think of it as two separate issues.

So 50's is old now?

DP It is when we’re talking about joint health and beginning an exercise program, yes.

[Anonymous]

You start with walking 10k a day, lifting 2-3x a week and yoga on days you don't lift for mobility, strength and balance.

That's 45-min to one hour of exercise a day on top of walking 10 k.

You start slow and build up. Feel free to add swimming, cycling etc. to the mix.

Sometimes I do my walking in the pool -it's call aqua jogging and it's awesome. https://runnersconnect.net/coach-corner/aqua-jogging-for-runners/

-signed a 52-y-o in pretty good shape woman

[Anonymous]

I agree that walking is the best place for you to start.

But I'm also alarmed by the Peloton that you don't use. That is an expensive piece of furniture. I don't have a Peloton, so I don't know the specifics, but it sounds like a beginner ride would be a great idea for you. If even that seems like too much, can you just sit on it and pedal, without a program?

I'd aim to exercise every other day for a month. Then try adding a day per week. Get used to being active again. Then work on adding a little intensity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please ignore the walking advice. You will never get inshape simply by walking. Add 10 to 30 second busts of jogging into your Walks. Do 4 minutes of walk and then a short burst of jog. Cycle through this until you can hold the jog for 30 seconds.
After you find this more comfortable, make every other burst an "all out" sprint. If you can do just 5 seconds, do 5. But cycle up over weeks until you get to 30 seconds

Add light dumbell compound exercises 2twice a week.
Keep going.
Your body will make changes to handle the additional demands you put on it over time.

OP here. This has been my experience with walking, unfortunately -- that even with a lot of it, it just isn't enough. I'll try what you suggest -- I did it once in the past and was able to work up to 20-25 min jogs. Would love to make it back there, but feeling intimidated given a few extra years and pounds.

When you were doing walking, were you only doing slow distance walking? That's not as calorie burning. Since you said that you can do a 30 min walk, as you become acclimated, to doing the exercise, you need to increase your pace and your energy level. You need to start walking faster and doing more stretching as you walk. So you work towards speed walking. You want to make sure that you increase your heart rate while doing the walking. Slow walking with a low heart rate, does not do more than slowly improve your general level of fitness and stamina. But if you increase your walking pace and your heart rate, for longer and longer periods, then you'll start to see more progress.

And at our age (I am older than you, in my late 50's), you can't just get up and jog like we used to 20 years ago. You have to gradually increase your exercise. And as has been pointed out, jogging is bad on various joints, especially when we are overweight. So, don't go with the jogging unless you want to join the many of our peers who have hip and knee problems and have to get joint replacements. So, don't move to the jogging, more towards speed walking. You'll get a lot of the same health benefits as jogging, but it will be much easier on your joints.

[Anonymous]

I started with power walking for about a month - every other day. 6 weeks later signed up for an exercise class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You start with walking 10k a day, lifting 2-3x a week and yoga on days you don't lift for mobility, strength and balance.

That's 45-min to one hour of exercise a day on top of walking 10 k.

You start slow and build up. Feel free to add swimming, cycling etc. to the mix.

Sometimes I do my walking in the pool -it's call aqua jogging and it's awesome. https://runnersconnect.net/coach-corner/aqua-jogging-for-runners/

-signed a 52-y-o in pretty good shape woman

49 y/o and I agree with this (though I don't have access to a pool). I agree with the rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm over 50, with a BMI of 34, and even when I was quite thin I never had any strength. (Anyone remember elementary school, taking the "President's Physical Fitness Test"? I was like 5th percentile.)

I want to get into shape, or at least better shape, and don't really know where to start. I was inspired by the I-love-barre post, but pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do it. I've hired a personal trainer 3x over the past ten years or so, and twice I felt like they didn't really know what they were doing and once I had a trainer that was really good but not at all interested in me and it was clear and it hurt my self esteem and I quit seeing him. None of them gave me anything to do between sessions. So that didn't really work well. I did love hot yoga, but that was over ten years and 50 pounds ago, and I know my body won't twist into those positions now (well, not that it did all that well back then either).

Help? Where to start?

NP here. I had similar stats two years and had lost a lot of flexibility and strength (menopause + pandemic year). I joined OneLife and started going to various H2O Fitness classes. Very helpful for overall strength, flexibility, and aerobic exercise - I overheat quickly if I try to get my heart rate up on land, but the water keeps me cool. I’m at the point where I need to do more actual weight training and longer walks (once it’s cooler), but will still keep up with water classes for aerobics and flexibility.

[Anonymous]

Go to hot yoga! Don’t worry about where you are relative to 10 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most important is to get your body moving on a daily basis. Consistency is most important; build habits of movement into your lifestyle.

Once you’ve done that, then you can implement other exercises. Personally, I walk minimum 12,000 steps per day, lap swim 3x per week, Peloton strength workouts 4x week. I’m 54 years and and 121 pounds (same as I was 30 years ago).

OP here. Thanks for posting. I have a Peloton and have literally never gotten on it. I know about the other workouts but never figured out how to access them. I think I will try. I feel terribly guilty about that Peloton gathering dust.

DP

Is there a Peloton program you recommend for a 50yo beginner for strength training? Some are a bit intimidating!

[Anonymous]

A few things:

Peloton comfort depends on proper set up (lots of videos for this) ; get a padded/gel seat cover or padded bike shorts (and you definitely get used to it). I also have short arms compared to legs and bought a rubber handlebar extender which helps my form.

Don’t cycle daily: walking is very good as well.

I have the peloton app on my tv and am doing the strength classes on it. Very easy to filter by beginner ; class length and body area. Like op I am in not good shape (injury, surgery: immobility; then life stress). I lost a ton of muscle and am carefully and slowly trying to get back into a program . 30-45 min bike class (but sometimes even 20) plus a 10–20 min strength 3x/week and a lot of walking . I don’t need to lose weight but I need the rest for health and strength. I have done some yoga and barre classes in the app as well.

Finally 90% of weight loss is going to come from nutrition not exercise but the latter has great benefits no matter what.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You start with walking 10k a day, lifting 2-3x a week and yoga on days you don't lift for mobility, strength and balance.

That's 45-min to one hour of exercise a day on top of walking 10 k.

You start slow and build up. Feel free to add swimming, cycling etc. to the mix.

Sometimes I do my walking in the pool -it's call aqua jogging and it's awesome. https://runnersconnect.net/coach-corner/aqua-jogging-for-runners/

-signed a 52-y-o in pretty good shape woman

I just do the walking and I hike 2-4/ wk on moderate to challending terrains up to 6 miles. I stretch, but do none of the extra stuff pp listed. I'm also 52 in excellent shape. My legs look great and my stomach is flat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most important is to get your body moving on a daily basis. Consistency is most important; build habits of movement into your lifestyle.

Once you’ve done that, then you can implement other exercises. Personally, I walk minimum 12,000 steps per day, lap swim 3x per week, Peloton strength workouts 4x week. I’m 54 years and and 121 pounds (same as I was 30 years ago).

OP here. Thanks for posting. I have a Peloton and have literally never gotten on it. I know about the other workouts but never figured out how to access them. I think I will try. I feel terribly guilty about that Peloton gathering dust.

DP

Is there a Peloton program you recommend for a 50yo beginner for strength training? Some are a bit intimidating!

The Peloton strength classes are a great foundation for learning strength. You can modify any of the exercises and they encourage you to do so. I would start off with instructors like Callie, Rad and Ben Aldis—they’re all pretty low key. Adrian is good too but for a beginner just modify or use body weight only for some of his classes. You could even start off with body weight only classes and then move up to weights when you feel ready. The arms and light weight (3lb weight) classes are good for beginner arm strength. Repetitive and effective. Again you could drop the weights and just focus on the exercises. Don’t be intimidated and just jump in and start building strength. It’s so important as we age.

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm in my mid-50s. Years ago I was reading an article about exercise that said (I'm paraphrasing) "the best exercise to do is the one that you like to do." This resonated with me as, at the time, I was forcing myself to do exercises that I did not like (yoga classes, pilates classes, etc). I now do the exercises I enjoy. For example, I realized that I prefer exercising in solitude but need to keep my mind occupied at the same time so I'll walk or run and listen to a podcast, or I'll do strength training at home while watching the news. Other people might prefer walking or running to music, or doing their workouts with friends, or going to a gym, or playing racquet sports. Once you figure out what it is you like to do, then it's easier because the motivation is there.

The other question to ask yourself is when during the day are you most likely to be motivated to exercise. For me it's very early in the morning. If I don't work out then, I come up with excuses not to. So I make a point of putting it on my schedule. Other people may prefer to exercise after work or, if they have a long enough lunch break, go during lunch. Others have the discipline to exercise every day at different times of the day. If you can figure out when during the day you'd be most likely to work out then you can start making it part of your daily routine.

I'm going to echo the posters who have said to start with walking and add strength/weight training. You mentioned trying walking and that it didn't help. If you've been sedentary, you could start with 20 minutes and add another 20 minutes each week until you're up an hour, then increase the pace and make sure to walk an hour, or find a neighborhood with a more hilly terrain instead of flat terrain. Then add strength training 2 or 3 times a week. You mentioned you used to love hot yoga. Perhaps there are some yoga studios near you with "gentle yoga" classes for those who are just starting out or who are recovering from injuries.