While media plays down the natural aging cycle, most people start to feel their years somewhere around 30. While you may still officially be “In Your Prime”, what this means is that you’re at a plateau of personal energy and that, after your ‘prime’, things will start to slow down. Everyone handles the transitions from young adulthood to mid-adulthood to older adulthood differently. Some people are possessed by the need to stay fit and become those whip-thin older people you see out jogging every day but, for the most part, we tend to settle into our jobs, accept the reality of a spare tire, and stop worrying too much about health and fitness. After all, we all get older and rounder with time and there’s no point in getting stressed out about it, right?
Unfortunately, there are also more than a few negative side effects to becoming complacent with the slow natural deterioration of health and fitness that comes with getting older. Sitting too long at your day job, for example, can give you blood clots and heart problems. Eating unhealthily can make you sick and cause unpleasant digestion, while simply gaining weight can wreak havoc on your joints, and this isn’t even taking into account the usual aches and pains of aging. The fact of the matter is that many people turn to fitness techniques simply to be more comfortable in their own body.
Getting into exercise may be a big step for you, but here are four tips that can at least make it more enjoyable to live in the body you have.
1) Swing Your Hips
The vast majority of people in their middle to late adult years have painful and unpleasant digestive experiences. Being ‘blocked up’ is a common result of two things that are like epidemics in our society: inactivity and dehydration. If you’ve been finding that your digestion varies wildly and uncomfortably toward one or both of the extremes, then it’s time to take charge of your health. What your body is telling is that you’re both eating the wrong things and not making sure that everything gets shaking through your body at the right pace.
This kind of intestinal discomfort and misbehavior are exactly what your hips are for. The hips, specifically when you’re walking or running, turn the “gears” of your intestines. In other words, the more you walk, the more smoothly your digestion will run because of the way your hips work. With each step, you make it easier for your stomach and intestines to process things quickly and efficiently, soaking up nutrients where they can and moving everything along down the line. This is exactly why people in previous era s had a tradition of post-supper perambulation.
The more you ‘walk off’ your meals, the more easily they will digest and the more comfortable you will be. If you can’t get out for a long evening walk, treadmills will do but both stationary bikes and running in place won’t have as beneficial an effect.
2) Soak Your Bones
Do your joints hurt? Do you have one joint in particular that aches when a storm’s coming or when the weather turns cold? This is incredibly common for most people in their 40s and 50s and you don’t have to be an old-timey sailor to earn the right to a creaky knee that can predict the weather. Joint pain is just another natural part of aging as the pads and cartilage in your knees, elbows, and other joints wear down over time. Some people are dealing with a past injury, others are dealing with arthritis, but almost universally getting older involves a few achy joints.
Fortunately, the solution is universal and quite enjoyable. At least once a week, draw yourself a nice hot bath. I know, guys don’t normally do the whole ‘bath’ thing and these days they’re building houses without bathtubs at all, but take my word on this one. Soak your bones. Heat relaxes muscles, eases pain, and promotes blood flow which means that your achy joints will be able to simultaneously warm up, relax, and float without pressure for a while. You may be surprised how good you feel afterward.
Join us next time for the second half of this two-part article where we’ll talk about how you eat and how to prepare your muscles for a long and happy life of moving furniture and opening jars at will.