FUTURE-PROOF YOUR FITNE

Adopt a sustainable, long-term approach to your health and wellbeing to stay fit, strong and content well into your senior years

As you age, fitness and a healthier lifestyle become more critical than ever. Yet while many of us have the best intentions to get fit and make positive changes, sustaining significant, long-term improvement is challenging. In fact, a recent poll showed that only 21% of adults stick to a new habit for a month and, on average, people make it to seven weeks before the new habit stops.

Therefore, your outlook should focus on the bigger picture. If you lead a healthy lifestyle already, you will

likely continue to age with strong physical and mental health; if there’s room for improvement, don’t start introducing anything radical, as it’s almost impossible to sustain. Instead, take note of the following research-backed advice to build a body resilient enough to withstand the tests of time.

GOING THROUGH CHANGES

What happens to the body as we get older? 

Over time, muscle mass decreases, metabolism slows and frailty can occur. Frailty is a condition that develops with age and can result in the reduction or loss of muscle mass, strength, speed and resilience to injury. However, if you make a pact to keep – or get – fit, and retain a certain fitness level as you get older, you can challenge frailty, as well as other health concerns.

In addition, there’s the risk of high blood pressure, as blood vessels start to stiffen, and testosterone levels also decline over time – affecting muscle mass, strength, energy and body fat.