GOING THROUGH CH A NGES
TR X WOR KOUT
TAKE THE TESTS
What happens to the body as we get older?
SURPRISING SIXTIES
Do each move for 45 secs and take 15 secs rest between moves. Rest for 60-90 secs at the end of the round and repeat 3-4 times.
Unsure whether you’re mobile or not? Try these mobility tests to see where you might have issues in reaching full range of motion
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.
If you’re in your 60s, you’ll probably be hearing that you should slow down or even stop certain kinds of exercise. But you should know that in your age bracket, the biggest killer of men in the UK is heart disease. A new study of over one million people aged 60 and over found that stopping exercise increased heart disease risk by 27%.2Conversely, increasing physical activity led to an 11% drop in heart disease risk, so this is not the time to retire from training.
• 1a. TRX Chest Press
Couch Stretch The is a great stretch to see where your hip extension and knee flexion weak points are.
“As we age, our testosterone levels gradually decline from a peak in our 20s at a rate of about 1 to 2% per year,” says James Davis, co-founder of The Midlife Mentors and PT, nutritional advisor and NLP practitioner. “That doesn’t sound a lot, but by the time you’re in your 50s, you could have testosterone levels some 30 to 50% lower than in your 20s.”