Getting and Staying Fit over 50: Overcoming four main obstacles (3/4)

(3/4) Finding the right level of intensity for your physical activities

Last Tuesday morning I went to my local gym at about 11:00 in the morning. At that time of the day, most of the clients present (including me) are over 50. What stands out, is that for many of them, the social component of their morning ritual seems to be just as important as the physical activity itself. They spend a lot of time having coffee, greeting, chatting, and interacting with other regulars – enjoying themselves and their company. This is important: our motivation in relation to physical activity may shift over time. From the need of a ‘perfect’ body and peak physical performance towards a desire to stay active and connected to the world around us. This core motivation deserves some consideration in its own right, but it is not the topic of this week. What is, is the other thing that strikes me as I see these people work out: The low level of intensity of their physical activity. They are not sweating. They can – and often do - hold a conversation throughout their workout. And the weight they use for their exercises is very low. I often wonder what they aim to accomplish, because – apart from staying physically and socially active – they seem to be going nowhere. As I watch them over time, there is no visible growth, no progress, no change in their body appearance, performance level or physical capabilities. Of course, if things are fine the way they are, who am I to argue. If you are happy with how you feel and look, you should enjoy that and be grateful for what you have. But many of you have ambitions to move beyond where you are today. To have a body that is capable of new things or to feel and look different from how you are at this moment. If that is the case, then let's discuss the right level of intensity for your physical activities.

Intensity is about how hard you train: how fast you run or swim, how slow you lift your weights, how much weight you use. It basically is about the training impulse or workload you expose your body to. Finding the right intensity plays a key role in getting the results you want. If the intensity is too low, nothing will happen. If it is too much, you risk getting exhausted or hurting yourself. This sounds simple, but it is where many of my clients have gone wrong in the past. They started off with an intensity that is way too high – and later in the process got stuck (‘platformed’) on a level of intensity that is too low. This is true for people of any age, but particularly important for people over 50.

If you start a new type of physical activity or if you haven’t worked out much in recent years, your body needs at least six to eight weeks to adjust. When you start running, for instance, your hip and knee joints and ligaments need to learn to absorb the ‘hit’ they take – and they will gradually become stronger if you do things right. Your body also needs to develop the coordination and flexibility required for correct movements: you need to learn the ‘technique’ and often have to develop a good balance between exercising and stretching. If you don’t, you will do fine for some time, but may quickly develop ailments or even injuries afterwards. Both the physical process of adjustment and the learning of controlled, precise movements require time. And during this time, you do not want to burden your body unnecessarily or move your focus away from what really matters. Which is exactly what happens if you go too hard too early. 

This low level of intensity to get started applies to the long-term process of working out, but it also applies to each individual workout. At the age of 25, a five-minute warming-up (or even none at all) is fine to take your body from rest to activity. Over 50, you may need anywhere from 15-30 minutes before your body can perform at a higher intensity, even if you are in an overall good shape. When I swim – which I do regularly – I take the first 10-15 minutes to swim slowly, feel the sensation of my body gliding through the water and focus on maintaining my breath slow and even. If I stick to this, I can move to a significantly higher level of intensity for the rest of my workout, swimming up to almost two miles in an hour. If I don't, if I start out at a high speed too soon, I ‘break’ halfway through and the overall result is much less impressive – and so is the sore, exhausted feeling of my body afterwards.

The first message in relation to intensity is simple: start slowly – and force yourself to do so. You may feel like you are ready to go deeper, but your body and your mind may be playing tricks on you. 

Now, this is about the intensity when you get started. In the longer run, it is an entirely different story. If you aim for physical progress of any kind, you should keep in mind that what is good enough today, will not be good enough tomorrow. If our body takes 6-8 weeks to adjust at the beginning of our physical journey, that same principle continues to apply throughout the process. After 4-6 weeks (so the period is a bit shorter) of adopting a new physical routine, our body becomes used to it and the returns on our physical investment start to diminish. Briefly said, if we don't change our workout plan every 4-6 weeks, providing a different and slightly stronger training impulse, we will start to platform. And the first symptom of platforming is that our body is, well, too comfortable. It does not sweat anymore. It does not really hurt anymore (I am talking about sore muscles one or two days after – which is a good indicator of the intensity of your workout). And you have stopped moving forward. If, however, you continue with the right level of intensity, you will sweat every time you work out, raise your heart rate, increase your dopamine levels and feel great as a result.

Good personal trainers provide you with a new workout plan every 4-6 weeks, that provides just the right stimulus to keep progressing. During the first two weeks, it will feel like hell. During the 2-3 weeks after that, you feel that your body is progressing. And after that, you have 1-2 weeks to enjoy your new level of success – before moving forward again. Now, you may not aim for Olympic performance in your life. But there is a very important message in all this. Most of us – regardless of our age – perform way below our physical potential. Our bodies can do so much more than we think, if we just set our minds to it and follow a number of basic rules. And there are countless examples of people over 50, 60, 70 or even 80 who are physically fit at a level that is not normally associated with ‘older people’. But these associations find their basis in the way our parents and grandparents lived and thought: in this moment in time, we know for a fact that if you are physically active, many of the effects of aging can be slowed down or even reversed. Feel for this: You can have the body and the performance of someone 10 or 20 years younger than your ‘calendar age’, if only you push your body enough – gradually and steadily. What it does require, is that you learn to recognize and embrace the feelings and sensations related to physical growth. People tend to settle for their physical comfort zone and platform as a result. I have worked with many clients who, step by step, learned to appreciate the sensation of an intense physical workout and reaped the related joy, the performance and the health benefits as a result.

Based on this, the second and third rule in relation to intensity is this: when your body is ready for it (after 6-8 weeks of adjusting, and after a 15-30 minute warming up) make sure you sweat for at least 45 minutes during your workout or focus on the mid-zone heart rate (110-140 beats per minute if you are 55 and in good health). And change your workout routine every 4-6 weeks.

Now, the element of intensity does not stand on its own. It is strongly linked with two other elements that determine the effectiveness of your workout – and the joy you will obtain from it. Together, they constitute the ‘Bermuda triangle’ of your workout success. 

The other two elements are:

• Frequency: how often you train in a week and at what intervals (how much time there is between two workouts)
• Recovery: how much time you allow for the rest of your body and the restoration of your strength and energy after physical activity and what you do to support that process

All three elements become a bit trickier when you are over 50, since they may be conflicting with each other, making it difficult to establish the right zone for your effectiveness. But let’s discuss these two other elements one by one first, before seeing how you can combine them in your specific situation.

In order to establish the right frequency of your workouts, you need to understand that our physical progress takes place through a process that is called supercompensation. If you hit your body with a training of the right level of intensity, it bounces back (after your workout) by recovering and becoming just a little bit stronger than it was before. In the 48-72 hours after your workout, this new level of strength peaks, after which it goes down again (see visual below). 

If you want to make optimal use of this window of opportunity, you need to plan your next training in the second or third day after the day your first training took place (see the curve under a. in the visual below). And that is exactly what many people fail to do. They have one or two ‘steady appointments’ in their agenda for workouts, let’s say a tennis evening on Tuesday and a round of golf on Sunday. These activities train different muscles in your body, and their combined frequency does not cause much physical progress, since each training fails to build on the previous one. Establishing a training rhythm where your physical activities take place at a frequency of about three times a week, with steady 48-72 hours intervals between them, will boost your progress. If you don’t follow this frequency, you basically need to start over at your initial fitness level during every new workout (see the curve under c. in the visual below).

 To make matters even more complicated, there is the topic of recovery. Leading medical experts say that the actual development of your body takes place in the rest you take after each workout. Muscles grow during your sleep. And rest is not just a matter of quantity (the time you take for it) but also of quality. If you are over 50, your body does not only require more time to become active, it also requires more time and effort to recover. There are three elements that will boost your recovery:

1.     Relaxation 

The best way to start recovering after a workout is to make sure that your body fully relaxes – and stretching plays a key role in this process. Stretch the muscles you trained directly after a workout. And try to develop a ritual to stretch for 15-30 minutes before you go to sleep, since it will boost your recovery in two ways: through the direct impact on your muscles and by boosting the quality of your sleep. Recent research has shown that holding stretching positions for 1-2 minutes (which will feel like an eternity) will allow you to really ease your body into full relaxation and recovery mode. 

2.     Nutrition

Eating a nutritious meal high in carbs within 1-2 hours after your workout is key for your recovery. Eating too little or too late impedes your recovery; in addition, nourishing your muscles with enough high-quality proteins and fatty acids is key to support and boost the recovery of your body.

3.     Sleep

Many people argue that they need less sleep as they age. My experience is the opposite, especially if you are physically active over 50. My ideal night of sleep is nine hours long and I consider it time well-spent – and immediately notice the difference in my physical (and mental) performance if I sleep less. Experiment with increasing the amount of sleep you have and see how this affects your performance and well-being.

In conclusion: Managing the Bermuda triangle of intensity, frequency and recovery

Finding your right level of intensity – and linking it to a frequency and recovery that bring out the best in your physical performance – is a process that often requires some experimenting and ‘turning the dial’.

As the visual shows, an intensity level that is too high impedes your recovery – and makes it impossible to maintain the right frequency to move forward. And if your intensity level is too low, your progress will be very limited. To manage the process, I recommend that you:

• Include three workouts in your weekly agenda at 48-72 hour intervals;
• Experiment with a level of intensity that – after your warming up - makes you sweat for at least 45 minutes, but also allows you to start every new workout without sore muscles (which is an important symptom that your body has not yet fully recovered);
• Spend just as much effort on your recovery (relaxation, nutrition and sleep) as you spend on your workouts;
• Change your workout plan every 4-6 weeks, ensuring a new and slightly stronger training impulse.

And do not forget to enjoy your body as you feel its progress!

Next week, in the final episode of this series, I will focus on the planning aspects of your fitness journey.  For many of my clients, integrating their physical activities and other healthy habits into their weekly schedules is the proof of the pudding. You will discover that creativity and the support to and from your loved ones will play a key role in this process.

Don’t miss the next issue and let me know what pops up for you!

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Niels-Peter van Doorn delivers body, mind and heart transformation programs for individuals and teams across Europe and at his FitFarm in Central Italy. He is an experienced executive coach, a government-certified fitness trainer and a certified shiatsupractor.

This article is intended to be inspirational and does not substitute professional medical advice. Consult a doctor in case of health issues or questions and prior to making any changes in your diet or exercise regime.