What’s the BEST Exercise for Over-50s? (+ Full Weekly Plan)

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00:00 – Intro
00:35 – Walking
04:19 – Strength Training
09:05 – Special Free Gift
09:38 – Cycling
12:56 – Swimming
15:40 – Running
19:15 – Yoga
22:43 – Pilates
25:20 – Tai Chi
27:22 – High Impact
29:18 – Gardening
31:20 – Sports
34:18 – Dance
35:23 – Rowing
37:17 – Group classes
39:27 – WEEKLY PLAN

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*About Will Harlow*
Will Harlow is a physiotherapist, best-selling published author and YouTube creator who specialises in helping people over the age of fifty. Will is a fully qualified physiotherapist with a Master’s degree from Brunel University in London. His credentials include a BSc and MSc. More about Will Harlow here: https://willharlow.com/

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Most people over 50 are told to just walk more or stay active. But there’s one form of exercise that actually makes the biggest difference as your body changes. I’ve seen it help clients keep moving, avoid injuries, and feel younger than they have in years. And today, I’ll compare some of the best types of exercise for over 50s and reveal my number one pick. Make sure you stick around until the end where I share with you what I believe to be the ideal weekly exercise routine for people over the age of 50 who want to stay strong, independent, and mobile for life. All right, so the basic premise of today’s video is that all forms of exercise are brilliant for people over 50, but there’s pros and cons of each. So, I thought it would be fun to compare and contrast these different forms, and at the end, I’ll show you how to put them all together to make the perfect weekly plan. Now, we’re going to start off with my viewers favorite hobby, which is walking. And when we’ve pulled our viewers, this always comes out as the number one hobby. And walking is just a brilliant form of exercise. Here are some of the benefits. So, in terms of the first benefit of walking, it’s so good for your general fitness and for weight management. So, I’m going to put fitness here. Now, what walking does is it allows you to keep burning calories and to improve the function of your heart and your lungs whilst not taxing you too much. And where it doesn’t tax you too much, that means you don’t run out of energy too fast. So, you can do lots of walking and you’ll get lots of benefits from it. So, this is one of the biggest benefits. The second huge benefit of walking is how much it maintains your strength and your bone density. Now, when you’re walking a lot, it maintains the strength of not just your quads and your glutes and your calves, but also your core and your back. And there’s tons of research to show that the areas that walking strengthens can help to help to safeguard you from knee pain and back pain and many of the common injuries that occur. So, I’m going to put strength here. And isn’t just your muscles, it’s muscle and bone. And there’s research to show that lots of walking is one of the best things you can do for maintaining that bone tissue. It sends a signal to your body that the bones are still needed. So even though osteoporosis happens for many people over 50, if you walk a lot, it’s one of the things that can keep it at bay. And then the third thing which is a massive benefit of walking is the amount of research out there that shows its benefits to longevity. So, walking a lot will actually help you to live longer. Now, there’s this myth that everyone has to walk 10,000 steps per day. And 10,000 steps is a great goal, but you don’t have to walk 10,000 steps a day to get these longevity benefits. And there’s a lot of data to show that somewhere in the region of 6,000 steps per day seems to be the sweet spot for many people in the longevity data. People that walk 6,000 steps a day do tend to live longer. But the other thing about walking is it isn’t just how far you walk, it’s how fast you walk. And if you walk at a nice pace, again, that’s been linked to longevity, too. So, I’m going to put longevity in here. So, now for the drawbacks of walking. You might be thinking, well, surely walking doesn’t have many drawbacks. And you’d be right. But the biggest weakness of walking is the fact that it is not the best thing you can do to improve your muscle or your bone strength. It’s great at maintaining, but it isn’t enough of a stimulus to increase your muscle and bone strength. Now, if you want to increase your muscle and bone strength, you have to do something else in addition. But it doesn’t mean walking is useless. It’s just great for keeping what you already have. So I’m going to put here maintains but does not improve. So that’s about it for walking. In terms of a verdict, I would say walking is essential for anyone over 50 who wants to stay capable and strong and independent, and it’s going to make up a core part of our program at the end. Second on our list of great exercise hobbies for people over 50, we’ve got strength training. And I talk about strength training on this channel all the time because of how beneficial it is to health. Here are just some of the benefits. So the obvious one here is it will help you get stronger. And when you’re stronger, you’re more independent. You can do more things. You can lift heavy things out of a car trunk or a car boot. You can open and close heavy doors. You can get up and off the floor. Everything in life becomes easier when you’re stronger and it’s one of the most reliable ways to help you do that. And it’s super safe. It’s a really safe way to get stronger, whatever your age. Now, the second thing here is muscle mass. And strength training really is the most reliable way to boost muscle mass. You can improve it with other things, but strength training is really the most reliable way. And research has shown time and time again, you can gain muscle mass at any age. So, don’t believe the myth that after age 50, it’s impossible to gain muscle. Yes, it does get harder, but you can still do it. The third benefit of strength training is bone density. Now, bone density is such a tricky thing to increase. There’s only really a couple of things you can do to boost your bone density, but strength training is one of them. And if you strength train for a period of 6 to 12 months, for most people, if you’re doing heavy compound movements, either on machines or using your body weight or using uh free weights like dumbbells and barbells, most people will see a bump in bone density if they stick at it and if they’re following the right program. You can’t say that for many other things, which is why this is such a powerful tool. The fourth thing here is longevity. And just about every poor marker of health or every poor health marker if you like is reduced in people who strength train. More muscle on the body, less cancer, less heart disease, less depression, less risk of dementia. All of these things that are big killers are reduced in people that strength train. So longevity is undoubtedly boosted by people who do this often. Now, the fourth benefit is that you don’t actually have to do that much of it to get these things happening. There’s research to show that just two sessions a week, 20 to 30 minutes per session is enough to get many of these benefits. And for people over 50, more is not always better when it comes to strength training. You can’t really do six or seven days a week in the gym when you’re 65, 75 like you could when you were 20. Your body needs more time to recover. But what that gives you back is time. Time that you can spend on other things. You will still get fantastic benefits from just a short time commitment every week. So start off with two 20inut sessions every week if you want some of these benefits. And I don’t know of many exercise forms that can give you that kind of benefit with that little time investment. So I’m going to put time here as a benefit. So, in terms of time invested and benefit, it probably has the highest ratio of all. Now, what about the negatives of strength training? There aren’t really that many negatives, but one of the big ones that people say to me is they find it a bit tedious. So, I’m not going to pretend is always fun. It can be a bit repetitive. Yes, we’re trying to make progress, but if you don’t feel like that progress is happening fast, it can be demotivating. It’s not that competitive because you’re not competing against someone else. So, if you’re someone who loves competition, this is going to be tough. You’re going to have to find ways to make it competitive to yourself. So, it’s certainly a drawback and not that many people fall in love with it. Some people do, but for others, it’s like, I should do this, so I’m going to go and do it. I’ll feel better afterwards. And sometimes you just have to get over that hump. And then the final drawback of strength training is the fact that you probably are going to eventually need some kit. And you might not have, sorry about that awful K, you might not have the right kit at home. So, yes, you’re going to have to invest either some money into a gym membership or some home equipment as you progress. But for most people watching this video, you can do everything you need just with your body weight and a chair and maybe some heavy things lying around your house. It doesn’t have to be that complicated, but as you get more advanced, it does make sense to get some dumbbells and maybe a barbell, maybe a weights bench, or maybe a gym membership. if you can afford it, but it shouldn’t be a barrier to entry. It’s just later on in your journey, you might have to consider this. So, what about the verdict for strength training? It’s one of the strongest exercise options for people over 50. And that’s why it’s going to also make up a core part of our plan at the end of the video. And if you’re one of the many people who wants to learn how to integrate strength training into your life to get all of these benefits, one of the best things you can do is take my stronger for life road map. It’s a 10 question mini assessment where you answer some questions, then based on your answers, we will send you a personalized road map showing you how to get stronger and fitter using some of this kind of stuff. Now, if you want to get it, there’s a link in the description box below. It’s 100% free and I hope you love it. Next on our list, we’ve got cycling. Cycling out on a road bike or on a stationary bike. These are brilliant forms of exercise and some of the biggest benefits here are obviously in your fitness. I don’t know many other forms of exercise that give you as good of a cardiovascular workout as cycling. Really gets your heart pumping and your lungs working as well. And people can increase their fitness pretty fast just by dedicating some time to cycling. So, I’m going to put fitness here. It’s really great for that. The other thing it does is it boosts your leg strength. You’re pushing using your quads. Some people pull using their hamstrings and also your calves as well. And if you’re using all of those muscles correctly, you will increase your strength in your legs. And you see those cyclists that have been doing it for many years, they’ve got these big bulging quads. And strong, large quads are brilliant for protecting your knees. They will also help you to stay safe when you’re out and about. People that have got stronger quads fall less than people who have weaker quads. So, if you’ve never done this before and you want to get stronger legs, cycling is a great place to start. The next benefit of cycling is how good it is for your joints. And if you’re someone who’s already got an arthritic knee or an arthritic hip or you just have pain somewhere when you’re out and about, maybe walking even can cause you pain, cycling could be a good option because it’s so much more gentle on the joints. And I’ve met many patients who’ve had painful knees. They start cycling and then knee pain goes away probably because they got stronger. And that repetitive movement in a nice comfortable range almost lubricates those joints, especially the knee. and that can help to reduce joint pain. So, I’m going to put joints here as a benefit. Well, what about drawbacks for cycling? Surely something so great doesn’t have any drawbacks. Well, I’ve thought of a couple and one of the biggest ones is that cycling will do nothing for your bone mineral density. It won’t improve it because it’s not weightbearing. You need weightbearing exercise to increase the strength of your bones. So unlike walking, cycling probably won’t even maintain your bone mineral density. So if you’re worried about bone density, especially if you’re a female over the age of 50, and you probably should be if you’re in that demographic, cycling alone is not going to be enough to maintain that density. So you’ll have to think about doing something else as well. And then the final drawback is kind of an obvious one. If you’re a road cyclist, there’s that safety aspect. And I’ve met so many patients coming into my practice who’ve unfortunately been knocked off their bike or a car has pulled out and not seen them. And we have to factor that in because as we get over 50 years old, these injuries take longer to heal. And it’s just such a shame to see people who have had such a great hobby get injured and then it takes them a whole year to get back on their bike cuz they’re overcoming a nasty injury. So this is definitely worth considering, but it’s not enough to stop you from cycling. Okay, it shouldn’t be. So, if you love cycling, it’s a brilliant form of exercise. It’s fantastic for fitness, almost better than anything else, but but but it doesn’t replace walking and resistance training. So, it can be part of our routine every week, but not on its own. Next, let’s talk about swimming. And swimming is another of those exercise types which is fantastic for improving your cardiorespiratory fitness. And I used to swim quite a lot when I was a kid. And then I went on holiday the other day after not having swam for many years really and I thought I’m going to do 30 lengths in the pool. Well, let me tell you, I did 10 lengths and I was absolutely gassed. It shows how demanding swimming is as a hobby in a good way. It will get you stronger uh in your lungs and your heart. So, it’s probably on par with cycling depending obviously on how hard you swim. Now, another benefit of swimming is that it makes you stronger, but it strengthens many of the muscles that we don’t use daytoday in kind of everyday life. So many of the muscles that it strengthens, you almost don’t even realize you’ve got, but they’re so important. So many of the muscles around your shoulder blade and in your rotator cuff and your shoulder get really well strengthened by swimming. And that can help to stave off many injuries. And we also find that people who swim, it’s one of those brilliant things where it can reduce the risk of injuries that occur in day-to-day life. People who swim tend to have less back pain, less knee pain, less shoulder pain because they’re strong in these supporting muscles, which are so so important. And the other thing about swimming is how good it is for overcoming an injury and protecting your joints. Now, I used to think that the pool had got ma magic healing powers for many people. And if I have someone with a really nasty injury and we’re doing stuff on land, they’re just not getting better, I say, let’s move the rehab to the water. So, if you’ve got uh access to a pool, it can help you get better from injury faster. It could be because the pool’s warm, it helps that, you know, lubrication and healing process in the joints, but it can also help you build strength without taxing the joints as well. So, I’m going to put joints here again as another benefit. Now, for the drawbacks of swimming, and I can think of two things. The first is just like cycling, it will do absolutely nothing for your bone mineral density. So again, it doesn’t replace landbased exercise. It can support it, but it doesn’t replace it. And if you’re worried about bone density, swimming might not be your first port of call. And then the second one is again an obvious one. You need access to a pool. And unfortunately, not all of us are lucky enough to have a pool at home. It’d be lovely if we did, but we don’t. and going to the swimming pool. Obviously, it depends how close it is to your house. It can be a bit of a hassle. So, again, I’m just going to put access and obviously you also have to pay. So, it’s a drawback if you’re paying every time you use it. But if you do have access and you can get rid of that one, it is a brilliant form of exercise for just about everyone. Next, let’s talk about running, which is many people’s favorite lifelong hobby. And running is a brilliant form of exercise, not least because it’s one of the most effective ways at improving your cardiovascular health. And I don’t really know of any exercises like it that involve so much of the body and can get you working so hard for such a short period of time. It really is so good for improving heart and lung health. And one of the benefits of that is there’s some very interesting data to show that runners end up in hospital about 50% less than non-runners when they’re matched at age groups. So less hospital visits and this again is a big study showing that runners just tend to be more healthy across the their span of life probably because of this aspect. And I don’t think that’s worth discounting. Now, we’ve talked quite a lot about bone density up to this point, and running is one of those few hobbies that does seem to improve bone mineral density. And if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. If you’re out pounding the pavement, that shock traveling up your leg usually ends up somewhere in the hip or the spine in a good way, and those bones are cushioning the force, and that is sending a signal to your osteoblasts to lay down new bony tissue. So running is a great way to increase bone density as long as your diet is on point and you’re not overrunning. Okay, this is also key. We see the opposite happen particularly in women that run too much. So your your ultramarathon runners who don’t quite have their training and diet dialed in, you can actually get the opposite effect. But for most recreational runners, bone mineral density is going to increase if you do it consistently. Now running is certainly not without its drawbacks. And I always think of one of the drawbacks of running is not that it can damage your joints because it doesn’t tend to do that. There’s no research to show that it damages them. But if you already have existing joint problems, it can certainly flare it up and that’s just a function of the impact on the ground. So if you’re running and running and running and you’ve already got a miniscus tear or something, yes, it can aggravate it. There’s again research to show that if you’re out running, every time your foot makes contact with the ground, the reaction force is about eight times greater than what it is when you’re walking. So it’s a big big jump. It’s very unforgiving if you’ve already got a joint problem. Now, what it doesn’t do for your joints is it doesn’t seem to cause arthritis. This is a myth. So anyone who says that running causes arthritis, that’s been disproven in big big research studies across thousands of runners. there doesn’t seem to be a higher rate of arthritis in runners. So, we’re not saying it causes problems, but if you’ve already got them, it can aggravate them. And then just because of this fact, running is actually quite a high level activity. You’ve got to be skilled to a various degree to run effectively. And if you aren’t skilled, that’s when it can start to cause problems. Now, building that skill later in life can be very difficult. It’s not accessible to everyone. So, I’m going to write as another drawback access because if you haven’t started off as a runner, picking it up later in life can be quite a challenge to keep yourself safe. But if you can run safely, then these benefits are enormous. And that’s why running is a brilliant hobby to continue for life if you can, but it’s not necessary for full health. If you can’t run, there’s other things that we’ve spoken about today that can replace it. Next, let’s talk about yoga. And before anyone says, I know that yoga is not just an exercise form. It has other aspects to it too. But I’m just talking about the exercise aspect of it here. And one of the biggest benefits of yoga is how much it can improve your flexibility. And flexibility is an important attribute. It’s been correlated with less joint pain up to a point. We obviously don’t want to be hyper mobile, but that can only really happen in some people. But having good levels of flexibility are essential to keep your knees, your hips, your back, everything nice and safe as you move. So this is a big benefit here. One of the other benefits is what yoga can do to your balance. And there’s some very robust research to show that people that do a yoga practice have better balance and fall less. So that’s a big benefit seeing as how dangerous falls can be for people over the age of 50. And the third benefit of yoga is something we call mind body benefit. Now being connected between your mind and your body sounds like a strange woowoo concept, but it actually makes perfect sense. And we’ve got the ability to connect to certain muscles and certain areas of our body via our neural networks. And things like yoga can help you to improve that. But it also helps you to improve your relaxation, your sense of well-being. It can reduce rates of anxiety and depression and all of these things feed into your overall health. So, yoga is brilliant for all of these things. And another benefit that I haven’t written down is the social aspects you get if you join a class. Being around people that are like-minded, that are working towards the same things can be amazing for reducing senses of loneliness and to improve again your general sense of well-being. Now, one of the negative aspects of yoga is that if you do do a yoga class, your results are dependent on the skill of the teacher. And I’ve met many people who have been to a yoga class and the teacher’s style or the teacher’s lesson wasn’t really suited to them and they didn’t get the benefits they were hoping for. And we also come across certain stories where people are told to keep pushing a stretch or keep pushing a stretch and something goes wrong. Now, one of the other things about yoga which I mentioned in a previous video which got a lot of mixed comments is the fact that yoga doesn’t always address problems with strength. Some forms of yoga absolutely do. So that if you’re doing strength as part of your yoga class or your teacher has got a an emphasis on strength for you, that’s amazing. But many of the classes I’ve seen concentrate just on this aspect, the flexibility without anything for strength. And then people can end up very flexible but without the control over that movement and that can put them at a higher risk of injury. So, if you’re doing yoga and it only concentrates on the flexibility and balance aspects and you don’t do anything for strength, that’s certainly a negative and you should address that. But overall, yoga is a fantastic form of exercise for just about everyone. It’s particularly good for stiff older men who can’t move that well. They lack flexibility. If they restore the flexibility, often aches and pains can reduce and go away, and they just move better for longer. Next on our list, we’re going to talk about Pilates. And I love Pilates as an exercise form, both done just at home and as part of a class, because of all of the benefits it brings. One of the biggest benefits in my mind is how well it can protect people from injuries, particularly lower back injuries. So, I’m going to put injury here. And when you’re doing a Pilates class, one of the biggest focuses is getting your core and your glutes working. And these two muscle groups seem to be very closely linked to episodes of back pain if they’re weak. So what Pilates is doing is improving your stability, not just your core strength, but also the way you move to activate those muscles so that they’re protecting your spine as you go. So many people who have had a history of back pain, they start Pilates, that back pain gets loads better, and it’s usually because of that core and glute strength aspect. The second benefit to Pilates is it’s highly functional. So when you go to the gym and you just lift heavy weights, what often happens is you get very good at these gym type movements, but it doesn’t always translate across to great strength in everyday life. It does usually, but not always. But I always find that Pilates is the opposite of that. You’re doing things that more closely match up to what would happen in real life, especially when we talk about activating the glutes and the core. So, it makes you stronger in day-to-day life in a more subtle way, if that makes sense, than lifting heavy weight. The third benefit to Pilates is again it can improve your balance and it’s been shown to be a great way to reduce falls for people who regularly attend a class. But one of the biggest drawbacks to Pilates is that unlike resistance training, it probably won’t increase your muscle mass. Now, not everyone’s that bothered about increasing muscle mass, but you probably should be because having more muscle mass on your body has been linked to just about every positive health outcome. So, if your goal is to build muscle, I know it feels like your muscles are working super hard in a Pilates class, but it’s unlikely you’re going to build muscle mass. Yes, you’ll get stronger, which is where these two things come in, but if muscle mass is your goal, you’re going to need to add something else in. And then the final drawback really to Pilates is the cost. If you’re going to go to a class, the cost of classes has been rising steadily over the years. Particularly if you go to something like a reformer class, they’re brilliant, but they’re expensive. So, we can’t leave that out. So, it’s definitely uh a commitment when it comes to spending if you want to join one of these classes, but if you can, it’s certainly worth it for the benefits. Next on our list, we’ve got Tai Chi or Chiong. And these are brilliant forms of exercise that many of my viewers do. Some of the benefits include better balance. This is probably the biggest one for this type of class. And there’s very robust data to show that people who do these classes fall less and they don’t get injured as frequently. It’s so good for that balance and control. And that changing center of gravity is very functional to day-to-day life. The second benefit to Tai Chi is the improvements in mobility. Now mobility and flexibility are very different. Flexibility is just how far you can move. Whereas mobility is a function of how far you can move and how much control you have over that movement. And this is what these forms of exercise are so good at increasing. It’s the control over the movement, not just how far you can go. And those slow control movements that are done in these classes translate across really nicely to better mobility in day-to-day life. The third benefit of a Taichi class is again that mind body component. And again, research is showing very strongly that people who go to these classes tend to have higher levels of well-being, less stress, less anxiety and depression, which again all add up to better health outcomes. The two main drawbacks to Tai Chi and Chiong, which we haven’t really discussed so far, the fact that it’s not going to add muscle to your body. I’m sorry, but it’s just not going to add muscle mass. So, if you’re interested in that, you’re probably going to need something else. And the other thing is it doesn’t do a huge amount for your cardiovascular fitness. Now, I know obviously that’s not the goal of this, but we still have to cover these bases. So, if you want to do this for the benefits, it’s amazing. You can’t do it alone, though, because it won’t give you massive benefits here. But combined with other things, this is a fantastic form of exercise for many people over 50. Next, we’re going to talk quickly about impact training. And impact training is jumping or hopping. And this is gaining popularity recently because of the effects on one thing, and that is your bone density. So, bone mineral density, BMD. It is one of the best ways to increase it. It’s probably one of the only ways to increase it. This and resistance training have been shown to boost bone density, especially in people that are osteopenic, so on the verge of osteoporosis. This will help. However, it does have some major drawbacks. And one of the biggest drawbacks is the safety aspect. Now, if you can jump and hop safely, absolutely go for it. It will be brilliant for your bone density. But many people in my audience just can’t do that. It’s too much impact. It starts to flare up old injuries. If you’ve already got arthritis, it can start to make it painful even when that joint was quite happy before. So, you just have to be really, really careful, especially if you’re doing things like hopping down from a height, which I’ve had people ask me about before. Just big safety aspects, which is why I don’t really talk about that stuff on my channel, even though it is effective. And then the second drawback to impact training, I guess this is just a drawback to anything bone density related, is how much time it takes to get an improvement. Now, most of the studies done on impact training that show it is effective and it increases bone density by sort of two to 5%. That’s over the course of a year. So, that’s a lot of jumping. So, many of these people are doing like 20 to 50 jumps every day to get that kind of benefit. So, if you’re expecting overnight results and suddenly to go from osteoporotic to normal, I’m afraid it’s not going to happen. It’s going to take a very long time and I just don’t know that many people willing to put in the work for the benefit. That said, if you are, it is a brilliant thing to do for bone density. There’s actually not that much else you can do. This and resistance training really are the kings, but you just have to weigh up these aspects, too. Next on our list, we’ve got gardening. Now, you didn’t think I was going to make this video and leave gardening out, did you? It’s one of the best hobbies for people over 50 and one of my viewers favorite things to do. And actually, the WHO have classified gardening as a moderate to intense form of exercise. It can burn up to 300 calories per 30 minutes. So, in terms of fitness, actually going to put that as a plus. And obviously, we’re talking about heavy gardening here. Really, just sort of pruning the hedges might not do that. But if you’re digging holes, if you’re pulling weeds, that kind of thing, great calorie burn, highly functional fitness, and a really great hobby to do. The other thing it will do is it will build up your real world mobility and strength. I’m going to put mob and str. Now, when we’re out in the real world, we need to have strength in certain ways to help us do day-to-day life. You have to be able to pick things up. You have to be able to push. You have to be able to pull. You do all of those things in gardening. You’re also crouching. You’re also getting up from the ground. So from a mobility aspect again is absolutely fantastic. Now in terms of drawbacks, I guess one of the bigger drawbacks is I’ve met many people who get injured when they’re out gardening, but I guess that can happen at any time. So I’m not going to write this down. But the main drawback I can think of is it’s very difficult to be progressive with gardening. With just about everything else we’ve discussed so far, you can quite easily progress it. You can make your resistance training harder. You can walk further. you can cycle faster. But in terms of gardening, how do you progress gardening? How do you measure what you’ve done? It’s very difficult to kind of progress over time. So, I’m going to put here no easy progressions. And one of the key forms, one of the key rules of exercise is it should be progressive over time if you want to make progress. And just doing that with gardening can be pretty tricky. Next, we’re going to talk about sports. And what I mean by sports is golf, tennis, pickle ball, team sports like walking football. All of these things are fantastic at improving many aspects of your health. So one of the biggest aspects of playing sport is usually you’re playing with other people. So it’s the social connection you get from it is one of the most powerful things for people over 50. And as I was writing my new book, I interviewed one of my oldest yet healthiest patients to ask him what his secrets were of health. And he quite honestly said that it’s getting social whilst doing something active. So he played badminton. He played every single week with a group of friends. And he said that was one of the things that’s transformed his health more than anything else. And he puts it down to this. playing with people you like, the the drink afterwards, the coffee that you go for after you finish. All of these things are some of the most underrated benefits of playing sport. Now, we get the obvious benefits of playing sport as well, like better mobility and strength. Every sport I can think of requires at least some form of mobility or strength for you to be successful. So, it helps you to build and maintain on that. And then of course, many of the sports we’re talking about also require some degree of cardiovascular fitness. So they get your heart rate up and they get your lungs working as well. So these three things are so powerful for keeping you strong and independent for longer. In terms of drawbacks to playing sport, there really aren’t that many, but one of the biggest drawbacks to playing sport is you need other people. So you’re relying on others to be able to do it. Some sports you can play on your own, like golf, I suppose you could go for a round on your own. But if you’re playing tennis, if you’re playing pickle ball, especially if you’re playing a team sport like walking football, you need to rely on other people being there to do it, which makes it hard to do multiple times per week. And with these kinds of things, the benefit, the top benefits really kick in when you’re doing it at least twice a week. Doing it once a week is amazing, but twice a week is better. And to get people organized, you’ve done it. It’s really tough to get everyone together at the same time. And then the only other negative I can think of of sports is that many sports we’re talking about here are what we call unilateral sports. So tennis, golf, pickle ball, badminton, you’re using one arm and one side of your body when you strike the ball or the shuttle clock or whatever it is. Now this isn’t bad in and of itself, but if that’s the only thing you do, you can end up with some imbalances. So, this is a small drawback, but I’m going to put onesided because it’s just something to consider. And if you look at professional athletes, yes, they’re playing sport on that one side pretty much their whole lives, but if you look at their rehab plans, they’re doing lots to make sure that they’re not overly one-sided. They’re working the arm that they don’t use during their sport just as much as the one that they do. Next, we’ve got dancing. And dancing is a super hobby for people over the age of 50. And many of my patients do this. And the patients that do it tend to report less falls than other people. And part of that is because of how good it is for improving your coordination. And of course, another big benefit to dancing is the social aspect. Being around like-minded people doing the same sort of thing, working towards learning a new skill is a fantastic way to spend your time. And it definitely helps to prevent issues like loneliness and depression and anxiety, which again are higher with age, but less in people that do hobbies like this. Now, one of the biggest drawbacks of dancing is the skill barrier. And if you don’t know how to dance or you lack coordination, yes, you can learn, but if you’re going into a class with other people who already know how to do these things, it can be embarrassing and it can be difficult for you to take part. So, it’s certainly not something that’s open to everyone, but if you have a baseline level of skill, dancing is definitely a worthwhile hobby. Next, we’ve got the wonderful hobby of rowing. And you can do rowing either on a rowing machine like a Concept 2 or actually out on the water. Either way is a fantastic form of exercise. And one of the biggest benefits is what it does for your cardiovascular health. It’s quite literally a full body exercise. as you’re using your legs, you’re using your back, you’re using your arms, all those big muscle groups are getting a workout. So, it’s no wonder that professional rowers have some of the highest rates of V2 max of just about every athlete. A second benefit to rowing that not many people think of is how good it is for your posture. You’re working terrible spelling posture. You’re working muscles in your back which are responsible for keeping you open and upright. your rhomboids, your lats, all of the supporting muscles around the shoulder blade get a brilliant workout from rowing. So, it keeps you upright for longer throughout life. Another big benefit to rowing is that it’s progressive. You can make it harder over time as you get fitter, which is one of the key principles for improving your health with age. In terms of drawbacks for rowing, one of the biggest drawbacks is you do need access to the equipment and the kit. you need a concept two rower either at home or in the gym or you need to actually be able to get out on the water if you want to do it like that. So if you don’t have access to those things, it’s pretty much closed off from you. And then the other thing about rowing is your technique has to be good to get these benefits. I’ve met quite a few people who think they’re doing the right thing with rowing. Their technique is not great and they end up straining their lower back. So, you do have to get someone to have a look at you and be pretty strict with your form if you want to get these benefits. But, if you can tick these two things off, these three benefits are massive, which makes rowing a brilliant form of exercise for over 50s. And then the final form of exercise we’re going to be talking about today are group fitness classes. Things like body pump or Zumba or any of those group classes that you can choose from all have these benefits and drawbacks in common. Now, the first obvious benefit is you’re doing it as part of a group. You get that wonderful social aspect that we’ve already talked about. But pushing hard as a group gives you something else. It’s actually a great motivator because if you see people next to you working super hard, you think, I don’t want to let her beat me. She beat me last week. I’m going to beat her today. So, that is what drives you forward and helps you get more out of your classes than if you were doing it on your own. The other great benefit to these group classes is you tend to get a lovely form of variety. Different exercises, different routines, the instructors are mixing it up. Maybe you go for different instructors over time. These things are brilliant for the body. You want to be able to partly surprise your body to make the most progress over time. So, introducing new things a stops it from being boring, but it be but b it helps your body to get fitter and stronger over time. The drawbacks of group fitness classes, particularly the big ones, are you get a onesizefits all approach. And the problem with this is that we’re all different. Our bodies are built differently. Our skeletons are built differently. Our muscles don’t work the same. If you put a group of 100 people together, everyone’s going to have different demands. And if you’ve just got a one-sizefits-all program, there’s going to be some people where those things aren’t right for. And as a result of that, there is a bit of an injury risk in these classes. The instructor doesn’t have time to come around and look at every single person. So the technique might not be right or you’re doing an exercise that might not be right for you. And that’s why we do tend to get quite a few patients from these classes. But I would say that the benefits far outweigh the negatives. You definitely have to be sensible and look at each exercise from a frame of is this right for me? But if you tick that off, these benefits are massive. So if you do a group class, definitely keep doing it because it’s such a good thing for your health. So with all that being said, how do we bring all of this together into the ideal weekly plan? Well, let me show you what I’ve put together. And this is just a suggestion. You don’t have to follow this, but this includes all of the great aspects of what we’ve spoken about today into one easy to follow weekly plan. You obviously don’t have time to do everything throughout the week. So, I’ve just picked a few highlights, but this will get give you just about every health benefit you need. So, let’s start at the top with Monday. And what we’re going to do on Monday is a 20 to 30 minute resistance training workout and go for a nice long walk. And when we say walk, we’re talking about doing a bit extra than we normally would. So, going out for half an hour in addition to your normal walking. So, trying to hit at least 6 to 8,000 steps per day if possible. You obviously get your strength, muscle, and bone density benefits here. On Tuesday, we’re going to work on our cardio. And you can choose to cycle or swim or row. You could also run here if that’s something you like to do. But we’re picking something that gets the heart rate and the respiratory system working nice and hard on a Tuesday. On Wednesday, we’re going to do something mind body focused or balance focused. So, Tai Chi, you could do kiong. You don’t actually have to do a class. You can just do, you know, a YouTube video or something. Follow it at home. Something to improve your balance, basically to give you a bit of a rest as well, cuz this doesn’t really tax your muscles or your respiratory system too much. Let’s let everything rest whilst also working on balance and control. On Thursday, we’re back to basically the Monday workout. So, we’re doing a resistance training routine again. 20 to 30 minutes and a nice long or nice brisk walk. On Friday, we’re going to work on Pilates or yoga. So, let’s get our mobility and flexibility up. If you choose Pilates, you also get that nice core and glute strength benefit. So, this is kind of your injury prevention day. To be honest, on Saturday, this is the day you play your sport. So, if you’re going to play tennis or bington or walking football, do it on the Saturday. You’re going to get those great cardiovascular benefits. Once again, maintain your strength and get that competitive and social aspect, too. You could also replace this with an exercise class if you’re not a sporty person. So, if you want to go to Zumba or something like that, do it on the Saturday. And then on the Sunday, we got a rest day. And on that rest day, we’re going to take a nice long leisurely walk. Shake out the muscles, shake out the joints, but give our body time to rest and recover ready in time for Monday. So, again, this is just a bit of fun. It’s an example of a brilliant workout routine that you could use. None of these things have to take longer than 30 to 40 minutes when you do them. So, we’re not asking you to spend all day every day exercising. That’s not what this is about. Just small bits done day in day out can make a massive difference over time. So, I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you have a schedule like this or maybe something better, let us know in the comments because we do read all of them and I’d love to read your thoughts. So, thank you so much for watching. I appreciate your time. There’s a video on the screen right now to show you how to build strength and get into resistance training if you’re not there already. You can also take my free road map in the link below and I’ll see you again on the next