Please get rid of them as soon as
possible.
You should maintain an active and healthy lifestyle regardless of
your age. This means focusing on the fundamentals: eating a healthy diet rich
in lean protein and vegetables, weight training regularly, and participating in
cardio activities. You're on the right track if you've already started
incorporating these into your daily routine. However, especially if you're over
60, there may be a few lousy exercise habits you should break as soon as
possible. This is because there are some activities that you can safely do in
your 30s and 40s that you won't be able to do as you become older.
Please don't fret because these lousy exercise habits can be
fixed, which we will get into below. But first and all, it is essential to
listen to your body and not push yourself or take on more than you are
physically able of. When in doubt, seek the advice of a healthcare professional
to develop the ideal exercise plan for you. You can also work with a personal
trainer who will walk you through a personalized workout plan to produce
positive outcomes.
Without further ado, here are four lousy exercise habits that
everyone over the age of 60 should avoid. Read on to find out more.
1. Performing exercises that give you any pain or discomfort
This should be a no-brainer and something you should never do, no
matter your age. When you're working out, it's essential to listen to your body
and know what it can and can't take.
Joint health becomes increasingly important as you get older. And,
as previously mentioned, some exercises are safe to do when you're younger but
are likely to cause harm as you get older. It could be due to a lack of
mobility or that these exercises put more strain on your joints. Common
exercise examples include upright rows, skull crushers, or behind-the-neck presses
and pulldowns.
If an exercise causes you any pain or discomfort, stop doing it
right away and replace it with a similar, joint-friendly alternative.
2. Prioritizing cardio over strength training
Although cardio is essential for heart health, burning calories,
and improving endurance, many people go overboard with it and completely ignore
strength training. The problem is that as you get older, you lose muscle mass
and bone density more quickly—especially if you don't do anything to keep it
up. Start incorporating strength training into your routine if you aren't
already doing so to build and maintain lean muscle.
3. Ignoring flexibility and mobility work
When you become older, you lose more than just lean mass; you also
lose range of motion and flexibility, especially if you don't do anything to
keep them. Besides maintaining your skeletal muscle and performing
joint-friendly exercises, a bad exercise habit of quitting now is to stop
ignoring mobility and flexibility. Use stretches, mobility drills or even yoga
classes to enhance your flexibility and range of motion in all of your movement
patterns.
4. Using exercise to burn off "cheat meals" and
"cheat days."
This is a psychological rather than a physical habit that affects people of all ages. You may like to add "cheat meals" and "cheat days" into your weekend eating and end up over-exercising because you feel guilty about how overindulgent you were. Unfortunately, this can lead to an endless cycle, and you likely won't make solid progress with your fat loss goals. Instead of using exercise as a way to burn off "cheat days," utilize it to enhance your fitness.
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