3 Problems Old People Over 40 Have to Overcome When Training

First off I’d like to say one of the problems stated in the article title is that 40 years old is old.  I’m 41, so what, welcome to the club.  You’re never too old to start changing your everyday habits into more productive ones that can get you closer to getting and staying healthy.  With that said these some of the obstacles you may encounter while continuing your fitness journey or if you’re just a beginner today.

Bad Knees

Bad knees mean a lot of pain.  I have worked with plenty of people who have had knee surgeries, knee pain, young and old alike.  Does this mean that you’ll never be able to train legs again or walk without pain?  No.  Sometimes surgery doesn’t seem to work.  It’s not until you start to build the muscle around the joints that you get relief.

Let’s start with squatting since your legs are the base for your structure.  The legs bare the most weight, require the most energy and this can sometimes cause knee pain.  But the most important thing you need to remember is the legs are only as strong as the joints.  The joints are the mortar between the bricks.  But to build those joints strong, you need to do leg extension and leg curl exercises.  This is a basic workout that has been overlooked by many people in this modern day and time.

 

Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain plagues many people.  A lot of it is due to inactivity, obesity, and a weakened core, which means a lack of strength in the back and abdominal muscles.  As you start to get older and are sedentary at your office cubicle prisons, we tend to sit more using less overall body strength throughout our adult lives.

What you have to do in your ripe old age of over 40 is stay active like a child.  That means using your whole body on a weekly basis to exercise.  This includes weight training and cardio.

Another thing that needs to be done is dieting for weight loss.  This will increase your core strength by eliminating excess body fat.  Another option is to greatly increase your lean muscle mass to have better core support which relieves the strain on your lower spine.

 

Middle Age Syndrome

Just because you’re 10 years under half a century, doesn’t mean you need to jump into the nearest 6 foot ditch.  Man is designed to live 120 years.  How you live those years depends on what type of attitude you have.  Staying positive about life and things in general can greatly improve your attitude when it comes to health and fitness as you grow older.

Nowadays many people well into their 50’s have become more active and are in better shape than many people in their 20’s.  But, luckily there are many avenues to gain knowledge and science breakthroughs with supplementation that can improve the quality of life well into your senior days and longer.

To sum up problems that people over 40 have, I can just say there aren’t many problems except the ones we create in our own minds.  So you either make the decision to start now by changing the way that you think, train, eat and educate yourself, or suffer the old man blues.

Curtis Fisher is a personal trainer, diet consultant and body builder.  You can find more fitness and diet tips at his blog Diet What Nots | Training, Eating, Science.