Sport in old age - a must instead of an option
Sport in old age is without question an important topic for the older generation. And did I just write "also"? Especially (!) for the older generation, sport is an important topic! At Oslo Universitetssykehus - the Oslo University Hospital - an analysis was carried out on about 5700 older people. The result was clear. Three hours of weekly exercise prolong life by up to five years.
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But it is not only the longer life that makes sport so recommendable for people over 50. In a study called Performance - Age - Competition - Exercise (PACE), German sports professor Dieter Leyk found that many older marathon runners (65-69 years old) can still compete with 20- to 50-year-olds, even without having trained for decades.
The health benefits go far beyond fitness:
- The immune system is strengthened
- The cardiovascular system becomes stronger
- The general state of health is improved
But the list does not end there. Blood vessels become more elastic, blood pressure is lowered, memory is improved, stress resistance increases, and the increased safety in movement prevents falls and injuries. And - as a bonus - serotonin and endorphin are released, which improves the general joy of life.
Sport in old age - How can you start?
I don't want to deprive you of the fact that it's wrong to just start exercising now. You need to think about a few things before you start. How strong are your bones and joints? What is the ratio of fat to muscle mass in your body? Ask yourself questions about the sports you did when you were younger. What was your muscle-to-fat ratio before? Did you gain weight during the menopause? Or after pregnancy? How long has it been since you last exercised?
But also be clear about where you actually want to go. There are many very individual reasons why people do sport:
- Do you just want to move a bit more so that your whole apparatus doesn't get rusty and your motor skills improve?
- Do you want to lose a few extra pounds?
- Do you want to find like-minded people to do sport together in a group?
- Do you want to really push yourself and do competitive sports?
Start sport from scratch
We are all different. Maybe you are one of those people who sit all day. It doesn't have to be the TV, you also have to sit at work, in the car, on the train. Then the best thing for you to do is to start moving at all. Take a walk, climb the stairs, and then slowly start to do some strenuous walking or Nordic walking. You will then notice for yourself when you are out of breath, when your feet hurt, when you feel your back and when your knees pinch.
If you really want to start from scratch, the safest thing for your health is aqua gymnastics and swimming. In the indoor pool, you are not dependent on the weather, and with gymnastics you are not training alone, but have other men and women around you in the group who have the same goals. The community can be a very important point. Professor Leyk said in the interview that the most important thing at the beginning is to have fun. After all, a good portion of motivation is necessary for the first steps.
Last point: Have a proper check-up with your doctor. He can give you a good assessment of the pace at which it makes sense for you to start.
Strength training - underestimated sport in old age
Doctors are more and more convinced that fitness and endurance are only part of the good effect of sport. In fact, weight training has become the focus of attention in recent years. It may sound surprising to you, because when you think of bodybuilding studios you probably first think of crunchy and muscular lads or tanned young women without an ounce of fat. But especially as you get older, training on equipment and with weights is the name of the game. The biological process that stimulates the formation of muscle cells as soon as the muscles are loaded to the performance limit does not stop in healthy people until death. Muscle stabilises the whole body and prepares it for outdoor sports. Training at home with dumbbells or in the form of squats, push-ups or other exercises is also absolutely helpful.
According to Professor Ingo Froböse of the German Sport University in Cologne, it is sufficient to train the six main muscle groups for about 15 minutes twice a week:
- Abdomen
- Back
- front and back of the thighs
- Arms
- Shoulders
It is never too late
Professor Heinz Mechling of the Cologne Sports University found as early as 2006 that even people over 90 could achieve up to 150% performance gains in training. Charles Eugster, who at 91 is probably the oldest bodybuilder in the world, only started training seriously at 85. Think about it: people normally retire at the age of 65. But if it's possible to stay fit into your 90s and beyond, you're looking at 25 years of fun and games.
Sport that is really fun
Many things have changed in recent years that open up opportunities for us that did not exist twenty years ago. In the 1980s, a lot was written in the newspapers about the death of farmers, but as a result there is a wide range of golf courses and horse farms in Germany. What used to be an elite sport for a select few has now become an affordable popular sport. Even if your horse does most of the work, you'll find that after half an hour of riding you're already pretty exhausted. And if you play a full round of golf over 18 holes, you will have walked six to seven kilometres, depending on the course, with some steep inclines along the way. That's quite respectable.
Technological developments also make sports possible that were inconceivable in the past: The best examples are e-bikes and pedelecs. Here you can't get off the ground without moving yourself, but thanks to the support of the electric motor you have an action radius far beyond your city park. Tours of more than 40 or 50 kilometres are rarely a problem and take you to areas you may never have been to before. This way you get to know your home even better. You will find many articles here on the portal that deal specifically with individual sports. Go on a search: you will definitely find what you are looking for!
