An Aging Antidote: Just Move It!

An Aging Antidote: Just Move It!

By Jodi Nash

Trainer Kay Colgan puts Richard Taylor through his paces.

When are you too old to work out? To get fit for your age? Is it really “use it or lose it?” The consensus among local fitness professionals is by all means, MOVE!

Carol Hueter, a long-time certified personal trainer, specializes in working with 60-year-olds and up, some at the Middleburg Tennis Club, others in their own homes. After an initial assessment of a client’s baseline fitness and health challenges, she designs a one-hour workout tailored to that client’s needs. Taking into account personal goals, and any chronic health condition or injuries, she utilizes everything from recommending a long walk to free weights, stability balls, resistance bands, or medicine balls.

For those with access to stationary bikes or elliptical machines, she plots a cardio fitness regimen and encourages climbing house stairs four or five times a day. The important thing is to work up to a mid-intensity workout, and stick with it. “Just move” Hueter said. “And variety is great”. Some clients need more correction or motivational feedback than others. That’s the beauty of personal training—the trainer’s time and focus is exclusively on one individual, maximizing the workout potential.

Hueter’s emphasis is on helping people to adjust to the subtle shifts in strength and energy, as people transition from decade to decade.

“Things you previously took for granted, suddenly become harder,” she said, adding that she also values her client relationships. They offer as much to her in wisdom and experience, as she does to them in training.

“You’ve earned the slower pace,” she said. “Just don’t ever let go completely!” Kay Colgan, owner of Middleburg Pilates and Personal Training and a certified Pilates instructor and holistic nutritionist, said she avoids the “senior” label for its negative connotation.

In her view, thinking that way limits true potential, and creates fear which becomes an obstacle to staying active.

“The best exercise is the one a client enjoys and will do consistently” said Colgan, who also believes cross training is an excellent way to create a balanced body. “Pilates compliments other forms of exercise, especially yoga. The Pilates method increases coordination, using breath, rhythm and strength in a series of exercises that build core stability.”

Pilates also develops balance, and lengthens and tones all the muscle groups. “I feel young is a state of mind,” Colgan said. “It doesn’t matter how many years have passed, bodies given good whole foods, clean water, physical exercise and a connection to people and the environment equals a life that is lived to the fullest.” Both women advocate staying physically active as an effective way to create energy for the rest of life.

For those starting out, keep in mind there are four major types of exercise that comprise a well-balanced fitness routine: endurance (heart and circulatory system), strength and weight bearing exercises (reducing muscle loss and increase bone density), stretching exercises (keeping as much range of motion in joints as possible and maintaining agility), and balance exercises (through yoga, tai chi, barre, or dance classes) to prevent falls.

A little-discussed component of fitness as you age is one of the most crucial: kinesthetic awareness or “spatial orientation” ----the ability to know where you are in space.

Falls are among the biggest problems as people age, with changing vision, vertigo and balance issues elevating the risk. It can be highly beneficial to move through space, using ballroom dance, ballet, Zumba, jazzercise, or some form of martial arts. This sort of complex and patterned movement engages the brain to frequently rewire its neural pathways, boosting memory, improving cognitive function, muscle memory, balance, agility, flexibility and endurance. Movement to music can elevate mood, reduce depression, develop rhythm, and just generally make one feel happier. Or, as Ralph Waldo Émerson once said: “Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.” Trainer Kay Colgan puts Richard Taylor through his paces.