From the archives: Starting a get-fit regime in middle age takes care and planning. In this archive piece from 2017, All Black strength and conditioning coach Nic Gill explains how to do it as part of Phil Gifford’s men’s health guide.
The forties is definitely that point where most men sit back and go, “Holy crap, I need to get fit, I need to get healthy.”
If I was asked what is the best exercise, I’d say I don’t think it matters as long as you’re doing something. Whether you’re walking, jogging, sprinting, surfing, cycling, hiking, hunting, lifting weights, going to yoga classes, stretching or doing little circuits in your bedroom, there will be huge benefits.
We also need to adjust to workloads and seasonal changes. Be realistic. Winter is tough.
Maybe we are not as durable as we were, but we are just as capable, if we’re smart, our exercise is progressive and things are not dramatically changed in short periods of time.
People try to look for the silver bullet and it doesn’t exist. It is a matter of consistently doing something, being active and keeping the body moving.
Ease into it
So, you’re fired up, you’ve made a resolution to get fit again and, quite often, within two weeks you’ve hurt yourself.
Whatever you do, ease into it slowly. Think about being consistent, and make your fitness plan one that initially involves exercise that’s small and often, I go through about two months of niggles and injuries getting fit if I have a period of minimal consistent exercise. No matter what I’ve done in the past, it takes me a couple of months to build up to where I want to be.
We all have injuries, aches and pains and restrictions. So easing into things and creating habits and a routine are more important than trying to figure out what is the one big thing that you need to do.
![Take it easy: Start a new fitness regime slowly and build from there. Photo / Getty Images](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/XTDALGKH6VEIHP72TDQ7ME33FY.jpg?auth=e639d5fd1746ee741880e34ab1bdbae1056c2172b7fac25e6880f2f0b7a248a5&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
I’m 41, and if I was going to the gym for the first time or after a lengthy break, I would make sure I did a little bit of mobility and stretching to loosen up the creaky joints, to warm the muscles up, to regain some of that useful movement. Then I would do some resistance training and movements that don’t hurt any of my joints, so using machines and free weights to resist movement is really important.
I would finish with some cardiovascular exercise, to get the heart rate up, more so than the weights. So, you are strengthening muscle, bone and the cardiovascular system.
To end the session, I would have a stretch and a recovery session and maybe a massage.
Losing mobility
Typically, from birth we have a great range of motion in our hips, knees, ankles, shoulders and spine. We become more inactive as we age, and we stop using movement. We start losing movement in our hips, we start getting sore backs, we start getting creaky knees and our ankles ache if we run.
Stretching shouldn’t just be about stretching a muscle; it should be taking joints through ranges of motion that we used to be able to do. So squatting with a straight back so the hips are taken through a full range is just as important as stretching or lengthening the hamstrings.
We need to make sure the mobility, or the functional movement, is given as much attention as the longer muscles. I’d suggest you start with machines. Build up a little bit of a training history with machine weights and then, when you’re feeling confident and competent, get some guidance or ask to train with someone to take you through the correct use of free weights.
![Nic Gill: Mobility, or the functional movement, needs as much attention as the longer muscles. Photo / Getty Images](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/4BXPZ2VEVVDHHFAXDJYI5BIIWM.jpg?auth=3694a4f57196d127cd81b74d8441824c1c921bcae3d739e5ba66e66c4f695eb6&width=16&height=9&quality=70&smart=true)
Free weights will be better in the long term, but there’s a little more risk of injury at the start, because you can go through ranges or positions that aren’t anatomically correct and then you hurt yourself.
With time, though, you’ll get better progress using free weights, because you’re not restricted in the range of movements, as you are by a machine.
The joy of the gym when you’re older comes from the things that you can do without pounding and smashing your joints. You get the cardiovascular benefits without your hips, knees and ankles suffering.
Machine-made
Rowing machines are fantastic if you’ve got good form - as long as you have a nice strong back and you are not overloading something that shouldn’t be loaded. The bikes and treadmills are the same – if you’ve got reasonably good function and technique, they are amazing.
The good thing about elliptical trainers is that they work both the arms and the legs, but there is no impact, so people who can’t run can use them without causing any damage.
Running is tough. Jogging is an area that’s probably the best bang for your buck, but it’s also probably the most risky exercise for older people. Easing into things is most important for this particular exercise.
When you run, you’ve got your full weight landing on one foot with a bit of momentum, so the stress on the muscles and joints is quite large, especially as we get heavier. If we’re carrying a tew extra kilos, then the stress is magnified.
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If you want to start jogging after not doing a lot, my advice is to always run or jog at a speed where you can talk. Your fitness will dictate how fast you go and limit how long you can run.
Most 50-year-old men, if they haven’t been running for several years, will have to run very slowly to still hold a conversation, and they might be able to jog for only five minutes when they begin. Your body will tell you what works.
A phenomenal thing to do for anyone who wants to be active and healthy without any particular goal in mind is walk-jogging. You might start with a two-minute jog and a two-minute walk; it might be one-to-one; it might be a one-minute jog, a three-minute walk. You’re just jogging a little bit at a time and then every week or two, you increase the amount of jogging that you do. Why is this so great? Number one: you actually enjoy it, because it is not too hard. Number two: the likelihood of injuring yourself is reduced significantly. Number three: because of those two points, you are likely to make it a habit you’ll make time for. And number four could be: you can have conversations and catch up with people.
Get on the grass
Once you start running a lot, you’ll find a huge difference between running on concrete or roads and on softer surfaces such as grass or bush tracks. Do all your running on the road and the next day you’ll be stiff and sore; if you’ve had a long run on grass, your muscles will be tired. but that’s all.
The other thing with running on roads is that they’re cambered. Often people start getting a sore knee or a sore ankle because they are running on an angle the whole time. Usually, it is always the same way, because you go down one side of the road, facing traffic, and you come back on the other side of the road. The right foot that was low going out is still low coming back.
Getting off concrete has another benefit, too – if you’re in the bush or a park, the views and the environment are usually that much better. So it is so much better not only for the joints but also for the soul.
No matter who you are
Knowing what drives you will be a big help in making decisions about exercise. Most of us break down into four types:
The watcher: Hates exercise, largely inactive and likely to be in worse shape than anyone else.
The floater: Gets into exercise for a week or two, then loses interest and starts doing nothing.
The Energizer bunny: Loves being active. His reward comes from the good feelings the dopamine his exercise produces.
The challenger: Gets his buzz from taking on a challenge and achieving his goal.
What should suit me if I’m a Watcher?
It’s okay to not love exercise. It’s okay to not have a training programme. And it’s okay to not go to the gym. But there are many other ways to be active. One is to look at what you might call incidentals. Maybe parking your car three blocks from work and walking. Or walking up stairs instead of taking the lift or escalator.
Every minute of every day, cells are dying, cells are being reborn or remade. As soon as you stop, within a couple of days, the body is starting to pull back on what it needs to be able to do.
Those cells are being remade based on what they’ve experienced, or the body has experienced, over the last 24-48 hours.
If you don’t use it, you lose it. If you keep stressing the cells a little or adding exercise, you will keep being healthier and fitter day by day, week by week.
I used to think that if I went for one really good run a week I would be fine, but exercise needs to be regular, frequent and consistent.
A realistic guide is 20-30 minutes of exercise, three or four times a week, to remind the body you need to be able to jump on that bike for half an hour, to climb those stairs, to walk around that park, to mow the lawns.
What will work if I’m a Floater?
You’re a relaxed sort of person and exercise isn’t a chore, but it’s not a really big buzz or a driver. It is just something to fit in when you can. You don’t mind exercise: you quite enjoy mowing the lawns or going for a brisk walk. But you’ll only do it when you feel like it, and that may not be very often.
What can you do to make it regular, fun and hugely helpful? A great way is to make exercise part of your social life. For most of us, if we are just doing it by ourselves, it is easy to put exercise off. But if you join a touch footy team or a social netball side, you can’t let other people down. If you know your mates will be there, you’ll get there, too. And if there are other people involved, it’s also much more fun. A great way to float exercise in and out of your life (but consistently) is with work colleagues or family.
Instead of sitting in an office talking media strategy, advertising budgets or staff issues, go for a walk through the city, or around the park and “talk and walk”.
What’s best for the Energizer man?
You’re fortunate if the reward from exercise is the exercise itself. Typically, for the active person, exercise is a little bit like a drug: it is the feeling, the daily buzz of endorphins.
The benefits of exercise for our mental and physical well-being are enormous. If you’re our Energizer man, you already know that, so the only area you need to consider is that whatever physical activity you’re doing, you’re not feeling broken at the end of it.
Ideally, you would go for a walk and you would have a stretch and you would feel great. Or you would go for a bike ride and you would get off the bike and you are just, “Man, that was so cool, I enjoyed that. I feel great.”
When you walk out feeling like you have been beaten up, it becomes a major barrier to continued health and being fit for life.
And the Challenger?
Some guys really rise to a challenge, so it can be a terrific way to make you want to exercise. I have a group of mates and we identify a trip each year and say, “Okay, let’s go and run over the Tongariro Crossing.” What we enjoy is doing it together as a group of mates and we’re using that to get ourselves fitter and healthier.
We are almost like a team scattered around the country, and we’re worried about letting the other guys down, so we make sure we get out there and do our runs in the middle of winter. Some people react well to identifying something that scares them. I do Ironman and that scares me. But it gets me out of bed when I don’t want to get out of bed, and I go and exercise.
I rode 250km on my bike the other day. Someone said, “Why?” I said, “Because I haven’t ridden 250km on my bike before.”
That’s my thing, a challenge. With challenges come rewards, and they don’t have to be as dramatic as the satisfaction of finishing an Ironman. Having a more active life gives you more freedom to enjoy better food. And being able to have a couple of beers whenever you want because you are doing a bit of exercise is pretty rewarding, too.
This article was first published in the June 10, 2017 issue of the New Zealand Listener.