Starting An Exercise Routine After 40

I hope it is clear by now that this blog primarily addresses those middle agers who are interested in getting or staying fit.
To those of you who have not yet decided to jump in yet I'd like to give some important information before you start hitting the weights or the track.

Like it or not, in spite of all the recent breakthroughs in medicine, aging is still a universal phenomenon affecting each and every one of us (even cosmetic surgery clients).
Usual guidelines for screening those who want to take up an exercise routine in middle age are as follows: if you are 45 or older for a man or 55 or older for a woman, you should always consult a physician for a detailed checkup before starting any exercise routine.
Even if you are younger you should always consult a physician before starting an exercise routine if you present with any kind of cardiovascular condition (including hypertension, heart problems, stroke, high cholesterol etc), respiratory problems (including asthma), bone, joint or muscles ailment, if you are obese or have diabetes.

Note that this list is not exhaustive and that any of the above conditions need not have been diagnosed: like millions of Americans, you may have diabetes without knowing it or a heart condition unbeknownst to you. As the saying goes: better safe than sorry. Better consult a physician than shun a consultation and collapse with a heart attack.


Once you have received clearance from a physician, you should keep in mind that exercising in one's 40's or 50's or later will not be the same experience as playing football or running long distance in college.

Several recommendations apply to all midlife athletes, even the fittest of us. After about the age of 35 or 40, our muscles, ligaments and tendons lose some of their elasticity. This, again, is normal aging. As a result, you should pay more attention to warming up before any kind of exercise session. 5 to 10 minutes of exercise-specific warm up is strongly recommended before each exercise session. This also applies to the most important of all muscles: our heart.
Don't rush into any exercise session abruptly. Raise the level of intensity gradually before hitting your stride. If you work out, raise the weight you lift gradually (I add 5 to 10 kg to each successive set, depending on the exercise), if you run or ride a bike, start up slowly for at least 10 minutes before accelerating.

This recommendation has another implication (and I know that I am not going to ingratiate myslef with a lot of my readers by writing this): midlife athletes should try to avoid sports involving an intrinsically irregular pace e.g. tennis, squash, basketball...

As our heart ages it becomes less elastic, and hence has a lower capacity to change pace rapidly. I am not suggesting that everybody should stop practicing the aforementioned sports when they hit 40. I am simply saying that risks of serious injury or death increase significantly with age, especially past the fourth decade. Cases of sudden deaths of people practicing squash or tennis, especially older players are therefore not exceptional. 
The same occurrence while riding a bicycle or swimming is a lot more rare.
I personally almost exclusively ride a bicycle for aerobic exercise. In addition to being very heart-healthy it is also low impact (unlike running) for my knees and ankles which have already suffered a lot from my soccer-playing past. Swimming is obviously another very heart-friendly low-impact exercise that I would warmly recommend to older athletes (as for me I simply don't like - cold- water...).

In summary, you should consult a physician before taking up or resuming any rigorous exercise regimen after a long pause, pay additional attention to the warm up phase and avoid sports with an irregular pace and/or high impact on your joints.

Provided you heed these elementary instructions, exercising on a regular basis (3 to 5 times a week) will make you less prone to a large number of diseases, the list of which keeps getting longer with each new study on the subject of health and sport. Let's remember that, from a physiological viewpoint, we are the direct descendants of the Savannah men who, as hunter-gatherers less than 10,000 years ago, still depended on both their aerobic and anaerobic capabilities to survive.