Maintaining an Active Fitness Lifestyle for Guys
Guys, as we age there are certain aspects of function we are going to have to work hard to sustain in order to maintain an active fitness lifestyle.
1. Work output, strength endurance and energy
2. Hip and shoulder flexibility and mobility
3. The ability to generate relative power with daily activities
4. Keeping multi-directional balance and coordination to avoid injury
It also becomes more challenging mentally to stay on a consistent exercise routine with work, family, friends and house-related tasks pulling at us each day.
Maintaining an active fitness lifestyle will require making sure you can keep these aspects of function at a high level relative to your age.
How Can You Maintain an Active Fitness Lifestyle??
As a guy, these 6 elements must be built into a weekly exercise program.
1. A Consistent Flexibility and Mobility Program
The first thing that will decrease with age is joint mobility and muscle flexibility. This is seen far more rapidly in males than females. This loss of flexibility is also what ultimately leads to joint surface and cartilage break down. Maintaining a high level of flexibility over time will allow for healthier joint surfaces and muscle soft tissue pliability which will also make the body feel better.
2. A Consistent Warm up Routine
I have discussed this regularly but very few individuals, especially guys, incorporate an effective warm up routine that lengthens and activates muscles while getting joints loose and well lubricated.
As the body ages, it requires a longer period of time to create the chemical response needed to effectively lubricate joint surfaces and increase muscle elasticity. Implementing a consistent warm up routine early in life will eliminate unnecessary joint trauma and tendon inflammation that happens when intensity of exercise does not match joint or tendon preparation.
3. Multi-directional Integrated Strength Training
Guys that lift weights routinely train in a single plane of motion. Continually repeating this same movement will lead to overuse micro-trauma of tissues that are repeatedly challenged in the same plane or pattern of movement.
By training multi-directionally, it disperses forces through different areas on the joint surface and challenges different areas of the muscle thus creating a more 3-dimensional effect. Both of these situations decrease repeated micro-trauma to joints and muscles which obviously decreases injury risk but also decreases excessive muscle and joint soreness post exercise.
4. Speed Work or Power Training
A typical strength training program for guys emphasizes weight versus speed of movement. However, by decreasing load and increasing speed, different muscle fiber types are challenged, stabilization demands are increased and, in turn, balance control improves which we know decreases with age.
5. Circuit-based Interval Training
As we age, metabolism will decrease if not constantly challenged. Decreased metabolism leads to less fat being burned at rest. As a result, body fat often increases as we age since we are often more sedentary.
Developing efficient ways to incorporate circuit-based interval strength training into each workout will help stimulate a faster metabolism to counteract what age is trying to decrease.
6. Exercise Variety
Creating a high level of exercise variability not only decreases the likelihood of overuse trauma but it also decreases exercise plateaus while improving exercise enjoyment. These are all key elements found in a training program whose goal is maintaining an active fitness lifestyle.
As a guy who enjoyed lifting weights throughout my 30’s and into my 40’s, I understand why many of my male counterparts focus on lifting a dead weight. Unfortunately, trying to beat Mother Nature is not going to happen by only lifting weights.
As a result, the secret to maintaining an active fitness lifestyle through exercise is making sure free weight resistance does not dominate your strength training program which is where and why resistance band training becomes a necessary addition.
Summary
Not only do resistance bands allow guys to challenge themselves in multiple planes, at multiple speeds and with multiple exercise options, it also provides unlimited resistance portability which allows you to circuit train anywhere, anytime and at any intensity.
As busy fathers, husbands, employees and business owners, resistance band training allows guys to incorporate all 6 elements of training mentioned above in an effective time-efficient approach that helps maintaining an active fitness lifestyle possible.