Exercise Selection for Women Over 50
Exercise selection to be effective must match our current fitness level and our goals. The process of aging for both men and women creates some common challenges.
Since our challenges change with aging, our exercise selection should change to match these new challenges.
Mental acuity and hormonal changes are tow of these. Bone loss is another element to consider in selecting exercises for women over 50.
Understanding the role women play in the survival of the human race helps understand their physical and psychological makeup. Both the physical make up of women to allow them give birth and their emotional makeup that enables them to be nurturing play a role in the selection of their workouts.
Consider their periodic hormonal swings during childbearing years and the hormonal imbalances they face after menopause. Exercise selection must complement these natural changes that men are clueless about.
Men may be able to study scientifically and observe. As sons, husbands, trainers and healers they may share the experience with their mothers, wives nd clients only to a certain degree.
In helping women over the age of 50 with weight loss challenges and changing their body composition, from a scientific viewpoint, I recognize the toxins stored in their fat cells. I know how hormones generated by fat cells impact thought patterns, emotional responses, and physical abilities. But I have not personally felt them. I am the first to admit this to be a shortcoming.
So I rely more on science of aging that connects hormonal activities and mental acuity in both men and women, and I pay extra attention to the loss of bone density unique to women.
In exercise selection to be both effective and comprehensive for women I include three elements.
First, focus on re-balancing the hormones through increasing the body’s performance in replenishing their dwindling male hormones. Female hormones especially after menopause are connected with many health problems. Increase in male hormones does not mean that they become like men. It means their hormonal balance returns to the levels they had when they were younger.
Second, choose both exercises and specific exercise forms that engage the mind in various ways. Learning becomes a part of exercise progression. Mind like muscles respond to stimulation. Exercise could be engaging and stimulating based on how it is designed and the fitness equipments used or not used..
Third, focus on intensity progressions especially on load bearing resistance training. Bone density increase is based on the accumulation of calcium in bones. Load bearing exercises at a certain intensity forces the bones to accumulate calcium. Progression is where increased exercise intensity I achieved safely.
Aerobic exercises recommended to the older account for cardiovascular fitness is among the worst exercise for women over 50. Common aerobic exercises have been connected to bone loss