Exercise Archives - Fran's Fitness Over 50

Stop scrolling and start balancing

How much time do you spend waiting in your kitchen? Waiting for the microwave, waiting for the water to boil, waiting and stirring the pasta sauce. It can be relaxing, but aren’t you just wasting that time scrolling through your social media feeds? You could actually be using that waiting time to be improving your balance and stabilizing your core. Stop scrolling and start balancing.

Story time – why focusing on balance is important to me. You’ve probably seen ads from perky young trainers who advise their older clients to work on their balance – a simple 30-minute program to improve your balance. Guess what? Not gonna happen. Working on balance is not the most fun thing. And if you have to do it for 30 minutes at a time, you’re only going to do it once. And that won’t help anything. You probably know someone who’s taken a fall, so you know you need to start working on your balance, but a half hour at a time?

A few years ago (okay, more than a few…) I lost my balance and fell, wrecking my knee and triggering bursitis in both hips. That hurt. I couldn’t do my regular workouts for a while, so in my extra free time I started researching why people tend to fall more as they age. It turns out that it’s a natural phenomenon. We just lose stuff as we get older. Hair, eyesight, hearing, sense of balance. But, unlike hair, eyesight and hearing, balance is a “use it or lose it” thing. You can actually improve it. And, it really doesn’t take that long.

I should know. I do 2 minutes of balance exercises every day. Standing on one foot for a minute while I brush my teeth, and then the other one sometimes gets messy, but bathrooms wash. Some days I do more, but most days just those 2 minutes. And my balance has improved.

When you’re starting to develop a new habit, it’s hard to remember it some days. That’s why stacking the new one (a balance move) on an old one (brushing teeth) is so helpful. Pretty soon you don’t even have to think about the new one, and it just feels wrong if you miss it.

So, use that counter if you need it to stabilize yourself. Stand on one foot. Make sure your back is straight, your hips are level, and your core is tight. You’ve got a built-in ballet barre to help you with your balance moves. And if you don’t need to hold on, so much the better. Use your formerly wasted time – stop scrolling and start balancing. You’re not only improving your balance, you’re improving your resilience, too. Those who’ve fallen and not done anything about it are more likely to become isolated and withdrawn. But not us – we’re out there. Independent and able to do what we want, when we want.

And if you want more variety, download Your Week of Core-Centered Balance Moves. Simple but effective.

Strength or cardio first?

It’s the age-old question. Strength work or cardio first? You want to maximize your workout, and you know that you have to prioritize strength work. But you also have to get in your cardio. So, which should you do first? The experts agree – strength first, unless you’re focusing on endurance.

I don’t like to exercise – you know that – but I do want to stay fit and healthy. So I like to combine both strength and cardio in my workouts, even if I have less than an hour for my exercise session. By doing my strength work first, I’ll be fresher, and be able to focus on my form more. Chances are the exercises will be more effective, and I’ll build strength in my muscles more than if I did cardio first.

If I do cardio first, I’ll be more tired and my form won’t be as good. All good things to consider.

On the other hand, if I want to build my endurance, I’ll focus on cardio, spend a longer time on it, and just do the minimum amount of strength work.

Another thing to consider is whether one of your goals is losing weight. A small study found that doing strength training first actually burned more fat. Another point in its favor. Cardio relies on a mix of glycogen and fat for fuel, he added. “You burn glycogen when you lift weights, so if you do cardio afterward, your body has to burn more fat for fuel,” according to Danny King, physical trainer at the Life Time chain of fitness centers.

And don’t forget that body-weight exercises count as strength work. Push-ups and planks are great for strength. Lunges and burpees also count. To combine these body weight exercises with cardio work, perhaps do 30 seconds of jumping jacks, 30 seconds of planking, and so on. No need for fancy equipment.

Flexibility is your fitness superpower

The Secret to Longevity: Why Flexibility is Your Fitness Superpower Over 50

When we think about “getting fit” in our 50s and 60s, our minds often jump straight to cardiovascular health or building muscle. While walking and strength training are vital, there is a “missing piece” to the wellness puzzle that often gets sidelined: flexibility. Improving your flexibility isn’t just about being able to touch your toes. It’s a fundamental pillar of healthy aging and a primary driver of how we feel—both physically and mentally—every single day.

The Longevity Link

Recent science has highlighted just how critical flexibility is for our long-term health. A landmark 2024 study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports followed middle-aged participants for over a decade. The researchers, led by Dr. Claudio Gil S. Araújo, discovered that individuals with greater flexibility had a significantly lower risk of premature death. Interestingly, this association was particularly strong in women, suggesting that maintaining a wide range of motion is a literal lifesaver as we age.

Physical Freedom and Healthy Aging

As we age, our tendons naturally lose some elasticity and our joints can become stiff. Feeling creaky when we get up from a chair should be our signal to take a short walk or do some squats. By prioritizing flexibility, we maintain the range of motion necessary for things we do every day—things like reaching for a high shelf, tying shoes, or playing on the floor with grandkids. Improved flexibility also reduces the risk of falls by enhancing balance and stride mechanics, allowing us to maintain our independence for years to come. So the more flexible we are, the more able we are to do the balance exercises I recommend every day.

The Mindset Shift

Increase your balance in just a couple of minutes a day

The benefits of stretching extend far beyond the physical. Flexibility training, especially through mind-body practices like Yoga or Tai Chi, acts as a bridge to a better mindset. A 2024 study in Frontiers in Public Health found that mind-body exercises significantly improve psychological resilience and quality of life in older adults.

As an added bonus, when you stretch, you aren’t just lengthening muscle fibers; you are signaling to your nervous system that it is safe to relax. This reduces cortisol levels and helps alleviate the “brain fog” or anxiety that can sometimes accompany this stage of life. A flexible body often leads to a flexible mind—one that is more resilient to stress and more open to the joys of aging.

Your Path Forward

You don’t need to spend hours on a mat to see results. Just 10 to 15 minutes of dedicated stretching or a gentle yoga flow three times a week can transform your mobility. Spend a few minutes walking or biking first to warm up. The Mayo Clinic emphasizes that you can hurt yourself if you overly stretch cold muscles. Start where you are, honor your body’s limits, and remember: staying limber is one of the greatest gifts you can give your future self.

Functional fitness moves – not just a trend

I don’t want to exercise just for the sake of exercising. Exercise is not my favorite thing to start with, so I’m only going to do it if it makes my life better in other ways. Focusing on functional fitness moves makes sense, then. “Functional fitness exercises train your muscles to help you do everyday activities safely and efficiently,” according to the Mayo Clinic. These exercises combine moves the way we move in everyday life. And, in fact, when we do functional moves, we’re getting at least double the benefit of the exercise. That’s efficiency.

The workouts I do have incorporated funcional moves for years – I never knew it. That’s how a 30-minute functional workout can take the place of a 45-minute one that doesn’t employ functional moves. And, the moves frequently use weights, so we’re getting the strength training we need for our muscle and bone health. The moves involve multiple joints and multiple muscles in the same exercise. Employing functional exercises makes moving around doing everyday activities easier, which improves our quality of life, increases our independence, makes us more optimistic and more resilient.

One functional fitness move is the squat with an overhead press – hold a pair of weights that are challenging for you, bend your arms so the weight is at the same level as your shoulder and have your feet shoulder-width apart. Squat, bending your knees so that they’re behind your toes if you look over them. Stand up and press the weights overhead. Bring the weights back to the starting position and repeat. You’re working most muscles in your body with this one.

Another functional move is the deadlift with row. Stand tall, holding challenging weights, keeping your knees soft. Bend from the hips keeping the weights close to your legs. At your lowest point, bend your elbows and bring the weights up to your waist, keeping your arms close to your sides. Bring the weights back down and stand. Repeat.

You get the idea – with functional fitness moves, you’re performing multiple moves, working more than one part and getting ready for whatever your day brings.

Try a smaller goal for the win

February goal

We think of resolutions as a New Year thing – because that’s the biggest new start of the year. But, here’s another way of looking at goals. We’re given a new start every month, every week, even every day. So, don’t look at your failure from the week, month, or year before as a complete flop, because you get another chance. If you like resolutions, start a February resolution now. If you prefer goals, start working on a February goal. You’ll be more likely to achieve a smaller goal anyway. And those small goals lead to bigger ones.

Those smaller goals count

Sure, you can have a big goal in mind when you create your smaller monthly goals. But those big goals are daunting. If a goal is too big, I’m frozen into paralysis and unable to accomplish anything. The overwhelming challenge of that big project or goal makes it impossible to continue. But smaller goals are more achievable. They’ll keep the momentum going. And they’re easier to attach milestones to. Plus, we have to remember that celebrating every milestone is even more likely to keep us on the path to that bigger goal.

There’s an old Chinese proverb that says that a long journey starts with a single step. You’ve got to start somewhere. And starting on the road makes you more likely to continue.

Breaking big projects into smaller goals also helps to reduce the fear – that paralysis we face when encountering something massive – and can also help to clarify the direction that the final project will take.

An example

Say your goal is to work out 4 times a week for a year. That’s 52 weeks, 4 times. Or 208 workouts. That’s a lot of workouts. Very daunting. But, break that up. Your goal for February is 16 workouts. 4 short weeks. That’s much more doable. And you can break that up even further. One week is only 4 workouts. A power walk on Sunday with the family, intense cardio on Monday, strength on Wednesday, and yoga on Friday. Celebrate afterward. Perhaps a new playlist? And you’re pumped for next week. You’re focused, you’re locked in. Your self-confidence is soaring. You’re resilient – you can tackle anything.

And that’s what smaller goals can do.

Resilience grows with little habits

You don’t need me to tell you that things are tough these days. It’s hard even waking up and facing a new day. It’s tempting to get back under the covers and withdraw from the world. But that’s the way things are now, and the more we can do for our own resilience, the happier we’ll be. Former Navy SEAL Mark Divine suggests that the rituals we do every day can help. Our resilience grows with little habits that are part of those rituals. Like brushing our hair a certain way. Or making the bed at the same time every morning.

And it turns out that a study from MIT supports Divine’s claim. We all know that it takes many repetitions for something to become a habit. Do something every day for about a month. The MIT study shows that making small changes with consistent positive reinforcement helps the process. “The brain has an absolutely fabulous system for getting reward signals. The system is so sensitive that researchers have seen nerve cells fire in response to a single word, evoking a craving long after a habit has been kicked.” This means that once a habit is formed, it sticks. And that’s why it’s so hard to break habits, even bad ones, like smoking. The brain associates the action of the habit with the reward that it received – even if it hasn’t received that reward recently.

So, healthy habits that we practice continually through the day can condition our minds and body to be calm, maintain a neutral perspective, and consider our next actions clearly. These habits serve us well in times of stress. We can better deal with that stress and not overreact. But how to create those healthy habits? I’ve talked about creating an exercise habit before, because folks seem to have the most resistance to that. It’s easily doable – I’m not going to say it’s easy, because for many, it’s totally alien. But it’s doable. Find a program that you don’t hate. Schedule it on your calendar. Prepare for that very important date with yourself. And show up.

When you create healthy habits for yourself, your resilience grows. It’s, of course, essential for your healthy aging. And you’re happier and more optimistic. You’ll be courageous in a way you never envisioned.

Goal for the year: do more squats

I know – most of us hate squats because we have bad knees. I know I do. Experts say the squat should be the number one exercise we seniors do. Let’s explore the why first, and then the how to make this our goal for the year..

The benefits

Squats will give you legs that can go forever. If we want to be able to walk from a distant parking space to the store, squats will give that gift to us. No more wasting time circling, looking for a close parking spot. Our legs will be strong enough to carry us wherever we want to go. Trips to Disney with the grandkids? You’ll be able to outwalk them through the parks. Hiking trips with friends? No problem. And if you’re used to seeing new cities from a bus window, you’ll be able to take walking tours instead pretty soon.

When you do more squats, you’ll be strengthening your thigh muscles and protecting your hip and knee joints. Exactly what we all need. When you do squats correctly without overextending, you will be improving muscle tone. You’ll experience that when you’re able to get out of low-slung chairs and sofas. No more struggling to stand up.

And you may live longer. Studies have shown that people with stronger quadriceps muscles (the ones on the front of your thighs) tend to live longer. Another side benefit – the way your legs look will change. You’ll actually see muscles. And that’s kind of cool, especially for us older folks. So that should be our goal of the year: do more squats!

Here’s how:

How to do a proper squat. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. If you have hip issues, it’s OK if your legs are a little farther apart. Point your toes slightly outward. If you’re nervous about this, face a kitchen counter to start and hold on.

Bend at your knees and push your hips back like you are about to sit in a chair. Keep your back as straight as possible, chest up and heels planted on the floor (you can even try lifting your toes in your shoes). Tighten your core. Keep your weight evenly distributed. Make sure your knees don’t extend forward over your toes, because you can risk hurting your knees. You should be able to see your toes beyond your knees when you squat. There’s no need to go deep, because standing up is the more important part of the exercise.

To stand, push the ground away with your heels and exhale.

Aim for 2 sets of 8 squats each to start. Go at a slow pace – 2 seconds down, 2 up. And incorporate squats into your workouts 3 times a week.

As you get stronger, let go of the counter. You can hold your arms straight in front of you as you squat and at your sides as you stand. Or, if you tend to hunch over, cross your arms in front of your chest to help keep your back straight.

When you can successfully do 2 sets of 15 squats, try holding a pair of dumbbells at your sides. Start with light ones.

There are lots of variations, but start slowly and build up. You’ll be able to get out of that chair without using your hands in no time.

Unleash your creativity and boost your cognition

It’s the time of year when we see people’s creativity all around us. They decorate their homes with lights, colorful figures and greenery. Who wants to get all techie and ruin the mood? I say, embrace your creative side these last weeks of the year and get more done than ever. Unleash your creativity and boost your cognition. We already know that exercising helps boost your memory power. But we can also solve more problems as we get more artsy. And I’m not the only one saying this.

Your brain becomes more flexible

Fostering your creativity trains your brain to be more adaptable and flexible in dealing with all sorts of problems. Not just how to get that pot completely balanced and smooth, for example, but how to solve that problem with a work project or a relationship or a career issue. As I work on a knitting project, for example, my stitches start out uneven and the yarn tension is unbalanced. But as I work through my knitting issues, other problems are also being worked on in the back of my brain.

Being creative takes you out of the linear thinking mode and the confines of regular logic. Options stop being only black and white. Your mind can look at problems from many different angles and see potential solutions that you otherwise might miss.

All parts of the brain are involved

We used to think that creativity came from just one part of the brain. But scientists have debunked that theory. Multiple parts of the brain are involved, along with neurotransmitters and other cognitive processes. The temporal lobe which is used for processing memories and emotions, the parietal lobe which is mostly for sensory processing, and even the prefrontal cortex, used mostly for high-level cognitive tasks, gets involved when you’re doing some creative thinking.

Cognition involves many mental processes we use to learn and understand things. Processes like attention, perception, memory, and problem-solving. Creative thinking uses all of these processes as well.

So, get smart and get creative. Go take up a new hobby. Or dust off that scarf you started knitting last year.

By the way, getting creative can also boost your healthy aging. Creative hobbies can reduce stress and help us be more optimistic. Finishing a creative project will also boost our confidence and our resilience.

AI is great – to a point

Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere, all the time. And it definitely has its uses. It can spark thoughts and ideas, schedule meetings, even write things for you. But take AI’s contributions with multiple grains of salt. AI is great – to a point. I even had input from AI to illustrate my children’s book. Be aware, though, that AI has limitations. At the bottom of AI generation screens, there’s even a statement telling the user to, basically, beware. AI has been known to make mistakes even when the output seems like fact.

But I wondered if AI could design a workout plan. Personal trainer Cori Ritchey wondered the same thing for himself and wrote in Men’s Health how the plan it came up with worked. He entered some basic information about himself, his experience, and his goals. And the bot came back with an extensive month-long workout plan. Ritchey followed it, complimenting the bot on some things as well as noting where it was deficient.

Ritchey’s conclusion was that if the user was a trainer themselves, and understood how exercises work together, a workout plan developed by AI could work. But he also warned that the user must know their own body. I know that I can’t do a lot of shoulder work due to dislocations years ago. (Yes, ouch.) So, if a workout plan recommends shoulder work, I’d have to modify it to suit my body. And AI may not correlate workout time and the effort needed. If you tell the bot that you only have 15 minutes, it may suggest something ridiculously difficult.

He also warned that an AI-generated workout plan is not a great motivator. If you can self-motivate, then you might be able to follow through on a month-long plan successfully. But, if you’re more tempted by the living room couch or the latest trend streaming online, you’d probably do better with something else.

I’ve talked about ways to start an exercise program, and if you decide walking or dancing as a great way to move your body, AI can probably suggest a great playlist.

Alternatively, there are now AI-supported applications that act as personal trainers. I admit, I didn’t check the cost, but found it interesting that they exist now. In fact, I just read about one personal trainer AI app that was actually built on AI. Its creator became a certified trainer to ensure authenticity and insert some of the human motivational element. But, as always, caveat emptor. Remember that AI is great – to a point. And also remember that AI is the first to admit that it can make mistakes.

Clarify your priorities

An old tool, but a good one for clarifying priorities

We’re getting close to that time of year when everyone seems to be talking about resolutions and goals for next year. I do this all year, because life doesn’t automatically change on December 31 and I have a whole new set of priorities. But many people stand by the New Year’s Resolution thing. Regardless, this is an exercise that everyone does at some point.

Here’s an old tool, but a good one, for clarifying priorities. Steven Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, coined the term for the process from a speech given by Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Eisenhower Decision Matrix, or Urgent-Important Box, helps clarify priorities and determine the order tasks should be performed. I like this because it shows at a glance how we view problems. I’ve changed the matrix a little to suit the task of goal-setting.

First step – list the tasks that need doing. In order to prioritize our tasks we have to know what they are. Spend a couple of days on this – writing the tasks down as you think of them. I’ll be brushing my teeth at night and I’ll think of something that needs to get done. That’s why I always keep my trusty notebook with me. The next morning I’m usually able to decipher my cryptic notes. So spend a couple of days thinking before you start to set your priorities

Urgent or Important?

Top-left, or front and center, are the things that are most important – the things that have consequences if they’re not completed. For us, if the doctor tells us to lose 50 pounds or we’ll die, that’s most urgent and imporant. These usually come to mind right away. We schedule everything else around these urgent and important tasks.

Important but not urgent tasks are those you still want to complete. These are the tasks or goals that you believe will set you up for success or happiness. So schedule your intermediate steps for these. If mastering the side plank will make you feel incredibly strong, schedule those mini-goals right on your calendar. Modify for a week on elbow and knee with your foot on the floor. Then lift the foot. When you’re ready lift onto your elbow and stagger your feet for the side plank. Then stack your feet, then lift onto your hand – you get the idea. You’re building your arm and core strength, and you’ll be making strides if you follow your schedule. And, by the way, this is an empowering pose. You’ll feel unbeatable.

Those urgent but unimportant tasks – like dusting – can be avoided or delegated. If you want your house cleaned before the holidays, hire a service.

And the tasks that are not urgent and unimportant can be put on your list for when you have an extra five or ten minutes between other tasks. Or if they’re fun tasks, like reading a chapter in that library book, you can fit that in as your little reward for achieving a mini-goal.

It may seem like an overwhelming job to prioritize all the tasks you have to do. But clarifying your priorities is an important step. So, don’t panic and set yourself a reasonable time to get it done. The Eisenhower Matrix can be a valuable tool. And then starts the really fun job of achieving your biggest goals.