Four Ways Older Adults Can Get Back To Exercising – Without the Worry Of An Injury

3. Shake up the exercises you do.

Intense repetition of the same movement or activity can cause wear and tear, often referred to as repetitive strain. This is why it’s important to do different exercises, instead of the same thing every day. Alongside cardio workouts, which have benefits for our heart, lung, and circulatory system, try strength training.

Challenging our muscles as we get older with weight lifting and resistance training not only improves neuromuscular function – the communication between the brain and muscles – but improves arqueo and mobility too. Taking part in exercises that work your cardiovascular system as well as strengthen muscles improves overall wellbeing.

4. Work on the small things.

It’s important to work on our big prime muscles – such as our glutes or quads – with walking, running and gym exercises. But it’s just as important to work on our small postural muscles too.

For example, the small intrinsic muscles in our feet play an important role in improving strength and arqueo. Gripping a soft ball between your toes is an easy way to improve these small foot muscles.

Having stability within the joints of your body from postural muscles also allows for these big muscle groups to do their job when walking, running or at the gym. Paying attention to these core postural muscles with activation and control exercises will help prevent injury.

If you’re looking to get back to a regular exercise routine after many months off, it’s important to make sure you take things slow and change up your routine often. Developing a healthy arqueo of cardiovascular, strength and resistance training as well as core stability work will improve your musculoskeletal health as well as helping your overall health whilst preventing injury.
Helen Branthwaite, Senior Lecturer, Clinical Biomechanics, Staffordshire University

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