Exercise for the 40's

 

 

The 40's is the time when you may notice a change in energy, your muscle tone & your overall wellbeing. 

 

While it's advised to do 45 minutes of cardio 3-4 times a week in your 20's or 30's, it's now recommended you do 45 minutes of cardio 4-5 times a week when you enter your 40's.  You do so with less intensity and less impact than your earlier years. 

 

In earlier posts, I've spoken extensively about walking.  When you're in your 20's, 30's, power walking, jogging, running are high pact exercises that can bring a variety of health benefits.  You increase your circulation, your metabolism & maintain lean muscle tone.  However, in your 40's and 50's your flexibility may decrease and your ability to sustain high pact cardio exercise.  All you have to do to remedy this is to walk slower but walk for a longer period.

 

The same approach can be used when doing cardio exercise classes like aerobics.  Do more classes but do them in a less vigorous way.  And do them for longer periods.  Instead of the 20 minute workout, do them for 3/4 of an hour or an hour.

 

Muscle tone & belly fat may increase as well in your 40's.  Health experts maintain that if you lose weight you are unlikely to lose weight in any targeted area so the best way to lose belly fat is through exercise.  In future posts, I'll talk about some prevalent popular ways to reduce belly fat. 

 

Increasing muscle tone is easier to accomplish and can be done with good eating habits, fresh water daily and habitual daily exercise.