Moving well after 50 - four important movements to train

​Welcome to the weekly warble here at Ideanthro Movement where this week we're talking about...

​​​MOVING WELL AFTER 50

- ​four​ important movements to train​ -​

Here at Ideanthro Movement (our gym is in Oxley, Brisbane in case you didn't know) we have a great group of clients over 50 years young who train with us​ regularly​. Some do personal training. Some join our group classes (mostly our Natural Movement Lite class). This puts us in a good position to talk about important movements to train to keep moving well as we age.

Before I get into it, I want to point something out. You'll notice that I didn't say "the best three movements" or the "only three movements" that you need to train. As per last week's warble, the movements that you need to train directly relate to your fitness goals, so it's not possible for me to say for sure that these are the ones for you. But I can say with confidence that for most of our clients over 50, these exercises pop up more often than not.

GETTING UP AND DOWN FROM THE FLOOR (without too much effort)

Some time ago there was research that showed that people who can get up and down from the floor easily tend to be healthier than those who can't (that's an oversimplification but you get the jist). This doesn't mean that training to get up and down from the floor will make you live longer or anything like that, but it does hint at its importance. The strength and mobility required are beneficial.

Irrespective of that, think of the practical value of being able to get up from the floor. Think of all the elderly relatives that you know who have fallen and not been able to get up. And think of all the times your grandkids play on the floor and how much they would love it if you can get down there with them. It's a movement worth training and worth maintaining for as long as possible.

BALANCE

A moment ago we spoke about falls. Being able to get back up after a fall is valuable, but not falling in the first instance is golden! That's where balance comes in.

The good thing about balance is that it improves quite rapidly with practice. Improving your balance can be as simple as spending time trying to stand on one leg or walking down the hallway (where you have walls for support if required) while placing one foot directly in front of the other. At our Oxley gym we practice walking on a variety of balance beams placed on the floor (nice and low), as well as practising in a wide variety of other ways.

BASIC VAULTING

Vaulting is a great bang for buck exercise. Now please understand, we don't mean vaulting in the gymnastics context of flips and snips through the air. In its most practical form vaulting simply means to get over an object. Because of this, vaulting has real practical value (e.g. stepping over an obstacle in the yard while gardening, or​ ​climbing onto a chair to get something out of a high cupboard) while also having potential to give a full body workout for the arms, legs and core strength and stability.

UPPER BODY PULLING AND UPPER BACK EXERCISES

The modern world (computers, couches and generally hunching in a variety of ways) has a tendency to leave us with rounded shoulders and excessively hunched backs. This is less than ideal for a variety of reasons. The way to offset this is with upper body pulling exercises (in our gym we mainly use a combination of gymnastics rings exercises, basic climbing and hanging) and thoracic extension exercises (think movements that use your upper back muscles to help you move to a less hunched position).

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That's it for this week's warble.

If you'd like a supportive place to train movements like these (and many more) then use the button below to get in touch and book a free consultation. And even if you're not looking for a gym to train but just want a little bit of advice about any of these movements, feel free to reach out as well. We're happy to help.