Personal trainer Caroline Idiens specializes in fitness for women over 40. She says that functional exercise can help prevent debilitating injuries: “When people get injured, it’s not often in the gym. It happens when they’re pulling the lawnmower out of the garage or just getting out of the bathroom,” she says. While it’s cool to, say, be a runner, this may not help when it comes to getting the bins out.
So what exercises are key? Caroline says that we should all be doing compound movements that use more than one muscle movement at a time because this mimics real life. “We don’t just bend down and pick up a laundry basket,” she says. “We pick it up, turn around with it and set it aside. It’s about mimicking and enhancing everyday movement patterns,” she says, rather than using a machine that just isolates the hamstrings.
Compound movements build strength and help increase bone strength (vital as we age), but according to Bebe Beachus, personal trainer at Soho House Group, we should also focus on “stability, mobility and flexibility” to protect ourselves from injuries. She emphasizes that we need to keep moving through our backs so that we can keep wearing laces well into old age, or as she says, “Get out of the car and stay stylish.”
Anyone can do functional training at home since it typically uses bodyweight instead of machines. Caroline says that from middle age we should all be doing 30 minutes three times a week, even if you already walk, swim or run.
The Longevity Fitness Plan
The squat press
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