How to Stay Fit After 60 Without Going to the Gym? Simple Exercises with Great Effect

Exercise and sport are essential for maintaining a healthy body and mind, which also helps stay fit after 60. However, it can be difficult for most seniors to exercise with fitness equipment or in gyms at an older age. But with the right exercise routine, you can get just as good results without leaving home or going to the gym. In addition, you can consider certain exercises that can be performed with your own body weight or as gymnastics. These require minimal exercise equipment and space while increasing muscle strength and improving your quality of life. Here are some of the best ways to keep yourself feeling healthy and vibrant as you age by exercising.

How Should You Exercise to Be Healthy and Fit After 60?

Many nutrition and health experts believe that you can counteract most aging processes with certain diets and appropriate exercises. Since human biology changes significantly over the years, older adults have many reasons to exercise accordingly. For this reason, it is important to replace the sedentary lifestyle with an active lifestyle. However, it is also crucial to know how to do specific exercises without overworking yourself.

In addition, sports and such activities can be of great benefit to seniors as they make them more independent. Indeed, regular physical activity enhances older adults’ ability to be independent and carry out everyday activities without additional assistance. Accordingly, for many people of this age, it can be a tremendous motivation to exercise if independence is a priority to them.

Not to mention the numerous other benefits such as improved brain function, balance, body energy, disease prevention and much more. If you’re feeling motivated too, you might consider trying the following workouts to stay fit after 60 with functional strength training and gymnastics.

Squats for Older People

When it comes to squats, this can be an excellent exercise for building lower body strength and strengthening your legs as you age. This can significantly reduce the frequent injuries due to falls and improve your overall health. In addition, squats also support heart function, as it engages many muscle groups. Although the exercise is a little more challenging, if done properly, most older people can do it easily. If you want to try this exercise, you should start with three sets of ten repetitions each. Allow yourself enough time to go both down and up. Depending on your mobility, you may need to adjust your foot width.

• First, position your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Then extend your hands forward at floor level.
• First, make sure to keep your feet flat on the floor and lower your hips as low as possible while simultaneously bending your hips and knees.
• Finally, return to your starting position.

Stay Fit After 60 with Exercises Like Climbing Stairs

Although a common activity, climbing stairs requires coordination, leg strength, body stability and balance. Body stability is required because you need this in combination with muscle strength in the thighs to move up and forward. In addition, muscles such as calves, hip flexors, shins, quadriceps, abdominals and glutes are also among the muscles involved in this exercise. Another great benefit is that by doing this you will improve your ability to relieve lower back pain by strengthening your body muscles.

• You can start by using a crate, for example, to climb up. When doing this, opt for something that will be no more challenging than climbing stairs.
• Then, starting with your feet together, lift your right foot onto the platform. Your position must be stable before proceeding to the next step.
• Now step onto the chosen platform and bring both feet together.
• After that, come down first with your left foot and then with your right foot.
• First do one repetition for the other side as well. Five sets of six repetitions each are enough to perform the exercise effectively.
• Also, try counting a second before ascending and when descending.
• To optimize, you can also perform the exercise with dumbbells to increase resistance or increase the intensity with a higher platform.

Planks in Old Age

Another challenging but very effective workout is the plank. This can easily be performed by seniors without making too much effort. It’s a body exercise, and the static position can help you build core strength and stability without straining your back. You’ll also work your hips, glutes, and shoulders. In general, it’s a total body workout that can get you fit after 60 in just 30 seconds.

• First, start by kneeling on a mat or other suitable surface.
• Then place your forearms on the mat and bend your elbows at a 90-degree angle.
• After that, you should fully extend your legs to the back of your body.
• In this position, try to first support your whole body with your forearms and toes, keeping your back and spine in a straight line.
• Hold the plank for 30-45 seconds and then return to the starting position.

How the Bent-Over Row Can Keep You Fit After 60

Bent over row can also provide a beneficial full-body workout as you age. This will increase the strength of your lower back, abdominal muscles, hamstrings, glutes, upper back and arms. This type of exercise can also improve mobility of your spine and thoracic spine. In addition, this is also a challenging exercise that may require weights and a little more hip mobility. The movements it creates mimic many everyday activities that require bending.

• First, get into a position with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Then, with two light dumbbells in each hand, slowly bend forward at the hips.
• Then pull your elbows back to raise the weight towards your chest.
• Try to keep your back straight as you lift the weights up and down.
• For better results, you can do bent over rows for three sets of ten repetitions, or pyramidal for twelve, ten, and eight repetitions.

Lunges as Strength Training with Your Own Weight for Better Fitness and Endurance

Finally, you can try lunges to stay fit after 60. This type of exercise helps you with strength training by strengthening the quadriceps, glutes, and hamstrings. If you enjoy hiking or if you enjoy sports like bocce ball, golf, or tennis, lunges can strengthen your legs and improve your performance even as you age. In addition, such a workout will help strengthen the muscles you need to sit down and stand up. As a result, you will have to put less strain on your joints.

• Again, start with your feet shoulder-width apart on a flat surface.
• Then take a big step forward so that you have a split stance.
• After that, drop your back knee to the floor while keeping your back straight and your eyes at eye level.
• You can stretch your arms out to the side at the same time to improve balance.
• Now take a splits position again by pushing the floor away from you.
• Do three pyramidal sets, doing one set of twelve, then ten, and finally eight repetitions.
• You can also add dumbbells to increase resistance.

Also read: 5 minutes of exercise a day: This is how the new fitness trend from Japan “Zero Training” works!