The Hip-Hop Grannies
Posted by | Posted in Exercise | Posted on 21-08-2008
Tags: aarp fitness, elderly workouts, hip-hop grannies, old age, older-adult exercise
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I don't know how many of you have seen the Hip-Hop Grannies, who were publicized during the Beijing Olympics, but this group of 45 to 74-year-olds shows how age shouldn't be used as an excuse for not staying healthy. This group of Chinese women, though it may be corny, started a group where they perform hip-hop dancing to different up-beat songs; the result, better health and more energy.
Even in your later years, maintaining a healthy lifestyle should still be a priority. I've worked with all ranges of ages, and the one thing I've found with many of the older clients I've trained is that, yes, they may not be able to exercise as intensely as my younger clients, but they still have the drive and ability to get results.
What is even neater is that some of the older adults I have worked with have never done any type of resistance training in their entire life, some have never even exercised at all, but what's so wonderful to see is that once they start to get into it, they love it! I've had a number of my older clients say that their exercise time is something they look forward to every day. Why is that? I think it's because they realize there's no need to be intimidated of exercise, and they recognize that they too can achieve fitness goals, such as having more energy, sleeping better, fitting better into their clothes, reducing their risk for certain diseases, and even coming off, or lowering the dosage of, their medications.
For those of you who are young and exercising right now, keep it up! It will only help you in the future because it's a lot easier to maintain a good level of fitness than to have to start from scratch.
For those of you who are older, there's nothing to fear with exercise. I would suggest that you at least hire a personal trainer for a minimum of a month. By having a personal trainer there to guide you into a whole new type of lifestyle, to teach you how to exercise safely, to help you stay accountable, to educate you on how to improve your health with exercise and healthy eating tips, you'll give yourself the best start to incorporating fitness into your life.
The key is to start out slow and take in everything that you're doing. If you're not sure about proper form or how to breathe while working out, don't be afraid to ask. One thing I find that helps a new exerciser is to start out on machines. I'm not always crazy about using weight machines, but when dealing with a new exerciser, I think they're perfect because they allow the body to be able to easily adjust to a new lifestyle without having to worry too much about form. You still have to be aware of proper form, but most machines already have a pre-determined path that you move the weight in. This means that while you still have some form issues to concentrate on, your main focus can be on breathing and moving the weight while letting the machine stabilize the weight as it moves.
Once you have been able to adjust to weight machines and have developed an understanding of how to exercise with resistance training, moving into cables, and then dumbbells, will be much easier for you to adjust to.
Another option, besides cables and dumbbells, is exercise tubes. I love exercise tubes because they can be as hard or as easy as you like. I've used very light exercise tubes for beginners, even before machines, and I've also used exercise tubes for the most advanced clients I have. Exercise tubes can provide an unbelievable workout for anyone, and the best part about them is they're very inexpensive, and you can work out anywhere with them.
No matter which method of exercise you decide on, realize that fitness isn't something that's age-limiting. Anybody can do it, and as the Hip-Hop Grannies can attest to, anybody can get results.
