Athletes are used to pushing themselves and stretching their limits, but aging can pose some new challenges to staying active. The following are some tip for older athletes.
Recognize your new recovery time: Veteran athletes tend to have a sixth sense about their bodies, knowing how long they need to recover from common ailments like ankle sprains, knee pain, back pain and shin splints. Despite the body's remarkable ability for recovery, it's not immune to aging, and that recovery time will increase as the body ages. Returning too quickly from an injury may make things worse so don't push yourself.
Take more time to warm up: As the body ages it needs more time to prepare itself for cardiovascular and strength training exercises. Increase your warmup time as you age, gradually increasing the intensity of your warmup exercises until your body feels ready for more strenuous exercise.
Focus on flexibility: As the body ages, it becomes less flexible, which makes it less capable of successfully handling the repetitive movements common to exercise. Aging athletes should focus on their flexibility, stretching their muscles before and after a workout. In addition, activities such as yoga may help improve flexibility.
Don't stop strength training: The body gradually loses muscle mass as it ages, and that loss puts the joints under greater stress when performing other exercises. That stress can put people at greater risk for arthritis, tendinitis and ligament sprains. While you no longer need to max out on a bench press or challenge yourself with a bicep curl, it is important to continue to make strength training a part of your fitness regimen as you age.
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