Am I too old at 50 to start exercising now?

Here's an intro with Melissa Neill who is 56. She talks about the fact that although she was exercising she was not doing the best exercise for older women and instead doing what worked when she was younger. So she did her research, changed what she was doing and got great results. As she says, we want to rebuild muscle that we have lost through the aging process.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=J7No6IpAPJU

I’m 56 and have jut started working with a personal trainer. It’s great and I’m feeling really positive after about 4 years of physical inertia

Never too old.

i took up running in my late 40s and do a bit of strength work once a week.

Important to find something you enjoy, if not doing it, how you it makes you feel having done it.

I would recommend Melissa Neill and Petra Genco both are on YouTube and across other social media. Both older post menopausal women with great advice for the appropriate exercise for our age and stage.

Unless you really want to run it isn't necessary as walking a couple of miles a day, especially at a good pace is excellent cardio and is less stress on the bones and joints than running.

As already mentioned strength training is essential for women, especially as we age. 2 or 3 times a week will help you get stronger and improve posture. It also will shape your body if you are consistent. Its extremely hard for women to build large muscle so you don't have to worry about bulking up, it will just help your strength, stamina and balance keeping you youthful as you age. Building up your bum muscles, as well as giving you an attractive derriere helps with back pain as these muscles are essential for holding up the spine (along with the core and stomach muscles). Weak muscles and slumping posture can create issues with pain.

Flexibility is also very important so pilates, yoga, dancing etc can all keep you flexible.

I would definitely get advice from a personal trainer before you start weight training as its possible to injure yourself or lift incorrectly.

I have completely transformed by body through weight training over the years, even when I was too busy to do much cardio so I highly recommend it.

What we think of as "typical" aging when people slow down and have problems with mobility and doing simple things such as standing up from a chair are almost all due to lack of exercise and weight training.

I started walking just about 6 months after my 50th. With careful management of diet and walking about 90 mins a day,i I'm a size 14 not a size 20. The health benefits are obvious and I look and feel fantastic. It doesn't matter what you do it matters how you feel. Walking has really helped my mental and physical health.

I have friends in their 50s 50 and 70s who do all sorts of exercise. I realised in my 50 s I’d stopped being flexible, I was starting to struggle walking up hills, picking stuff up….(embarrassing). I walked to work but not briskly, dog walked..but I was 3 stone overweight and scarey hbp. I started doing a weights class 3 times a week at a gym that did small group classes. I’m no gym bunny but I feel so much stronger and better and healthier.

friends have started hill walkin, pickleball, Pilates, swimming. There’s all sorts…hillwalking seems particularly social.

Another vote for a personal trainer, they work out of gyms, their own homes or come to you. Facebook is a good place to start looking if you fancy that.
Electric bike - game changer, evens out the hills and fabulous for fitness.
Join a local walking group-hills walking, old railway lines, forests, whatever you fancy
Weight-bearing exercise - buy some weights from Argos and use you tube for routines.
Any yes Leslie Sansone, she’s brilliant, and a bit of an enigma! Her old routines are on you tube.

This is so impressive and such a good way to do it!
I have lost half a stone over 4 months and aim to lose 2 stone over 2 years. You give me hope!

YABU to think it's too late or dangerous, YANBU to want to get fitter.

So so important. Start of little and build yourself up.

I'm 55 and walk around 8k steps a day with my dogs but I needed to do more so a month ago I bought a Nordic Track studio bike. I'm already noticing such a difference in the strength in my legs - I couldn't do any stand riding at all to start, I did 15 minutes of it last night. I am also hoping it will help me lose weight.

Nope, no one is too old for exercise.

The key is doing the right exercise. That's the way to avoid sports injuries and damaging your health/fitness. There are lots of less intensive forms of exercise that will help to stop your fitness levels worsening with age and start to improve them. Once you get a bit fitter from light exercise, you'll be able to move onto more moderate forms of exercise and build up gradually in whatever you're doing, i.e. if you're doing say walking, you could start to move on to light jogging, or if you're doing weights you could slowly increase the weight/resistance.

I'm 61 and have gone from 23 stones down to 13 stones in the last decade or so. Very gentle weight loss, just a pound or two per month. That's mostly from walking, but also from a bit of light/local cycling, swimming in a local pool weekly, and a gym membership on and off (a year then a few years off and then another year etc.), and also a treadmill at home to get my steps in on bad weather days.

I think the key is regularity and consistency. I make sure I do 10k walking steps every day, and if I miss a day for an event/occasion etc., then I increase the number in the few days before and after so that it still averages out at 10k per day, as per the app on my phone.

I've also got a dumbell set at home to keep up with upper body muscles etc - probably only use them a couple of times per week. Nothing arduous, just lots of repetitions of relatively low weights for around 10 different exercises for the upper body and arms.

You are absolutely not to old whatsoever. Strength training mixed with low intensity cardio is the way to go.

I'm your age and I've started going to the gym again after a break of 15 years. It's brilliant and I love it so much.

Not too old at all! Great start with the walking. Rather than thinking about fitness in the (somewhat old fashioned) way of ' have to do things that get me out of breath/burning calories' think about building strength and flexibility. Strength = resistance and weight work. Get a PT to show you how to lift weights and use them for functional fitness (weighted movement). Flexibility can be more like pilates/yoga.
I'd personally avoid jogging unless you know you love it, due to injury risk.
I'm stronger at 50 than I've ever been thanks to x2 or x3 HIIT type classes and lifting at home. You are stronger than you think!

The walking will have kept your head above water.
Go careful when you increase your activity levels. Can you aim to speed walk home a little faster? Go to one gym session a week, maybe get a personal trainer to put together a 40 min session, and one swim?
You will notice the difference by New Year.

My understanding is that there are health benefits at any age to starting exercise. Even 90 somethings improved various health metrics according to a podcast I listened to. Go for it!

Definitely not. Have a look at train with Joan, she didn't start until 70 and is absolutely incredible https://www.instagram.com/trainwithjoan?igsh=a25yOXhxaW9ycnFn

If you walk 2 miles a day with no issue then it isn't going to be dangerous for you to start exercising, you being a healthy weight definitely works in your favour too. Get started now whilst you can. Good luck :) I find exercise amazing for my wellbeing.

Of course not!
Start slowly.
Get a personal trainer to help you start out.
Weight training is crucial, and all you likely need since you walk frequently, as it prevents muscle loss/builds muscle and bone.

Heck, no! My personal trainer now has a gym and his entire business strategy is around the fact that 45-65 are the customers he needs.

I would approach exercise with respect. I have learned an awful lot over the years, mostly from good class teachers and a personal trainer.

of course not!

you need to start slow, and not stupidly - no point going too strongly and giving up after 2 weeks because you are too sore, or you injure yourself and you give up then.

Running is possibly not the best idea to start, you get more injuries than not - and I say that as a runner!

What do you like?
Classes might be much easier, you follow and have fun. You can dance, boxercise, swim, play tennis, horseriding. It's easier when it becomes a social activity.

But if you want to start running, it's addictive.

What most people lack is motivation, that's what you have to fight. Everybody fancies themselves a runner, until it's November, 5:30am, pitch black, cold and heavy rain.. then it's less fun. Will you stick with your routine then?

Whatever you do: decent sports bra, the best trainer for whatever activity you are doing (not fashionable, adapted to what you are doing!), stretching AFTER, treat yourself to a sports massage every month, ENOUGH RECOVERY TIME especially the first months

Start slow: exercise 2 to 3 times a week for the first few months, but find something you love.

No. My running group is full of ladies of a certain age who have come to running later in life (40s-50s). They run a beginners (couch to 5k) group. It’s been life changing for a lot of them, also a big social thing. There will be similar near you. Most are not super fit but they’ve lost weight and can get themselves around 5-10k + comfortably

You are never to old to start. Just start slow and build up over time, don't jump into a class or over do it because that could cause problems. Perhaps get yourself some light dumbbells and start doing arm exercises, sit ups, Pilates toe taps and squats at home and build from there.

Nope. I’m 51 and I do strength/HIIT training three times a week, yoga once a week, weekly outdoor swimming in summer, and at least an hour’s walking a day (I have dogs).

It’s helped me no end. I can lug heavy things around no problem, when gardening or at the stable yard. It’s so empowering.