How fit can you (realistically) be at 50?

The warning about heavy lifting is sexist crap about how women should look.

We all need muscle, for health now and to help maintain independence in old age.
Build up your upper body muscles, with press-ups, pull-ups, bench press, tricep dips etc. so that it is in balance with a muscular lower half.

It's never to late to start: In studies, people in their 80s have improved health and musculature after starting lifting.

The only warning I would give is that women of 40+, especially those who have given birth, need to be cautious about pelvic floor / prolapses. Also be careful of your joints.
So, get a trainer to check your lifting form and build up the weights gradually and sensibly.

I'm 58 and I train intensively 5-6 x week at the gym: HIIT spin, heavy lifting, boxing, XFit (see my pix)
The others in my classes are very fit, but 20-37 years younger, men and women. I am still one of the fittest and strongest: Age is no barrier.

Yes, I have a lot of muscle - I'm proud to be a strong women
Go for it, OP !

My dp does research into exercise, my mil has been a subject for him a few times, she's just turned 70 and does 2 lots of high intensity a week, she's a normal 70 year old, but fitter now than she has been for years.

Ha I have just done the Alpes d'Huez with my (also 50 year old) husband. Couldn't have done that at 25.

I know a Tae Bo instructor, she's 54. The woman is pure muscle and can do one-handed push-ups.

Oh and yes, the "no weights" advice is total BS.

Perhaps it is a tactic of the wanna be exercise guru, ie come out with a statement which will polarize opinion and hope to gain a following from those who want to align themselves with your view?

I think if you are a hard core endurance cyclist or focus extensively on lower body strength training then (if you have the type of body that bulks up, which the majority of women don't), then your quads can end up looking disproportionately large in relation to the rest of you. Work your whole body, compound movements etc, this won't be the case. That trainer sounds like Tracy Andersen and her 'women shouldn't lift weights heavier than 3kg' bollocks

If really it's advocating no lifting it's dumb. I used to do body pump but never gained any bulk really. I just looked really lean and fit. That's in my 20s btw. I think I just don't have the build to be bulky.

If you are starting from a position of being unfit having heretofore led a sedentary life then I'm not sure what is achievable at 50.

I can only speak for myself and I've exercised regularly and consistently since my teens.

Not suggesting it's too late by any means but I think you'd certainly need to build up gradually and make sure you stick with it.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18346128

The article in American vogue is not 'seriously hardcore' the advice not to lift is just dumb.

Hardcore people lift heavy! :o
(or have I somehow misunderstood OP? )

I'm 44, but want to be like this 54 year old. The picture of her on the beach is great. More than anything, she sounds happy and healthy.

www.marksdailyapple.com/the-pain-and-stiffness-disappeared-and-has-never-returned/#sthash.TWdQDsew.qjtu

X post luv!

'No heavy weights ever....bulky unattractive muscles' . AFAIK Cameron Diaz lifts very heavy weights! And whose definition of attractive?! Statements like that are a real bugbear for me - weight training is possibly the best thing women can do for their health, particularly as they age.

But in answer to your question OP, as fit as you like but I think listening to your body - when things hurt, need rest or certain things aren't working for it - becomes much more important, mainly because if injuries happen they take much longer to recover from. Better IMHO to be consistent and enjoy a good level of fitness than push to absolute limits and put yourself out of the game for weeks/months

When I did Parkrun my main objective was to beat a 65yr old woman, she was a member of a running club. Managed it once! There was also an 80yr old man celebrating his birthday at Parkrun who ran it in 20 minutes
I know that I am fitter now at 41 than I ever was in my 20s.

You can be as fit as you like, I think.

My dad is pushing 80 and cycles an hour every day, is slim and fit. He just never considered not being physically active every day iyswim

Bulky muscles! Nonsense, women don't have the right hormones. I am in my forties. I weight train, do lunges, squats, run, do cross fit. I am not bulky.

My GPs were active until they died in their late nineties. Dancing, swimming, gym. That's how I want to end up. My own DF can run a half marathon faster than me and he's in his seventies.

Use it or lose it.

You do "lose it" faster past about 30 and it is harder to get back so you need to be more vigilant about "using it".

When I'm out running, I often see a pink haired lady of 68 who is an age group winner in triathlons. She looks fabulous.
I'm 42, started running last year, done some half marathons, done a couple of triathlons this year, and the women I see who are older than me look great. But I don't think Vogue would approve of any of us

There was an instructor at the gym I went to who taught boby combat. She's nearly 60 and way fitter than many of us!

use it or lose it
take your pick

depends what exactly you mean by fit, Im 2 years off 50, I train as hard as I ever did, dont feel Im lacking in energy, strength and cardio vascular fitness as good as ever, I have a few glitches/injuries from my days of very heavy weight training but apart from that I'm as good as new.

Same applies to my OH, he still has a very muscular physique and is the same age as me

I have friends 50 and above who regularly run marathons. My dh is 48 and power lifts, his weights are heavier now than they ever have been before.

HI Alsoflamingo, I'm in a similar situation - pushing 50 and not ready for the comfy clothing and gentle stretching. I have made peace (of a sort) with the fact that once I turned 45 my metabolism would never be the same again (not that it was ever a fine-tuned machine, but if I wanted to lose weight it didn't used to require me to subsist on 3 peas a day), so if I didn't want to have to subsist on 3 peas a day and never drink wine again I was going to have to MOVE my body.

Someone once said that in your forties you had to choose between your ass and your face - my face has never been my fortune but it's a helluva lot nicer than my ass and always will be. I was just told today by someone they couldn't believe I was the age I was, and I hear that all the time. If I lost too much weight now my wrinkles would show and I don't want that. Before I turned 45 I thought I had to be a size 10 - now I'm ok (most of the time) with a 12, so long as it's a fit and healthy 12.

I don't know the answer to your question - can you be "superfit" at 50? - but I do think pushing myself, while maintaining realistic expectations and "living life", is the only way to deal with this aging process without losing my sanity and becoming consumed with regret at misspending the little "youth" I have left.

HTH