How much exercise do you do each week, and why?

[Blissybop]

Bit of a debate with a friend about how much the average person exercises so I was wondering if you were being totally honest how much do you excercise? Not just the gym but any sport, class, hiking etc.

And also why? As in why do you/don’t you?

Me too @LemonSnail. A day that starts with a 7am swim is always the best day.

In my 50s. In the Summer I walk my dog daily, garden, run for 30 minutes at least twice a week and swim 1 mile twice a week. Try to do strength training but think the gardening contributes to that as I lift and shift a lot (compost, pots etc).

Pilates has been a thing for 100 years and weight lifting is certainly not new.

How trendy an exercise is might change (I remember yoga had a resurgence in the 2010’s) but the point and purpose will always remain the same. Training until injury is not a good thing but many people train in order to not be injured by aging life itself. The benefits of exercise have been proven again and again.

I do about 10 gym classes a week — a mix of cardio, weights, barre and yoga/pilates. I do it because I WFH and it gets me out of the house — and because I love it. I walk a lot too and also cycle/swim occasionally.
(edited to make a correction!)

Acquaint yourself with the science! It’s a bit much to just agree with an opinion on the usefulness of weight training without knowing any of the actual science 😂

You’re right that styles of exercise wax and wane in terms of popularity but it doesn’t mean to say they cease to have any benefit. Pilates for example is good for building core strength and it will always be good for that whether it’s popular or not. Aerobics is still an effective cardio workout but very few gyms offer it these days because the paying members want Bodyattack and Spin. The health benefits of weight training will not cease to exist once the ‘in crowd’ have moved onto something else.

And what’s weight loss got to do with it? Very very few of the people that come to my classes are only doing it to aid weight loss. For many, the mental health benefits and social connections are the main motivations. But then there’s also: mobility, flexibility, functional strength, endurance, heart and lung health, maintaining muscle mass and bone density…. that fact that it also burns calories comes quite low on most people’s lists.

But the calorie burn is useful (and with heavy weight training, not only do you burn calories during the workout, your metabolism is boosted for up to 24-48 hours after the workout- see, you’ve really got to engage with the science on this). I mean I can eat pretty much what I want without gaining any weight because I burn it all off. As it happens, I eat pretty well because it suits my digestive system better than junk food. But I also don’t scrimp on cakes/sweets/biscuits/chocolate.

I have to ask myself - what is this all for?

so I can remain fit, healthy and independent as long as possible, that's what it's for. No, diet and walking does not help against natural muscle loss and osteoporosis, it simply doesn't. You can have your opinions but science says otherwise.

As someone whose muscles wasted waiting three years for double hip surgery. It's not wasted.

What is also worth considering is private health insurance so that hip, knee, shoulder issues etc are dealt with promptly.

I think people are misunderstanding me. I’m not saying don’t exercise. I exercise and keep active. I’m just saying - if you don’t have time to do 4x exercise classes a week, then that’s ok. You can still be healthy.

Yes yes you having a friend in her 30s with a recurring shoulder injury is definitely scientific proof that women in their 50s should immediately stop all resistance and weight training.

Well my sample size of one says as a woman in her 40s who has had a recurrent knee injury since her teens after a year of strength training I have had less pain and problems than I can ever remember from it!

@Allatsea1980sDid we misunderstand the bit where you agreed that the over 50s don’t need weight training?

.. and that walking is enough to keep healthy?

ok everyone is misunderstanding me. I said that I think that swimming, walking, yoga are all really good activities. I said that I personally don’t think it’s feasible for many women to attend 4-5 exercise classes a week, not to mention the very expensive fees many (but I accept not all before someone jumps on me) gyms charge. I also - again personally - don’t really understand why lots of men and women feel they need to lift weights a lot but if it brings them happiness and health benefits then of course good for them.
in my personal view (using the word personal a lot here) nothing beats eating fairly healthily, trying to keep on your feet a lot, swimming, being outside, gardening if you like it, yoga if you like it. I used to do a lot of running which I like but don’t really have time for that now but I can easily do a 5-7k jog once or twice a week so I don’t think I’m in that bad shape.
the reason I got into this thread is because firstly I think a lot of women who want to start exercising would read this and think that they didn’t have a hope of doing anywhere near this much so just give up and feel inadequate. Secondly I really do think that some of you are training like you’re getting ready for the olympics but hey, if that makes you happy then that’s fine.

I still think that in 20 years time we’ll all be saying ‘oh my goodness I can’t believe how much everyone felt they should be lifting weights when they were 65…’ but maybe I’m wrong!

I do a routine quite similar to this, with some added calf stretching.

I think the point we were making is that you were in agreement with a PT who (wrongly) says that there is no benefit in weightlifting for the over 50s. You agreed with that but admitted you knew nothing about the science behind it!

In 20 years time, I’ll be 68 and I certainly hope I’ll still be deadlifting and squatting heavy weights, as many of my clients do in their 60s and 70s, so no, I don’t think we’ll all be saying ‘Gosh I can’t believe we all used to lift weights, how silly of us!’ More likely I’ll still be enjoying being able to run up and down stairs, carry heavy loads, move furniture and keep osteoarthritis at bay with my good bone density.

I am convinced it will be exact opposite - people will be marvelling that we were not lifting heavy weights. That we told women to stay out of gym weights room, because we will immediately bulk up, and that we should use tiny pink weights to 'tone' and build 'lean muscles'. There are so many older women now suffering from health issues because they have no muscle mass, because they didn't exercise at all or did only cardio.

Japan has the fittest oldest people don’t they? Do they all lift weights? I thought it was walking & stretching

ah yes that's of course an interesting observation, indeed today's 90 year olds did not spend their youth throwing barbells around. However, they grew up in different times and spent most of their lives doing physical work. Carrying things, lifting, digging etc. My grandma didn't go to gym to do kettlebell farmer's carry - she was an actual farmer and carried heavy buckets instead and had a decent muscle mass. I don't though, I spend 8 hours at my desk and then use my car to go home. So I need to replace the physical work with gym.
I am not sure if the japanese kids who spend their lives sitting playing computer games will have equally long lives, we will see.

They’re known for longevity and good health, yes, but I don’t know anything about their strength and bone density in older age. A quick Google suggests that rates of osteoporosis and things like hip fractures are quite high in elderly Japanese people.

Quite likely those that did lots of manual work in earlier life will have fared better in terms of bone density, as @HeidiLite says.

I usually clock around 10k steps a day. Do 3x body pump, 1 x aerobics, 1 x zumba, 1 x HIIT a week. And an hour's dance class.

Dh does about 20-25k steps a day. Does 3x body pump, 1 x aerobics, 1 x zumba with me, 1 x dance class; and usually a boxing class and a swim each week. He runs too.

I've always gone to the gym - even at uni (bar those years when I was in the thick of having young kids). I enjoy the classes / being active and the switched-on feeling they give me. I also really enjoy holidays where we do a lot of walking / ski holidays and like being fit enough to get the most out of them.

I'm presuming the children have flown to achieve all this exercise time?

It's all about manual labour I suspect for bone density. Walking, cycling, yoga is for muscle strength. Lifting and toiling with heavy weights is for bone density. So maybe we need both.

Yep - Uni / Sixth Form now

The lifestyle issues seen noww aren't because people didn't lift heavy though, or because they only did cardio. In most cases they're because they did practically no exercise at all, and ate badly.