Help this unfit 53yo get fitter!

[OrlandoTheMarmaladeCat]

I'm 53 and noticing my age now that we no longer have horses. I walk fast between 3-5 miles 5 days a week but that's it. Once I'm back from walking the dogs, I sit at my desk and work for the day. Not only am I noticeably flabbier, but I'm beginning to stiffen up as well.

What can I do to regain some strength/fitness? Losing weight would be a bonus but to be honest, it's just the general feeling of weaker limbs/joints that I am most disliking.

Any words of wisdom out there would be gratefully received :)

[MaidOfStars]

Yoga/Pilates will help keep you limber. do as I say, not as I do, bloody hate yoga

A couple of runs a week will boost some weight loss.

Some weight training will tone you (as will the Pilates).

[unavita]

Yoga is exactly what you need , if you look for beginner hatha you'll find lots of free classes, especially on YouTube. Yoga has a strange indirect association with weight loss when practiced regularly, even very gentle yoga.

Can you start to add little jogging breaks throughout the dog walks if they're off lead? Start with 30 seconds or so now and then and increase/repeat if you're feeling it.

[unavita]

E.g.: 10 minutes

[OrlandoTheMarmaladeCat]

Thank you all. Good suggestions. I'm not sure about the running - I feel too heavy to run atm and worry about my knees but perhaps I should give it a go. I used to jog very slowly years ago and found it vaguely enjoyable so it would be worth trying again. Might need to upgrade my shoes though. Pilates is a good suggestion as well - not sure about yoga and what the differences are?

[unavita]

pilates is always pilates although there are levels of difficulty, sometimes its just mat work or it can involve equipment, its focus is core strength/alignment

yoga can be lots of different things, new kinds emerge all the time, it's more of a whole body thing (also mind)

you could try both and see which you prefer? I do both but love yoga best, it's more useful for me in building overall flexibility, strength and endurance (running, horse riding) but mostly I love the balancing effects on my mood

[MaidOfStars]

it's more useful for me in building overall flexibility, strength and endurance (running...
I run and avoid anything that will increase my flexibility (beyond normal stretching out).

[BLUEsNewSpringWatch]

Pilates mostly focuses on core strength.

Yoga is about increasing all strength (including core) and increasing range of controlled flexibility (i.e. not making you more flexible than your muscles support - a problem I'd always had due to having joint hyper-mobility (double jointed), but is lessening since starting yoga). Yoga has also been scientifically shown to improve mental well-being. There are also various other studies which suggest yoga can also:

• help with weight loss and general health
  
• healthy eating - oddly a lot of people find their overall diet improves, despite them not really thinking about it
  
• improve cardiovascular fitness, even without the person doing any cardio workouts (but the study couldn't explain exactly why - they were going to look into it).
  

There are lots of types/styles of yoga, so it maybe worth trying a few to decide which you like best.

[unavita]

I'm hypermobile too and yoga has helped, by flexibility I have 'strong and supple' in mind - BLUE described it better!

I don't actually stretch after a run (unless I'm with a group) although I used to do dynamic stretches before.

[MaidOfStars]

Yeah, I wrote that then realised I never do.

I stretch after weights, that's it.