How Exercise Benefits Women Over 50
Exercise is crucial at all stages of life. It keeps you healthy, can be enjoyable, and provides autonomy over how you feel as you age. Women’s bodies are complex, undergoing numerous changes throughout life, and even monthly. As women, we are uniquely characterised by the fine orchestra of our hormones. As we age, we naturally undergo hormonal changes. Staying fit and healthy with exercise and a good diet can help make any hormonal transition easier and better. Exercise can also help keep your body strong and able to adapt to ageing better.
Major Benefits of Exercise for Women Over 50
Exercise Strengthens the Body
While still young, we are naturally more active. We enrol in sports clubs and run around actively. However, as we go through the ages, life provides fewer opportunities to stay active, and we must make an effort to remain so. Daily targeted activity has been proven to maintain muscle, build muscle, retain or improve balance and flexibility, and help maintain general fitness and ability. Balance and flexibility are paramount for preventing bad falls and injury. Enrol in your local Gym Plus to start getting stronger now.
Exercise Builds Muscle
As we age, our growth hormones recede, and cell renewal slows down. This reduced cell turnover means we have to work to keep our muscle mass or risk losing it. Targeted exercise, such as age-appropriate weight lifting and workouts, is a great way to hold on to your muscle or indeed build up more muscle. Muscle maintenance and build-up are among the most important benefits of exercising while ageing. Muscles keep us moving better, staying fitter, and help prevent bad falls.
Exercise Helps Maintain a Healthy Weight
Exercise helps maintain a healthy weight, facilitates weight loss, and prevents excessive weight gain. As we go through life, too many of us become sedentary due to work pressures such as long car commutes or desk-based jobs. As we hit our 50s, we are at increased risk of gaining unwanted weight. Exercise keeps weight off, builds muscle (which burns more calories than fat), and can thus help in the prevention of other metabolic diseases like Type 2 Diabetes or obesity.
Exercise Wards Off Degenerative Illnesses and Diseases Such As:
Osteoporosis: In the same way as having to stimulate (use) muscles in order to retain and rebuild them, our bones also need to be engaged in order to stay strong. Osteoporosis (brittle bones) is a major issue of ill health and premature death. As the body needs the female hormone oestrogen to rebuild bones, the development of osteoporosis becomes a major risk factor in women after menopause, when our oestrogen levels naturally drop. Weight lifting exercises are the way to go here. Consider joining our Strength & Fitness classes to help combat this.
Heart Disease: Regular exercise helps strengthen your heart. Your heart is essentially a muscle that pumps blood tirelessly. Regular gentle exercise such as weight lifting, running, or swimming helps to train this muscle. Exercise also helps to burn excess calories, keeping your weight in the healthy range and your heart happy. Importantly, exercise is also fun, relaxing, and makes you happy. Explore our Cardio classes to keep your heart healthy.
Exercise is Energising, Fun, Good for Your Mental Health, and Makes You Happy
Regular exercise might require a little bit of energy to get going. However, regular exercise increases energy. You will feel more relaxed and happy after exercise due to the production of endorphins during exercise – another class of hormones that are good for you. Thus, exercise increases mental well-being and overall happiness. When you know your body and what you can ask of it, your confidence will increase, making you realise that you can indeed age healthily and happily. Our Wellness classes focus on recovery and stretching techniques, contributing to mental well-being.
Ready to stay strong, healthy, and happy at every stage of life?
Join Gymplus todayand discover personalised fitness classes designed for women over 50 to help you thrive and enjoy life to the fullest!
