Give me strength! How to keep fit for the outdoors, indoors
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Hillwalker and outdoor author John D Burns talks about the importance of maintaining strength as you age and how it helps keep him out in the hills
I am in my late sixties now and, as I have got older, I’ve begun to appreciate just how important strength training is in helping me stay active into my later years.
For most people who like the outdoors, the idea of going to a gym has always been something alien. For people who like to wander our hills and glens, getting exercise in wild places has been seen as enough exercise to keep them healthy.
For older people, too, gyms are seen as the place for younger people to build their muscles. The typical image of gyms full of huge individuals with bulging biceps and wide shoulders puts a lot of people off going into a gym.
Yet that misconception is something that keeps a great many people from enjoying the very real benefits that keeping strong can offer all of us.
I can speak from personal experience. When I reached my fifties I decided that any kind of gym activity was simply beyond me. I had always been active, hillwalking or running up to that point, but once I decided to become a writer I felt that all that physical activity was something I no longer needed and I sat down to write my first book and did little else.
Two years later that decision began to have massive consequences on my life. I had severe back pain, was very overweight and my knees protested every time I went upstairs. Even simple things like going shopping were becoming major problems. I realised I had two choices – I could continue to be inactive, and face an inevitable decline, or I could try and do something about it.
The possibility of returning to the gym after two years absence was daunting. I knew I was overweight and unfit and I pictured myself training beside young lean people who would laugh at this old man puffing and panting beside them.
At first, I thought this was something I simply couldn’t face. I didn’t realise it at the time but by far the hardest thing for anyone to do, who isn’t used to exercising, is to get through the door of the gym. Once you’ve done that, things get easier.
One day I swallowed my pride, put on my tracksuit and walked into Gym 300, one of the biggest gyms in Inverness. I needn’t have worried. The staff were friendly and helpful, and nobody judged me. They showed me how to use the equipment. I began with some very light weights on a gentle exercise regime.
I won’t pretend it was easy. At first there was some grunting involved and a lot of aching muscles. A few times I almost gave up but then I noticed something – things started to get easier. Not only that, but my body really liked coming to the gym, even if it was sometimes an effort to pick myself up off the settee.
I’ve been going to Gym 300 regularly now for over 10 years and in that time a lot has changed for me. I’ll be honest, I am not an Adonis with a body of rippling muscle (my fondness for beer and pies holds me back from that) but many of the problems I experienced in the past have simply ceased to trouble me.
Back pain is a problem for many people as they grow older. For me back pain is now a distant memory and that directly a result of following the advice the people at the gym gave me. I did exercises that worked on the deep muscles that supported my spine and that has banished the problem for me.
When I began to exercise my spine I noticed some changes. My pain began to diminish and I think I even got a little taller as my back straitened out. As we get older we tend to accept a lot of aches and pains as simply something we have to put up with as part of the ageing process, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes exercises can reduce the problem even if they can’t eliminate it entirely.
Like everyone else, I want to be as healthy as I can and maintain my independence in later life. I’ve learned a lot about how strength training can help me do that. Over the age of 40 it’s natural for everyone to begin to lose muscle mass. As that process continues, the tasks of everyday life can become difficult and we lose our ability to function independently. Resistance training, which simply means lifting weights, maintains muscle mass.
I know a lot of folk who have walked in the hills all their lives. Despite being really fit many of these people begin to have the same problems with their knees or other joints as I did. I found that strengthening the muscles in my legs has really improved my knees and I don’t have anything like the problems I used to have. The important thing is to keep a balance between exercising your heart and staying strong.
I’ve realised that I don’t have to spend hours and hours in the gym to feel the benefit. I tend to go often but may only spend half an hour. I am definitely stronger at 67 than I was at 37, that can’t be a bad thing.
If you are an older person, and thinking of taking up weight training, it’s always best to get some advice from your GP first and to get expert instruction in the gym from the people who understand how to exercise safely.
I’ve found the support and encouragement I’ve had from Gym 300 has really helped me to keep active and to enjoy my time in the gym. Being stronger has made my everyday life much easier and helped me to stay active.
