October 19th, 2022
How To Train for Longevity
While some people are training for a marathon and others are training to reduce their back pain and gain core strength, many people – including a great many of our clients – train to increase longevity and maintain health and vitality through the aging process.
So, what is training for longevity exactly? What are a few things you should know?
What is Training for Longevity?
Training for longevity includes exercising to become healthy, strong, and pain-free for the long term. It means incorporating functional movements so that you can function with ease in your daily life. It means focusing on balance, stability, flexibility, mobility, and coordination. But how do you do that? Here are a few tips!
1. Introduce New Movements Regularly
Incorporating new movements regularly creates a balanced plan. It allows you to progressively overload with reps, weight, or time. It also allows you to lighten things up if you need it, allowing your body to make a full recovery and thwart injury.
2. Work on Retaining Your Current Strength, Movement, Coordination, and Cardiovascular Fitness
The good ol’ saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” rings true here! While you should always strive to improve these fitness factors, for age, it’s more relevant to maintain them. With time, our fitness naturally declines. However, we get to choose how slippery that slope will be. The more you work to maintain (and potentially improve!), the less of a slope you’ll slide down and the more you’ll get out of life.
3. Be Consistent
Being consistent means sticking to a fitness routine 80% of the time. Sure, you can take vacations and a few weeks off here or there. However, at the end of the day, overall, you’re consistent. This is how you don’t end up on a decline as time goes on.
4. Safety First
You don’t need to do crazy high-intensity work to make progress or see results. In fact, doing so may result in the complete opposite. If you attempt to perform an exercise you don’t have the functionality to do, you could injure yourself, which may lead to difficulty with consistency and difficulty with maintaining your current state of fitness.
5. Make Sure You Have Lifestyle Support
This means getting a good night’s sleep, surrounding yourself with others who support your fitness journey, fueling up with good nutrition, and participating in activities that you enjoy and make you feel good. All of these factors should never be underestimated when it comes to slowing down aging and optimizing your vitality!
6. Enlist the help of a Good Coach!
At Nielsen Fitness, we have a vitality-focused approach and would love to work with you. If you’re struggling to find personal training in Toronto that suits your needs, look no further. With some of the best Toronto personal trainers, our team is ready to help. Contact us today!
