Fit over 50
A Vogue editor’s guide to working out
When I was 14 – we’re talking the mid-seventies – I used to go to the newly opened Pineapple centre in Covent Garden with my school friend Michelle. We took a class called Soul Jazz. The other attendees were mostly professional dancers and a couple of friendly types who turned out to be the owners of local Soho sex shops. It was fun, we danced and stretched and felt great. Welcome to exercise.
Forty years on and I have seen it all and tried a fair amount of it. I know what I like and more importantly what I don’t. I’m not a natural exerciser; I don’t think I have ever bounced out of bed with the desire to fling myself into Lycra and beat my body into some kind of submission, but in my own way I have kept at it. I loathed Jane Fonda but I found and enjoyed Pilates in my twenties and have always responded well to it. I would rather eat glass than go for a run – I always think people with big bosoms – me – weren’t designed to run, but I can happily swim for hours.
From my mid-forties, by which time exercise had become as universally common as brushing one’s teeth, I trained about three days a week (on a good week). Pilates, yoga, spinning, boxing, TRX, the lot. I liked some more than others but kept at it doggedly. Trainers, gyms and spin classes came and went like discarded lovers, shiny and full of promise at first and then in no time at all, dull and repetitious as I found a new enthusiasm to focus on for about three months at a time (it was over when the trainer became known as “the drainer”).
Then one day about five years ago – bang on the dot of 50 in fact – I lobbed a punch with my boxing glove and my shoulder went ping; next, when I put my foot down in a lunge I felt a sharp pain in my hip; finally, one day midcobra in my yoga class, my back just said “STOP IT”. I knew if I arched even one more bit I was going to be in big trouble. I was finding that for all the fitness I thought I was maintaining my body couldn’t take the bashing.
In the past five years I have had to relearn that what is best for my body isn’t punishing myself in a vain attempt to keep fit. If I’m honest, as I get older it is harder to keep weight off, so I have pushed myself only to end up hobbling about in agony, but rather I need to educate myself about how to protect from the wear and tear that inevitably comes with age, and keep my mind and body strong at the same time.
It has long been known that the more you exercise the better it is for your mental agility, which could lead to increased pressure for the 50-plus age group to exercise more in order to stay mentally healthy. It’s good advice, but also overlooks the fact that as we age it’s increasingly difficult to engage in physical activity, as our bodies are simply less capable of it. When I think of myself in terms of “over 50” it is hard. I don’t look like the people I see who are advertised as a sort of salt and pepper-haired happy demographic walking dogs. I live in a world where the ages are blurred. I share clothes, beauty products and taste in movies with my kids, I work around people much younger than me and I don’t feel that different to them. I am not the same mid-fifties woman my mother was, but no one has told my bones that.
I was introduced to James Duigan, the dynamic Australian founder of the exclusive membership gyms Bodyism, by Nigella Lawson, a client of his. Bodyism offers one-on-one personal training and customised nutrition plans to its members. Duigan believes that people are often damaging their bodies in the name of fitness – and that the price for this is high when they get older.
“Life is long and now women in their thirties, forties or fifties who might be over-exercising are ending up on painkillers and suffering from osteoporosis,” says Duigan, and I know what he means. This year I found myself chewing painkillers for months in an attempt to combat my own back pain.
I had an MRI scan. “Don’t load the dishwasher” was the only advice given to me by the doctor after telling me that four of the discs in my lower back were degenerative. Helpful.
Although my BMI is 19.3 (which is very good) I had to find a way to keep it there without killing myself with cardio. I stopped the boxing, and the yoga: it turns out that if you are hypermobile, which I am (great when you are young and want to wrap your legs around your neck, but not so good when older), then yoga only overextends you. That honestly was a blow, because I was good at it and enjoyed it. I also had to stop anything that involved impact.
I started to train in a new way. I was introduced to Lucja Soläng by a friend who has similar back issues. Classes with Lucja were unlike any other I had previously experienced. I barely moved. She calmly gave me very specific instructions. This way of working is based on Pilates: specific movements where I am thinking about every part of my body as I move it. “Move your shoulders back, lift your pelvic muscles up; move your body weight more into the heels, stand on one leg and reach forward…”
By the end of the class I felt strong and long, and I also felt as though
I had used my brain to control my body, not just my will to survive an hour of exercise. This holistic approach very quickly improved my posture and helped me to support my aching back. I was learning to exercise without aggravating my old injuries and stop judging my performance on things like reps. In fact, after a few months of her classes I realised that I don’t count at all anymore, which would have been unthinkable to me before.
I work in shorter bursts and I’ve found that by working in this “mindful” way, relearning how to move as if from the inside out, my muscles have become longer, with more tone, less bulge, although I still use weights and TRX.
I find that when I go for long walks along the cliffs near my home in Cornwall I think about using my core and my muscles in a very conscious way as I climb hills and steps, and as a result my back suffers less because I have learnt to be aware all of the time. The exercise has seeped into my subconscious for the first time ever. Now I would rather swim a
‘Dancing around in gyms being yelled at by people in hot pants is no longer the way forward’
mile than go to a group cardio class at a gym where I feel I need to keep up – though never breaststroke if you have back or hip issues; front and back crawl really work well.
I think one of the key things I have changed is that I have found a variety of exercises I enjoy, and I rotate them so I don’t get so easily bored. Maybe more importantly, I have stopped trying to prove something when I exercise. I don’t wipe myself out, pushing myself to do something and ending up unable to move; I have realised it is just not smart. I do Pilates once a week. The class is 50 minutes and it’s one-on-one. I might spend the entire class focusing on strengthening my glutes, which in turn supports my back, or trying to open my hips, which seem to have really tightened with age.
As Duigan points out, “Everyone dancing around in gyms being yelled at by people in hot pants is no longer the way forward.”
In terms of what you can do at home, 10 or 20 minutes every morning will help to get your body warmed up and fire up your muscles. Use an app – there are so many brilliant ones out there, and the good news is it’s like having a personal trainer in your phone. The Pocket Yoga app videos guide you through
more than 200 poses designed by certified yoga instructors so you can begin your personalised yoga practice – or move on to a more advanced level.
I love using TRX at home: try the TRX app or TRX Force for a 12-week programme. With two suspending straps you use your own body weight to combine cardio with weight training, eliminating the need for weights and other equipment at home. The exercises are similar to Pilates or antigravity yoga: brilliant for your core and don’t bulk you up. The straps take up very little space so you can throw them in your case and take them on holiday with you.
You can use an exercise ball to strengthen your core and legs at home – place it against a wall in the centre of your back while doing squats to protect your back. Foam rollers are brilliant for releasing tight muscles, and you can buy them at any sports or yoga store.
Of course, walking requires no kit at all. Anyone who knows me will laugh when they read this as I famously hate walking, but use your phone to track your steps and try to get 10,000 a day in. You could always get off the tube a couple of stops earlier than normal. I walk way too little and I might even listen to my own advice here.
As I get older I spend a fair amount of money on maintaining a semblance of youth. I buy good skin products, I tweak things when I need to and I have been known to have a nip and a tuck here and there, all of which I go to great lengths to justify. But, I don’t want to be extreme. So, when it comes to trying to keep my body in optimum shape I need to research what I do with it as carefully as all the other treatments. Exercise and diet are still investments that to my mind pay dividends.
My back still hurts me some of the time: it always will, but had I not had that wake-up call I would not have learned to listen to what my body really needed.