Catch Us if You Can
Kids may be getting fatter, but older people are taking to sport like never before. Want to join in? Follow these precautions:
See your GP Aside from checking your pulse, blood pressure and weight, he may recommend a fitness assessment to see what you can take.
Choose carefully Weight-bearing exercise fights osteoporosis, but sports such as running can strain bones and joints. Swimming, cycling or rowing offer more support for your weight so age matters less.
Don’t go it alone You’re likelier to keep it up if you exercise with others. “Join a gym or club,” advises triathlete Daphne Belt, 64.
Watch your diet “Most of us eat too much fat,” says sports scientist Henryk Lakomy. Think more rotis and pulses. And cut back on alcohol.
Warm up and stretch This gets more important as you get older. Stretch again at the end of exercise.
Take time to recover “Rest is part of training, even more at my age,” says runner Bill Birmingham, 53.
Take it slowly To avoid injury, seek help with a step-by-step program. Don't set big targets for yourself. Start in small ways, like taking the stairs for a few floors instead of the lift.
Midnight snacks add up A new study suggests calories count for more if they’re eaten when you ought to be sleeping. When researchers from Northwestern University in the US fed mice during the day—when these animals normally sleep—the rodents gained more weight than mice that ate at night, when they’re usually active. In fact, although the two groups ate equal amounts of food and got the same amount of exercise, the day-fed mice ended up gaining more than twice as much weight. Other studies hint that the effect holds true for humans, too. Still, the researchers say, maths always trumps timing: if you regularly consume more calories than you burn, you will gain weight regardless of when you eat.
