How This Old Guy Stays in Shape After 60
Over the last few months, I’ve had several people ask what I’m doing to stay in shape in my 60s. Since April, I’ve also lost about 15 pounds, dropping from around 168 to 153. There hasn’t been any miracle diet, expensive fitness program or complicated routine. For me, it has mostly come down to walking, a little weight training, eating fewer snacks and being consistent.
The biggest part of everything I do is walking. I’m usually out on the trail around 6:00 every morning, and I walk for an hour and 45 minutes to two hours. I know that sounds like a lot, and I’m certainly not saying everyone needs to walk that long. If you can get in an hour, great. If you have 30 minutes, do 30 minutes. The important thing is getting out there and moving.
I don’t stroll, either. I usually keep somewhere between a 13- and 15-minute-mile pace, so it’s a pretty brisk walk. I used to mix running into the routine, but these days I’ve decided walking works just fine for me. It gives me the exercise I want without some of the foot, heel, shin and other aches I occasionally dealt with while running.
Walking has become such a part of my life that I don’t really feel like my day is complete without it. I’m lucky enough to have a trail near my neighborhood, but if I didn’t, I’d walk the streets around my house. You don’t need a gym membership, a treadmill or a bunch of fancy equipment. You just need somewhere to walk.
There’s another benefit I enjoy just as much as the exercise: being outside. Most mornings I start while it’s still dark and eventually watch the sunrise. For the last couple of years I haven’t even listened to music or podcasts while I walk. I just think. It gives me time to clear my head, come up with ideas and mentally get ready for the day.
I Still Lift Weights — Just Not Like I Used To
I also lift weights about four days a week, but my workouts are much different than they were when I was younger. I’m not spending an hour in the gym doing five exercises for one body part and constantly trying to add more weight. My workouts now take about 20 minutes and are basically full-body routines.
I start with some stretching and bouncing around to get myself moving. From there I’ll do bench presses, leg raises, curls, lunges, a little shadow boxing and some bodyweight squats. I normally go through the routine twice and then finish with one last set of bench presses.
One thing that has become more important to me as I get older is mobility. I regularly squat all the way down and stay there for a while. I want to keep my hips, knees and legs flexible enough that getting down on the floor — and more importantly getting back up — remains something I can easily do years from now.
I’m also not interested in proving how much weight I can lift anymore. I’d rather stay consistent and avoid getting hurt. At this stage of life, my goal isn’t setting personal records. It’s being able to keep doing this stuff when I’m 70, 80 and hopefully beyond.
Losing 15 Pounds Was Mostly About Food
Exercise is important to me, but the biggest change behind losing 15 pounds was much simpler: I quit snacking.
For a while I had gotten into the habit of grabbing a cookie here, some M&M’s there, a handful of peanuts, ice cream at night or whatever happened to be sitting around. None of it seemed like much at the time, but all those little things added up.
In April, I decided I was done with the random snacking, and I pretty much stopped. That one change made a bigger difference than trying to work out harder.
I also try to keep my eating inside a fairly consistent window. Most nights I’m finished eating by about 6:30 or 7:00, and I usually don’t eat again until around 8:00 the next morning. Breakfast, if I have it, is normally a package of crunchy peanut butter granola bars.
Lunch is often grilled chicken or chicken salad, frequently from McAlister’s. I’m not obsessive about it. If Denise and I go somewhere and I want a big BLT and a piece of pie, I’ll eat it. The difference is that I’m not following that meal with cookies, candy, ice cream and another snack later that night.
Dinner has also changed quite a bit. One of my favorite meals lately has been Greek yogurt mixed with dried blueberries and Cheerios, along with peanut butter granola bars and a protein bar. I’ll sometimes follow that with a few small bags of SkinnyPop popcorn. It sounds a little strange, but I really like it, it fills me up and it replaced a lot of the ice cream and other sugary stuff I used to eat.
I also don’t drink soda, I don’t smoke, and alcohol is only an occasional thing for me. None of this happened overnight. It’s simply what my eating habits have gradually evolved into.
Consistency Beats Perfection
Lately I’ve also been adding a shorter afternoon walk of around 40 minutes. Part of that is exercise, part of it is getting outside, and part of it is simply taking a break from sitting at a computer. Instead of taking a nap or sitting around for an hour, I go walk.
Altogether, I probably spend close to three hours a day doing some type of physical activity. I realize my schedule makes that easier because I’m an entrepreneur who works from home. But even if my schedule completely changed, I’d find a way to keep walking. If mornings weren’t possible, I’d do it in the evening.
I’m currently around 153 pounds, and I’m curious to see whether doing exactly what I’m doing naturally takes me down to around 150. I’m not planning to eat less or dramatically increase my workouts. I’m just going to keep doing what has already been working.
That may be the biggest lesson in all of this. You don’t necessarily need to overhaul your entire life. Pick some things you can actually continue doing.
For me, that means walking every day, lifting weights for about 20 minutes several times a week, working on mobility, eating reasonably well and eliminating most of the mindless snacking.
Nothing fancy. Nothing extreme.
Just keep moving.
PODCAST
Listen to “My Over 60 Workout Routine” on Spreaker.
VIDEO
Leave a Comment