3 Exercises You Shouldn’t Do After 50

I hate articles with titles like this. They’re always fear-based and assume that once people reach a certain age, they turn into fragile little Faberge eggs, ready to shatter at any moment. They also don’t consider that everyone’s different. That being said, there ARE some exercises that you shouldn’t do after 50. It’s just that they’re not the kind of exercises you normally think of.

The ones I’m talking about do long-term damage. In some cases, the damage is irreparable.

Let’s get to it.

1. Complaining about your age. 

Do you know how often I hear someone tell me that some ache or pain is because of their age? Every day.

I rarely hear anything so deflating and disempowering. It would be one thing if it were correct, but it almost never is.

It would be silly of me to say that age has no physical effect on our body, but that effect is almost always monstrously overstated.

Here’s the deal: If you take care of your body, it’ll take care of you. End of story.

Train to get stronger, get your mindset right, and you’ll find it amazing how little age matters anymore.

2. Worrying about what you ate last night/weekend.

Why do people think it’s not ok to enjoy what you eat? All we hear from the media is how overweight we are, so people stress like mad over what they should and do put in their mouths.

Let me suggest something a little crazy here.

All that stress is worse for you than eating a cookie or a piece of bread.

Let me suggest something even crazier.

If you continue to deny and demonize these foods, you’re much more likely to experience a pretty big backlash from yourself when you inevitably eat 1, or more likely, 10 of them.

That backlash is going to be disempowering and mentally damaging.

3. Not strength training.

What do people really fear about aging? Becoming fragile. Losing their independence. Losing their mental faculties.

Strength training helps with all of this.

Too many people don’t strength train or really give it their all in the gym because they’re afraid of getting hurt, but with proper form, strength training is very safe.

More than that, it’s the most important thing you can do as you get older!

Do you want to be able to get right back up when you fall with no injuries or worries?

Start strength training.

I hope you get the point I’m trying to get across. These 3 “exercises” are examples of common fear-based traps people fall into. Now that you’re aware of them you’ll be able to skip right past them just like playing hopscotch.