Workout and Diet Advice for Women over 45

Of course our objective in working out and bodybuilding is to stay healthy  –  but who are we kidding, it is also to stay looking and feeling young ( well at least a good deal younger than our chronological age).  So it seems ironic that  we give ourselves away, by acting old in oh so many ways.  In fact Pamela Redmond Satran has written a book “How Not to Act Old” and excerpts have been reproduced in More magazine http://tiny.cc/uF2rq,  and even the Wall Street Journal took time to give an excerpt http://tiny.cc/jDTot.   I tweeted a couple of excerpts that I found funny  (one regarding Twitter and one regarding exercise).  I figure there is something for everyone even though a few women commented in More that they were insulted.

Also figured this fitted in with my blog topics –  because as I said above if you act old, then looking young and fit is wasted effort.

Below are a couple of my own dos and don’ts for acting young and hip.  (For one thing don’t use ‘hip’ it immediately shows you aren’t – don’t you love this circular logic?).  My list is mainly related to exercise and the gym, so here goes:

To not act old when in the gym,

• Don’t criticize the iPod/earplug wearing people (of all ages) who ignore you when you offer to share equipment, or you ask for a spot as the bar is descending on your head.  Though seriously, it’s fine if people want to exercise obliviously, and have that distraction of Rap or Heavy Metal; my preference is to focus on what I am doing and get the additional benefits of the mind-body connection.
• Don’t hog the machine.  People who know their way around the gym have no problem sharing the equipment so someone else can use it while you rest their muscles between sets.  Older people (and let’s face it, selfish youngsters) seem to have the idea that letting someone else use the equipment will somehow destroy the value of their next set, but sitting on the equipment between sets will keep the weights (and the stars) properly aligned for their next set.
• Don’t act like their mother when the kid who just vacated the equipment left his sweat all over it/ left 12 45 lb plates stacked on it/ some other thoughtless infringement.  I.e. don’t simply criticize – I used to do it and often got the eye-roll response.  Sometimes a little sweet-sarcasm works, ‘I think you left something on the bench’; ‘ the paper-towel was moved to that other wall, by the way’!  Otherwise  simply being sweet  ‘would you help me unload?’   is  effective and avoids being dismissed as “old lady”.  Of course if this fails or happens repeatedly, a whack** upside the head can make you feel a whole lot better and is good exercise.
• If your leg muscles are really stiff and sore from a great leg workout, don’t head to the gym while you are still ‘walking awkwardly’.  In a young person this walk is funny and even admired because it connotes a hard workout.  In an older person it just looks ‘old’. Do yourself a favor and choose some other form of exercise till you can saunter into the gym with a ‘normal’ walk.

My overriding piece of advice  –  don’t try (too hard) to act young.  You are bound to be caught out doing something ridiculous (‘whack’) and that is more embarrassing than being yourself.

*Whack – young slang for “ridiculous” or “bad”.

** Whack – in this context it is the usual meaning – “slap”.