Hello Friends !
LIFE should not get slow after 50, rather should accelerate on TOP gear.
From today I am adding a new subject to my blog page, in response to the demand by my numerous friends from India & abroad, who either follow my blogs, facebook page, Twitter, my facebook friends , or are my YouTube channel subscribers & viewers.
My intention in starting this blog series "FIT TO TREK@50" is not only to educate you all who are in your 50's & above to make you TREK-FIT , but also to motivate & encourage you for treks in and around INDIA at various exciting locations in the laps of the THE GREAT HIMALAYAS.
A trek can boost your metabolism for up to 12 hours after the trek ! Paring a healthy balanced diet with a daily walk and trek at least once a year can help you lose some amount of weight without even doing much exercise. Additional benefits of walking and trekking include strengthening your bones & improving your attention & memory. Specifically when trekking in nature, research has shown 20% increase in attention & memory. Sunshine provides VITAMIN D, breathing PURE AIR calms nervous system, the different COLOURS OF NATURE - GREEN walking or FOREST bathing (Nature Walking) is phenomenally good for our overall physical & mental health. It should be made a routine to at least go for a MODERATE / MID /HIGH ALTITUDE TREKKING for minimum 10-15 days in a year, considering the missing nature in most of our city life.
The need to walk or trek is baked into our DNA. We are meant to eat & then move & not eat & just sit on our butts. We are built to WALK. Walking or trekking has no age limit, rather you should walk or trek more as you age.
Walking & trekking are easy exercise that requires little effort, & benefits not only physical but also your mental well-being. If you are looking for a simple yet very effective way of losing weight & improving your overall health, walking and nature trekking is something just for you.
People who are physically active throughout their life are much less prone to disease than those who have more volume in their hippocampus - the part of the brain responsible for verbal memory and learning. A daily 30-45 minutes walk & occasional trekking helps avoid serious problems, like coronary heart disease to name one, by lowering high blood pressure and cholesterol levels thus improving blood circulation. Because of better quality and deeper breathing , some symptoms associated with lung diseases can show significant improvement, thanks to walking. Muscle tone and weight loss is also totally achievable through simple walking & trekking, especially when you trek in varied landscape.
Compared to normal daily walking, trekking needs some basic physical training and mental preparations that you can even do at your home, before planning for a trek, especially at mountains with varying altitude, living conditions, weather conditions with temperature change, and change in atmospheric oxygen level.
Trekking in mountains has no age restrictions, may it be moderate / mid / high altitude treks. What it basically requires is your mental preparedness, some very basic and simple strength, endurance, body flexibility, and mobility training. Which I will be guiding in my upcoming blogs under the series - "FIT TO TREK@50".
So, if you are in your 50's or 60's, do not get disappointed when I am mentioning the word ALTITUDE, myself is not telling you to climb Mount Everest.
You must have heard about TAMAE WATANBE of Japan, she was the oldest women to climb Mount Everest at the age of 73, in the year 2002. 👇
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Also, YUICHI MIURA of Japan, oldest man who scaled Mount Everest at the age of 80, in the year 2013. 👇
Now talking of INDIANS, Ms. Premlata Agarwal scaled the summit of Mount Everest in the year 2011, at the age of 50. 👇
Also, Ms. Sangeeta S Bahl scaled Everest at the age of 53, in the year 2018. 👇
Not to forget about the Indian father & daughter duo who achieved the same laurel in the year 2018, father Mr. Ajeet Bajaj (53 yrs) & daughter Ms. Deeya Bajaj (27 yrs). 👇
All the above mentioned veterans scaled 8,848.86 meters. What I am trying to motivate you is to go for just anything between 3000 meters to maximum 5000 meters, depending on your preparedness and fitness level, that to at locations with much much more easier & comfortable trails than the Everest.
Now, just come out of your cocoon, keep your age, mind set and present fitness level aside, and Jump in for an exciting life which myself intent to take you to. Do not waste a single day of this short & uncertain life on this earth, LIVE THE REST OF YOUR LIFE WITH SOME MOTIVATION , ADVENTURE & LET'S TOGETHER SCALE NEW HEIGHTS, which you never thought of at your age. Generate the urge to live more joyfully with great health and with some excitement.
Let our MOTTO be :
"NOT TO DEPEND ON OTHERS, BUT TO SET AN EXAMPLE FOR THE YOUNGER GENERATION".
This blog series is for you, if you are really interested in your own training. If you really want to learn and develop the knowledge and skills to be able to be consistent in your training and see improvement over training, and have more energy to feel better, to be stronger and perform better in the mountains, even after crossing the age of 50.
This is basically my manifesto, that is the 9 basic points, that you should focus during your training to prepare your MIND & BODY :
1. NUTRITION : the energy that you consume through your food is ultimately the energy that you put into your training, that is your output. I do not think here diets work.
2. MOBILITY : this is your ability to move body with the brain managing your body to be strong. This gives you injury prevention, as injuries are easier to prevent, than cure. As this will make you able to keep training and keep performing in the mountains without being injured, also your shoulders, fingers, elbows, legs has to be strong and mobile along with your joints, so that it ables you to stay at your best even after 50. Mobility training is very vital, as your hips, ankles and knees are normally prone to injuries in the mountains.
3. PERIODISATION : this is simply the process of dividing the weekly or monthly training plan into a series of manageable phases. Each phase can then target a specific or series of attributes to be developed within a designated period of time. Period of overload and recovery are designated within each phase.
You do not get stronger while you train, you only get stronger while you are resting. That is the period of time when your muscles are going through the phase of repairing that get torn during your training, that is when you are getting stronger. If you do not allow the rest or recovering time, then you will not get stronger. Also, need to get the body ask for more or push your body to a certain limit over time by extra killer reps or weights.
4. STRENGTH : if you do not have the strength to pull that one hard move, you have nothing to endure. You need to work on strength first, the endurance will come later. The major principles of strength that you should understand is something called "TIME UNDER TENSION".
5. FUNCTIONAL TRAINING : this is a huge element, I do not really see the point that just sitting on a machine in a gym doing isolation training particular muscle groups, rather you should put whole body to work for coordinating,stability, agility, body balance, with the brain engaged with the body.
6. KEEPING IT RELEVANT : do not want you to do 15 hours of swimming every week if your goal is to trekking in the mountains, as there are very few common movements between swimming and climbing and trekking in mountains. Swimming is a great exercise, but in reality there are not much cross over between swimming and mountain trekking. You really have to peak at what is relevant for your upcoming trek.
7. MAKING ROOM FOR PROGRESSION : all the exercises that you need to do should allow you to get better, if you simply are doing same exercises week in & week out , and there is no development and you are not asking your body to do more as mentioned earlier, means you are not trying optimally. You need to have plan for progression.
8. FUN & VARIETY : you should add fun and make your routine interesting, so that you do not get bored by doing same exercises. Keep your routine fluid and give as much variety.
9. CONSISTENCY : this is the most important of all. Consistency is the key. If you are doing some training program that is not really optimal for you, but you are consistent then you can be still better than others who are of your age, or even younger.
In my next blog under "FIT TO TREK@50" series , myself will try to answer few of your relevant questions about MOUNTAIN TREKKING at the age of 50 and above. Also will discuss about the various aspects of mountain trekking - it's affordability, precautions to be taken against risk involved like in any other activity at whatever age you may be, how to select the trek locations , how to get trek companions, and many more. Also, would learn about the first step towards MOUNTAIN TREK TRAINING.
The training program will be also released simultaneously in my YouTube channel fitnessfun50 .
NOTHING SHOULD STOP YOU AS YOU CROSS 50. NOW IS ACTUALLY THE TIME FOR THE FINAL SPRINT.
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