Retirement, Aging and the Motivation to Stay Fit
Retirement can be the beginning of a new and exciting life – or – it can be the starting line at the slippery road to death! I retired last year at 64 and chose to become a personal trainer as my retirement career. As a retiree and a personal trainer, I wanted to understand what the future holds for those 65 and over, so I did a little research. The average lifespan for both men and women is 83 years old. If you retire at 65, that leaves you 18 years to enjoy your retirement! Unfortunately, after making all that hard earned money, the ticking clock of time begins to take its toll on our health. It is also unfortunate that about 45% of people aged 65 are obese and 65% have hypertension. As that sounds a bit negative, let’s turn it around and say 55% are not obese and 35% do not have hypertension. What did the people who are healthy do to stay that way?
Senior Health
United Health Foundation published Senior Health Report in 2023. In the study they did find that income, location, and education had some impact on the health of seniors. According to the report Utah has the healthiest seniors and Mississippi has the unhealthiest. California (where I live) was 34th and Hawaii (where I grew up) was 7th! This is all great – but what was the driving factor behind fitness? This is almost a no brainer – it was activity level. Those that stayed active and ate balanced diets were more fit than those that didn’t!
Right – I can hear you now. “John – that is not new news. I know that!” So here is the point, if we all know that this is true, why do some people stay active and eat well, while others do not? It all boils down to two things, motivation and education.
Motivation
As I look at my clients and friends who are over 65 years old. There are those that work hard at staying healthy and those that don’t. I have an 83 year old client who works out like a beast. Yes, he has physical limitations and a lot of reasons not to workout, but he comes to the gym and works out hard! Over 3 months he has increased his stamina and strength significantly. I asked him what drives him and he said he wants to live a good life. This coming from an 83 year old! He is motivated to stay healthy because he wants more! That is the key to staying motivated. If you don’t have a why, you won’t do what is needed to stay active and fit. To be fair many, if not most, people would say they want to stay healthy. It’s just that some of us are more apt to do something about it, than those who don’t. The key is to find THE reason that will help you get to the gym AND workout hard. Here are some of my key drivers to staying fit:
Drivers
- Quality of life as you get older
- Enjoying time with your spouse or significant other
- Playing with your grandkids
- Ability to travel
- Walking without a walker
- Fear of being incapacitated
- Looking good (c’mon – we all like to look good)
- Avoiding the hospital (Heart Attacks, Hypertension)
Education
So let’s say you are motivated to stay healthy. What does education have to do with staying fit? Education is key to fitness because if you do the wrong things you will be wasting your time or fooling yourself in thinking you are doing enough, when you’re not. I wrote another article on what the CDC says about activity levels, but basically you need to eat a balanced diet, get in 75 – 150 minutes of cardio per week AND strength training 2 days a week.
Retirement is not for the faint of heart. But you can increase your odds of staying healthy if you find something that will motivate you AND do the right things.
Retire Well!
John