You’ve always been active, and you want to stay that way. Perhaps you play competitive tennis or engage in another sport. You don’t want to slow down. However, your body isn’t the same at 50, 60, or 70 as it was at 30. What’s the best way to stay active and take care of your body at the same time?
Board-certified orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jonathan Shults with Coastal Empire Orthopedics focuses on sports injury prevention as well as sports injury treatment as a sports medicine specialist. Dr. Shults explains why you need to modify some activities as you move from your youthful to more senior years, providing specific guidance as it relates to your chosen sport or exercise regimen. Following are key recommendations.
You know you need to stretch before you work out or start sports play, but do you always do it? Dr. Shults explains that your muscles and tendons at age 50 are less elastic than they were at 30.
Your collagen production, which keeps your soft tissue elastic, begins to decrease around age 30. Your soft tissue is less resilient against the sudden shock of vigorous movement and becomes more susceptible to tears. Too, the quality of the cartilage between your bones isn’t as robust, and it may have thinned over the decades.
Make stretching a part of your normal daily routine, and always stretch before active play or a gym workout. Dr. Shults shows you specific stretches that help protect you based on your sport or type of activity.
Dr. Shults says strength training is a “must” to help maintain muscle mass and bone density as you age. After age 30, you lose between 3-5% of muscle mass each decade, for a total of about 30%.
However, if you have lost some muscle mass, you can take steps to regain and maintain it with progressive resistance training. You start with a specific weight and number of repetitions and gradually add increased weight and number of reps.
You’ll look and feel better with a regular resistance training routine, and you’ll be protecting yourself against bone fractures and soft tissue injuries from weak muscles.
Do you play three sets of intense tennis four or five times per week? That was fine when you were 30 or 40, but as you age, you’ll need to adjust your routine or succumb to overuse injuries: painful knees, shoulders, hips, wrists, and more that take weeks of recovery.
Instead of running the golf course on your days off, you may need to walk it instead. Likewise, Dr. Shults may advise you that playing your competitive sport three days in a row is going to lead to injuries and suggest an alternate schedule of play, avoiding high-impact physical activity on consecutive days.
As you age, your body doesn’t absorb vitamins and minerals as well as it did when you were young. Studies suggest that as an active, mature man, you need 1 to 1.3 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.
Consuming protein within a reasonable time after you exercise; some scientists recommend within 30 minutes. Choose lean protein such as chicken, turkey, beans, skim dairy, and fish rather than red meat, which contains high levels of saturated fats.
Don’t try to muscle through an activity if you feel pain or an unfamiliar ache. Stop the activity and rest. Contact our office for an appointment so that we can nip an injury in the bud before it keeps you out of the game for the rest of the season.
Call or message our office in Savannah, Georgia, today for expert sports medicine treatment.
