When do you slow down?
 

So, maybe already some threads about this, but at what age or time in your life do you start slowing down?
When do you start doing gentler workouts? Or do you?

I am 58 and in the last year+ I've actually been doing harder workouts and am probably in the best shape of my life.
I'm not ready to slow down. I love my tough workouts but I also balance that out with daily Yoga and Meditation to heal my body.

What say you? I will admit to some minor aches and pains, but usually is just exercise related. I'm also much stronger and better mobility to do tough work around my house and yard.

Nope, not ready to slow down yet. ;-)

I'm the same age, and life itself got in the way of whatever fitness plans I had.

Various injuries and health issues led me to periodically slow down or stop working out altogether for a while, and with each one, as I've gotten older, it's progressively more difficult to get back in fighting trim.

I'm learning that for me, slow and steady is the way to rebuild, and I think I'm seeing progress already, but I'm nowhere back to normal.

Had gotten in a trap of inadvertently overworking my body, taking time to recover then getting interrupted and overwhelmed with life events.

The way I see it, if you're healthy and strong enough to work out intensely, go for it!!! Keep up your strength and energy in whatever ways work for your body.

I just hit the brakes recently. I was finding it hard to lose weight. My workouts were leaving me totally drained, even into the next day. I wasn't sleeping well and my body felt totaly stressed out. I will be 60 soon and I am post menopausal. I decided to try Pahla B's workouts for women over fifty. It took me about a week to wrap my head around "moderate workouts". I was a fitness instructor in the 90's and I just continued with my fitness philosophy to eat less and work out more. I just finished a 30 day challenge with Pahla. I lost 4 pounds, kept my muscle tone, and I feel so much better. The workouts that I use to love doing were now stressing my body and causing the weight gain. I am sleeping so much better and I have energy to do all the things I need/want to do daily. I am starting my second month of Pahla's workouts in hopes of losing a few more pounds. Her workouts have shown me that I really need to work on my balance/core.

I've always been slow, lol. Maybe it's a personality thing? I've never been into super high-intensity workouts. Barre, Pilates, yoga, walking, basic weights...good enough for me!

I am 71 and am trying to ramp back up. Knee arthritis limited me some for years and last year I had both knees replaced. I can walk again, use my elliptical an am getting back to the FIRM and step. I do have to watch the new knees and NO impact. Lately I have been really discouraged as I have gained 10# in the last year despite mostly careful eating and as much exercise as I could do. I have gone hungry many days. Lately I have been into Jessica Smith. I do notice needing more recovery time as I have gotten older. But I believe that it is a mistake to limit yourself just because of age.

I slow down when I get injured - and I need more time to recover and need to be more careful to avoid reinjury, the older I get. I've also "slowed down" in the sense of mixing in more low-intensity workouts; I don't mind modifying programs to keep it to 3-4 high-intensity workouts a week. I still love working out hard, I just don't do it for an hour a day six days a week.

I am 63 & I’ve had to scale back because of arthritis related knee and wrist issues & lumbar spine degeneration. I’ve never lifted heavy, not something I enjoy, but I did love running and hi/lo & step aerobics. So I’ve opted for lower impact cardio, barre, high rep/low weight toning, Essentrics & yoga. I modify planks to forearms or a raised surface and I stay away from deep backbends & bone jarring moves like burpees. I really miss my running though! I still workout almost every day, but rarely high intensity. My weight is stable right where I want it to be and I feel good.

I'm 54 and, after years of very intense workouts, I had to start slowing down about a year or so ago. I found that I could get through a tough workout, no problem, but by the time I got into bed that same night I felt like I'd been run over by a truck. I constantly felt like I was on the verge of getting sick, even when I took rest days. I finally (after much back and forth) stopped using heavy weights.

I have found that I can do lots of steady state running, pilates, some bodyweight work, and some light weight work. Anything more than that and I just feel like garbage. Pahla B. helped me to understand the estrogen connection, but I sure do miss lifting heavy. I have to constantly remind myself that I feel so much better now: better sleep, better moods, and better control over what I eat.

Linda, this sounds a bit like me. I'm almost 46 and lifting anything very heavy has started to really bother me over the past couple of years. I finally made the connection after struggling against it for a while. This week I'm experimenting with only using 1 lb. dumbbells to see if common injury-prone areas feel better. Last week I battled a really terrible case of double-arm tennis elbow (I am prone to both tennis and golf elbow from weight lifting) and I frequently pull my obliques and pecs, all of which never used to happen.

I say do not slow down just because of the calendar. I am 63 and like you have been doing more challenging workouts than ever.
I do not subscribe to this whole business of deciding what I can or canot do just because of age. That's ridiculous. If you feel good, keep challenging yourself.