Manage Your Body and Stay Healthy Longer

For younger people recovery after exercise is not a major issue. I won’t try to define younger but I am certainly talking about anyone under 40.

Sure a 35 year old might feel a bit stiff the next day after a hard run and a 30 year old won’t to go heavy on the weights on consecutive days.

Anyone under 40 playing squash would hope that they could enjoy a hard best of five on a Saturday afternoon and still be ready to go again on Sunday morning.

Warming down and stretching after exercise makes this easier although you rarely see younger players taking the time to do this post game. Usually it is a quick chat, a quick shower and off home.

Speaking from experience, as you age, if you want to maintain your levels in whatever sport you play, you have to pay more attention to warming up, warming down and frequency of play.

So tempting as it may be, because we all love playing and exercising generally, sometimes you just have to say no or at least schedule your match or session to give yourself more time to recover.

If you feel stiff from the last match/session the game will be less enjoyable and you are certainly increasing the chances of injury.

Mostly if your body is a bit sore it is telling you to take it easy and take time to recover.

If you are taking ibuprofen or an equivalent to play pain free this is only a temporary fix that masks the true level of inflammation which is causing the discomfort. Again the chances of injury and being out for weeks or months are increased.

The advice is to listen to your body, don’t play if you are sore and always warm and stretch before undertaking and reasonably vigorous exercise.

If you can follow theses rules you have a great chance of staying healthy and playing competitively when you get older. (over 60?)