Your video guide to exercise in midlife

Five simple pillars of healthy, nourishing exercise; custom-built around the needs of the midlife body.

Let Baz guide you through four vital pillars of exercise, warm-up, core, cardio and cool-down.

It’s a simple start to healthy, nourishing exercise; easy to do and a great way to prime you for the day.

#1 – The warm-up

The warm up is so important. For time or energy reasons you may not be warming up for something, but there’s still so much to gain from the warm-up itself. 

Because a warm-up, even if it’s a standalone exercise, is a precious time to check out of your head and check in with the body. It may sound quirky, but I always recommend warming up in bare feet so you can literally and psychologically connect your body with the environment you’re in, and what’s going on in the present. 

Try to flow smoothly through your warm up; it’s not about pain, sweat or jerky movements. We’re talking about 4 / 10 (or thereabouts) on the effort scale because the primary goal is not strain, it’s to connect your breathing and your body through movement so you feel more in-sync after than you did before. 

#2 – Cognitive

It’s time to fire up the brain, but that doesn’t mean revving up the white-noise. This exercise is about getting your head ‘all-in’ on the task at hand. Connecting the brain with your physical movement essentially means using a focused action to enter a natural meditative state. This is not easy. 

Unless you’re skilled in meditative techniques, an a ball is as good as anything to enter a state where mind and body come together. It’s essentially a skills-based exercise promoting focus and enabling you to tune in and connect. This exercise is a case of practice makes perfect … and the good news is you can practice any time.

#3 – Cardio

The important thing with cardio is it’s not about ruining yourself. It’s not about fly and die. No, it’s about warming up well … and when you get to the cardio part all you need is 10 minutes. 

Pitch your cardio exercise to where your energy and your body are at; working at a level you can maintain for your 10 minutes. Sweat and burn are great but at the beginning it’s more important to focus on technique. Less is more. With practice you can dial up the intensity … but good technique is the key to lifting the body and getting more out of your cardio time.

#4 – Work the core

The core. I know loads of women who’ll tell you they have strong arms and / or legs but they lack connection to the core – that the core isn’t able to harness and use all that power. 

Core exercise can change that. With core exercises you want movement to flow through the body’s centre and you want to use your breathing to amplify the impact of exercise. As with the warm up, core exercise isn’t about jerky movements, shaking or tummy-popping-strain, it’s about focus and concentration; developing core muscles and body co-ordination gradually. 

#5 – Cool down and stretch

We know midlife is stressful, there are chemical and psychological reasons for that, so at the end of a session we need to tap into parasympathetic (the rest and relax) nervous system to calm the additional stress of exercise. 

The best way to do that is to breathe, slow down and feel. Please don’t see the cool-down as wasted time because it’s the opposite. Even simple stretching coupled with brilliant breathing is an ideal way for your body to register your exercise, taper down, and enable you to approach the next part of your day with a sense of calmness and control.