Hitting 50 means it's time to start working your ass off!

It's that time of year again where some people are actually making a concerted effort to lose a few pounds and maybe get in shape.  By this time all of those New Year's Eve resolutions doomed to be crushed underfoot have been long been forgotten and all of those 6 month gym memberships that were purchased have been classified as a poor investment.  Yet there are those who are making the effort.  Some of them go to the gym and others do their workouts at home.    If you are one of the latter chances are you might have bought a work out video, there are a shit load of them out there.  One of the most popular is the P90 program.  I also do an abbreviated version since I don't have an hour and half every day just to run through the routines.  Also, I never play the music since it's not something I enjoy listening to and I don't find it at all rousing nor do I find it inducing enthusiasm.  Another thing I rarely complete are the push ups.  I have always hated them, for as far back as I can remember, which is nearly prehistoric.  Quite a lot of the routines, however, are beneficial, if you tweak them to be age appropriate.    I'm not thirty, so jumping around like I am might result in injury.

In addition I include weight training in the form of dumbbells and a medicine ball. As we age, both men and women, our muscles tend to atrophy - they get smaller.  How often have  you seen an elderly person and realized their musculature almost matches that of a baby?  I see in all of the time.  That's one thing I don't want to grow into, which is why I advocate weight training.  I think it might even be more important the jumping around I do with the P90 programs.

If you do this often enough you can start wearing the cute, little black shorts.

I use a 12 pound medicine ball and love it.  The routine is simple and takes about 7 minutes to run through.  It's great for stretching!

My cardio usually consists of a hour three times a week done on either my Sole elliptical or my bike which is mounted on a Cycleops trainer.  

Why do I do cardio, free weights, and stretching?  Because as we get older we need to do all three.  I do four if you throw in the Yoga which is something I definitely need to work on since it is the one thing I tend to forget (something about bending over to do a double dare dog or what ever it's called seems odd to me).  Staying active is important as hell. Once you've decided you deserve to sit on your ass ad relax you start losing the battle.  The weight will pound on, your energy will dissipate.  I know because I see people like this every day as they trudge through life.