As your body changes over time, so should your fitness routine.
“In your 20s, specifically, push your level of intensity, push the weight, develop as much muscle as possible, push your cardio and really strengthen your heart,” advised Kaiser, “because it gets exponentially more difficult as you get older.”
Once you hit the big 3-0, “cut back a bit on the intensity and focus more on maintaining and developing muscle and using cardio to boost that,” she continued, “which is where I started with Kelly.”
At 40, it becomes more challenging for women to develop muscle, she noted, “So you have to eat a lot of protein, you have to really focus on strength training, you have to cut back on the cardio. And that’s why dance is great because you can have fun doing it and you don’t have to feel like you’re pushing yourself sprinting or doing standing mountain climbers or burpees.”
By your 50s, “we really should be focusing on just maintaining that muscle and thinking about sitting in a more moderate place with cardio, like 65 to 70 percent of your heart rate,” added Kaiser. “And then in your 60s, it’s really strength training and balance, in addition to recovery.”