What does exercise mean to you? Some would nod in agreement that exercise is important while others would point-blank say ‘I can’t do exercise’. But it’s never too late to start – I am proof of that.

I' am 57, a single mother and I discovered running and exercise at the age of 50.

I have recently qualified as a personal fitness trainer. The main reason I did the course was to use the knowledge I’ve gained to familiarise myself with how my body is functioning and what it needs to stay fit and strong, including eating nutritious meals. By empowering myself, I will be able to help others over the age of 30 and beginners of any age to get active.

I was not physically healthy, at the time, nor was I active, so I thought it would be a good incentive to join a running club to keep me fit.

Fortunately, I am young at heart and energetic and I immediately fell into a consistent running routine. I also enjoyed doing strength exercises at boot camp that prevented injury when I was running.

With the right mindset and attitude, being active became my lifestyle and I’ve experienced a transformation from zero to fit.

However, despite being enthusiastic about fitness there had been times when I didn’t feel like doing it. That’s where discipline came in. I may not have felt like doing it but I did it anyway.

What was my intrinsic motivation? I asked myself why I had to exercise. The answer was always: my health was a priority. Sometimes that didn’t work and I had to source extrinsic motivation. When all my friends are going to a running or boot camp session I suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out). And that got me to get dressed and show up.

Due to being active five times a week I focused on my nutrition as well and I had chosen healthier food options which led to the bonus of losing weight.

Seven years later, paired with consistency and discipline, I ran countless 10km and 21km races, and three marathons (42km).

Our bodies are not made to sit down; we need to move daily as we lose muscle mass when we get older.

Muscle mass decreases approximately 3 to 8% per decade after the age of 30 and this rate of decline is even higher after the age of 60. This involuntary loss of muscle mass, strength, and function is a fundamental cause of and contributor to disability in older people according to the National Institute of Health, the US Department of Health’s medical research agency.

And as we age we are prone to injuries. We may find simple daily movements such as carrying a shopping bag or reaching out to get something on the top shelf may hurt our muscles and cause injury. The other reason why we should do strength training, including lifting weights, is so we may recover quicker from an injury.

There are a few essential and functional body weight strength exercises (no equipment needed) that we can do every day including burpees, planks, squats, push-ups and lunges.

I will also add what I eat every day and why I eat healthy 80% of the time and treats 20% of the time.

I will be explaining what these five exercises are and why we should do it over the next five weeks, starting from Wednesday October 2.

I will describe the exercises in the weekly column on Wednesdays and create an accompanying video for each column, which you can view on our websites.

So, let’s step up, shape up and kickstart your fitness journey!

#nutrition

It’s never too late to start your fitness journey