Episode 7: Fitness Tips for Your 50s & Beyond!

WMT (ep7)
Isaac Wright: Welcome to another episode of Wright Money Tips. As you all have hopefully watched the show now for a while at the lead in of our show, we talk about health or at least we have that along with finance and lifestyle when it comes to living your best lifestyle. Obviously, if you don’t have your health, your wealth really doesn’t matter.
So today I wanted to introduce a great friend of mine, Tyler Cox. Tyler is the head coach and owner at CrossFit Pushin Weight, which is just over the Midlothian-Powhatan line. With one thing that I wanted to share with you guys about Tyler, I actually had been using Tyler as my personal trainer now for several years.
At 45 years old, I still have a lot to learn and let’s say get better at, but feel like I’m in a lot better shape than I was five or 10 years ago. But Tyler, welcome to the show.
Tyler Cox: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I’m looking forward to it.
Isaac Wright: Tyler also has 13 different certifications ranging from mobility training, proper weightlifting technique, even attending seminars to help with your attitude and staying positive with the progress that’s trying to make with your physical and mental self. So I couldn’t think of a better person to bring in. Tyler’s our first health-related guest on Wright Money Tips. And what we’re going to talk about today are what I call fitness tips for when you are over the age of 50.
Now I’m only a few years away from this. So some of this stuff I’m going to pick apart from you as well. But Tyler, when you take a look at the people that come in, whether it’s CrossFit, whether it’s just lifting weights, whether it’s somebody that’s recovering, from various injuries.
And I think probably all of you know that by the time you hit 50, you’ve probably have had multiple injuries if you’ve got into sports and so forth. But the main thing I wanted to kind of just start off with is looking at the people around the gym when you and I are together. You have a decent amount of people in the gym doing CrossFit even that are 50 and older. So with that being said, what has been probably, if you had to pick part of the top thing when you talk to somebody joining your gym over the age of 50. What are some of the challenges that you would say is top of mind for these people that are trying to get back into shape or stay in shape?
Tyler Cox: I always encourage them first and foremost to be consistent. Two to three days a week is a lot, especially making a change from coming from more of a sedentary background. So, you know, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Maybe it’s Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or something like that or along those lines, to start there and be consistent at that. Any movement is always better than no movement.
So, whether it be CrossFit, personal training sessions or some of the other small business boutique type gyms that are in the area and things of that nature. You know, your typical Globo like Gold’s or AmFam, getting off the couch and doing anything, even if it’s a walk is always better than nothing.
So for those over 50, I always encourage them to try two to three days a week, and to always listen to how they feel coming in. And you talked about injuries and ailments. We do have a lot of clientele that have some preexisting injuries and so that’s why we always start with our five one-on-one PT sessions.
We can always perform a body reading to learn what their current and body mass index or body fat percentages, what their weight is at. We do a movement assessment. We want to see how well someone may move whether overhead and limited range of motion, or maybe the lower back or hamstrings. To see if they’re extremely tight in those hip regions and areas.
So things like that are real important for us, myself and my staff, to make sure that we’re able to prescribe accordingly per each individual athlete when they come through the door. And again, going back to listen to how they feel like if they’re coming in. If they feel exhausted, they feel tired, limit the intensity aspect and just try to move and move well.
Don’t get caught up in what others may be doing around you and just kind of stay in your lane and focus on what’s best for you at that time.
Isaac Wright: Let me say this because I know when, I had several injuries that took me out of lifting and took me out of actually getting a decent workout for a few years. And when I came in to see you guys, I think one of the things that really hit home with me was you all had a step-by-step process to get kind of acclimated to basic movements.
So let me say this, if you’re, to me, this is kind of how I would look at it is if you’re 50 or nearing 50, maybe you’re well over 50 and you’re trying to, re-establish maybe a routine that keeps you in good health, knowing where to start, I will say Tyler and the CrossFit crew over there have a great step-by-step process to introduce you to movements that will allow you to enjoy yourself also the limitations around those movements.
To me, I think also you all recognize that and help these people to where well, and I think too, I think for most of you out there too, knowing that you hear the word CrossFit, some of you may say, well, what in the world? People doing CrossFit at 50 years old? But it’s not like that. It’s a great opportunity to be able to work towards some positive routines.
The second thing I heard you say is mobility. And I just want to come back here and tell the audience because my mobility has probably been the greatest source of being able to stay active and healthy. When you’re young and you’re 20 and 30 years old, it’s nothing wrong with doing the bench press and the bicep curls. Or if you’re a lady doing the aerobics classes, being active, running, as you know my wife’s a big runner, but the level of mobility, I cannot stress to you how much that’s been helpful. And I think maybe from a mobility standpoint, what are the key aspects that you’ve seen at the gym to be able to help people increase their mobility, which in turn obviously helps them increase their health?
Tyler Cox: Well, so going back to the mobility assessment is one way that we’re able to target and identify certain issues and every athlete will be different.
So, whether you’re 15 years old, you’re 55, we have athletes up to 70, 75 at the gym, understanding that pre-existing injuries will cause some mobility limitations. So, their ability to reach overhead or bend down and touch their toes. Identifying that and then being able to make the appropriate modifications or what some people deem as scaling in the middle of the workout so they can move pain-free while exercising.
I mean, that’s what we do, we exercise. We’ll do fun-filled fitness for 60 minutes and we try to make it conducive to each individual so that way they can come in the door and leave better than they walked in.
Isaac Wright: And I think now at the gym, the new location, you guys have someone that’s there to help with rehabilitative care.
You have a dedicated space for people who are wanting to get into anything from Olympic lifting to again, scaling out general workouts that could be considered CrossFit movements or not, mobility. And what I found is this is sometimes scaling those movements over time, allows you to gain the mobility, to go up a notch and be able to do more.
And so for those of you who know, or maybe not know, that mobility training, especially as you start getting in your older years. If you’re out there on the golf course, for example, you know, I like to play golf a lot of times, having that shoulder mobility, having to be able to turn my hips, there’s been a lot of issues.
You know, I had back surgery when I was basically 20 years old. I had my L4 L5 surgery, had a discectomy. So, I just want to step back and share this with you guys. I think the mobility aspect, one of the reasons that I feel that Tyler was a great person to come in today and talk about fitness tips over 50 is because I think if you go to, without putting knocks on other gyms, sometimes you’re not getting any of that personal attention. Or if you are getting that attention, you’re going to be spending a lot of money to have a personal trainer over your shoulder that may be putting you on general routines.
And I think Tyler, if I can say this and I’m pumping you up a little bit, but the entire team over at CrossFit really does a good job I think of creating some individual and custom approaches to get people back on their feet. And if they’re lucky enough where they’re doing well is how to be able to continue to push in a let’s call it a safe way in terms of not causing too many injuries or reinjuring an old problem area.
Tyler Cox: Probably the hardest part of my job is trying to get people to throttle back more than throttle forward to be honest. People get into the environment and the energy is great, right? The atmosphere, they’re around, you know, friends or like what we refer to them as familia.
And so like you want to do well and you want to hit those PRs, but sometimes it’s a matter of listening to how your body’s feeling like. Or do you feel like your movements are clean? Do you feel safe? Like, is it worth adding those extra few pounds, you know, kind of like risk to reward?
You know, and a lot of times, especially at that age of 50, 55 and up, we want to make sure what’s the angle? What’s the insight? Is it this one single workout or is it the ability to function throughout the rest of the week and improve on that mobility or that strength throughout the course of the year?
So, when you bend down to pick up your grandbabies and hold them in your arms and lift them over your head, like, is it pain-free movement? If not, then we need to fix that. You know, we want to keep it that way for you.
Isaac Wright: You said something, the word familia. That’s kind of the cultural term that we use for everybody that comes into CrossFit Pushin Weight.
Again, because I’m there and I see what goes on. I wouldn’t have Tyler in here if I didn’t feel comfortable with the fact that what they do and what they say, they follow through. One thing I will say about the term familia is the fact that, how important do you feel it is from an accountability standpoint, knowing that you’ve got people alongside you that are roughly, maybe in the same age?
And let me just step back on this too. Seeing people in there that are half my age that, let’s call it, appreciate the fact that there’s a wide, I guess maybe I should say it this way. There’s a wide range of people and different walks of life. But I will say overall, the accountability measures of having maybe a few friends in there that, you know, are going to show up in the mornings or afternoons.
Tyler Cox: I mean, you develop that relationship, whether they’re their neighbors or you met him for the first time in that class. And if you’re consistent with attendance, you start to know these people definitely by first name and you know a little bit about their own history. So, it develops into this community that you have, this culture to where you’re like, I’m going to go there at six and we’ll see you at six tomorrow.
And you’re like, absolutely. And then you show up and you’re like, man, I’m tired. Me too. But we’re going to get through this together, you know we’ll be better because of it when we walk out. So a lot of times, like having that relationship with others around you, for lack of a saying, misery loves company, right?
So, it’s like no one wants to suffer alone. So, you show up with your buddy, you get after it, you know, well, your best girl pal, whatever the case may be and then you get your fun feel fitness and your best hour of the day. Well, hopefully not your best hour, but one of the best, absolutely.
Isaac Wright: Well, we get, we definitely have quite a few people around the area that get access to our podcasts and listen to what we have to say every other week. Before we wrap up, man, is there anything else you would like to share about fitness over 50? Anything that you would think would be helpful as we wrap up today
Tyler Cox: For under 50, 50, 55 or older, movement is key. Doing anything is always going to be better than nothing. So if you’re able to, get off the couch and start with just a walk. Three 30-minute walks a week, and you build up to maybe a jog, or you start looking at some of the local gym memberships around the area, like try to do something.
It doesn’t have to be seven days a week or five days a week. Three days a week, two to three is always a solid start. And then from there, if you fall in love with it and you progress further, great. Maybe you pick up two different things. Maybe it’s, three times a week, you’re at the gym and then one time out of the week, you go for a run at a park or maybe go for a hike. Just do something. You know, I see a lot of people come through the door now that lead a sedentary life because we sit in chairs all day long, or we sit behind the wheel of a vehicle, we’re always on our phones or watching television.
It’s scary just to kind of see like how people are beginning to move because of cultural upbringing. And so, especially for those in the 50 to 55 plus age range, just get out and move a little bit. I promise you, I put my career on it that you will feel better because of it.
Isaac Wright: Hey, well, listen, Tyler, I want to say thank you for coming today.
Talking about all the different aspects of physical fitness over 50. To me movement, I totally agree. And I also agree that the fact that you don’t have to go out gangbusters, if you are somebody that’s just trying to get acclimated back to it or trying to learn how to move properly, which is something that I did. And I did not really know until about my late thirties, early forties.
I’m going to have Tyler’s information here at the bottom of the screen. I would encourage you to give him a call. If you have any questions related to physical fitness. Also, if you have any questions about anything that we cover on our program today, feel free to also reach out to us.
If you have any concerns or questions you can visit wrightmoneytips.com to request some time on our calendar. Or please subscribe when visiting wrightmoneytips.com to receive notifications on new episodes, our newsletter and even upcoming events.
Well, Tyler, listen, man good stuff. Always, always welcome here. I’m sure we’ll have you back again.
Tyler Cox: I’d love to be here. I’m enjoying this. This is great.
Isaac Wright: Awesome, brother. And if you all need anything here again for Wright Money Tips, I’m Isaac and we look forward to talking to you soon.