Fitness for Life: Step by step guide to fitness for life

I don’t care how old or how young you are. Fitness should be a part of your life. But what you do in each phase of your life can greatly affect the quality. Here is a quick bullet point style list of what you need to focus on during each decade of your life.

Birth to Toddler: Resist the urge to grow up too fast! Crawl for as long as possible. Own each phase of development before progressing to the next phase. I remember Gray Cook recommending you kick the legs out from a toddler if they try to stand. I thought it was to enhance motor development but then I figured out he just likes to kick small children.
 

3-12 years old: Provide your children with as many different sporting environments and a variety of fundamental movement patterns as possible. It is all about variety until their plums drop. I recommend gymnastics or martial arts for athletic development and soccer for team concepts and spacial awareness.
 

13-17 years old: It's time to focus on mastery of your sport of choice. Continue to play a multitude of sports but have a heightened focus on 1 or 2 sports. Advanced coaching, increased practise time and off-field training should be introduced if you want to be competitive. You want to set your child up with fitness being an integral part of life and not an add on. What we do during this phase of our lives sets our attitudes toward fitness for the rest of our time on this earth. Lead by example and be active with your teen or they may just find another teen to be active with.
 

20’s: Join a team, club, running group or any other gathering of fit minded people. This is a very social time in your life so you can either hang with the boozers and the losers or the forward-moving high performers! You will have a big push for career building and getting a head start on your adult years. Get shredded, meet the love of your life and put a mirror up in the bedroom. Enjoy it while you can!
 

30’s: Some of you will get married and have kids in your 30’s. What a great excuse to gain 15lbs and cancel that gym membership. NOT! This is a maker breaker phase of your life. Commit to staying the same weight through your 30’s by going to the gym 2-3x/week and eating right 80% of the week.
 

40’s: Get in your Cardio, HIIT Training, Circuit Training, Group Classes, anything you can do to motivate yourself to stay active. All those things you did to your body in your 20’s are coming back to haunt you. Get a good manual therapist to keep the body moving when your back goes out, your frozen shoulder thaws and your hammy pulls.
 

50’s: Mobility, Mobility, Mobility! Join a yoga class, pilates and get your heart rate up regularly. I recommend 15-20 minutes of aerobic/anaerobic training 3-4 days a week. I would rather see you perform shorter more frequent training sessions than long less frequent hour sessions.
 

60’s: Hit the weights! Maintain your muscle mass. 3 Sessions of mobility training with 3 sessions of strength training. Hypertrophy sets and reps will help you retain the muscle you have and maybe even add an inch or two to your pipes. When was the last time you had anything grow an inch?
 

70’s, 80’s, 90’s: DON’T EVER STOP MOVING!!!!! When people say “sit down and relax!” kick them in the shins! HARD! Hobbies that get you moving, walking clubs with your friends, golf, bowling, and full contact MMA cage fighting are all great activities to keep the joints and mind lubricated.

Want more? I break it down in detail in Ep169 of the Coach Glass Podcast.

Fit from Crib to Grave. Listen here: CGP Ep169 Fit From Crib to Grave