Exercise for over 60s: a joyful movement planner you’ll want to keep

It’s Sunday night. You’ve decided this is the week: up at six, a big walk every morning, maybe that boot camp at the beach. Monday goes well. Tuesday it rains. By Thursday your runners are by the back door where they were last month, and a familiar thought creeps in: “If I can’t keep this up now, what’s it going to be like when I’ve got all day?”

“Lazy” is rarely the right word. Plans like that often stall not because of the person, but because they were built around effort and guilt rather than a week you’d actually enjoy.

So this guide starts somewhere else. Not “how hard can you push?”, but “what would you happily do again next week?”

What the Australian guidelines actually say

The Australian Government publishes physical activity guidelines for older adults. They’re written for people aged 65 and over. The target audience for this guide is a little wider, so if you’re in your early 60s, treat them as a useful reference rather than a rule written for you.

In plain English, the Australian Government's guidelines for adults aged 65 and over say:

• Moderate to vigorous activity for 30 minutes or more on most days.
• Muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week.
• Activities for mobility, balance and coordination on 3 or more days a week.
• Several hours of light activity every day.
• And breaking up long periods of sitting as often as you can.

Notice what isn’t there: a gym membership, or anything you have to dread. The Government's page also notes that some activities count towards more than one recommendation. Walking up and down stairs, for example, counts towards both the moderate-intensity and the mobility and balance recommendations.

Your four kinds of movement

To make the Government's guidelines easier to picture, this guide gives each one a short tag. The tags are words as well as colours, so they still work if you print in black and white.

Move naturally, not heroically

The Blue Zones project describes a handful of habits shared by the communities it studied, and one of them is “Move Naturally”. The idea is simple: movement built into the day, not bolted on to it. Walking to the shops. Working in the garden. Taking the stairs because that’s where the stairs are.

That suits life on the Coast, where so much of it happens outdoors. The Coastal Pathway, a swim between the flags, a weekend walk in the hinterland. These aren’t workouts. They’re just a nice morning.

In our Path to Prosperity, this is the Play pillar: moving your body for the enjoyment of it, not as punishment. If you’d do it on holiday, it might be worth a spot in your week.

An illustration: Carol’s week

Carol is a made-up example, not a real client. Her week shows how the four kinds of movement can fit together. It isn’t a program to copy.

Carol is 66 and lives near Dicky Beach. She retired from an office job two years ago and tried twice to “get fit”: a gym membership and an early-morning beach class. Both lasted about three weeks. Both felt like work.

The third time, she started with what she already liked: walking with a friend, her garden, a swim when the water was warm. She wrote those into a week first, then filled the gaps. Strength became ten minutes at home on Tuesdays and Fridays. Balance became something she did while the kettle boiled.

Carol’s week. An illustration, not a program.

BRISK on 6 days. STRONG on 2. BALANCE on 3. POTTER every day.

Look at what’s missing from Carol’s week: a hard session she dreads. Look at what’s in it: her friend, her garden, the grandkids and the beach. The tags just show where each part of the Government's guidelines turns up in her week.

Build your own week

The Victorian Government's Better Health Channel says to talk to your GP about the level of exercise that's right for you before you begin, especially if you haven't exercised for a while.

Some ideas to try, if you'd like to fill in the planner below:

1. Start with what you already enjoy. Write those in first. A walk with a friend, the garden, a swim.
2. Tick the kind of movement each one is. Most will be BRISK or POTTER.
3. Look for gaps, if you like. Often it’s STRONG and BALANCE. Some people tuck them next to something they already do, like the kettle, the ad break or the walk home.
4. Leave one empty slot. Life happens. A week with no slack is a week that breaks.
5. You might give it a fortnight before changing anything. Then keep what you liked and swap out what you didn’t.

Finding company on the Sunshine Coast

Company can make it easier to turn up. Not because of willpower, but because someone’s waiting for you at the end of the path. A few local places to start looking:

• parkrun. Sunshine Coast Council’s walking and running page lists the local parkrun events, where you can walk, jog, run, volunteer or spectate. Kawana parkrun and Baringa parkrun are two of them. The same page lists Heart Foundation Walking groups.
• Healthy Sunshine Coast. Council’s Healthy Sunshine Coast program runs activities described as suitable for all ages and abilities.
• U3A Sunshine Coast. U3A Sunshine Coast lists physical activities among its courses, run by volunteer tutors.

Check each group’s own page for current details before you go.

A few honest notes

“Most days” isn’t “every day”. That’s the guidelines' own wording, so a day off isn’t a failure of the week.

Your week will change. A new grandchild, a sore knee, a winter that won’t end. Rewrite the planner. That’s what it’s for.

Enjoyment counts. What did you do on your last holiday that you’d happily do every week? Who would you walk with if you asked? Those questions are a good place to start.

If you’d like a broader look at the rest of your retirement, our Retirement Ready Checklist walks through the other parts of the picture.