Guidance to 65 years old male on daily walking

[BA_kumar_65]

I am 65 years old male and walk a minimum 10,000 and max to 20k. My resting bpm is 72 to 78. My bpm reaches 148 during brisk walk and my intense walk zone minutes are around 110 a day. My heart Cardio fitness shown is 48 in fitbit's Heart Rate. My breathing rate is 14 to 16/minute, Heart rate variability (HRV) 20 to 30 milliseconds and my Resting heart rate  (RHR) 76 to 78. 

Play badmintor for an hour every day. I request suggestions and advises please.

[shipo]

@BA_kumar_65, I'm a few months behind you in age but with very different heart rate metrics.  My suggestion would be to start mixing some light jogging in with your walking, possibly with an eye to completing a "C25K" (Couch to 5K program).  Contrary to the assertions of many, mixing in light jogging will provide significantly greater benefits for the body compared to exclusively walking.

[BA_kumar_65]

Thank you @shipo for your valuable suggestion. Shall explore all the avenues.

[LZeeW · Accepted solution]

@BA_kumar_65   You should think about adding weight training to help slow down age related muscle mass loss. 

[emili]

@BA_kumar_65 I think you are pretty darn active already. some people just have a higher or slower heart rate. If you are in general good health, your diet is good - filled with healthy high nutrient items, then enjoy yourself and don't worry about adding to or increasing what you are already doing. As important as activity is to your heart- food is as well. Review what you eat, maybe make some adjustments to reduce salt and increase good fats and see what happens. Enjoy!

[BA_kumar_65]

Sure. Thanks for guidance.

[BA_kumar_65]

@emili - Thank you for your valuable advise. Yes, I will have to reduce my salt intake and will have to increase some good fats. I will start this right now and will see my results after 3 months on this day. i.e. 5-10-2021. Thanks

[Trillium_Travel]

I just turned 77 last month. My doc advises not to run. Says, it is bad on the knees. At my age my friends are getting knee replacement. I walk 10,000 to 20,000 steps a day, more or less. I walk a 5k on a Rails to Trails level mostly paved walk 3-5 days a week. I've been doing this for 4 years. Keeping my weight 20 pounds less than when I started. 2019 I walk/ran in the Gasparilla 5 k. in Tampa, Florida and came in 21st for my age group. I've signed up for the February 2022 5k again. I figure if I walk/run I may be able to get in the top ten. I still am not too concerned about placing but, it does give me incentive to keep walking. My resting heart rate is 53 and most of the time my walking heart rate is about 85-95. I walk at about 100 steps a minute. That is just a bit more than 3 mph. I do have high blood pressure that is kept under control by diet and medication. I visit my doctor every 6 months. A few weeks ago I joined the gym again thanks to my Medicare supplemental insurance. At 65 you should be able to do the same for free gym membership. Hope that helps on your journey. 

[BA_kumar_65]

Hi. I did implement your suggestion of mixing in light jogging and noticed amazing results. Could hit 10k in 66 minutes, roughly clocking 8 kms. Also noticed that my Resting Heart Rate has come down significantly and my Recovery Heart Rate too was impressive, from a mere 26 to above 40 in 2 minutes. Thank you !

[BA_kumar_65]

Hi. That is really amazing and very impressive to know that at the age of 77 you are hitting 10 to 20k a day. You are a great inspiration indeed. Thanks for your wonderful advise. 

[shipo]

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@Trillium_Travel wrote:

I just turned 77 last month. My doc advises not to run. Says, it is bad on the knees. At my age my friends are getting knee replacement. I walk 10,000 to 20,000 steps a day, more or less. I walk a 5k on a Rails to Trails level mostly paved walk 3-5 days a week. I've been doing this for 4 years. Keeping my weight 20 pounds less than when I started. 2019 I walk/ran in the Gasparilla 5 k. in Tampa, Florida and came in 21st for my age group. I've signed up for the February 2022 5k again. I figure if I walk/run I may be able to get in the top ten. I still am not too concerned about placing but, it does give me incentive to keep walking. My resting heart rate is 53 and most of the time my walking heart rate is about 85-95. I walk at about 100 steps a minute. That is just a bit more than 3 mph. I do have high blood pressure that is kept under control by diet and medication. I visit my doctor every 6 months. A few weeks ago I joined the gym again thanks to my Medicare supplemental insurance. At 65 you should be able to do the same for free gym membership. Hope that helps on your journey. 

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My doctors have been telling my running is bad for the knees for many decades now, literally!  The thing is, I'm now well into my 60s and in the last decade alone I've logged over 12,000 miles of running, and funny thing, the only times when my knees bother me is when I'm not running due to other issues (you know, like broken bones, pneumonia, COVID, and now being attacked by two 150+ pound dogs and spending days in the ICU).

If you have an inkling to run, and are being scared by folks erroneously claiming running is bad for your knees, there is a growing body of evidence available in the internet which studies many thousands of older runners, and this evidence shows, if anything, older runners have fewer knee, hip, and ankle issues than their non-running peers.

[BA_kumar_65]

I have been hitting 10,000 plus steps a day and some times more than 15k. Though I had a target of 4 million steps, I could achieve only 2.66 million by 31-7-31. Have been playing badminton for the last 28 years. This information is for understanding of my endurance levels. Today - on 4-8-21 having accepted a challenge, did 25000 plus steps, is it ok to accept such challenges in future as I am being discouraged by my friends not to make so many steps in a day and they say not good for a 65 years old. After doing 25k, except a little bit pain in legs no other symptoms whatsoever. I shall appreciate your professional advise in this regard. Thanks in advance.

[shipo]

@BA_kumar_65, to be perfectly blunt, given your athletic history (I played badminton in college and it is quite a workout), your friends don't have a clue what they're talking about.  I'm roughly a year younger than you and prior to getting mauled by a 75kg dog a few weeks ago, I was logging typically between 15,000 and 30,000 steps per day, most of which were from running the trails around my home.  From a distance perspective that typically meant running anywhere between 12 and 25 kilometers a day.

[BA_kumar_65]

wow...that is quite a reply and awesome and inspirational to me to continue my workout. Thank you so much for your quick reply. 

[shipo]

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@BA_kumar_65 wrote:

wow...that is quite a reply and awesome and inspirational to me to continue my workout. Thank you so much for your quick reply. 

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Any time, keep us posted on how you're progressing!

The fact you're even out there puts you ahead of the game, and given the injuries I sustained in the dog attack, I'm seriously jealous!  🙂

I'm hoping my neurologist clears me to start light jogging next week; if he does, I'd like to be fully back into the swing by the end of September.

[DavideFitbit]

Welcome to the Community forums, @BA_kumar_65! 

Wow, you're already very active for your age with the step goal you have and badminton 😀

You probably do this already, but I had an injury last year, so I always make sure to add a routine of stretching exercises or pre-workout. A great food plan with a balanced amount of macronutrients is also super important! 

Let us know about your progress. 😁

[BA_kumar_65]

Hi. Thank you so much for your inspiring  words. With the guidance from many veterans, I am able to get myself abreast of various fitness activities. Love to keep cheering.

[BA_kumar_65]

I could understand that you have a strong will and determined mind and it’s only a matter to come back into the arena and you will keep hitting all your past records and I have all that confidence. 

lemme tell you my own personal experience and a travail I underwent in 2011 and that should give you enough strength. While playing I had almost fell backwards and injured L5 & LR so much that I was hospitalised for two weeks and neurologists advised for a surgery but I strongly refused and got discharged and almost bedridden for another 3 months almost with sleepless nights and deeply crying inside but never lost hope and used to strongly kept myself motivated and having my own physiotheraphy started to walk slowly and within another 3 months started walking and that’s it and I never looked back. Started playing my most favourite badminton and kept smashing players who were in their 20s in singles besides my regular workouts. A strong will can win over any situation. Basically I was into finance and was a regional chief in a Government Organisation in India and retired 7 years back. I too agree with people like you  that age is  only a number. Thank you.

[shipo]

I am impressed @BA_kumar_65, coming back from such things is difficult, sometimes months, sometimes years before you're back in the saddle.

Professionally speaking, my wife and I suffered small business failures in our mid to late 50s, and with those failures went our life savings, so yeah, no relatively early retirement for us.  🙂  I ended up going to work for one of the major financial institutions here in the U.S., and after several years I got "voluntold" I was moving into a new field of endeavor, a field of endeavor which paired me with a young gentleman originally from Dhanbad, but then based in Bangaluru; at the time he was fresh out of college, and the two of us, with our incredibly different perspectives of the world and the industry, we engineered some industry leading architectures which have made us both hot commodities.

I was recruited for a new and incredibly challenging position earlier this year, yeah, pretty much a dream job, and shortly after I accepted (and even before I started), my company merged with a huge firm in Pune, which I was able to use to get my partner in Dhanbad an interview; he was offered great position just this week.  The best news of all, is the architecture we've come up with is most likely going to become a huge seller.  I figure I'll work until the end of the decade and then retire comfortably.  🙂

[BA_kumar_65]

We are living in a most difficult and volatile world and nothing is sure
and nothing will work out as we plan and always it’s fair and better to
take the life as it comes and without losing self confidence. Literally you
will never find an human being who has never faced problems but always we
find certain humans who have come out greatly despite facing untold
miseries and problems and they are not different from us but they have
behaved differently - and that stemmed from strong will power without
losing an iota of self confidence. Nothing is permanent and certainly not
problems at all. Thanks for getting an opportunity to interact with you.
All the best to you.