You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone — and when it comes to aging, that old saying can hit hard enough to break a hip.
As an internist with a geriatrics focus at NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln, I see it firsthand. My older patients often arrive dealing with debilitating conditions and diseases that might have been prevented, delayed or better managed with the right habits earlier in life.
There’s no fountain of youth hiding in a sleek Pilates studio or at the bottom of a $20 smoothie. No single superfood, exercise or supplement that can guarantee a long, healthy life.
But some habits can stack the odds in your favor, while others can leave you paying the price later. These are four common mistakes I see all the time that can sabotage your chances at healthy aging.
1. Making Pilates the main event
Sorry Pilates princes and princesses: The reformer can’t do it all.
Muscle is one of the body’s most valuable currencies as we age. We naturally lose muscle over time, and that decline can chip away at strength, mobility and independence.
The best way to fight back is progressive resistance training, the process of repeatedly challenging muscles with enough weight or resistance to force them to adapt and get stronger.
And yes, that means actually picking up some weights.
Pilates certainly has plenty going for it. It can build core and stabilizer strength, improve posture and mobility, and help people move more efficiently. But if preserving muscle and bone density is the goal, traditional resistance training should be the primary part of your routine.
Progressive overload — gradually increasing the resistance overtime — provides the mechanical stimulus needed to build muscle. Weight bearing resistance exercise also puts stress on bones, signaling the body to maintain bone tissue.
Don’t pack away that reformer just yet. The goal isn’t to pick a side, but rather make sure strength training actually gets a seat at the head of the table.
2. Thinking a protein shake counts as dinner
The body uses protein to build and repair muscle, bone and other tissues. It also plays roles in immune function and a host of other processes.
But not all protein comes in the same nutritional package.
Whole foods such as eggs, fish, poultry, dairy, beans and lentils bring protein along with vitamins, minerals, healthy fats and fiber. Protein powders and shakes can provide protein, but they generally don’t offer that same elite nutritional entourage.
That doesn’t make protein powder the villain, though. For people struggling to eat enough of it through food alone, a shake can be a practical way to fill the gaps — after a workout, stirred into Greek yogurt or blended into a smoothie, for example.
The mistake is treating the supplement like a substitute for actual meals. Think of protein powder as the backup singer, not the lead vocalist. It can help hit the right notes, but it shouldn’t be carrying the whole performance.
3. Letting the social life flatline
Longevity isn’t just about what happens inside the body. If you want to age really well, you’ll get by with a little help from your friends.
Loneliness, social isolation and poor-quality relationships have been linked with a range of health problems, including depression, anxiety and chronic disease. Strong social connections, meanwhile, have been associated with healthier aging and a lower risk of premature death.
Socializing also makes the brain work, as conversations require people to listen, remember, interpret, respond and adapt, offering a whole lot more cognitive heavy lifting than staring at the same crossword clue for 20 minutes.
That means maintaining old relationships and making new ones should be considered part of an aging-well strategy. So call the friend, join the class, volunteer and accept the invitation instead of automatically responding with “maybe next time.”
The social calendar can actually be a powerful medicine.
4. Dismissing Tai Chi as an elderly exercise
Forget the stereotypes. Tai Chi deserves a spot on in our fitness routine long before retirement.
The ancient Chinese mind-body practice is sometimes dismissed as something people do in a park while wearing orthopedic sneakers, but its slow, controlled movements can deliver some serious benefits, particularly for balance, mobility and fall prevention.
Tai Chi challenges proprioception — the body’s ability to know where it is in space — by repeatedly shifting weight, controlling movement and maintaining balance. That can help build stability, coordination and lower-body strength, all of which become increasingly important with age.
And unlike some workouts that leave people gasping for air, Tai Chi pairs movement with breathing and concentration, giving the brain something to chew on, too.
It shouldn’t replace cardiovascular or resistance training, but rather add another tool to your exercise tool box. A couple short sessions a week can be a good place to start, ideally with instruction from a qualified teacher.
