How to Exercise After 50

Fitness Director Michele Stanten demonstrates two bonus moves for women in their 50s

High Metabolism Workout Hi! I am Michele Stanten, Fitness Director of Prevention Magazine. In your 50's, declining estrogen and growth hormone level can set you up to gain more fat and lose more muscles. But you can come back both of these by adding some extra strength moves to your high metabolism workout. The two moves I am going to show you now focus on the upper body. This is a particular area that women tend to be a little weaker in, and can use that extra strength and muscle mass. So we are going to start with a seated back-fly. So I am going to sit close to the edge of a chair with your feet about hip-width apart and holding the dumbbells in your hand. Lean forward to about a 45 degree angle, so that the dumbbells are on either side of your leg. Okay, taking a nice deep breath in and exhale, lift out to the side and then lower. I am going to keep a slight bend in your elbows, squeezing your shoulder blades to lift. You are working the muscles in your upper back. You are also working the back of your shoulders, good! Remember to exhalation lift and inhalation lower. Our next move, we are going to go down on to the floor, you'll need one dumbbell. We are going to come down on our hands and knees and you want to extend one leg out to the side the foot is flexed. This is going to offer you a little bit of a balance challenge. Make sure your other knee is directly under your hips and your hand is directly underneath your shoulders. We are going to hold the dumbbell and we are going to bend the elbow up towards the ceiling pulling that dumbbell up to your chest and then lower it. Pulling it up again, again we are working that upper back area. So these moves are also going to help you stand tall and look slimmer. And remember to exhale again as you lift and inhale as you lower. You can find out how many reps you should be doing for each of these exercises by taking a look at the workout at a glance section.