It's never too late to get fit
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I've been thinking a lot this year about fitness and movement and how that's something that's looked and felt different for me at different parts of my life. For me these days, it looks like a lot of running and a lot of stretching. And all of that got me thinking about how bodies change over time and what it looks like to get or stay active as we age. Our bodies are meant to move.

That's my colleague, Alison Aubrey. She's covered health and wellness for many years. So to start with, I wanted to know, how much exercise should people 50 and older be getting? The official recommendation is to aim for 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity physical activity. So about, you know, half hour, five times a week.

That exercise could look like walking, running, biking, swimming, or weightlifting. The best exercise is the one you'll actually do. For Mona Noyes, the answer is weightlifting. I recently dropped by a gym in Baltimore where people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s learn to lift. She works with the trainer there. It's never too late to build your strength. Because I'm 86, and I sort of rolled up on 86 and didn't realize...

Your body begins to do different things as you get older. A recent study found that women who strength train two to three days a week are more likely to live longer.

There's a longevity boost and a reduced risk of death from heart disease. Here's my colleague Allison Aubrey again. So muscle mass peaks in our 20s or 30s, and weight training can really help slow the decline and fend off what's called sarcopenia, which is basically just a scary-sounding medical term for age-related muscle loss. So it's a very, very important term.

You know, I have seen this myself. I'm in my 50s and adding weights, so resistance bands, lifting weights at the gym, it can really protect your joints. It can protect you against falls. And functionally, you'll just feel stronger. You know, for me, lifting that carry-on into an overhead bin on an airplane is just easier. And beyond the physical benefits, exercising can build community.

We talked with some mall walkers in Annapolis, Maryland, who've been meeting five days a week for years. And that social connection keeps them going. I don't always want to get up and walk, but I got these two ladies waiting for me. So it gets me here. Consider this. Over the past month, I've spent a lot of time with active older people at the gym, running, playing pickleball, and even at the mall. They showed me that it's never too late to find movement or exercise that works for you.

From NPR, I'm Juana Summers.

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It's Consider This from NPR. Many states across the country host senior games, which include all types of sports like archery, basketball, and mountain biking. But in Florida, pickleball is the crown jewel. So we headed south to spend some time with senior athletes on the pickleball court. ♪♪♪

It's around 8 a.m. when we arrive at a sports complex north of Tampa. Pickleball players holding their duffel bags and paddles are crowded around a man in a neon green polo shirt. We're going to be running around Robin's system today. You may be playing against teams that may be younger or older than you. That's Aaron Del Mar, the tournament director for the Florida Senior Games Pickleball Competition. Players here are competing for spots at the National Senior Games, which will be held next summer in Iowa.

Ruth Weil is one of the players hoping to punch her ticket. She wears a bright red visor with her name in white on one side and pristine white sneakers. Weil, who's 76, lives in The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in Florida, and she says the active community is part of what keeps her going. I have two very bad knees that I just keep...

plugging along, cortisone shots, but it's just a matter of getting out and doing it and trying to stay active. My wife, who's 85 years old in January, is still competing in pickleball, and she is here today. And she, to me, is an inspiration for everybody because how many 85-year-olds do you see out playing? So as long as she competes, I will compete.

When Weil and her wife Joy took up pickleball about 15 years ago, they got hooked. And Weil also plays on a softball team and already qualified for the national senior games in that sport. She's hoping pickleball will be her second sport. I look at everybody and I said, how lucky we all are at this age to be able to still compete. The competition at the Florida Senior Games is fast-paced with players competing in divisions ranked by their age and skill.

Nick Gandy is the sports information manager for the Florida Senior Games. It's really an interesting community of 50 and over people. The stories that I like to hear are the athletes who competed in their younger days and they

went on, had a career, raised families. The kids grew up. They retired from their successful careers. Their kids are gone. And they decided to come back. And they play pickleball or they bowl or they swim. And it's like they're going back to their younger days when they did this with their friends when they were growing up. I

I love that. So we're here today. There's obviously pickleball going on behind us. I understand that this is one of the biggest sports at the senior games. Is that right? It is the biggest sport of the Florida senior game. We have almost 600 people playing, 595 entries.

And it's gone up by 100 every of the last four years. There are first-timers, and then there are veterans like Erica Gonzalez. She started playing pickleball when she moved to Florida from Puerto Rico, and her new community had a court. She'd played tennis for more than 40 years and wanted a new challenge. She's also a pickleball coach. In between her games, she showed us around. The key about pickleball is that it's kind of like tennis on a small court, but not.

See that net? There's seven feet between the net and this line. People call it the kitchen. There's no smashing the ball in the kitchen. You can't even step in it after you hit a shot. The other thing is that you serve diagonally. So if I'm starting in my rectangle, I'm going to serve diagonally across the court. If the other player doesn't hit it back, then I score? I get a point. And then you switch over. Now you did an overhand serving. You have to serve underhand. You have to serve underhand. Got it.

I asked her for advice for someone who wants to start playing. She told me, find a community. It's a very social game. It's very fun. It's multi-generational. I love that I can teach a 70-year-old to play with their 70-year-old or 80-year-old grandparent. And everybody can actually play and have a good time. So find a group of folks and learn together, because then you'll grow together. And then you'll support each other's addiction on the court.

Supporting each other's addiction. That's definitely the case for a couple that we met nearby. Gene Berg is 72 and lives in Litchfield, New Hampshire with his wife, Margaret, who's 63. He is hoping to medal at the senior games in every state that holds one. I think it's just a fetish. It's his bucket list. It's his bucket list.

I'll play in the games, but I'm not that interested in... I don't have to get a medal. But if I get a medal and he doesn't, we still have to go back to that state. But she lets me polish her medal when she wins and I don't. We have a 22-foot airstream that we tow, and we'll do states that we can, like on a road trip during the year. And we've done how many this year? Seven? Seven or eight this year. We're up to 36 this year.

So tell me how you guys got into pickleball. We spent probably 35 years chasing youth sports. And when the youths left, we had nothing to chase. So we had to chase each other. And he said, I've heard about this sport, pickleball. Do you want to try it? And we went to our local...

At this tournament, spectators watched players from metal bleachers near each pickleball court. Some players came with their parents, others with their adult children. We meet a man warming up with his daughter. She flew to Florida to support him as he competes.

Well, I'm Brad Smith. I live in Ocala, Florida. I'm 86. Ann Smith. This is Weebleman. I live in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, and I'm 51. And Ann, you were saying you came from Michigan to support your dad. What made you want to come down here and see him at the Senior Games?

Really because it's such a big deal for him. The fact that he's made it to the state tournament, this is exactly what I want to be able to do now. Now I can support. I'm done driving my kids to sports tournaments year-round. Now I can go support my dad, just like he did when I was a kid. What's it like playing pickleball together?

It's competitive. Yes, it is. It's very competitive. Any sport with Brad is competitive. Otherwise, what's the point? I think. That's how it goes in the Smith household. It does. We just play hard. We want to beat each other.

Before we leave, we catch back up with Ruth Weil. She has some exciting news to share. All right, so you finished for the day. How did you do? I did fabulous. We won all of our matches. We are looking forward to go to Iowa. I'm going to play softball. I'm going to play pickleball, and I can't wait. All right, so you've got the wins. You'll be there for both sports. How are you going to celebrate?

Wow. How am I going to celebrate? I've got friends in from New Jersey right now, so I'll definitely go have a drink tonight. Oh, blueberry vodka. Flavored vodka, my favorite. She tells us that she and her wife are going to pack their car full of equipment for both sports and drive from Florida to Des Moines where the National Senior Games will be held. An opportunity, she says, to see more of the country together. ♪

This episode was produced by Matt Ozug and Brianna Scott. It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Sarah Handel. Our executive producer is Sammy Yannigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers.

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