An Effective Recovery Workout Template for the Aging Athlete: Work Out for 30 Minutes a Day (or less!)
As a 35+ Fitness Enthusiast and Athlete, you might be wondering: Is working out for 30 minutes a day or less enough to get results?
In your 20s you could push through a tough workout or race on poor recovery and be fine.
You had more time to go to the gym and get in a longer workout, and additional capacity to focus on yourself.
Life looks different now.
You’ve got more responsibilities as a busy person and people are counting on you, which means additional physical, mental, and emotional stress.
You’ve got work.
Families.
Friends.
Finances.
Hobbies.
You’re involved in your communities.
Maybe you’re going back to school or running a business.
You might be sitting, standing in one place, and driving more than you used to.
On top of all that, you love to get to the gym and stay active outside.
…No wonder your recovery time is slower!
That’s a lot of stress on your body, even when some of those activities are things you really enjoy.
You’re Not Getting Old. It’s Just Time To Shake Up Your Approach.
You’ve likely noticed that your body requires daily versus weekly active recovery to continue to operate at a high level.
If you miss a day of movement, you feel it.
You’re realizing that your strength and conditioning sessions, which make up roughly 4 percent of your day, aren’t enough to help you counteract life stressors outside the gym.
In order for your body to stay strong, resilient, pain-free, and doing all the activities that you love, your approach to exercise has to include movement in the hours outside the workout.
As a disclaimer, I’m going over mobility routines that you can fit into 5-10 minutes per day. You still need to strength train outside of this routine.
Let’s talk about some ways to get more movement into your day in less than 30 minutes.
You might be thinking, “When am I supposed to fit anything else in?”
The good news is that it’s not about adding more in.
It’s about making it fit easily into what you’re already doing.
You’ve got enough hard stuff going on.
Make this part easy.
Consistency matters the most.
5-10 minutes daily is better than an hour 1x per week.
3 Realistic Ways For Busy People To Fit In More Movement Into Their Day
Here are three options to easily add doses of daily mobility into your day as a busy person. These options are easy ways to move throughout your day that will improve your mobility and help you recover from your workouts and your day-to-day.
Make movement a part of your morning routine before any of your other distractions pull you away.
Add mobility into your work day as part of a short break between meetings and tasks. If you’re a coach, try adding this in before you see clients so that you’re setting yourself up to feel your best when you’re demonstrating exercises.
Add it into your evening routine while watching your favorite show or right before bed. This one is a bonus because this will help with your ability to relax, and fall and stay asleep.
Here’s my go-to daily dynamic movement routine
I like to do these exercises in the morning while I’m having coffee or when I’m watching Netflix in the evening:
A1: Standing Neck CARS x 3 each side
A2: Cat Cows x 3 each direction
A3: Shoulder CARS x 3 each side
A4: Hip CARS x 3 each side
A5: Knee and Ankle CARS 3 each side
A6: Child’s pose with lateral reaches x 5 reps each side
A7: Rib Rolls x 5 each side
A8: 90/90 Hip Switches x 3 in each direction
A9: Dynamic Couch Stretch With Side Bend x 5 each side
A10: Dynamic Raised Pigeon x 10 pulses each side
My Exercise Template to Get 30 Minutes of Exercise (or Less!) Into Your Day as a Busy Person
The cool thing about this template is that you can customize this to fit what your body needs!
Pick 5-10 exercises. Focus on slow, intentional movements and deep nasal breathing to activate your vagus nerve, which will produce a parasympathetic, or rest and digest response.
Work on areas that need extra love, including ankles, calves, hips, lower back, mid back, shoulders, and neck.
You can also include a few minutes of soft-tissue work with a lacrosse ball, foam roller, or percussion tool prior to this work.
Check out my Ultimate Guide To Active Recovery article for specific soft tissue protocols.
Cycle through in a circuit fashion for 10 minutes, and move on with your day.
You can even repeat this a few times whenever you feel like you need a reset.
Aging isn’t a recipe to stop challenging your mind and body.
Rather, it’s an opportunity to honor what your body needs in this season of life so that you can keep doing what you love AND feel great while doing it.
A recovery-first training strategy will keep you thriving inside and outside the gym.
This approach emphasizes daily movement and joint health beyond the gym walls.
It also focuses on sleep quality, hydration, nutrient dense meals that prioritize protein, minimizing chronic stressors, and maximizing community engagement and a sense of purpose.
Start today, and, remember, motion is lotion!
For more support and to learn about working directly with Coach Julie on a custom approach to your workout recovery and training. Learn more about recovery training with The Other 23 Hours.
