The ONLY Exercise You Need After 60 (Don't Skip This!)

This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in March 2025. For the original video, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgpTIOSb3Cc

Brad: All right, if you are 60 or older and you could only have one exercise to do, we are going to tell you what we think is the best one.

Mike: It is simple, effective, and a huge benefit for your body if you do it right.

Brad: That's right. And you've probably guessed that we're talking about walking for exercise. We are going to talk about, before you hit the pavement and start your walking program, how you can protect your joints, particularly your knees, hips, and back. So, walking is very healthy. Now, before we get into other things, we first must talk about what we mentioned: walking properly, so that you don't put excessive strain on your knees, hips, and back. Mike, can you describe it and educate these people?

Mike: Yes, I can show them, actually. So, most people, I'm just going to roll up my pant leg.

Brad: Wow, look at those.

Mike: I have long socks on today. The compression ones. My calves are a little sore. Anyway, what we're talking about is that most people, when they walk, they do a heel strike. Their foot is far out in front of them. What this actually does is put much more impact forces in your joints, from your ankle all the way up to your low back. You can see that line there.

Mike: So, what we want to do is actually walk with a soft or bent knee when we are walking. This is going to engage your muscles a lot more and take stress off your joints. So, if you are getting back to walking, or have sore joints in your legs, this can really help. Now, to test this out in your house, we suggest going barefoot or in slippers because most shoes have an elevated heel nowadays, which will make you automatically want to heel strike. So, try it first barefoot in your house. Walk around like you normally would. So, if you're a heel striker, walk around and place your hands on your buttocks. Feel how much your glute is actually engaging. Now, after about 10 steps.

Brad: Just wait. Are the hands on the buttocks for?

Mike: Palpate to feel if your glute max is engaging, so feel how much it is actually activating.

Brad: These butt muscles.

Mike: Yes.

Brad: Yeah, okay.

Mike: So, after you walk around about 10 feet, go the exact opposite if you're able to, and go on your tiptoes. Now you should feel your glutes, or your buttocks, engaging much more, which is what we want when we are walking.

Mike: However, most people are not going to walk around like this, like ballerinas all day long, so go down to a soft bent knee. You can land with kind of a flat foot, or on your forefoot a little bit if you're comfortable. You're going to have to shorten your step length and just go slower, but over time, it'll start to feel more normal.

Brad: Yeah, we've had people with knee pain or hip pain, and we ask them to change their walking like this, and right here in this room, actually. And they immediately say, "Oh, that feels better on the sore joint." So, it does work, and it can respond very quickly. I've got a little analogy. Can we look at this, right down on the floor? When the heel strike comes with a straight leg, and I'm using the Booyah Stik as a representation of my leg and joints, you can see there's a lot of impact. Now, if there's a little bend, and I put a little bend in the Booyah Stik, see, there's flexing, and it's not such an impact. "Boom-boom" or "woo." Just something I thought of.

Mike: Are your bones made out of Booyah Stiks?

Brad: Mike. Mike, come on. Okay, this is like working with Bob. Okay, let's go on.

Mike: So, now that we taught you how to walk properly, we want to explain why walking is the best exercise for people over 60.

Brad: That's right. Number one, we're talking about cardiovascular health- heart and lungs. You get good benefits from that, and it's one of those things that is just overall good. Let's talk about strengthening muscles: legs, hips, and back and core muscles get strengthened. If you want to actually add strength to your arms and shoulders, if you add walking sticks, that can really change, and they estimate about 15 to 20% more loss of calories when you're doing that. It does help. We do have a video on how to walk properly with these. But anyways, I'm going off on another tangent.

Mike: You are rambling. Another benefit is that it improves your balance and can reduce your fall risk, so if you're someone that's more sedentary, simply walking more can help improve your balance as well. The next thing is to actually boost your mental health. It can help lower stress and enhance your mood. This has to do with feel-good hormones, reducing cortisol, and stuff like that. But we're not that nerdy. But oftentimes, if I'm tired or lethargic, I just go for a walk, and I feel refreshed.

Brad: That's right. And it's very accessible. You can simply take a good pair of shoes; make sure they're comfortable. We do have videos on good shoes for walking as well. But other than that, that's all you need. Enjoy your walking.

Mike: Now, the next part we want to talk about is the golden rule of walking progression. And the big thing is, if you're new to walking, only increase your distance by 20% each week. So, you may have to do some math because we're not so great at that. But basically, if you walk one block the first week, just go a block and roughly a quarter more the next week. If you're walking a mile, maybe just go a mile and a quarter, slowly progress to what you feel comfortable with. Obviously, you're not going to go 20% every week, or you're going to hit a hundred miles before you know it. So, just take it easy, build it up slowly. If you're already an avid walker, you kind of already know what to do. But you also want to look at how intense your walking speed is.

Brad: That's right. I think your first goal would be to get up to about a 20-minute walk and stay there for a while. And then you'll get a good feel for how your body responds by walking. The old thing of too much, too soon is where people get into problems and think, "Oh, this isn't for me," because everything is sore the next day or two.

Mike: And the most important thing is just to stay consistent. Make an achievable goal. "Maybe it's only three days a week I can go for a good walk." That's fine. Just stay consistent with it. That way, if you need days off in between, that's fine. If you want to walk every day, it's perfectly healthy and safe to do.

Brad: There you go. So remember, practice the walking properly as we did at the beginning. You're not going to be able to walk like that immediately. That takes time. Carry on. It's going to be very healthy. I'm off today.

Mike: A little bit.

Brad: You finish up, please.

Mike: If you want to check out more videos on exercising and strengthening for people over 50, watch "When You Turn 50, 5 Exercises You BETTER Start NOW!"

Brad: What a title, huh?

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