Jumping rope is one of the best ways to get a cardio workout while also maintaining muscle mass and is a great complement to swimming. It keeps your heart rate up and fuels a higher level of fat burning and increased stamina. Jumping rope help strengthen joints and is a great cardio exercise to boost your circulation. To protect your joints, ensure that you stay close to the ground each time you swing the rope under your feet.

6. Strength and Resistance Training

Building and maintaining muscle as we age is a key component to keeping our bones strong and strength or resistance training is a great way to do this.  As you age lean muscle mass begins to decline and so it's very beneficial to include strength and resistance training into your routine. You don’t even have to join a health club to do this. You can just get yourself some dumbbells and/or resistance bands and work out at home. Because muscle is what keeps your metabolic rate cranking, the more you can build your muscle mass (or at least preserve it), the better.

7. Incorporate Y-to-T Raises

This is a great, multi-part exercise that targets the muscles of your upper back that stabilize your trapezius and shoulders and strengthens all of muscles essential for good posture. As people get older over, they often begin to develop poor posture, which ultimately causes back and shoulder problems.

How to do it: Grab a set of light dumbbells and stand with your feet hip-width apart. Draw your shoulder blades down and back and keep them there during the entire movement. Raise your arms up into a Y position, keeping them straight the whole time. Pause, then slowly lower back to the starting position. Repeat 10-15 times.

To move on to T raises, stand with your feet hip-width apart. Keep a slight bend in your knees as you shift forward at your hips. Keep your back parallel with the ground and your abs engaged. Raise your arms out to shoulder height in a T position, palms facing forward. Pause, then slowly lower back to the starting position. Repeat 10-15 times.

Finally, for W raises, start in the same bent-over position as you were in for T raises. Bend your elbows more than 90 degrees and raise your arms up to shoulder height, squeezing your shoulder blades together as you lift. At the top of the movement, your arms should form a W. Pause, then slowly lower back to the starting position. Repeat 10-15 times.

8. Plank Pose

Plank poses have many benefits for your body and all you need to practice it is yourself. Although it may not always be easy, moves like planks or push-ups are essential for rebuilding muscles and require your muscles to exert force. Plank pose is a strength training pose that works all major abdominal muscles, while also strengthening your shoulder, chest, neck, glute, quadriceps, and back muscles. This pose works to contract the muscles by solely holding one steady, fixed position.

9. Use the Rowing Machine. 

Shoulder joints are a key focal region that people over 40 want to make sure is in prime condition. Muscles become weaker as you spend years of working, hunched over a desk. Poor posture like this stretches these muscles out and without proper strengthening exercises, they become weaker.

Rowing on a machine is a great way to work your back and shoulder muscles, specifically the ones that otherwise may not be worked as much. The Rowing machine is a great full-body low-impact, cardio workout and is the perfect exercise to do interval training. With the rowing machine, you can go all out for 30 seconds and then slow for 30-60 seconds and repeat in sets.  Incorporate a balance element, like sets of planks or pushups with hands on medicine balls for added benefit

10. Spinning/Biking

Spinning or biking outside is great cardio exercise that also strengthens your legs, butt, and core. Include some rowing exercises for your back and push-ups for your chest and core, and you’ve worked out your entire body.

11. HIIT

 HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, is a type of cardiovascular workout focused on burning fat quick. The hallmark of HIIT is repeated, extremely hard bouts of work with periods of recovery.  HIIT improves your cardiovascular fitness and strength and provides an efficient calorie burn. Your metabolism begins to slow down as you age, and HIIT training is so demanding for the body that it keeps your metabolism revved up even once the workout is over.

12. Brisk Walking 

Walking helps your cardiovascular health and is also beneficial for mental health. It’s a great form of exercises you can do for your body and is a low commitment exercise that anyone can do daily. Not to mention, walking for just 30 minutes at a brisk pace can burn roughly 100 calories. Since it's also a low-impact exercise, it doesn't wear down your fragile joints!

13. Warm Up and Cool Down

Warming up is always an important step when starting any workout. This is especially true as you age because your muscles and joints tend to stiffen up through the years. Warming up gives your body and chance to loosen the joints and increase blood flow to your muscles. Just as important as the warm-up is the cooldown. Try using a Foam Roller to help pinpoint tight spots that will loosen knots and improve the blood flow your muscles.

14. Eat for Muscle

If you want to avoid losing muscle as you age, it's worth making a couple of tweaks and try adding protein beside everting you eat.

While you can’t stop the aging process there are things you can do to slow down and influence the appearance of aging. From the foods you eat, to your daily routines, to keeping your body in its best condition is one of the healthiest habits you can do for yourself. 

Lifestyle habits and genetics can certainly influence and predispose your health to troublesome conditions, but that doesn't mean the quest for a strong body is a lost cause. Taking a holistic approach to aging can benefit you in the long run. The overall best way to promote longevity and health is reduce stress as much as possible, get quality sleep, exercise, and to consume a nutritious diet.