Arnold Schwarzenegger's ‘extremely important’ step to take in your 50s for better ageing
“If you rest, you rust”
At 77, Arnold Schwarzenegger is sharing the best thing he was doing in his 50s to keep healthy while ageing. Talking at the CNBC CEO Council Summit in Arizona, the actor warned: “It is extremely important to not stop moving when you’re 50 or 60 just because of joint problems.
“If you stop movement, then this is the first step to death. If you rest, you rust.”
He insisted that the one crucial step to ageing healthily is to keep moving in your 50s and 60s. And he highlighted that it doesn’t have to be movement at the extreme level he does it.
The Terminator star said: “Do something. It doesn’t matter to me if you play tennis, if you go skiing, if you play soccer, or if you lift weights... but do something.”
With this advice, Arnold is certainly living up to his new title as Chief Movement Officer for medical device company Zimmer Biomet. A role he took up last year and has been using his platform to assure people they don’t need to be frightened of medical technology.
Despite the countless unbreakable heroes he’s played on-screen, Arnold has endured his fair share of health issues. Over the last three decades, he’s had two open-heart surgeries, replacing parts of his heart and received a pacemaker just last year for a genetic heart condition.
He’s also had a hip replacement, which he uses as a teaching moment in his ‘You’ll Be Back’ campaign. He said: “I want to let people know and give them the courage to get those things fixed and continue moving. Don’t let anything get in the way. Exercise, exercise, exercise.”
The campaign encourages people to stop putting off treatment, get back into exercise and improve their overall wellbeing as they age. Particularly for the one in four Americans suffering from knee pain alone.
Currently, the Austrian star’s daily exercise routine includes cycling for an hour and 45 minutes of weight lifting, according to CNBC. All this time in the gym has led him to make some astute observations.
He recalled hearing people say they have to avoid certain exercises or change their gym routine because their doctor has advised getting a shoulder replacement. But they’re too afraid to get ahead with the procedure.
The former governor emphasised that surgery shouldn’t be the first choice for joint pain. But said that people often don’t realise the incredible levels of technology available to them.
Looking back at his hip replacement, he recalled: “When I did it, I had to stay in the hospital for days and had months of therapy.” Now, he noted that some technology allows people to “walk out” of the surgery.