As you approach your 40s, you may anticipate feeling older. As you progress through this decade, you will no doubt notice that it takes longer to fully recover from high-intensity workouts. If a crazy work or travel schedule causes you to lose a night of sleep, it could affect you for the rest of the week (whereas in your 20s, going without sleep once in a while was no big deal). The biggest change that you might notice is that if you stop exercising for a couple weeks, you will notice an almost immediate drop in your fitness level. This is the age when it is extremely important to maintain consistency in your workouts so you can control the aging process instead of letting it take over your life.

In this decade you’re relatively ensconced in your career and family life; while there will be unforeseen challenges, for the most part you have established a consistent routine that includes regular physical activity.

If you find it hard to make time for regular workouts, consider ways that you can add small bouts of exercise to your routine, such as bike commuting to work. Including small activities, such as taking the stairs, using a standing desk at work, or walking during breaks at work. Your daily habits can help you burn an additional couple hundred calories a day, which is essential for healthy weight management.

If you’re exercising regularly, congratulations! However, take time for a critical review of your exercise habits. If you follow the same routine for too long, your body adapts, and the exercise, while good, won’t have the same effects.

If you’re looking for ways to change your routine, consider adding yoga, which can help reduce stress levels while improving mobility, both of which can reduce the risk of disease or injury.

Consider adding at least one high-intensity exercise such as a group cycling, sports conditioning, or kettlebell class to your routine. High-intensity exercise can promote muscle-building hormones while increasing caloric expenditure, both of which are important at this age. It’s important to realize that explosive exercises can help improve muscle elasticity, which is reduced during the aging process. Regular strength training exercises make skeletal muscle tissue strong but don’t challenge the elastic connective tissue that surrounds it. Adding exercises such as kettlebell swings and plyometric jumps help improve tissue elasticity.

Keep in mind that while some high-intensity exercise is good, it does take longer to recover from challenging activity, so try to limit it to a maximum of 3 times a week, and make sure you are getting plenty of sleep to help promote the recovery process.

As you advance through your 40s, it will be important to change your exercise habits on a regular basis so you can continue to introduce new stimuli and challenges to your body. Making small changes such as changing the equipment from dumbbells to a medicine ball or doing sets for an amount of time instead of specific repetitions can provide the necessary stimuli to challenge your body. Continue core strength training and metabolic conditioning.