Redefining Fitness and Purpose After 50: A Conversation with Graham Elliss

Welcome to the Living to 100 Club Podcast. Here's our host, Dr. Joseph Casciani.

Well, hello to everyone joining us today. You're listening to the Living to 100 Club Podcast, and I'm your host, Joe Casciani. I'm passionate about helping people embrace the principles of psychologically healthy aging, staying positive, finding purpose, and making the most of all the years we're given, no matter the challenges along the way. Each episode, we bring you conversations that educate and inspire Guiding you to age with resilience, optimism, and a positive mindset. I also invite you to explore our Club Insider membership by visiting my website, livingto100.club, and signing up. You'll gain access to exclusive content, resources, and a supportive community focused on successful aging. And if you're a professional working with older adults, Be sure to check out my Better, Longer, and Happier card deck series at livingto100.solutions. These 12 modules offer valuable insights and activities designed to promote positive aging and personal growth. Thanks for being part of this journey. Now let's dive into today's conversation. On today's program, I welcome Graham Ellis. Founder of the Renewed After 50 program, to discuss how people over 50 can stay active, healthy, and purpose-driven in their later years. Graham shares his personal journey from the corporate world to fitness coaching, his unique exercise programs tailored for older adults, and the mindset shifts necessary to keep thriving as we age. Stay tuned for practical insights and motivational takeaways to help you and your loved ones maintain wellness and fulfillment. First, a little background. Health and fitness have been a lifetime passion for Graham, leading him to found South Australia's first health resort. After over 30 years in leadership, he's now dedicated to helping others achieve their health goals through Renewed After 50. As a personal trainer Group exercise instructor and functional aging specialist, Graham supports clients needing intensive guidance to improve their quality of life without the intimidation of a gym setting. The latest science reveals we have more control over aging and fitness than ever before. At Renewed After 50, you'll explore how brain and body activities can help you stay active for another 30 to 50 years. Programs target all 6 areas of physical function, including balance, mobility, coordination, cognitive and emotional responses, muscle strength, and cardio fitness, empowering you to live healthier for longer. Graham Ellis, welcome to our program today.

Thank you very much for the opportunity, Joseph Casciani. It's lovely to be with you.

Great. I'm glad to have you with us too. So I always like to open by asking our guests to share a little bit about the journey that brought you from corporate world to become a fitness coach for older adults.

Okay. So firstly, I've been into fitness my entire life ever since I could walk unassisted. I kicked the football, played a game of cricket, which is what we do in Australia. And it's always been part of my life and I I played sport, not at the highest level. I was never, I didn't have enough natural ability to play at the highest level, but generally I would've been one of the fittest at any sport that I played. In, in my last corporate position, I worked in the retirement industry and I loved working in the retirement industry, but I saw people that would come in and they'd be in their mid-50s 60, already frail. On the other hand, I would see people that were in their 80s and 90s and still traveling the world and playing tennis and, and very active. In respect of the people that were in their mid-50s, I, I thought to myself, it doesn't need to be like this. In fact, I can remember one couple coming in, Joseph Casciani, they were 55, and this gentleman was a tall, dark, quite handsome man, but couldn't get through a meeting without going outside and having a cigarette. And the reason that he wanted to come into the ritual was when he passed away, his wife would be in a safe place. I said to him, I said, this is, it doesn't need to be like this. So, and that was largely the motivation for Found to encourage people over 50 and older adults generally to keep moving. It's been an absolute joy to do that. And today I have a, not a, not a huge community. I have a nice community of people, average age, probably 65, that, that it's lovely. You see great results.

Oh, great. Good, good. So in your experience in the retirement communities, that's what kind of planted the seeds for Renewed After 50. That gave you the inspiration to maybe, yes, develop these programs. So, you know, help us understand what separates yours from other, other fitness programs. Do you have any distinctions, things that stand out?

I, I think the biggest distinction, Joseph, is the fact that our trainers are over 50 themselves. We know what it's like to be over 50. We know how our body feels. We know the limitations. Trained older adults for over 20 years now. And I understand what they can— one client comes to mind who had a personal trainer that was in his mid-20s, mid to late 20s. And my client was in his 60s. The young trainer had Russell, was his name, Russell, still Russell's name, had him doing things that he wasn't capable of. And gave him a personal, a permanent injury in his knee.

Yeah.

So I think the distinction is that as older trainers, uh, we empathetic with what people starting their journey can do, and we are, we are understanding of people that people can be quite fit right into their 80s. So, and you need to understand people can and can't do and adjust your training plan accordingly. And the distinct difference is that myself and other people that work are over 50 and therefore can design a program specific and safe.

So very customized, individualized.

Yes.

For the individual rather than everybody in the group is gonna do this. Yeah.

Uh, well, actually I will add something. We do have people, I, I do a lot of classes. Uh, personally I do a lot of classes and I have a team, a very, very small team that do classes for me. And those classes are specific to the age group as well.

Mm-hmm. Good.

Where we focus on strength, cardio, all of those types of aspects whereas people can use a weight, a dumbbell to do the class. They can do it body weight, they can lift heavy weights. So again, all of the classes are programmed so that people could do them at their own state.

Sure. Okay. So I believe that one aspect of your program is the high intensity training for people over 50. Tell us about this. Why do you think it's effective and how do you ensure that it's safe for older adults?

Well, I think we may have a, a slight crosswire there because No, I don't think high intensity training.

Okay.

Excuse me.

That's my mistake. I don't think high intensity training.

Yeah.

I think I plugged that in because it's popular, but we need to adjust that for age, of course. Yeah.

For some people, high intensity is okay. For example, I do high intensity and I'm 76 in 2 weeks' time. Yeah. But I've had a lifetime of fitness. So my body can cope with that, but I wouldn't be doing it every day. I do have people in our community that would be able to do a high-intensity class, but low-impact training, muscle endurance type training, cuz we are not in the, not out laboring every day. What we need to do as older adults is to have the strength to pick up the grandchild.

Yeah.

To pick up the shopping and putting, bring the shopping in from the car. So we don't need, we need the strength to be able to do that. We need the muscle endurance to be able to do that, but we don't, We don't need to be trying to— the seniors, the high-intensity direction would take us in.

Yeah. Yeah. We don't need to push for maximum performance every day.

No, no.

To be fit and be able to handle our activities of daily living, whatever, whatever is involved. Sure. So, um, you know, I'm always concerned about outlook and mindset and, you know, our approach to staying fit and, How, how do you think mindset comes into the picture regarding staying healthy and active? What, what role does that play?

Yeah, I think it is big, bold, 14-point, 16-point, the number one, the number one thing. If you are, a lot of people will say, oh, I'm past it. I can't. So, and if that's the case, if that's what you think, well then if you say, if you are your internal mind chatter says, I think it's time we gave it a go to improve our quality of life, then that's what you should do. I, this analogy, I often speak to my clients about, we spend a lifetime, Joseph Casciani, putting together finances so that when we get to retire, we've paid our house, we've got stocks and bonds, we've got, in this country, we have superannuation, which is a fund that we all pay into during our working life so that when we retire, we've got an amount of money that sustains us. Now we spend a lifetime doing that, but only a small percentage of the population invest in fitness while they're investing in their funds. So when they get to retirement age and they've got all of this money, they don't have the health or wellness anymore to be able to enjoy it. So mindset is huge. I will add that it's never too late to start. A couple of clients that One poor gentleman has got, has got early onset and pushback against these and I'm doing chair and we're getting improvement. They're getting strong. So I hope that answers the question. It's never too late to start. It's just you making the decision. So mindset is everything.

Yeah, we are definitely on the same channel there. I mean, I agree. It affects how well we manage these events that come along and how do we handle these stresses and setbacks and Yeah, you know, there's a lot of quotes, and one of my favorites is, um, if you argue for your limitations, they're yours. Yeah, you own them. So you can win that argument if you're limited, and you own it.

So yeah, I agree.

If you argue in favor of, uh, pushing oneself, then we can own that too. Yeah, yeah, good. So, um, how, you know, we talk about repurposing life after retirement. And, you know, you mentioned that sometimes we're prepared and sometimes we're not prepared and we don't make the right investments. But where does repurposing come into play? I mean, um, how do we let go of a career or, you know, different backgrounds and now look at more white space, more days to fill? How do we, how do we deal with that repurpose?

Um, well, Realizing number one, that I look, I really don't like the word retirement.

Yeah.

Repurposing is a better word because if we think of retirement and that in my mind conjures up the thought that it's all over, let's just relax, play golf and that's it. But I think it's an exciting time for new opportunity and for those people that think that and explore what possibilities might be available to and keep the mind active. Then like it's the old story. If you keep using it, you can, you don't, if you don't use it, you can't. Very, very true. A couple of clients come to mind, uh, Russell, fellow I mentioned before, actually, um, he's in the Amazon, 3-month trip. And he said to me, and, and Russell's early set as a lawyer, his field of law, he looked after doctors that were being sued for malpractice. And I said to him, what are you gonna do when you retire? He said, look, I've already put my name down in the local community to offer advice. He said, we've got the grant, we've already planned a number of trips. So he's, he's already focused on staying active, putting back into the community. And in my particular case, when I got to retirement age, I started a new business. And this year we're a few months away from launching a platform that is specifically designed. So don't think of retirement as the end. Think and find something that you're speaking. Oh, another gentleman, Ian. Ian's reasonably wealthy and he restores motor vehicles. When he retired, he had more time to put in. He's got 3 Rolls-Royces from the early 1910, 1920, that sort of thing. And he has another vintage car. So he's passionately, so you need to repurpose, re-find something new to do, something that you'd love to do and turn your direction in that in that way. Keep active, keep moving every day.

Yeah, no, that's so true, Graham. That's so true because science is telling us without that sense of purpose and meaning in our lives, we can just kind of drift. That may be too strong, but we do need that sense of purpose. I agree. Repurposing is really, I call it starting new chapters and, you know, it's okay to finish one chapter and look at another and keep looking at what's ahead as your clients are doing and staying active. And yeah, I agree, whether it's a new vocation or learning a new language or traveling somewhere or anything new in our lives, that is so important on many levels.

I might add, Joseph, that when I worked in the retirement village, it was, I was sales manager of quite a large company and I would speak with people who had moved into the retirement village. And I would ask them, what do you miss most about stopping work and moving into the, to the lifestyle? They would say losing our relevance. We've lost our relevance. And I would say to them, well, there's a new relevance. We have an organization in Australia called U3A, University. It's set up with a lot of volunteers from all. So you can, you can go to their lectures, photography clubs, exercise, tai chi, yoga, all sorts of things and find a new passion.

Yeah. Yeah. That's good. There really are a lot of opportunities to pursue that learning and online programs and school, take courses and volunteer. It's, it's also the social activity and connections that really provides a lot of that.

Oh, 100% agree.

Importance, meaning. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, Graham, let me ask you specifically then about your programs, your classes, how do balance and agility and, you know, mobility, how do they get integrated into your classes? How do we know about the importance of balance and strength training and mobility? How do you incorporate them in your classes?

Um, our, our classes run for 45 minutes. Uh, they have a, a top and a tail where we warm up and cool down. And then the components of each program comprises strength, mainly strength, but there would be a component of all of the following in most classes. So strength training, and that would be people using light to medium weights. Okay. Doing full body workout, whether it's chest press, we hop on the floor with mats, uh, back exercises, shoulder, lower, we do all of those and we might do we might do 6 to 8 routines in a, and one of those routines or, or 2 might comprise cardio. So we might do jogging around the hall. We might do star jumps. People that can't do star jumps do a half star. So we will row, we will do fast squats, all of those sorts of things. Now, all of those, particularly the lower body, aim to improve strength. And with improved strength in your lower body, you automatically, as, as you develop that strength, your ability to balance. We also will do some core training. Training, we'll do standing. So if you've got a strain, as we all know, as soon as you stand, sit up straight on a chair, your core, um, so as those, as you become stronger, your ability to balance. So we would encourage people and we do encourage, for example, uh, yes, I would encourage people and we do alternating shoulder press with dumbbells to try and So when you're going this way, you core and we do bicep curls. We would do side raises. When we go 8, 9, 10, change legs, 11, 12, through to 20. So, uh, and there's a myriad of exercises that we will include standing on one leg, an airplane, legs around the— there's lots and lots of exercises and we generally routine, uh, people just over— in fact, balance is the It's a lot easier to learn how to balance, uh, than, sure. Uh, and once you learn it, your mind will, will retain it providing.

So you fit a lot into these 45-minute classes.

Oh yeah. We have music. We have music, '60s, '70s, and '80s.

Uh-huh.

Uh, we're all baby boomers, Joseph. So, uh, we have a bit of fun, play ABBA, play the Beatles, play all of those music, all of those songs that, that we like. Uh, from our age group.

That's good. Now, how often do you recommend someone— I mean, like, uh, an ideal program, how often would, would someone come in for a class? Is it weekly, every other week? I know it depends on many factors, but what's your overall recommendation?

My recommendation— and, and we, by the way, we have people, just as we'll have people that come in once a month because they've got other pressures. We have people that come in 2 and 3 times a week. So it's a frequently asked question. My answer is you move every day. You do something every day unless your body tells you to rest. Your body will tell you. But moving every day. Now I'd recommend strength training or coming 3 times a week and on another 2 days you go for a walk. And when I say go for a walk, you need to go for a stint. So at a minimum, well, at a minimum, when people are getting providing the exercise process, then 3 to moving up to say in our demographic 5 to 6 times a week. So moving, moving every day, couple of days of rest and changing the type of exercise, which is actually what we do. If you come to one of our classes, a bit difficult for your community in America to come to one of my classes, although online you could. No two exercises are the same. They're always changed every, every—

Yeah. Well, we'll get back to the classes and the online availability in a minute, but Let me ask you about, what are the barriers that you've observed and what interferes with, say, an older adult staying active in his or her life? And how do you overcome? What would you recommend to overcome these barriers?

Well, the number one reason that people don't exercise in all age groups, and our age group is no different. I don't—

No, not enough time.

I don't have enough time. That's the reason that people give for And I say to them, it needs to be like you hop out of bed, you clean your face, uh, go for a jog or a fast, make it include, you wanna have longevity, you want to 100, you need exercise.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, you have time for all of the gary time for dressing yourself. You have time for all of these other things. You need to pro— put it in, stick with it for a minimum of 21 days and make it a habit. So in answer to that question, the number size is mindset. I think that was the first question you asked me. Mindset. And make it part of your regular routine.

Yeah. And don't let your brain say to you, yeah, to try to fit it in somewhere during the busy day.

Another thing I could add actually, Joseph, is that there's a, there's a lot, we're, we're all born, every living thing on the planet is born, it matures, and then there's a steady decline inevitably with every living thing, it's called senescence. The trick for us humans is to compress the, the, the time we're in disability. Now, some people who remain sedentary are going to go below the disability line, as I, and, and they could be needing community assistance, family assistance, in a nursing home, who knows, 5, 10, 15 years at the end. Those people that remain active and healthy, which includes healthy living, healthy eating, moving every day, 7 to 9 hours sleep a day. Getting plenty of love and comfort in your social interaction with family and living stress-free. Those are the 5 takeaways, I think. You're going to compress the amount of time that you'll spend in disability at the end. So stay active, stay moving every day, make it part of your diary and your norm, and get some help from your local community and find out if there's any trainers or classes you can attend. And I'm sure there would be many.

Yeah, that's some great advice. Great advice, Graham. I, you know, we, we use the term health age and, you know, chronological age, and ideally we stay healthy very, very long, and the gap between the end of health age and the chronological age is small. But unfortunately, when people don't take care of their, you know, body, health age, the gap between health age and chronological age gets bigger. So there's a bigger gap. There's a longer time period where we're unhealthy. So what you're talking about is let's keep that time period of being unhealthy as short as possible. And yeah, yeah, that's right. So fitting it into our schedule, um, I, I, I agree 100%. We gotta set aside time. It's not like we look for, um, you know, an hour here in my busy day. So, you know, as you say, maybe put it into the morning schedule or the evening schedule somewhere so it's part of our routine. We don't look for the space. Yeah. Good point.

Yeah. The other thing, just talking about compressing the time end of life, you can think about it slightly different touch. Think about increasing, improving your people who are, it's arrested type 2 diabetes, a lot of these chronic diseases, mostly osteoporosis, arthritis, all of these diseases. So if you think about what you do and improving how Yeah. Have a look at all of those because the bonus is, yeah, that's good.

That's good.

Really look at themselves and, and see.

Yeah. Those are good insights. Very good. Thank you. Yeah. So you mentioned, I think when we talked earlier, you're developing an app for exercise online or people can get the app and follow some programs. Can you share a little bit? Is that The new program that you're working on?

Yes. I'm quite excited about this. It's actually going to be a platform on my website. My website is www.nudeafter50.com. We're probably about 4 or 5 months developing the platform and also recipes, but it's specifically for over 50s. In my searching, and I'm actually doing it with my son. My son is a market expert. So we are co-founders in this. Uh, it's not ready yet. We, and people will be able to log, have a password and you'll have access to all sorts of sessions, applicable, whole host of, uh, exercises specifically on balance. And there will be a beginner, intermediate, and advanced tools for exercise older adults. Mm-hmm. Uh, so anybody be able to access, it'll be a subscription service, very nominal sorts of, uh, money. And, um, and I don't believe there's anyone.

Wow.

Wow. Well, not in, we've not been able to find it. There's a lot of general type things for people, but for older adults and there'll be FaceMe and others. So we're really looking forward to that. And if anybody was interested, I, uh, please drop me a line through my website. And, uh, if, if they're interested when it's ready for launch, I'll let a couple of them have access.

Okay.

That's great. Let's see what they think.

Do you have a name for it? Is there a special name for this yet?

It'll either be Renewed After 50 Worldwide. Or renewed after 50 on demand.

On demand.

Okay. And our little catch line will be wellness.

That's good. And you offered a free portion or what was it?

I didn't look. If anybody, it is, I would say we'll be launching in May or June of this year.

Yeah.

Now, if any of your community are interested in having a look at it, if they send me an email through the website, the contact us page on the website, I'll make sure that they get a couple of months free when we launch.

Okay. I thought I heard that. I wasn't sure,, but that's great.

Yeah.

Very generous offer. That's good. Yeah. So, um, good luck, by the way. Uh, thank you. Sounds great. It sounds like it'll be a great contribution to many people who want to keep their lifestyle and health.

Yeah. And again, uh, when we talk about, we've just, we've just had Trump voted in as president of the United States. And I think he's, is he 78?

Uh, somewhere up there. Yeah.

He's, he's around 78.

Yeah.

So I don't think there's any barrier. If you have your health, you have your fitness, there's no barrier to doing these things. And we spoke about this earlier about staying new things to be paid. Sure. My use by date is definitely coming up. I'm light, but I'm doing it with my son and there's a joy in that. Of course. And we're enjoying the journey together.

Yeah, it's a perfect mix, a perfect mix of experience and support and trust and ambition and growth. And that's, those are great catalysts for a good product. Yeah. Yeah. So what advice would you give to someone in their 50s or older who feels maybe they missed the opportunity to stay fit?

Well, if you think that, that's your reality. And if you listen to that, That's your reality. Don't listen. It is never too late. I mentioned Lawrence and Heather, two people in their late 70s. They have their limitations. It is never too late. Never. So we have a saying down here, goya gay.

Aha. Okay. I like that.

So, and you can get going. It's never too late to start exercise. Look, I'm actually, Bernadine Shepherd, she's a very active lady from your country. She's in her early 80s now. You can Google, um, she's an amazing woman and compared to other 80s, the difference is just there to be seen. You have a picture this side and you'll see this if you Google it. Bernardine Shepherd left and another 80-year-old. And the only difference has been Bernardine had a mindset of exercise. Lady on the other hand. So, yeah, it's never too late.

All things being equal, the mindset is going to trump everything. Sure. Yeah, that's good. That's good. So how can our listeners learn more about your program? You mentioned your website renewedafter50.com.au for Australia. Where are you in Australia, by the way?

Melbourne, Australia.

Where?

Melbourne.

Melbourne. Okay.

Yeah. So if anybody would like to have a chat about anything related to over-50s exercise or older adult exercise, seniors, exercise for seniors, they can drop me a line through the Contact Us page.

Okay.

I'll be delighted to communicate with them and give them a video or two free. I already have videos where I could send them to, send a YouTube link to them and they could do an exercise program in their own home.

Yeah. Now that's very generous. Thank you. I hope our listeners will take you up on that. Do you offer online classes? Can people tune into a class virtually?

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I, uh, the time difference might be, yeah, a little challenging.

Sure. Yeah.

Um, I do an online class. In fact, I've got one this morning at 9:00 AM Melbourne, Australia time. I don't know what time that would be for you.

Yeah, I think we decided you're about 18, um, 21 hours later than us. So It's just before noon here on the West Coast, then it's about, what, 10 AM there?

6:36 AM.

Oh, it's 6:30. Okay.

What time did you say it is in your—

11:30.

Okay, so it's possible.

5 hours. Yes, we're 5 hours behind. Well, that's 19 hours. Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

So if anybody were interested, I do them on a Thursday morning and a Tuesday morning at 9 AM, which will be 19 hours, maybe your time, 3 PM.

Uh, yeah, 4 AM. Uh-huh.

4 PM.

No, AM.

4 AM in the morning.

Yeah.

For you.

Yeah.

Oh, okay. So I don't imagine there'd be too many people that wanna hop up at that time and do us.

Yeah.

However, if anybody is interested, um, I'd be delighted to give them a link. Mm-hmm. Uh, and they can come and try a class or two. Absolutely no charge.

Okay. Well, we never know. People work different shifts and they may be up at that hour. So I'm just curious, you're on Tuesday morning, right? Yes. 6 AM and we're here still on Monday morning. Is there anything I missed? Is there anything that happens? Probably get asked this question all the time. Did I miss anything?

The sun has still come up. The sun is still up. Okay. Yesterday we had an incredibly hot day. It was 41. Degrees Celsius. I'm not quite sure what that would be Fahrenheit, your temperature, maybe 110 something.

Yeah, 90 around.

Today it's a lot cooler. We're going to be in the low 20s. So 80 degrees, 75, 80 degrees. But this is, I can assure you the sun's still coming your way and it'll be true.

Okay. All right. That's good to know. That's good to know. Well, Graham, great conversation, a lot of good information for our listeners. So looks like we're out of time though for today. Before we wrap up, I just want to remind my listeners to visit my website at livingto100.club and sign up as a club insider. As a longevity insider, you'll enjoy many benefits, including a free copy of my 9 Tips to Make Living Longer Enjoyable, 100 inspirational quotes, invitations to live discussions, and participation in our private group forum. And if you're affiliated with a senior living community, be sure to explore our Better, Longer, and Happier card deck series at livingto100.solutions, a powerful resource designed to promote positive aging. And today's episode is also brought to you by Quantum Squares energy bars packed with 100 milligrams of organic caffeine, 10 grams of plant-based protein, and healthy fats. Perfect for workouts, busy days, or travel, they provide long-lasting energy. As a listener, you get an exclusive 25% discount by visiting QuantumSquares.com. And using promo code AGINGWELL at checkout. No space, AGINGWELL, one word. I do earn a commission when you use my code, so thank you for supporting the podcast while enjoying this amazing product. Graham Ellis, thanks again for being a guest on our show today. Your website is renewedafter50.com.au. It's been great conversation and great to learn more about staying healthy and fit after 50.

Thank you very, very much for the opportunity, Joseph, and I hope I get one or two communications from your community. I'll be happy to help them along the exercise journey.

Great. I hope so. I encourage our listeners to contact Graham for this. Thanks to everyone for listening today and for joining us. Until next time, stay positive, stay inspired, and keep thriving.