Want to head off pain before it starts and your over 50? It's time to focus on getting in shape

The 50-plus crowd is no stranger to searching for pain relief methods. Research shows 50+ persons are beginning to take fitness more seriously than ever before. There's good reason. Years of research have illustrated that the more you move, the longer you live.

At an age when their parents and grandparents took to an easy chair, today's over 50s are taking to the swimming pool and the gym in record numbers. The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association says the number of Americans 55 and older using strength-training equipment on a regular basis has quadrupled in the last decade.

The key to healthy aging is finding a fitness routine that can last a lifetime. It's true whether a person is 30, 50, or more. Older people may switch to lower-impact sports such as biking swimming, and walking, according to the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine. And they take up cross-training to improve cardio fitness, flexibility, and strength. Just as important, they cultivate active friends and coaches who encourage them.

"A well-conditioned 65-year-old is fitter than a 30-year-old couch potato." It's an old observation, but still true.

After age 30, people begin to lose muscle mass, reducing strength. After 40, they lose bone mass as well. After 50, when people are focusing on whether they have wrinkles, they should be focusing on fitness.

The answer is to train smarter. Instead of short, intense workouts with heavy weights, they exercise longer using lighter ones.

Quoted in Newsweek, Doctors at Medical College of Wisconsin note that older people who run complain about arthritis pains in their knees for a few hours after working out. But their older patients who don't run have arthritis pain 24 hours a day.

Many people who are 50-plus still compete in marathons and other sports events.