Senior Exercise - Get Moving!

As you age, regular exercise becomes increasingly important to your body and mind. Regular exercise can help you maintain or lose weight, reduce the impact of disease and illness and enhance your mobility and balance. It is also proven to help you sleep, boost your mood and preserve the brain.

Not all seniors, however, know what types of exercises to perform or they find exercising to be a bothersome chore rather than a pleasurable part of their day.

There are four types of exercise that seniors should perform to stay healthy and independent:

Strength Exercises: Building your muscles can increase your metabolism, which helps keep your weight and blood sugar levels healthy.

Balance Exercises: Building leg muscles helps prevent falls and fractures. Try balancing on one leg, holding onto a table or chair with one hand for balance. Exercises that strengthen leg, lower back and buttock muscles will also improve balance.

Stretching Exercises: Stretching can increase your range of motion, allowing you to move more freely and stay active during your senior years.

Endurance Exercises: Any activity that increases your heart rate is an endurance activity – walking, jogging, swimming, biking, even vacuuming or raking leaves. You can build up your endurance gradually. If you are just beginning an exercise program, you may want to start with as little as five minutes at a time.

Don’t Be Afraid to Exercise

Quite a few seniors are reluctant to begin an exercise program or are afraid to exercise because they think it will be too strenuous or that physical activity will harm them. Exercise is safe for people of all ages. In fact, reluctant seniors may end up hurting their health far more by not exercising. Even moderate physical activity can improve the health of seniors who are frail or have diseases that accompany aging.

Make Exercise Fun!

Many people do not work out regularly because they dread it. Even the thought of working out exhausts them. There are plenty of ways for seniors to make exercise a pleasurable part of everyday life – here are a few:

- Choose activities and exercises you enjoy

- Listen to your favorite music while going for a walk

- Walk laps around the local mall while you window shop

- Exercise with a friend and chat while you are walking

- Get competitive, challenge a friend to a game or activity

Remember, always consult with your doctor before beginning any type of exercise program.