Beginning Exercises For Seniors
Do you exercise? As you grow old, there is high possibility that you will give up on doing exercises. Despite the notable health benefits of exercise more than half of seniors don’t do any exercise at all. Only one out of four persons between the ages of 64 and 75 exercises on a regular basis.
What happens is that as you age, your mind starts taking excuses such as: “I am too tired, too out of shape or sick or I will fall or just plain too old to exercise”. You’re wrong. The fact is exercise is always good for people of any age. It helps to make you stronger, avert bone loss, boost your balance and coordination capabilities, uplift your mood, improve your memory, and alleviate the symptoms of many chronic medical conditions.
It may be that you are over 50 or 60 or even 70 and want to start exercising and don’t know what to do? Continue reading this article. I have put together in this article some expert advice on how an individual body and fitness needs change as one age. I will also tell you about the exercises and workouts that work best for older people.
Why Old People Should Exercise?
Exercising is one of the best anti-aging activities for your body. It’s universally acknowledged that with age, we begin getting weaker, slower and more fragile. Good news is that a number of research studies have established that when it comes to body fitness, if you use your body more, the less quickly will be the fitness loss. And, the cellular process of aging will also be much slower and you will enjoy a much better quality of life in your later years.
Best Exercises For Seniors
Never be depressed about getting older! This article will tell you about best exercises for older adults, which will notably decelerate your body’s aging process and keep you fit and help lead an independent, active life in your older years. Believe me if you do these exercises regularly, you will regain fitness and good health, and I won’t be surprised that many of you will be able to beat persons of half your age – in strength as well as endurance! Let us start now:
# 1
Muscle Strength For those who have access to gym, weight lifting machines are a great way to introduce seniors to muscle strengthening exercises – the reason is there is considerably much lesser risk of getting injury or falling. Once you get used to exercising on machines, you can include free weights and resistance bands in your workout routine. Here are the best guideline and tips for seniors to build muscle strength
# 2
Cardiovascular Endurance The elderly people can use treadmills. They are easy to use and can really help to boost up not only cardiovascular fitness, but also balance because they have rail to hold to help maintain balance. Other good options to build cardiovascular endurance are elliptical machines and bicycles. For those who have no access to a gym or these machines, here are the various best options for them – cardio exercises for the older adults.
# 3
Flexibility You can do stretching exercises to improve your flexibility and body’s range of motion. You feel better as they enable you to carry on physical activities you like and other everyday necessary activities such as getting dressed up, reaching objects on a shelf, pick up your grand children, climbing stairs, walking up the hills, etc. Read here for the best options: (i) Flexibility Exercises options (ii) Stretching To Improve Flexibility
# 4
Bone Density Exercise is the best method to build stronger bones, and it’s never too late – or too early – to start exercising. Exercise plays a key role in building and preserving bone mass and strength. It’s same like muscles, bones get strong when they are stressed – in simple words when they are compelled to bear load more than they are used to. Workout can keep at bay the bone-thinning effect that occurs because of aging. Bone grows stronger in response to weight-bearing exercise and loading. Many studies have found that strength training and weight lifting can increase bone mass, particularly in the spine.
To counter the bone thinning effect of aging follow these guidelines. Following exercises are recommended for maintaining and building bone density: Squats, Overhead presses, Chest Presses and Lunges.
# 5
Metabolism High intensity interval training (HIIT) is one of the best ways to get metabolic boost. It enables your body to increase metabolism. HIIT involves short bursts of very intense activity (such as fast running), interspersed with recovery, that is lower-intensity exercise periods (such as walking). Read here for more details. Here are two very good articles that explain everything you need to know about HIIT for seniors: (i) HIIT for Seniors (ii) HIIT training for older adults
Beginners’ Exercise Program For Seniors
For seniors who are just getting into exercise, I suggest beginning with the following workout regime, 3-4 times a week:
Warm-up: Warm up for 8-10 minutes on a treadmill, bicycle or walking – alternating 2 minutes of easy movement with 2 minutes of hard movement.
Stretching And Flexibility: Do full body-stretching exercises (a) Follow these guidelines for stretching (b) Here is how to make you more flexible by doing stretches (iii) Here you can find strength training exercises that you can do in old age.
Full Body Workout: Do a full body workout 3-4 times a week. Make sure you cover every muscle group in rotation.
There are three ways to do it: (i) Work on one body part per day; 3-4 times a week (ii) Work on two body parts per day; 3-4 times a week (iii) Work on full body; 3-4 times a week
Note: You can choose exercises for the different muscle groups from the following list:
(a) For Chest Exercises: Check here
(b) For Back Exercises: Check here
(c) For Bicep: Check here
(d) For Shoulder: Check here
(e) For Tricep: Check here
(f) For Legs: Check here
Remember, you can start exercising at any age, it’s never too late! So, get up and start from today!! If you have any tip regarding senior fitness; please share under the Comments section below.
