Fitness for Active Older Adults| Haband

Exercise is key to healthy aging

It is never too late to become active. Never. In addition to enhancing your quality of life, exercise plays a key role in preventing health problems and managing common disorders associated with aging, such as high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and diabetes, to name a few.

Starting an exercise routine can seem like a challenge as you age. It is common to feel discouraged by illness or ongoing health problems, not to mention fear of injury. Perhaps exercising feels daunting because you have never exercised before and it is difficult for you to know where to begin. Or maybe you think that exercise is boring, or that you are too frail to start a fitness routine that this stage of life.

Contrary to popular belief, while these might seem like good reasons to slow down as you age, they are actually excellent reasons to start a wellness routine. Here’s why. Exercise, when done properly, is proven to relieve stress, elevate your mood, help manage illness and pain and improve your overall sense of well-being.

There are many ways to get moving and to start striving towards the healthiest version of you. Below are a few tips to follow when embarking on your way to wellness.

10 Health Tips to keep you looking, and feeling, young

1. Discover the exercise you like best. The best way to get, and stay, fit is to choose an exercise that you enjoy doing.
2. Look for fitness opportunities. Such as playing with children, gardening, dancing, or housecleaning are excellent ways to incorporate movement into your routine.
3. Include resistance training. Research suggests that adults over 50 lose about ¼ pound of muscle mass per year if resistance training isn’t a part of their routine.
4. Stretch. Stretch before and after your workout. Not only does stretching have a calming effect on the body, it also helps build and elongate muscles, reduces risk of injury and prepares your body for a workout.
5. Commit to a schedule. Habits form after doing something regularly for 3 to 4 weeks. After that your workouts will become second nature.
6. Focus on short-term goals. Stay motivated by setting small goals and working towards them. This way your fitness goals won’t seem so daunting or intimidating.
7. Work out with a friend. It has been proven that people who work out in pairs hold each other accountable and develop solid fitness schedules. However, this doesn’t mean that you will fail if you venture out on your own. Choose what is best for you.
8. Eat well. Never underestimate the importance of a well balanced diet. Look at the ingredients on the foods you are purchasing, sometime things aren’t always as they seem.
9. See your doctor regularly. True, it can be a pain but it is well worth it.
10. Listen to your body. This goes along with seeing your doctor regularly, but you know your body best. Don’t just chalk an irregularity or oddity up to old age. 

A Few Safety Tips

Always remember, safety first. Here are a few tips to get you started on the road to wellness.

• Wear comfortable shoes. When exercising, it is vitality important that you support your feet with comfortable, well-fitting shoes. Keep in mind what activities you plan on doing, and find the perfect shoe for job.
• Wear comfortable clothing. As with shoes, choose clothing that suits the purpose. Select items of clothing that let you move freely but that don’t gather or have a lot of lose fabric that would be easy to trip on.
• Avoid outdoor activities in extreme temperatures.
• Stay hydrated. Drink plenty of water before, during and after your workout. If you start to feel lightheaded, uncoordinated or have muscle cramps you may be dehydrated, so it is best to rest, grab some water and try again after those sensations have passed. If you continue when experiencing symptoms of dehydration it is possible that you could experience heat exhaustion that can progress to heat stroke.
• Listen to your body. When determining appropriate exercise intensity and duration, pay close attention to what your body is telling you. Also, it is important to keep in mind that using your heart rate to monitor the intensity of your workout isn’t accurate if you are on heart-rate-altering medications, including most medications for hypertension.
• Know the danger signs. Stop activity and call the doctor or 911 if you experience pressure or pain in your chest, arms, neck or jaw; if you feel dizzy or short of breath; break out in a cold sweat or feel like your heart is beating too fast or skipping beats. Be aware of your joints too; stop exercising if a joint is swollen, red, or tender. It is always better to be safe and prevent any further injury.

Exercising doesn’t require trips to the gym or arduous workouts. It is about movement, after all a body in motion stays in motion. By adding movement to your life, even in small ways, you can vastly improve your well-being. No matter your level of health, there are many easy ways to improve your

quality of life by getting going. Look at your senior years as a chance to try new things and embrace this phase of your life and all the opportunities that come with it.

For more helpful tips, check out these pages. ACE fitness or HelpGuide.org