Tag Archives: senior fitness

It’s Never Too Late To Exercise

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NJ Senior Living & Lifestyle: Senior Exercise

If a senior has lived to the ripe old age of, say 80, or even 90, why worry about exercise?  Well, in addition to making you look and feel good, regular exercise lowers the risk for heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, high blood pressure and obesity.

It maintains mobility, keeps bones and muscles strong, promotes good balance, and combats frailty.  It increases metabolic rate and burns calories, decreases body fat, improves immune function and promotes bone density.

Recent research also shows that regular exercise can reverse age-related brain decline, affecting such executive-control brain functions as task coordination, planning, goal maintenance, working memory and the ability to switch tasks.

Regular moderate exercise that makes a person breathless increases the speed and sharpness of thought, the actual volume of brain tissue, and the way in which the brain functions. Those with higher levels of physical fitness had less evidence of deterioration in gray matter (involved in thinking) than did less fit peers.

Even frail seniors can and should exercise once they get the green light from their medical professional.  A body is just like a car, it needs to be used to keep working properly. Here are some things to consider:

  • Start slowly and build.  If something hurts, take a break.
  • Wear loose fitting clothes, keep yourself hydrated and wear comfortable sneakers.
  • Include activities that enhance strength, endurance, balance and flexibility.
  • Seek out activities you enjoy so you won’t view exercising as a chore.
  • Aerobic exercise or cardiovascular conditioning is extremely beneficial for seniors.  It allows the heart and lungs to work out at an elevated rate, supplies oxygen to the muscles, and improves the overall efficiency of the cardiovascular system.

Exercise physiologists like Sal Fichera, author of the book Stop Aging & Start Training and a recent guest on Focus on Seniors Radio with David Goodman, places an emphasis on weight or resistance training needs.  He suggests beginning with lighter and manageable weights and fewer repetitions, and increasing over time.

Get out there and start exercising!

Posted by: Frank Esposito, Vice President of Expert Home Care in New Jersey

New Jersey’s Expert Home Care for Elders and Seniors has been providing senior care, home care & live-in care for your aging loved ones since 1984. Please call us when you need help at 800-848-2336. Click for a Free Home Care Consumer Guide for selecting the most appropriate home care agency for your loved one.

Muscle-toning, Cardio, and Flexibility for Senior Fitness

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New Jersey’s Expert Home Care for Elders and Seniors provides care for your aging loved ones since 1984. Please call us when your loved one needs help – 800-848-2336.

Gardening has wonderful benefits for the muscles.  When carrying bags of soil, flats of flowers, or tools, make sure that they’re not too heavy for you.  Lift things in separate shifts if need be, but carrying the right amount of weight at a time is great for bone density and muscle toning.

Keeping up a garden also requires walking, digging, and planting.  All of these actions promote cardiovascular health by slightly elevating the heart rate and deepening the breath.  This improves circulation, lung capacity, and overall health.  Again, only do as much as feels comfortable and invigorating.

Swatting, kneeling, turning and twisting are great for your joints.  When it comes to flexibility, you really need to use it or lose it.  While gardening, focus on the subtle movements, and how the various actions are keeping your muscles and joints alive and well.

Gardening can also be great for you emotional health as well as physical health.  Relax and take deep breaths while gardening.  Admire all the colors and scents, have picnics in your garden, or maybe your first cup of coffee in the morning.  There’s no greater fulfillment than admiring the natural beauty around you that has been nurtured by your own hard work.

Weightlifting Raises Hope for Seniors

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New Jersey’s Expert Home Care for Elders and Seniors provides care for your aging loved ones since 1984. Please call us when your loved one needs help – 800-848-2336.

Doctors at Tufts University have shown that even modest exercise with weights can boost the immune system and reverse sarcopenia — muscle loss that can lead to bone weakening. A group of 90-year-olds improved their strength a whopping 174 percent after just eight weeks of weightlifting in one study.

Much of the disability, loss of function, and ensuing loss of independence in seniors results from diminished muscle strength as well as low aerobic fitness. In the average person, muscle strength peaks between the ages of 20 and 30 then slowly decreases.

Without strength training, most people show a 30 percent loss in overall strength by age 70. The prime reason is a reduction in lean muscle mass — sarcopenia — which may be the result of inactivity, aging, or a combination of both.

Besides reducing the effects of sarcopenia, weightlifting and exercise can reduce the incidence of falls. By some estimates, 40 percent of persons over age 65 fall at least once a year, and persons 85 years and older may be more likely to die from falls and hip fractures than from heart disease.

A study in the December 28, 2004, issue of Neurology showed yet another benefit of longer and more intense physical activity for seniors: maintained cognitive skills. The European study showed that over 10 years, the cognitive decline in men who had reduced their daily physical activity by an hour or more was 2.6 times greater than the decline in men who had maintained their activity.

Cardio Exercises for Seniors

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New Jersey’s Expert Home Care for Elders and Seniors provides care for your aging loved ones since 1984. Please call us when your loved one needs help – 800-848-2336.

If you’ve been inactive for awhile, it’s best to start with a small amount of cardio exercise, and to limit your exercise to activities that require a moderate amount of endurance.

Here are some examples of moderate endurance activities for the average older adult:

  • Walking briskly on a level surface
  • Swimming
  • Gardening, mowing, or raking the lawn
  • Cycling on a stationary bicycle
  • Bicycling outdoors on a level surface

Vigorous Cardio Activities for Older Adults

If you have some experience with cardio exercise and have increased your endurance to at least a moderate level, these activities may be safe for you to do.

People who have been inactive for a long time or who have certain health risks should not start with these activities. Remember to get your health care provider’s approval before beginning any form of exercise.

  • Climbing stairs or hills
  • Shoveling snow
  • Brisk bicycling up hills
  • Digging holes

Remember to get your health care provider’s approval before beginning any form of exercise.

http://seniorliving.about.com/lr/endurance_exercises/116693/5/