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The Best Exercise for Seniors

By Sara Butler

Fitness is important at every age but it’s especially vital for older adults. Regular exercise helps to control weight, cholesterol, and blood pressure. It helps to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke and also helps to strengthen muscles to help lower the risk of a fall or another injury as you go about your daily activities. Here are some suggestions for seniors to help them get their body moving and increase their well-being.

Aerobic Exercise

Always talk to your doctor before starting a new exercise routine. If they give you the go ahead, then you can add a little aerobic endurance exercise to your day. Aerobic exercise makes your heart and lungs stronger. After six weeks of consistency exercise, you should begin to feel a difference as you go about your normal daily activities.

For older adults, high impact aerobics may not be the way to go. But there are several low impact exercises that will work well, such as:

  • Walking
  • Swimming
  • Water aerobics
  • Tai chi
  • Ballroom dancing

For adults over 65, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week.

Strength

Strength training helps to build muscle and can have a huge impact on the life of an older adult. Whether it’s carrying groceries, getting up from a chair, or climbing stairs, increased muscle strength will help. Aim for two strength building workouts a week.

Balance

Every single year, more than two million adults are treated in emergency rooms for injuries they sustained during a fall. That makes balance an important aspect of overall health and wellness for older adults. You can easily work on flexibility and balance with simple yoga poses, which assist in flexibility, too.

Flexibility

Speaking of flexibility, it’s an important thing to stay on top of as you grow older. Have you noticed difficulty doing simple things such as reaching for things on high shelves or getting dressed in the morning because your muscles are tight? Adding stretches to your daily routine can help you increase and maintain range of motion as you get older.

You can achieve good general fitness by dedicating just 30 minutes per day to exercise. It can help to prolong your life and improve the quality of it along the way. Start slowly and build endurance in order to help you get all you can from exercise and avoid injury.

To learn more about your health and wellness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Queen Creek, Ariz. 

 

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