Physical activity is important for aging well

After a life of working hard, when you are older you just want to relax and put your feet up, right?

Well, no.

As we age, regular physical activity is a cornerstone of a healthy retirement.

According to the experts, it helps your body function more effectively in many ways – aiding in the maintenance of a healthy weight, combating anxiety and depression, keeping bones, muscles and joints working properly, relieving symptoms of arthritis and reducing the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and some types of cancer.

Actually most of us are aware of the importance of exercise. According to recent surveys, 91 percent of Albertans agree that physical activity will keep them healthy. Despite knowing this, it can be difficult to actually make sure that you are getting enough physical activity in your life.

Of course many people of retirement age and beyond are very active – perhaps they are bodybuilders or do triathalons.

But for the majority of us who need to be more active, it will require a conscious effort to make changes to our current habits.

The Public Health Agency of Canada recommends that people start slowly, accumulating 30 to 60 minutes of moderate activity most days. It doesn’t have to be done all at once – 10 minutes at a time is fine.

It is best to do a variety of activities that help improve your endurance, flexibility, and strength and balance. These can include walking, swimming, dancing, skating, cross-country skiing, cycling, yoga and aquatic exercises and weight training.

However you can also get benefits from building activity into your daily routine by doing the activities you do now, just more often.

Walk wherever and whenever possible, get up every hour to move around and stretch for a few minutes, and take the stairs instead of the elevator. Gardening and housework also count as exercise. Finding a way to build regular physical activity into your daily routine will yield great results.

There are many different inventive and creative strategies you can use to become more active, but no matter the strategy, becoming more active requires making plans and pursuing different opportunities.

In order to identify a few different methods that can help you become more active, you can investigate activity opportunities in your community, talk to others about how they stay active, read books or articles about trying new activities, or take a course about becoming more active.

As your body slows down, you might be tempted to skip the exercise because it is harder to do and you feel challenged physically. This is the wrong thing to do. As you age, you might need to change the types of exercise you do, but anything that gets you moving is good.

The most important thing to remember about exercise as you get older is that it does not need to be strenuous, it just needs to be consistent.


Calories burned by exercise

Here are the approximate calories burned per 15 minutes and 30 minutes of participating in the following activities:

• Circuit Training 185/320

• Cycling (six miles per hour) 75/130

• Dancing (swing) 110/205

• Elliptical Trainer 235/548

• Golf (walking and carrying clubs) 80/170

• Hiking (average incline) 105/190

• Swimming 130/250

• Tennis (singles) 110/225

• Walking (3.5 miles per hour) 65/130

• Yoga 70/120


Source: http://www.seniorsdaily.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=991&Itemid=36


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