4 Best Exercises for Older Adults
For seniors who want to stay healthy and independent ……………..
1. Strength exercises
Strength exercises build older adult muscles and increase your metabolism, which helps to keep your weight and blood sugar in check.
Safety tips for Strength exercises :
Don’t hold your breath during strength exercises. This could affect your blood pressure.
Use smooth, steady movements to bring weights into position. Avoid jerking or thrusting movements.
Avoid locking the joints of your arms and legs into a strained position. Breathe out as you lift or push a weight and breathe in as you relax.
Muscle soreness lasting a few days and slight fatigue are normal after muscle building exercises.
Exhaustion, sore joints, and painful muscle pulls are not normal.
How Much Should I Exercise, and How Often?
Do strength exercises for all your major muscle groups at least twice a week, but vary the exercises so you don’t work the same muscle group 2 days in a row.
Lift a minimum of weight the first week, then gradually build up the weight. Depending on your level of fitness, you can start with no weights. Starting with weights that are too heavy can cause injuries.
It’s important to gradually add a challenging amount of weight in order to benefit from strength exercises. If you don’t challenge your muscles, you won’t get stronger. You can build up to using 1 or 2 pound weights as your strength grows and your body adapts to these strength exercises.
Take 3 seconds to lift or push a weight into place. Hold the position for 1 second, and take another 3 seconds to lower the weight. Don’t let the weight drop — lowering it slowly is very important.
It should feel somewhat hard for you to lift or push the weight. It should not feel very, very hard. If you can’t lift or push a weight 8 times in a row, it’s too heavy for you and you should reduce the amount of weight. If you can lift a weight more than 15 times in a row, it’s too light for you. Increase the amount of weight.
Do 8 to 15 repetitions in a row. Wait a minute, then do another set of 8 to 15 repetitions in a row of the same exercise.
Note: While you are waiting to do the next set of reps, you might want to stretch the muscle you just worked, or do a different strength exercise that works a different set of muscles.
2.Balance exercises
Balance exercises build leg muscles, and this helps to prevent falls. Improving lower body strength will help to improve your balance, and better balance means reduced risk of falls.
Safety Tips for Balance Exercises :
Before you start your exercise program, read these safety tips for lower body exercise:
Check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program.
Hold onto a table or chair for balance when you used only one hand.
As you progress, try holding on with only one fingertip. When you feel comfortable with one fingertip, try the following lower body exercises without holding on at all. Ask someone to watch you the first few times, in case you lose your balance.
If you are very steady on your feet, move on to doing the exercises using no hands, with your eyes closed. Have someone stand close by if you are unsteady.
If you are an older adult, balance exercises will help you avoid problems ar you get older.
And if you are a senior, balance exercises can help you stay independent by helping you avoid the disabilities that could result from falling.
How much balance exercise do I need, and how often?
With any exercise program, it’s important to remember this phrase:
"Everything in moderation."
The NIH recommends that you don’t increase your regularly scheduled strength exercise sessions to incorporate these balance modifications.
Remember: you can do more harm than good by doing strength exercises too often. Don’t exercise the same set of muscles 2 days in a row.
Simply do your strength exercises and incorporate these balance techniques as you progress.
3.Stretching exercises
Stretching exercises can give you more freedom of movement, which will allow you to be more active during your senior years. Stretching exercises alone will not improve your endurance or strength. Stretching to increase your flexibility and freedom of movement will help you do more of the activities you enjoy.
Safety tips for Stretching Exercises:
Check with your health care provider to make sure these stretching exercises are safe for you.
Always warm up before stretching exercises by doing some easy walking or arm-pumping first, or by doing stretching exercise after endurance or strength exercises.
Mild discomfort or a mild pulling sensation is normal, but stretching should never cause pain, especially joint pain. If you feel pain, stop at once and consult your health care provider.
Never bounce into a stretch — make slow, steady movements to help your muscles stretch naturally.
How Much Should I Stretch, and How Often?
Stretch after you do your regularly scheduled strength and endurance exercises.
Do each stretching exercise 3 to 5 times at each session.
Slowly stretch into the desired position, as far as possible without pain, and hold the stretch for 10 to 30 seconds.
Relax, then repeat, trying to stretch farther.
If you can’t do endurance or strength exercises for any reason, and stretching exercises are the only kind you are able to do, do them at least 3 times a week, for at least 20 minutes each session.
Remember that stretching exercises, by themselves, don’t improve endurance or strength.
4.Endurance and Cardio exercises
Endurance exercises are any activity—walking, jogging, swimming, biking, even raking leaves—that increases your heart rate and breathing for an extended period of time. Build up your endurance gradually, starting with as little as 5 minutes of endurance activities at a time.
Safety Tips for Endurance and Cardio Exercise
Cardio exercises are activities–like walking, jogging, swimming, and raking the yard–that increase your heart rate and breathing for an extended period of time.
Cardio exercises are very good for improving heart health and they also contribute to weight loss by increasing your metabolism.
If you’re just starting a cardio exercise program or you have been inactive for a long time, start your cardio exercise program slowly and build your endurance g
radually. It may take months to go from a very long-standing sedentary lifestyle to doing some of the activities suggested here.
You can start with as little as 5 minutes of cardio activities at a time. As your endurance improves, add more time.
How Much Cardio Exercise Do I Need, and How Often?
Before beginning any exercise program, get your health care provider’s permission.
If you are just beginning a cardio exercise program, start with 5 minutes of low-to-moderate activity. As a beginner to cardio exercise, your goal is to work your way up to a moderate-to-vigorous level that increases your breathing and heart rate. It should feel somewhat difficult to you, but not painful.
Once you reach that goal and feel your heart rate and breathing increase, you can divide your exercise into sessions of no less than 10 minutes at a time, as long as they add up to a total of at least 30 minutes on most or all days of the week.
Doing less than 10 minutes at a time won’t give you the desired cardiovascular and respiratory system benefits you are looking for.
When you can safely and comfortably do 30 minutes of moderate cardio exercise at one time, you can add more time–or try more than one exercise during the same session.
For example, you could take a walk, and then go swimming.
Be creative. Vary your routine and think of new activities you’d like to try.
Get your friends involved! Having companions to share exercise with will help motivate you and make the activity more fun.
Many communities have social organizations that focus on fitness and athletic activities like hiking, cycling, and swimming.
Or check out your local YMCA or YWCA for fitness programs like water aerobics. Joining a group is a great way to get fit and make new friends of all ages.
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