At all stages of your life, maintaining your physical health is essential. As you grow older, it is more important to uphold your physical health because your metabolism begins to slow down, and it is easier to put on weight.
Illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes are more common in people in the later stages of their life. Being that exercise helps your entire immune system as a whole, maintaining your physical health could help prevent diseases that come with old age.
Not only does having control of your physical health help your body operate correctly, but it assists in your brain’s function as well. Exercise produces endorphins, and endorphins make you happy. Aside from that, regularly moving your body improves your mental health as well. That being said, maintaining your physical health as you age can help you happy and prevent your cognitive function from decreasing.
Are you a senior who is worried that they are not getting the right amount of exercise?
Or are you not sure what practices are right for you?
If so, you have come to the right place!
Continue reading to learn about four essential exercises to make a part of your daily routine that will keep your body young.
4 Essential Exercises that Will Keep Your Body Young and Healthy
1. Walking
Believe it or not, an exercise as simple as walking daily can help keep your body young. Walking daily will keep your body active and benefit your muscle and bone health.
Adding walking into your daily routine is simpler than you would think. If you live in an area where you can walk to run your errands, rather than drive, you can easily incorporate walking into your routine. However, if walking to run your errands is not feasible, you can always take an hour out of your day to take walks around your neighborhood.
If you do not feel challenged enough by walking, but do not have a ton of time to add other exercises into your daily routine, you can always climb stairs. Climbing stairs is an easy way to challenge yourself, and it emphasizes the focus of your workout on the lower half of your body.
Climbing stairs can be just as convenient to add to your daily routine as walking is. If you have stairs in your home, you can always take about half an hour to climb them. If you do not have stairs in your home, you can travel to your local mall and climb the stairs there.
Either way, walking of some sort is a great and easy exercise that you can add to your daily routine that will guarantee to keep your body young.
2. Aerobic exercise
Aerobic exercise is a fast-paced cardio exercise that can boost your heart, blood circulation, and brain health. Aerobic exercise is a common exercise tactic done by most age groups, and seniors are more than capable of doing it. Luckily, aerobic exercise can be done just about anywhere and is an excellent way for people who are not in shape to get in shape.
For people who may not be in the best of shape and would prefer to exercise alone, aerobic exercise videos can be found on YouTube and can be done in the comfort of your own home.
If you prefer exercising in groups, your gym or community center would typically offer some sort of aerobics class. Seniors living in retirement homes or assistants or independent living centers have options too. For instance, an independent senior living center in New Jersey has its own exercise studio for its residents to practice aerobics and other sorts of exercises.
Doing aerobic exercises or taking an aerobics class is a great way to keep your body moving, meet new people, and focus on your health.
3. Yoga
As you age, your muscles begin to tighten, and you start to lose flexibility. By doing yoga, you are constantly stretching your muscles. In yoga, you work a lot on your posture. This is great for any seniors who have noticed their posture diminishing with old age.
Aside from that, yoga is known to be beneficial for your mental and brain health. By practicing yoga daily, you are taking the time out of your day to focus on yourself. Doing yoga can be great for anybody, but has a ton of benefits for seniors. Taking just 20 minutes out of your day to practice yoga can have a ton of tremendous long-term effects on your body.
4. Resistance Training
Resistance training helps build and maintain muscle strength. This type of exercise is vital for seniors and can be added to their daily routine from their house or the gym.
If you prefer working out at home, there are specific resistance training exercises that require little-to-no equipment and would be great for you. Squats, lunges, pushups, situps, and planks can all be done in the comfort of your own home without using any equipment at all. If you wanted to spruce up your workout routine, you could add a resistance band to your workouts to make them more challenging.
When you work out at a gym, you can use plenty of different materials and machines to work on resistance training. You have access to medicine balls, different weights, and workout machines at the gym that allow you to work on resistance training.
Resistance training is an excellent anti-aging tactic that allows you to focus on your mental and physical strength. Integrating resistance training into your daily routine will benefit your mind and your body in the long run.
As you age, it may seem more challenging to exercise. The benefits of working out at an older age can help keep your mind and body young. When you exercise, you can better yourself, learn new skills, and meet new people. By adding the exercises above to your daily routine, not only will you see effects on your body, but you will help contribute to preventing your body from the different issues it may face while aging.
About the Author
Kelsey Simpson enjoys writing about things that can help others. She lives in South Jersey and is the proud companion to two German Shepherds and spends her free time volunteering in dog shelters. She is currently writing for Medford Leas, an independent senior living in NJ.