Our bodies will never stop needing exercise. Everyone knows you either use it or you lose it. Many benefits include helping with flexibility, posture, joint mobility, maintaining and building muscle mass and keeping us heart healthy. As we age, we do still need exercise, but many of us become more limited to what we can do.
Perfect exercises to keep you active, healthy and strong
According to a New York Times article, "For optimal health, [Department of Health and Human Services] recommend a total of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity a week, or 75 minutes total of vigorous activity." There are several great exercises for seniors that are fun and invigorating while providing many benefits for our bodies. A Silver Sneakers article lists several great exercises, and some of them can be seen below.
1. Swimming & water aerobics
Getting into the pool is a great way to work out our hearts and build up some muscle. This can include swimming laps and taking a water aerobics class. Water aerobics is a very gentle workout that helps work out our hearts and lungs while also easing arthritis pain and discomfort and building up muscles.
2. Pilates
Pilates is the perfect way to work out at a low-impact level and focuses on moving and strengthening the core. According to Pilates Anytime, many of these exercises will include movements such as single and double leg pulls, modified planks, clams and leg slides. The benefit of taking these types of exercise classes is that Pilates focuses on "balance, strength, flexibility, focus, and your breath."
3. Yoga
Silver Sneakers states that, "yoga helps build muscle strength, aerobic fitness, core stability, and total-body mobility." Yoga is an easy exercise to modify for varying strength, flexibility and mobility. It's also filled with several gentle movements for your joints, uses only your body to build up your strength and helps to improve your posture. Iora primary care informs us that some of the best yoga poses are going to be Mountain pose, Tree pose, Warrior I pose, Standing Knee to Chest post, and Modified Dancer pose
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4. Bodyweight training
According Silver Sneakers, as we grow older, an issue that we will face is the loss of muscle mass. Taking time to do some simple bodyweight training is a great and gentle way to help build and maintain muscle throughout our entire body. "Chair squats, single-leg stands, wall pushups, and stair climbing" are perfect bodyweight exercises that will help you achieve better muscle, core and cardiovascular strength.
5. Walking
There are several benefits of walking, even after just 15 minutes a day. An article by Ladders discusses many of these benefits, some of which include increased cardiovascular health, easing joint pain, relieving lower back pain, brain strength, reducing anxiety and helping us get a better night of sleep. Walking is the perfect thing to get our bodies moving, especially for when we don't have very much time.
Exercise for Merritt Clubs ACTIVE AGERS
Merritt Clubs provides a variety of classes for active agers. Some of these classes include Active Spirit low-impact aerobic classes, Arthritis Plus and Arthritis Tone & Strength water aerobic classes, Silver Core Fusion gentle core strength training classes, and Silver Yoga classes. Contact us today to try some of these amazing, gentle workouts!
