Blogging from A to Z April Challenge: E

Aging: The Good, the Bad, and the Tolerable

E is for Exercise

I follow the blog: Better Health While Aging by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH. Her blog is a common sense, understandable, practical guide about aging well for both the elderly and their caregivers.

Exercise is important. It can mean the difference between remaining independent as we age or confined to a wheelchair. I’m not the expert on exercise so I will share what Dr. Kernisan says in her post: Four Types of Exercise in Later Life: How to Maintain Strength, Balance, & Independence in Aging. March 22, 2024

Countless research studies have confirmed that exercise provides health benefits, including:

• Lower risk of cardiovascular disease
• Lower risk of diabetes, high cholesterol, and other forms of metabolic dysfunction
• Improved cognition and decreased risk of Alzheimer’s disease
• Reduction in symptoms of anxiety and depression
• Improved sleep
• Improved bone health
• Lower risk of falls
• Improved physical function

In short, exercise often helps people feel better in the shorter term, and also is good at reducing the risk of the most common health problems that affect older adults.

Most longevity experts believe that although both exercise and nutrition are important, the effect of exercise can be much stronger than the effect of diet and/or supplements.

Four types of exercise every older adult should be doing

Any exercise is better than no exercise. But to really benefit from exercise, all older adults should make sure to regularly engage in the following four types of exercise.

1.Strength training exercises (also known as resistance exercises)

These are exercises that challenge muscle strength, to help a person maintain and increase muscle power. These exercises often including lifting weights, although that’s not always necessary.

To strengthen muscles, the exercises need to get more challenging over time. The ideal weight (or body weight exercise) can be done 8-10 times before needing to take a break; if a person can do up to 15 repetitions of the movement, then it’s time to increase the weight.

Strength training should take place at least twice a week.

Older adults should try to work their upper body, their core, and their lower body; you need all of these parts to be strong enough, to continue to do basic tasks such as carrying groceries and navigating stairs as you age.

2. Aerobic exercises (also known as endurance exercises or “cardio”)

Aerobic exercises are the ones that make you distinctly short of breath while you do them. This gives your heart and lungs a workout, and improves the body’s ability to use oxygen.

Common examples include swimming, water aerobics, and bicycling. Brisk walking or walking up hills also counts. Gyms usually include machines for aerobic exercise, such as treadmills and stationary bicycles.

Guidelines from the American Heart Association recommend a minimum of 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity aerobic activity, or 60 minutes per week of vigorous activity.

However: research suggests that even “less-than-recommended” amounts of exercise are associated with reduced mortality. So, less exercise is better than no exercise!

Also, if you are older and just starting out, it’s good to start with a very modest amount of exercise, and then slowly work your way up to recommended amounts over time.

(To determine whether an effort is moderate intensity or vigorous: moderate is usually considered a 5-6 out of ten, on a scale of perceived effort, whereas vigorous should feel like an 8 out of ten. Another rule of thumb is that you should be able to carry on a conversation during moderate activity but not really during vigorous activity.)

3. Balance exercises

Balance exercises are the ones that challenge your balance more than daily life activities do.

Maintaining balance usually requires the strength of stabilizing muscles in your body’s core, plus the participation of your brain and nerves to coordinate your senses and your movements.

These skills in the muscles and brain improve when you regularly challenge your balance.

There are a variety of exercises that specifically challenge balance and can help you develop better balance, such as walking heel-to-toe.

There are also athletic and recreational activities that tend to challenge balance, such as tai chi, yoga, and social dancing.

4. Flexibility exercises

Flexibility exercises help your muscles and joints move through a fuller range of motion, to help maintain (or improve) their available range. They usually look like some form of stretching.

Without flexibility exercises (or activities that put joints through their full range of motion), range of motion tends to constrict over time.

To safely stretch, first warm up the body through aerobic exercise or strengthening exercises. Then you can slowly stretch into a position and try to hold the stretch for 30 seconds. Be sure to breathe normally and avoid bouncing into the stretch. You should feel a little bit of a pull, but not actual pain.

(Note: it’s not clear that a lot of static stretching before vigorous activity is a good idea; studies suggest that stretching after the activity is less likely to lead to injury. To warm up for vigorous activity, it’s probably better to jog or otherwise do some mild-moderate activity that gets the blood moving and the muscles warmed up.)

Some forms of exercise, such as yoga and certain types of dance, naturally incorporate a fair amount of stretching. Aim to stretch or do some form of flexibility exercise at least twice a week. Your goal should be to stretch all your major muscle and tendon groups, including the neck, the shoulders, the trunk and lower back, the hips, and the legs.

Flexibility exercises are often overlooked, as people may not think flexibility is important. However, maintaining adequate flexibility is key for common life tasks such as putting on your shoes or picking something up off the floor.

Leslie Kernisan, Four Types of Exercise in Later Life: How to Maintain Strength, Balance, & Independence in Aging. Blog: Better Health While Aging. March 22, 2024

Read the full post here.