Have you ever gone to the gym and been surprised to see someone much older than yourself working out and breaking a sweat? While this isn’t considered the norm at most gyms, it should be. There are a lot of benefits to continue working out as you age. Even if you haven’t worked out previously, and you feel you may be too old to start, it’s a good idea to start implementing regular exercise into your everyday life.
Muscular Strength
An obvious positive outcome of regular exercise is an increase in muscular strength. As we get older, our muscles seem to be able to do less and less. By beginning to exercise regularly, you’ll combat this and begin gaining back the strength you had years earlier. In order to increase muscular strength, you should engage in resistance training, sometimes known as weight training or strength training. Generally, resistance training includes lifting weights with various different muscle groups. When beginning resistance training, you’ll want to be careful and start small, slowly working your way to heavier weights. Resistance training has been shown to reduce the risk of many degenerative diseases.
Aerobic Endurance Training
Aerobics has always been recommended for enhancing anyone’s overall fitness. You may be more familiar with aerobics being referred to as cardio. A few different great aerobic exercises include running, swimming, walking, hiking, cross country skiing, and spinning. Anything that gets your heart rate up while you’re moving and sweating is going to do wonders for your body. Participating in regular aerobic endurance training can help improve your sleep, improve digestion, increase your caloric utilization, reduce disease risk, and improve your cardiorespiratory fitness.
Flexibility and balance training
Older individuals experience a process called fibrosis. This is where the fibrous tissues replace the degenerating muscle fibers in your body. Obviously, this isn’t ideal. It makes your muscles weaker, meaning you’ll become more easily fatigued. This can be combatted by participating in flexibility training. This, and balance training, should always accompany any resistance training, to keep your muscles loose and your body safe from injury. Practicing balance training will help reduce bad fall risks.
The easiest way to practice flexibility is by carefully stretching before and after any other exercise. Balance can be achieved by activities such as yoga. Yoga is actually a perfect exercise for both your flexibility and balance.
When starting a new fitness regime, you should talk with your orthopedist to get recommendations for safe exercises to begin with.