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Snooze the aging clock: Easy exercises for the elderly to stay fit

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Age has a way of catching up with physical fitness. As the human body accumulates years, mobility works in the reverse gear. However, it is extremely important to keep the body fit and mobile despite its age. A healthy lifestyle , a nutritious diet, and a few exercises can help elderly people to stay fit even in old age.
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Best exercises for the seniors:

Walking: A simple exercise that can be part of anyone's life, and a healthy goal is 10,000 steps a day. However, depending on your health status and capacity, the distance and step targets differ from person to person. When performed as a group activity, it increases your social well-being as well. In addition to this, walking helps in strengthening your muscles.

Cycling: Cycling is an excellent cardio exercise with many benefits for elders. It can be done with an outdoor bike or a stationary cycle. It involves multiple muscle groups including the quadriceps and hamstrings and increases the blood flow to the heart and lungs. These exercises are gentler on joints and muscles and especially suitable for you if you have joint or muscle pain or dysfunction. Cycling also improves cardiovascular health.

Swimming: Swimming is a great exercise to help you stay fit, active, and engaged. It takes the weight off of your joints and muscles, making it an ideal exercise for those with joint and muscle pain. In addition, it is a cardiovascular exercise that increases the blood flow to your heart and lungs. Swimming also has a positive impact on your brain and helps to improve your memory, mood, and functioning. Swimming reduces stress on joints and bones and provides resistance to strengthen muscles.

Pilates: Pilates is a modern and gentler approach that is both functional and impactful in the long run. Pilates can improve balance, flexibility, and range of motion. If one has not exercised in a long time and wants to restart your exercise routine, pilates might be a good option to begin with. It helps in building strong core muscles. It provides increased stability and balance. Pilates is also an excellent way to rehab after hip or knee replacement surgery. In addition, it helps in having a better balance, improved posture, joint stability, body awareness, strength, and flexibility.
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Squats: Squats are great exercises for seniors to grow muscle mass and gain strength in the legs. It helps to strengthen your back muscles, and stretch your calf muscles, prevents injury, and improves your performance during other exercises. However, seniors should perform squats depending on their knee joint health. Squat strengthens leg muscles and can help train balance and stability.

Yoga: Yoga has been used in keeping the human body in shape and healthy for ages now. Yoga is a beneficial exercise that can improve strength without putting unnecessary strain on joints. Moreover, as a non-traditional option that is specially meant for seniors, chair yoga is slowly gaining popularity among elders. It is more suitable for those with mobility challenges and balance issues that make sitting or lying on a yoga mat difficult. Here, several yoga poses are performed while seated on a chair.

Resistance-band workouts: Resistance training or strength training enhances muscle strength and endurance. Resistance bands are strong elastic bands that are inexpensive, easy to carry, and useful for exercising all parts of the body. Hence, it is a suitable strength training exercise option for seniors. It helps to increase strength, endurance, flexibility and stamina.

Flexibility exercises : As a person ages, their body tends to function slower. A good stretching routine helps you to increase your muscle flexibility and range of movement. It improves posture, balance, and coordination. They help enhance the range of motion, prevent injury, and reduce pain and stiffness. Seniors should stretch their major muscles for at least ten minutes two days a week.

Balance exercises : These kinds of exercises help build strength, improve posture and coordination, and decrease the chance of falling or injury. A combination of aerobics, strength training, and balance and flexibility exercises may reduce the risk of age-related diseases or injuries.

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