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Exercise Tips for Older Adults
While the years certainly do bring challenges, exercise is still one of the healthiest things an older individual
can do. In fact, older people can benefit just as much - if not more - from exercise than people in their twenties
and thirties. Virtually no one is too old to benefit from some form of physical activity, as long as that activity
is appropriate to their particular needs and abilities.
For the most part, when older people lose their ability to do things on their own, it doesn’t happen just because
they have aged. More likely, it is because they have become inactive. Older inactive adults lose ground in four
areas that are important for staying healthy and independent: endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility.
Fortunately, research suggests that you can maintain or at least partly restore these four areas through exercise.
What may seem like very small changes resulting from exercise and physical activity can have a big impact on the
quality of your life and your longevity.
You may have many reasons for being reluctant to exercise. You may be afraid that physical activity will harm you;
or you might think you have to join a gym or buy expensive equipment in order to exercise. Or, you may feel
embarrassed to exercise because you think it’s for younger people or for people who look great in gym clothes. You
may think exercise is only for people who are able to do things like jogging, swimming, or bicycling.
The truth is that just about every older adult can safely do some form of physical activity at little or no cost.
And you don’t have to exercise in a public place or use expensive equipment, if you don’t want to. Even household
chores can improve your health. The important thing is to increase your physical activity by exercising and by
using your own muscle power.
Studies show that, in the long term, older adults in all age groups hurt their health far more by not exercising
than by exercising. As a rule, older people should stay as physically active as they can. In fact, lack of exercise
and poor diet are the second-largest underlying causes of death in the United States (smoking is the No. 1
cause).
Most younger people know that exercise is good for them. Somehow, though, older adults have been left out of the
picture - until recently. Today a new picture is emerging from research: Older people of different physical
conditions have much to gain from exercise and from staying physically active. They also have much to lose if they
become physically inactive.
And exercise isn’t just for older adults in the younger age range, who live independently and are able to go on
brisk jogs. Researchers have found that exercise and physical activity also can even improve the health of people
who are 90 or older, who are frail, or who have the diseases that seem to accompany aging. Staying physically
active and exercising regularly can help prevent or delay some diseases and disabilities as people grow older. In
some cases, it can improve health for older people who already have diseases and disabilities, if it’s done on a
long-term, regular basis.
Endurance exercises increase your breathing and heart rate. They improve the health of your heart, lungs, and
circulatory system. Having more endurance not only helps keep you healthier; it can also improve your stamina for
the tasks you need to do to live and do things on your own - climbing stairs and grocery shopping, for example.
Endurance exercises also may delay or prevent many diseases associated with aging, such as diabetes, colon cancer,
heart disease, stroke, and others, and reduce overall death and hospitalization rates.
Strength exercises build your muscles, but they do more than just make you stronger. They give you more strength to
do things on your own. Even very small increases in muscle can make a big difference in ability, especially for
frail people. Strength exercises also increase your metabolism, helping to keep your weight and blood sugar in
check. That’s important because obesity and diabetes are major health problems for older adults. Studies suggest
that strength exercises also may help prevent osteoporosis.
Balance exercises help prevent a common problem in older adults: falls. Falling is a major cause of broken hips and
other injuries that often lead to disability and loss of independence. Some balance exercises build up your leg
muscles; others require you to do simple activities like briefly standing on one leg.
Flexibility exercises help keep your body limber by stretching your muscles and the tissues that hold your body’s
structures in place. Physical therapists and other health professionals recommend certain stretching exercises to
help patients recover from injuries and to prevent injuries from happening in the first place. Flexibility also may
play a part in preventing falls.
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