Exercise helps manage your weight, improves mood, mental health, sleep quality, sex life, boosts energy, combats chronic disease, eases quitting smoking, and sharpens thinking, learning, and judgment skills.
Endurance Exercises for Younger & Older Folks
Endurance or aerobic exercises increase your heart rate and breathing. This helps strengthen your heart, lungs, and circulatory system, bones, and delay or prevent diseases, especially in older adults, including heart disease, diabetes, breast and colon cancer, and more. And you get a heady rush of endorphins, helping you feel relaxed and energized.
A 2019 study published in Neural Plasticity showed that endurance exercise increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and its receptors in nerve tissue. BDNF is a brain protein that plays a role in the growth, maturation, maintenance, and survival of neurons. It helps secure lightning memory recall, sharp thinking skills, and emotional well-being.
The study showed this increase in BDNF improves motor skills, function, and blocks the development of diseases, such as Parkinson's disease and metabolic syndrome. Researchers also found that it improves cellular and structural aspects of the spinal cord and skeletal muscles. And it elevates dopamine in the brain that helps regulate metabolic processes, reduce weight, blood sugar levels, and blood pressure.
Activities that build endurance include:
- Brisk walking or jogging
- Yard work (rake leaves, mow lawn)
- Dancing
- Swimming
- Biking
- Climbing
- Playing Tennis or Basketball
Strength Exercises
Research shows you naturally lose about 3-8% of muscle per decade after age 30, losing muscle mass, strength, and function if you neglect to exercise. This loss skyrockets after age 60, severely weakening your body, putting you at risk for falls, and can lead to disability and dependence. This muscle loss is accompanied by weight gain, loss of bone density, joint stiffness, insulin resistance, leading to diabetes. Plus, you shrink in height.
One study showed that older women who broke their hip were unlikely to fully recover their pre-fracture quality of life, even after 10 years. So, to ensure you're able to continue to climb stairs, carry your groceries, get up from a chair, and go about your daily activities, adding strength or resistance training is critical for improving muscle strength and tone.
You can choose weights or stretchy elastic bands, also known as resistance bands. Beginners should start with the lowest weights and resistance and build up gradually. First, find an instructional video online like those below, so you learn the proper and safe movements and steps. Then work up to at least twice a week and exercise all your major muscle groups to support your posture and joints.
Some beneficial resistance exercises include:
- Lifting weights (soup cans work too)
- Carrying groceries
- Squeezing a tennis ball
- Overhead arm curl
- Arm curls
- Wall push-ups
- Lifting your body weight
- Using a resistance band
Remember to breathe regularly during strength exercises, and DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH! Breathe out when you're lifting or pushing and breathe in while relaxing. Talk to your doctor if you're unsure about your exercise plan.
