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Exercising To Stay
Healthy For Better Retirement
Recent studies assert that exercise improves quality
of life and longevity in seniors -- one report found
that exercising in old age helps prevent dementia, for
instance. But that doesn't give you permission to put
off fitness until your AARP card arrives. There are
plenty of benefits for middle-agers: cardiovascular
health helps prevent heart disease; strong muscles
ease daily chores (and enhance recreation); agility
and balance guard against falls and injuries. Oh yeah,
fitness helps you look and feel better, too.
If you're already exercising regularly, use that
impressive flexibility to pat yourself on the back.
But if you're not -- that is, if you are among the
"deconditioned," to use the proper term --
it's time to start. Remember: Exercise can improve the
health and vitality of an octogenarian. View anything
you begin now as a head start.
If you're a pure neophyte or (it's okay, you can admit
it) it's been so long that your workout clothes don't
fit, start with simple walking. Set a goal of 30
minutes at moderate intensity -- that is, at a pace
that's challenging but still allows you to carry on a
conversation. Do this as often as possible, even if
that's only three days a week for now. Or two. Any's
better than none when you're starting out.
If walking bores you, consider cycling, swimming or
other low-impact activity that gets your heart rate
elevated. (Any cardio machine at the gym will do the
trick, too.) "Start at five or 10 minutes and
work up to 30 minutes," said Michael E. Rogers,
research director of the Center for Physical Activity
and Aging at Wichita State University in Wichita,
Kan., and chairman of the American College of Sports
Medicine's healthy aging group.
"Cardio-respiratory fitness is one of the most
important controllable risk factors in death and
chronic disease."
If you walk or otherwise move briskly for 30 minutes
four or five times a week, you'll reap many health
benefits of exercise: In addition to reduced disease
risk, you may enjoy better sleep, relief of some joint
and back pain and improved chances of controlling your
weight.
Once you're comfortable with the cardio routine, add
some strength training, balance and stretching. Those
weight machines at the gym are okay, but it's better
to use dumbbells. (Choose a weight you can lift about
15 times before your muscle tires.) Dumbbells require
you to guide the weight through space, and they draw
on the multiple muscles required to lift, reach, turn
and otherwise move in the real world. Machines just
isolate single muscles and build them up.
You can also work major muscle groups with body-weight
exercises, such as push-ups, pull-ups, squats and
crunches (the updated form of sit-ups).
Gradually boost workout intensity and length as your
body allows. If you overdo it in a burst of newbie
enthusiasm, you'll get sore and frustrated and -- like
legions before you -- quit.
Shoot for 45 minutes of exercise four days a week; 60
minutes on five days is better still. Remember, your
midlife body may take a couple of days to recover from
harder or longer sessions, so alternate your days of
cardio workouts with strength and balance training.
Reserve at least one day weekly for recreational
exercise (gardening, hiking, golf, tennis, canoeing,
etc.).
Stretching is crucial: "After men achieve their
peak range of motion in their mid-twenties and women
in their late twenties, flexibility declines
significantly," Rogers noted. The ACSM book has
excellent recommendations for beginning stretches. But
whatever you stretch, do not bounce! Just trust us on
that.
And then? Each week the Moving Crew provides more
ideas for developing, fine-tuning and (hey, it could
happen) turbocharging your fitness program through
midlife and beyond.
By John Briley
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