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Exercise & Fitness

Exercise for Healthy Aging

by Kimberly Johnson
written by Kimberly Johnson

Exercise for Healthy Aging

Exercise for AgingSixty-year-old Ester Kurz does a lot of things, but taking prescribed medicine isn’t one of them. While most people her age take a pill for one thing or another, Kurz, from Baltimore, self-prescribes exercise for healthy aging.
On a daily basis Kurz, who will turn 61 in June, goes to the Life Time Fitness in Rockville, Md., to enjoy everything from boot camp to yoga. Her favorite day is Monday, she says, when she goes from kickboxing to indoor cycling class to boot camp. “Each year, I seem to up the number and types of routines,” she boasts.
Kurz’s attitude is counter to the majority of her peers. Just 30 percent of people between ages 45 and 64 say they engage in regular leisure-time physical activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2010 National Interview Survey. As people get older, they move even less: 25 percent are active between the ages 65 and 74 and only 11 percent of those 85 and older say they are active.
That’s a problem because studies indicate there’s a correlation between activity and a lower death rate in older adults.
“Healthy aging is the ability to maintain your mental, physical and cellular health,” says Jason Stella, a personal trainer at Life Time Fitness, The Healthy Way of Life Company. “The process of aging is inevitable, but the choices you make, good or bad, throughout your lifetime dictate the rate at which you will age and the positive or negative health affects you develop.”
In particular, Stella says behaviors that sabotage healthy aging include eating processed foods, taking too many medications, not controlling stress and inactivity.
“I have had almost no injuries and very few aches and pains other than when I push myself too hard,” Kurz says. In addition to staying physically active, Kurz is a lobbyist for a grassroots advocacy organization, a wife and mother of two sons, ages 19 and 21, as well as a volunteer with several organizations.
“A few years ago, I fell down a flight of stairs and, other than a few bruises and scrapes, did very little damage to my body,” Kurz says. “I have to believe exercise had a great deal to do with that.”
Regular exercise and physical activity are critical to helping older adults stay independent as they age. Strengthening bone and joint health to protect mobility is all the motivation most active older adults need to exercise.
Kurz appreciates those benefits, too, but likes the added challenges. In February she competed in the Life Time Fitness Alpha Showdown, a national competition that tests the body’s core energy systems: power, strength and endurance. Most competitors were much younger than Kurz. “I did not win,” she says, “But I don’t think I came in last either, which was an achievement.”
Firmly in the second half of her life, Kurz is certain she has never been healthier or felt stronger. Life Time Fitness is part of her health aging program, but the facilities, programming and events cater to all ages and abilities, from those new to an exercise routine to those who are emphatic believers in exercise as good medicine, like Kurz.
“Every checkup, my doctor asks me, ‘Still exercising like crazy?'” she says. “And then he adds, ‘keep it up.'”
 
Provided by: ARA

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Balance Exercise
Exercise & Fitness

Senior Balance Exercises

by Kimberly Johnson
written by Kimberly Johnson

 

Senior Balance Exercises

Do balancing exercises every day to optimize your balance as a senior. Keeping a good sense of balance helps you avoid dangerous falls which can result in broken bones. It also increases your overall fitness. It also gives you a feeling of confidence everyday in every part of your life that you’re not going to lose your balance. Senior Balance Exercises
 
Balance ExerciseAs you start doing balance exercises, if you’re concerned that you might lose your balance and fall, ask someone to stand near you. You should also check with your doctor before you start in case you have a balance problem or another reason you shouldn’t do the exercises.
Below are some balance exercises you can try:
Stork: One of the simplest exercises to improve balance is to stand on one leg, keep your arms at your side with your shoulders relaxed, and try to balance for 30 seconds. Repeat one to two times with each leg every day. Over the next few weeks, try to work up to two minutes. One hint: Try not to “grab” the floor with the toes of the foot that’s on the ground. Relax your muscles, and you’ll have more success.
To make the stork more challenging, try swinging your arms like you’re running. That will throw you slightly off balance and you will need to make corrections to maintain your balance. You can hold bottles of water in each hand for even more of a challenge.
Another way to make the stork more challenging is to fold a bath towel over several times so it’s five to six layers thick. Now place it on the floor and stand in the center of it. It will be unstable because it’s soft, but that’s the idea because you want to really work hard to improve your balance and strengthen your muscles. And for the most challenge of all, try doing the stork with your eyes closed.
Nose toucher: Stand with your right leg approximately 24 inches in front of your left, bend your knees slightly, and try to touch your nose with your finger. The more in line your feet with each other the more challenging this will be. Once you can do it well with either leg in front of the other, try this with your eyes closed.
Heel raises: Hold on to a sturdy chair for balance and rise up on to your tippy toes. Repeat 10-15 times. You can progress to touching the chair with one finger for balance, then eventually no holding at all, and finally with your eyes closed.
Marching: Hold on to a sturdy chair for balance, and lift your right knee up toward your chest, then lower to starting positions. The left knee can be bent slightly. Repeat 10-15 times with the right leg, then do the left leg. You can progress to touching the chair with one finger for balance, then eventually no holding at all, and finally with your eyes closed. You can also try alternating the marching between left and right leg instead of one set with one leg.
Side leg raise: Hold on to a sturdy chair for balance and lift your right leg out to the side. The left knee can be bent slightly. Repeat 10-15 times with right leg then do the left leg. You can progress to touching the chair with one finger for balance, then eventually no holding at all, and finally with your eyes closed.
Walk a straight line: Look for a straight line on the floor (like floor tiles) and try to walk along it. The key here is to land with one foot directly in front of the other and also land on your heel first. Try with arms extended out and then relaxed at your sides. To progress, try walking forward to one end and then backwards to the other. Then try walking forward only with your eyes closed. Walk back and forth 10 times.
Step-ups: Stand in front of a staircase and step up with your right foot, then up with your left, then back down with your right, then back down with your left. Repeat 10 times. If you need a little support, hold on gently to the railing, or better yet, just touch the wall with your finger tip and you’ll be amazed at how much balance that gives you.
Sit-stands: Sit on the edge of a sturdy chair and try to stand up without swinging your arms forward, and then sit back down very slowly. Repeat 10 times. If you need help, go ahead and let your arms reach forward for balance, but then over time, try to do them without the assistance of your arms.
NOTE: Always talk with your doctor before beginning an exercise program. very type of exercise is not appropriate for all people, especially if you have high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes. And it’s important that you start slowly with any physical activity.

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Muscle Deterioration
Exercise & Fitness

Programs to Get Fit after 65

by Jeff Dailey
written by Jeff Dailey

Programs to Get Fit after 65

It’s Never Too Late, Experts Say

Getting Fit after 65America’s aging population is posing special challenges, fitness experts say, because it is difficult to design effective workout routines for people with such a wide range of abilities. Programs to Get Fit after 65
For one 70-year-old, the goal may be to run a marathon, for another it’s getting out of a chair.
“If you are teaching 10-year-olds, it’s perfectly reasonable to do an activity that everybody would participate in,” said Dr. Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, an expert on aging with the American College of Sports Medicine. “But 20 80-year-olds could be as different as chalk and cheese.”
Some baby boomer could be athletic, he explained, while others would be unable to get out of bed.
There are now more Americans age 65 and older than at any other time in U.S. history, according to Census Bureau figures. Some 40 million people age 65 and over lived in the United States in 2010, accounting for 13 percent of the total population. The older population grew from 3 million in 1900 to 40 million in 2010.
Older adults should be doing aerobic activity to help maintain body weight, strengthening exercises to develop and maintain muscle mass, and some type of flexibility training, according to Dr. James Graves, Dean of the College of Health at the University of Utah.
Physical activity can reduce the risk of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and osteoporosis, he said, as well as improve the quality of life by maintaining functional capacity, such as the ability to climb stairs, open doors, and carry groceries.
“A very healthy 70-year-old can safely participate in high-intensity activity while a frail 60-year-old needs to lower the intensity,” said Graves. “My recommendation is to work with a personal trainer or group leader who has knowledge and qualifications to work with the elderly.”
Mary Ann Wilson is the creator and host of the “Sit and Be Fit,” a senior fitness program that has aired on U.S. public television since 1987.
The majority of her viewers are women over 65. For that population, she said, the goal of exercise is health and well-being, not physical prowess.
“Gravity has been working on them for 70 years,” said Wilson, a registered nurse who specialized in geriatrics. “Gravity is not our friend after many years of pulling our heads, shoulders and upper torsos forward and down.”
The 30-minute class includes warm-up, circulation and strength segments, a finger segment (for stiffness), standing for balance, and final relaxation.
Posture, breathing, balance, cognitive functioning and reaction time are among the most important — and neglected — components of elder fitness, she said.
“Focusing on gait is really important because as we age our gait changes,” said Wilson.
Karen Peterson, author of “Move with Balance: Healthy Aging Activities for Brain and Body,” stresses a mind-body approach in workouts with seniors.
“In our society it seems people don’t really like to do things unless they’re good at it already,” said Peterson, a kinesiologist based in Maui. “But what the brain likes is to be challenged.”
Her exercises include tossing a bean bag to improve reaction time, walking a figure-eight pattern for balance, as well as eye stretches, jaw relaxers, childhood games and cognitive challenges to keep body and mind alert.
“We take balance exercises and add conversation or math problems,” she said. “The concept is to always progress, always get more challenging.”
To tackle the isolation and diversity of the older population, Peterson initiated a mentoring program in which the fitter seniors work with the frailer.
“Some partners will become friends,” she said. “They’ll get really turned on.”
Experts agree that it’s never too late to do something. “Exercise is effective even in the most frail individual,” Wilson said. “If they can wiggle their toes, they can exercise.”
NewsMax / Thomson/Reuters
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