The top six exercises after 55…
- Walk – we need to walk not only as a mode of transportation, but overall health. Walking briskly will help your cardiovascular system (heart and lungs), your weight management, joints, balance, it may lessen or eliminate back pain. It can certainly help with obesity-related diseases as well as preventing health issues such as poor balance and weight gain. Walking an hour a day has many benefits that you won’t even realize. If you can only walk for ten minutes, then walk 7-10 minutes, three times a day. If you can walk an hour per day, walk an hour per day. Short of walking to the point of injury, the more you walk the more your health will benefit. That does not mean walking ten hours per day for the average person, but an hour plus per day is great!
- Resistance training – Resistance training can involve mainly using your own Healthy Body weight. You don’t need a gym for this. Preferably full-Healthy Body exercises that uses as many muscles at a time as possible. An example might be squatting while holding a weight, then standing up and lifting that weight over your head. Repeat that exercise 20 times and not only will your main muscle groups get a good work over, but so will your cardiovascular system. *When squatting always remember to look up through the entire duration of the exercise. When you look to the floor when you squat you back goes into a slouched flexion position and that is bad for your back. If you aren’t sure of how to perform an exercise like this, then hire a trainer for a session or two and have him or her design a full-Healthy Body exercise program specific to your needs.
- Stretch – Do 15 minutes of yoga daily or several times a week. Go to a yoga class or watch a yoga video and follow along. Or if you are like me, I am lazy. I stretch for 15 minutes while in the hot tub before my morning swim.
- Social Exercise – play in a squash league. Or if that is too intense, play in a pickleball league. Walk regularly with friends. Go hiking with friends. When exercise is social time goes by more quickly and people are more likely to exercise even when they don’t feel like it if they are exercising with a group of friends. Sometimes the hardest part of exercise is starting, so if you have friends waiting for you, you are more likely to get started on the days you don’t feel like it and before you know it you got an hour of exercising in and time flew by. Exercise helps to release the “feel good” hormones, but you get a double dose of “feel good” hormones when you exercise with friends.
- Do the exercises that you love – People are often asking me “which are the best exercises for…” The best exercises are the exercises that you do consistently. Just like “when is the best time of day to exercise?” The best time of day to exercise is the time that you can carve out of your day on a regular basis. If you hate early mornings, the worst time of day to exercise for you is in the early morning because you will not likely exercise regularly, and thus will be setting yourself up for failure.
- Lastly the best exercises for someone who is 55 and over or 55 and under are varied exercises. Swim, walk, run, bike, lift weights, Pilates, volleyball, hiking, golf, baseball, you name it. Personally, I swim 4 days a week, I stretch at least 4 days per week (in the hot tub before I swim, then again in the steam room after I swim), I lift weights four times a week and I try to fit in other activities around these favourites. The point is, if you only do one thing you are likely to get tired of “exercise”. The more activities you partake of, the more fun you are likely to have, thus the more you are likely to exercise. Each activity whether it be walking or swimming or riding a bike, each activity uses your muscles in different ways. The more different ways you move your Healthy Body, the better. I am looking forward to the days where I don’t have to work 12 hours a day. Work gets in the way, but one day I won’t have to work long hours and will enjoy a couple more activities each day.
