Exercise Now for Healthy Aging in Perry Hall
You can age gracefully if you exercise regularly to avoid decreased muscle mass, decreased muscle strength, increased body fat, and reduced lung capacity. The loss of these factors can be reduced by exercising only 30 minutes per day for a minimum of five days each week, which is not a lot of time and effort.
But what types of exercise are appropriate for healthy aging? Playing touch football for 45 minutes, raking leaves for 30 minutes (be sure to make your chiropractic appointment after your leaf raking exercise as this activity is frequently an aggravating factor to low back pain if you do not use an ergonomic leaf rake), or shovel snow for 15 minutes using a \"bent\" ergonomic snow shovel to avoid undue low back strain. Lifting weights is a popular and helpful way to maintain muscle mass but use 15-20 repetitions utilizing light to moderately heavy weights.
But will light exercise really do much to help you? According to Xifeng Wu, the professor and chair of the University of Texas Anderson Cancer Center\'s Department of Epidemiology very light levels of exercise reduces deaths from any cause by 14 percent. He went on to say that 15 minutes of moderately intense exercise each day can extend people\'s lives by three years. That is a significant benefit for such little effort each day.
Dr. Jarett Berry points out that exercise in midlife prepares us for our later years. He stresses that exercise in midlife not only improves the quantity of life by allowing us to live longer but that it also enhances the quality of life. Less disease and disability in later years should result from performing exercise in the midlife years.
The benefits of exercise extend beyond the midlife years. One study found that senior citizens who boost or maintain their exercise protocol are less likely to suffer a heart attack. This is not only important because heart attacks can be life threatening but the greatest benefit may be that normal living can be maintained if a heart attack does not occur. A heart attack can hinder your activity levels to the point that you may have a very difficult time recovering to your normal activities. Remember, you lose physical functioning much more quickly than you can regain it.
It is important to be realistic in your exercise goals striving for 10 minutes of exercise per day with the goal being 10 minutes of strenuous exercise. However, going overboard and exercising too much (such as many hours per day) can also shorten your life expectancy. So, as in most things in life, moderation is the key to obtaining and maintaining greater health to extend your life span.
A good walking program is to walk 10 minutes at a moderate pace, speed up for one block, then slow down to your moderate pace repeating the sequence every other block. Your Doctor of Chiropractic can advise you on how to perform a \"dynamic warm up\" to get your joints ready for exercise. The last five minutes of any exercise program should include a \"cool down period\" of at least five minutes to include specific stretching exercises designed for any particular problems you may suffer.
It is a good idea to contact your local Doctor of Chiropractic before beginning any exercise program to assure you are not only healthy enough for such activity but to verify that your joints are moving freely thereby avoiding excessive wear. It is very discouraging to exercise then find that you have been causing accelerated wear to your joints because they were not moving as they were designed.
The bottom line is that exercise should be performed throughout the life span because it will have significant ramifications on your health until the end of life. It is important that your Doctor of Chiropractic in Perry Hall be involved in your exercise regimen because the freely moving joints of your body are vital to safely achieve lifelong exercise and its benefits.
