Exercise is an essential part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, especially as you grow older. Regular exercise helps fight obesity, decreases your risk of heart or lung disease, keeps muscles strong and improves flexibility in your joints. Endurance, strength, flexibility and stability exercises provide health benefits for older adults and may be modified to include less strenuous movements, according to the National Institute on Aging. Consult your physician to discuss any modifications or limitations before you begin an exercise regimen.
Building Endurance
Exercises that build endurance increase your heart rate while improving your lungs, heart and circulatory system in the process. Improving your endurance also helps you have the stamina you need to complete every day tasks, such as grocery shopping or cleaning the house. For a gentle, low impact aerobic workout, try swimming, walking or an older adult fitness class at your local health club. Low impact aerobic exercises get your body moving while reducing your risk of diabetes, stroke, heart disease and colon cancer.
Strength Training
Strength training doesn't mean lifting heavy weights and building bulging muscles. If you have a small set of hand weights, most strength exercises can be performed in the privacy of your own home. Gentle strength training exercises build your muscles while giving you the strength you need to perform certain tasks on your own. Strength training also helps you maintain a healthy metabolism, which keeps your blood sugar and weight at a healthy level.
With a set of 1-lb. to 5-lb. hand weights, do a series of exercises while standing or seated in a chair. Include bicep curls, lateral raises, front raises, tricep kick backs, upright rows and shoulder shrugs in your workout. While seated, place the weight on top of your thighs, away from your knees, and bring up one knee at a time, march in place or do calf raises. Do one or two sets of 10 to 15 repetitions. If a specific exercise causes pain or extreme discomfort, stop the exercise until you've talked to your physician.
Stability Exercises
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three adults over 65 experiences a fall every year in the United States. Additionally, falls are the leading cause of injury deaths for adults over age 65. Simple stability exercises that improve balance and stability can help older adults prevent falls. Perform stability exercises several times a day to build muscles in your legs and reduce your chance of falling. Try standing on one foot for several seconds or standing from a seated position without using your hands to improve stability.
Improving Flexibility
As you age, you lose flexibility in your joints and muscles. Your muscles begin to feel tight and joints lose their full range of motion. The National Institute of Aging recommends stretching your muscles and tissues as a way to keep your body limber, which helps prevent falls and other muscle or joint injuries. Simple stretches that mimic certain daily activities help stretch and strengthen the muscles and joints you use on a daily basis.
For a shoulder stretch, bring one arm across your body and holding the position, then repeat on the opposite arm. Stretch your hamstrings by lifting your right heel off the ground until your shin is parallel with the floor and holding for 10 to 30 seconds, repeat with the right heel. While sitting in a chair, stretch your spine by rotating to each side, gripping one side of the chair and holding the position for several seconds. Holding each stretch for 10 to 30 seconds enhances your flexibility, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.
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