Your body will respond to exercise at any time during your life, so advanced age is not an excuse for not participating in physical activity. If you are increasing in age, you can still perform exercises to strengthen your heart and your muscles. You can participate in flexibility exercises to keep the range of motion in your joints. You may want to add balance training to your workouts to improve your stability. If you have difficulty standing, many exercises can be performed in a chair.
Cardiovascular
Cardiovascular exercise improves the function of your heart and lungs. The American Council on Exercise recommends that seniors include non-jarring activities such as walking, swimming and cycling. As a beginner, aim for five to 10 minutes and add five minutes each week until you can maintain the activity for 30 minutes. Cardiovascular exercises can be performed every day of the week. Chair walking or dancing is an alternative if you cannot remain standing for 30 minutes.
Strength
Strength training will help increase your muscle tone and strength and also promote healthy bones. The National Institute on Aging recommends strength training two or three days a week for 30 minutes. Your muscles require a day of rest, so strength training may be performed every other day. You can use dumbbells for overhead presses, or arm curls. You can use the weight of your body for wall pushups, situps and squats. A rubber exercise resistance is also ideal for strength training, and it comes in light, medium and heavy resistance levels.
Flexibility
Flexibility or stretching exercises help lengthen your muscles and maintain your joint flexibility. After your cardiovascular workout is a good time to stretch because your muscles are warm and will be more pliable. Stretches for your legs such as placing your foot on a step, straightening your leg and leaning forward over that leg should be held for approximately 30 seconds. You can stretch your chest by reaching behind your body and grasping hands. Your lower back can be stretched by sitting in a chair and folding forward over your legs.
Balance
You may have noticed your balance decreases as you age. You can combat this by doing balance training exercises. One way to improve your balance is to stand on one foot. Aim to hold your balance for 10 seconds before switching to the other foot. Do 10 to 15 repetitions on each leg while standing behind a chair if you need to hold on for stability. A moving exercise to improve your balance is walking heel to toe. You may want to imagine that you are on a tightrope and extend your arms out to your sides as you walk forward, closely placing your heel in front of the opposite foot's toe.
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