Fit Living

Are you ready to begin an exercise program? Congratulations! Committing to a routine of physical activity is one of the healthiest decisions you can make. Before you get moving, consider how best to be safe.

* Get medical clearance from your doctor before starting an exercise program, especially if you have a preexisting condition. Ask if there are any activities you should avoid.
* Consider health concerns. Keep in mind how your ongoing health problems affect your workouts. For example, diabetics may need to adjust the timing of medication and meal plans when setting an exercise schedule. Above all, if something feels wrong, such as sharp pain or unusual shortness of breath, simply stop. You may need to scale back or try another activity.
* Start slow. If you haven’t been active in a while, it can be harmful to go “all out.” Instead, build up your exercise program little by little. Try spacing workouts in ten-minute increments twice a day. Or try just one class each week. Prevent crash-and-burn fatigue by warming up, cooling down, and keeping water handy.
* Recognize problems. Exercise should never hurt or make you feel lousy. Stop exercising immediately and call your doctor if you feel dizzy or short of breath, develop chest pain or pressure, break out in a cold sweat, or experience pain. Also stop if a joint is red, swollen, or tender to touch.

As you age, regular exercise is more important than ever to your body and mind.
Physical health benefits of senior exercise and fitness

* Exercise helps seniors maintain or lose weight. As metabolism naturally slows with age, maintaining a healthy weight is a challenge. Exercise helps increase metabolism and builds muscle mass, helping to burn more calories. When your body reaches a healthy weight, overall wellness improves.
* Exercise reduces the impact of illness and chronic disease. Among the many benefits of exercise for seniors include improved immune function, better heart health and blood pressure, better bone density, and better digestive functioning. Seniors who exercise also have a lowered risk of several chronic conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, and colon cancer.
* Exercise enhances mobility, flexibility, and balance in seniors. Exercise improves your strength, flexibility and posture, which in turn will help with balance, coordination, and reducing the risk of falls. Strength training also helps alleviate the symptoms of chronic conditions such as arthritis.

Mental health benefits of senior exercise and fitness

* Exercise improves your sleep. Poor sleep is not an automatic consequence of aging and quality sleep is important for your overall health. Exercise often improves sleep, helping you fall asleep more quickly and sleep more deeply.
* Exercise boosts mood and self-confidence. Endorphins produced by exercise can actually help you feel better and reduce feelings of sadness or depression. Being active and feeling strong naturally helps you feel more self confident and sure of yourself.
* Exercise is good for the brain. Exercise benefits regular brain functions and can help keep the brain active, which can prevent memory loss, cognitive decline, and dementia. Exercise may even help slow the progression of brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Thinking about how to begin a fitness routine? Good for you! As you grow older, leading an active lifestyle is more important than ever. Regular exercise helps seniors maintain health, boost energy, and improve confidence.

The good news is—no matter your age, your health, or your fitness level—you can benefit from moving more. Whether you are generally healthy or are managing an illness, there are big and small ways to get more active and boost your fitness level.

Exercise is the key to healthy aging

Have you heard exercise is important for older adults, but don’t know where to begin? You’re not alone. Many seniors feel discouraged by fitness barriers, such as chronic health conditions or concerns about injury or falls. If you’ve never exercised before, you may not know where to begin. Or maybe an ongoing health problem or disability is keeping you from getting active. Perhaps you think you’re too old or frail.

The truth is that you can’t afford not to get moving. Exercise is the key to staying strong, energetic, and healthy as you get older. It can help you manage the symptoms of illness and pain, maintain your independence, and even reverse some of the symptoms of aging. And not only is exercise good for your body—it’s good for your mind, mood, and memory.

No matter your age or your current physical condition, you can benefit from exercise. Reaping the rewards of exercise doesn’t require strenuous workouts or trips to the gym. It’s about adding more movement and activity to your life, even in small ways. Whether you are generally healthy or are managing an illness—even if you’re housebound—there are many easy ways to get your body moving and improve your health.

5 Myths about Exercise and Older Adults

Myth 1: There’s no point to exercising. I’m going to get old anyway.

Fact: Exercise and strength training helps you look and feel younger and stay active longer. Regular physical activity lowers your risk for a variety of conditions, including Alzheimer’s and dementia, heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, high blood pressure, and obesity.

Myth 2: Elderly people shouldn’t exercise. They should save their strength and rest.

Fact: Research shows that a sedentary lifestyle is unhealthy for the elderly. Period. Inactivity often causes seniors to lose the ability to do things on their own and can lead to more hospitalizations, doctor visits, and use of medicines for illnesses.

Myth 3: Exercise puts me at risk of falling down.

Fact: Regular exercise, by building strength and stamina, prevents loss of bone mass and improves balance, actually reducing your risk of falling.

Myth 4: It’s too late. I’m already too old, to start exercising

Fact: You’re never too old to exercise! If you’ve never exercised before, or it’s been a while, start with light walking and other gentle activities.

Myth 5: I’m disabled. I can’t exercise sitting down.

Fact: Chair-bound people face special challenges but can lift light weights, stretch, and do chair aerobics to increase range of motion, improve muscle tone, and promote cardiovascular health.

Now that you’re over 50 you cannot eat the way you did in your 20s. The best way to stay healthy is to exercise and eat right with a well-balanced diet filled with whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean animal and plant-based proteins, low-fat dairy products and heart-healthy fats. In fact, healthy eating can keep your body and mind sharp and extend quality of life.

The American Dietetic Association outlines some important nutritional needs for men over 50:

* Calcium and Vitamin D to help maintain strong and healthy bones. Calcium-rich foods include:
o Low-fat and fat-free dairy like milk and yogurt
o Fortified cereals and fruit juices
o Dark green leafy vegetables
o Canned fish with soft bones
* Older adults need three servings of calcium and vitamin D every day. If you take a calcium supplement or multivitamin, be sure to choose one that contains vitamin D.
* If you fall behind on getting these nutrients, you may need a supplement separate from a regular multivitamin, since they usually do not contain enough calcium to meet recommendations.
o Men older than age 50 need 1,200 milligrams a day.
o Men also need 400 IU of vitamin D each day.

* Fiber helps keep bowel functions normal and is good for your heart. If you need to lose weight, fiber keeps you full longer so you do not feel hungry as often.
o Men older than 50 need 30 grams of fiber a day
o Good sources are whole grains, fruits and vegetables. For products with a label, choose those with at least 3 grams of dietary fiber per serving.

* Increasing potassium intake along with decreasing sodium (salt) may lower your risk of high blood pressure. Good sources of potassium include:
o Fruits, vegetables and low-fat or fat-free milk and yogurt.
o Choose low-sodium foods and replace salt with other herbs and spices to reduce your sodium intake.

* Healthy Fats: For weight control and overall health, limit fat calories to 20 percent to 35 percent of your diet. Most of the fats you consume should come from heart-healthy unsaturated fats including:
o extra-virgin olive oil
o canola oil
o walnuts
o almonds
o avocados
* Healthy older men without heart disease should limit their saturated fat, which comes from meat, full-fat dairy and fried foods, to 10% of your total fat calories.
* Men with high cholesterol need to cut more saturated fat from your diet; limit it to 7% of total fat calories.

Be sure to balance your calorie intake by getting at least 30 minutes of physical activity most days of the week

Exercising is even more important now that you’re over 50. Exercise helps men over 50 rev up metabolism, build and strengthen muscles and increase energy levels.

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Taking arginine supplements can improve the cycling ability of over-50s, according to researchers writing in BioMed Central's Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

Researchers tested a combination of the amino acid and an antioxidant in 16 cyclists, finding that it enhanced their anaerobic threshold – the amount of work done before lactic acid begins to accumulate in the blood.

Zhaoping Li worked with a team of researchers from the UCLA to carry out the randomized controlled trial. She said, "The loss of exercise capacity with age often results in a reduction in physical fitness and more rapid senescence. A dietary supplement that increases exercise capacity might help to preserve physical fitness by optimizing performance and improving general health and well being in older people".

One way in which older people may reduce their exercise capacity revolves around the signaling molecule nitric oxide (NO), which is involved in many physiological processes, including those related to working out. NO production diminishes in quantity and availability as we age and is associated with an increased prevalence of other cardiovascular risk factors.

In the body, NO is created from the amino acid arginine and is inactivated by oxygen free radicals. By supplementing diet with both the precursor and an anti-oxidant, the researchers hoped to support the NO system in the cyclists and thereby enhance performance.

Sixteen cyclists aged between 50 and 73 were randomly assigned to receive either the supplement or dummy placebo pills. After one week of study, the anaerobic threshold of the supplement group increased, while that of the control group did not significantly alter. This increase in anaerobic threshold was preserved at week three.

"We've demonstrated a 16.7% increase in anaerobic threshold," Li said. "This indicates a potential role of arginine and antioxidant supplementation in improving exercise performance in elderly".