Physical activity and exercise can help you stay healthy , energetic and independent as you get older.
Adults aged 65 and over spend on average 10 hours or more each day sitting or lying down. This makes them the most sedentary age group.
They're paying a high price for their inactivity, with higher rates of falls, obesity, heart disease and early death compared with the general population.
As you get older, it's even more important that you remain active if you want to stay healthy and maintain your independence.
If you don't stay active, all the things you’ve always enjoyed doing and taken for granted start to become that little bit harder.
You may struggle to pursue simple pleasures, such as playing with the grandchildren, walking to the shops, leisure activities and meeting up with friends.
You might start to get aches and pains that you never had before, and have less energy to go out. You may also be more vulnerable to falling.
This can all lead to being less able to look after yourself and do the things you enjoy.
Strong evidence
There's strong scientific evidence that people who are active have a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes , some cancers, depression and dementia.
What doesn’t count?
Daily chores such as shopping, cooking or housework don't count towards your 150 minutes because the effort isn’t hard enough to increase your heart rate.
If you want to stay pain-free, reduce your risk ofmental illness , and be able to go out and stay independent well into old age, you need to keep moving.
It’s that simple. There are lots of ways you can get active, and it’s not just about exercising.
“As people get older and their bodies decline in function, physical activity helps to slow that decline,” says Dr Nick Cavill, a health promotion consultant. “It’s important they remain active or even increase their activity as they get older.”
Most people as they get older want to keep in touch with society – their community, friends and neighbours – and being active is a way to ensure that they can keep doing that.
What is physical activity?
Physical activity is anything that gets your body moving. It can include anything from walking to recreational sport.
The first thing to bear in mind as you get older is to keep moving. On a basic level, that means making sure you don’t spend hours on end sitting down during the day.
This means avoiding long periods of TV viewing, computer use, driving, and sitting to read, talk or listen to music.
While some activity is better than none at all, to get the maximum health benefit, you should aim to do at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) of moderate-intensity aerobic activity every week.
Aim to do something every day, preferably in bouts of 10 minutes of activity or more. The more you do, the greater the health gains.
One way of achieving your weekly physical activity target is to do 30 minutes on at least five days a week.
On at least two days a week, activities should include those that strengthen muscles and bones, such as weight training, carrying heavy loads and heavy gardening.
Examples of moderate-intensity aerobic activities include:
- walking fast
- doing water aerobics
- riding a bike on level ground or with few hills
- playing doubles tennis
- pushing a lawn mower
Daily chores such as shopping, cooking or housework don't count towards your 150 minutes because the effort isn’t hard enough to raise your heart rate.
Getting started
For more information http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/fitness/Pages/activities-for-the-elderly.aspx
No comments:
Post a Comment