Fitness for the elder is an essential part of a healthy life for the elderly and can make a significant difference to your quality of life. Getting in shape and/or keeping shape during your seniors helps you to remain healthy, stronger and less like suffering severe damage.
But you need to dial in the point of departure in order to start mapping up your fitness route. A complete physical procedure by your family doctor or other qualified medical professional specialist is the first step for a prudenceful senior. This step is needed to inform you of any conditions already existing which may affect your nutritional plan or exercise regime.
The second step in getting ready is to decide what in the short, medium and long run you want to achieve. Does it take first to address your health, your current ability or your physical imbalances? Does your cardiovascular system need to be brought up before you start lifting weights, or does it require mobility or flexibility to be addressed before you can start to strengthen your body?
Building strength, bone strength, flexibility and endurance in a superior fitness effort are all reasonable objectives. But remember that is a change of lifestyle, not a sprint if you want to. It is best to go forward with time in a small step and develop over time into a complete healthy lifestyle.
The process of hurrying can lead to injury, burnout and worse, and may be very demotivating if you slam against a level of practice for which you are not prepared suddenly.
One tip: make sure you deal with issues relating to your sleep patterns and nutrition even before starting an exercise, even a simple starting routine for seniors. Do you have a day of sleep of 7 to 9 hours? Every afternoon, when you have difficulty sleeping over 4 or 5 hours, try making the difference in a night. Your body heals most of it while sleeping, so this is a great first step to real senior fitness.
Once this is monitored and it becomes routine, do some research in your local library online to plan a healthy diet, for general health, and to optimally recover from your coming training sessions. The most important concern here is the provision of enough protein, as one of the factors in the age-relating muscle loss called sarcopenia is supposed to be too little protein from reduced appreciation in elderly people.
When you start dialling sleep and nutrition, you can begin your practice just as easily as a walk every day when the weather allows. Stop tireless, but work a little bit more every day whether it’s another half-block on a country road in the city or another phone pole. Keep track of how far you go every day – you will be surprised at the rapid increase in your range as your body gets familiar with it.
The next step is your strength training – weight work may be the most important part of any strength training for older people. Start lighter than you think you need – remember, every day your body won’t use every muscle and it will take a little time to get used to it. The next day after training you may be a little distressed, largely because a range of movements stretches the muscles and ligaments more than you used to.
Choose one exercise per body part by using bands or dumbbells, if possible by using combination exercises. (A more than one joint, such as shoulder and elbow or hip and knee, is a compound exercise.) Take the first day to do a series of eight to ten repetitions and keep it very light. If it is all right, on the third day add a second set of exercises to your routine, and on the fifth day a third set, if it is still good.
Stay with three sets each week, work out every other day or three non-consecutive days per exercise for the next month or six weeks. If the third exercise becomes easy to complete, try a little increase in weight for the next exercise, work slowly back to completion of 8-10 reps for 3 sets.
You dial in from this time and your fitness routine for seniors is ready to start earnestly. Your way ahead will vary as time passes, depending on your goals and what feels right to you. If you are trying to reduce body fat, you might want to start adding cardiovascular exercises in your work out or off days. If you are looking to build up your muscle, you might want to add a second or third exercise per body component, or if you can safely concentrate on building and toning your muscles.
But whatever strategy you have, know that for your senior years, you are building a happier and healthier life and that you are ready to take the world every day to enjoy it. Fitness is the best investment in yourself in a wide range of ways!
