How much exercise you should be getting depends on several factors, including your current level of fitness, your fitness goals, the types of exercise you’re planning to do, and whether you have deficits in such areas as strength, flexibility, or balance.
As a general rule, 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity (or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise) is recommended as a weekly minimum. As you become more fit, you’ll want to exceed that in order to reap maximum benefit. A natural way of splitting up the 150 minutes might be to do a 30-minute session five times per week, or you can break it up and do two 15-minute sessions during a single day. Adopt whatever schedule fits your lifestyle.
For strength exercises, aim to work all your major muscle groups twice to three times each week, leaving 48 hours between each workout for recovery. If you do total-body workouts, that’s two sessions per week. If you choose to split your workouts to target a specific muscle group (for example, “leg day”), that will require more frequent workouts. Just make sure you’re leaving 48 hours of rest before you rework a major muscle.
If you have noticed problems with your balance such as unsteadiness, dizziness, or vertigo, talk to a health care provider for recommendations about balance-specific exercises. Get in three half-hour workouts each week in addition to a 30-minute walk at least twice weekly.
It’s best to stretch after you have warmed up for a few minutes, or perform stretching exercises after you completed your workout. When stretching each muscle group, take it slow and steady, release, repeat again.
But how much exercise is too much? You should expect a little muscle soreness after workouts, especially in the beginning. But if you find that your body is simply not recovering between workouts, you may be overtraining. Remember that seniors need more recovery time than younger people. With the exception of “welcome” muscle soreness, an exercise program should make you feel good. If it doesn’t, you’re probably overdoing it. That doesn’t mean you should quit, only that you should dial back the intensity or frequency of your workouts until you hit the sweet spot in which you’ve tired out your body but then recovered enough to tackle your next session with enthusiasm.
What are the benefits of exercise?
A smartly designed exercise program will benefit your body and mind in innumerable ways.
The benefits of exercise on mental health are well documented. For example, one major study found that sedentary people are 44% more likely to be depressed. Another found that those with mild to moderate depression could get similar results to those obtained through antidepressants just by exercising for 90 minutes each week. The key appears to be the release of brain chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine, which help lift mood and combat stress.
We’re all familiar with exercise’s ability to improve cardiovascular health. But how does exercise lower blood pressure? Interestingly, when you stimulate your circulatory system through aerobic exercise, you’re temporarily increasing your blood pressure by forcing the system to work harder, but when you’ve finished exercising, your blood pressure drops to a lower level than it was before you began.
Many people think of exercise as an integral part of weight loss, and although diet is also extremely important, they’re not wrong. But what exercise burns the most calories? Generally, aerobic exercises (cardio) are great for expending calories and reducing fat. But don’t overlook the effectiveness of strength training, which optimizes your body’s ratio of lean muscle to fat (It’s also the best exercise for bone strength).
There’s no Holy Grail when it comes to a single best weight-loss exercise. The best exercise to lose weight is the one you’ll do consistently. Whatever gets your heart rate up and gets your body moving — while having fun and staying motivated — is the exercise that will help you shed pounds.
What if my exercise ability is limited?
Everyone can and should do some form of exercise, even if they face severe limitations. Experts have designed specific exercises for seniors that are low-impact, safe, and able to be done even from a sitting position if necessary.
If you’re concerned about fall risk, balance exercises for seniors can be done holding onto a chair or door frame. For example, standing behind a chair, you can hold its back and lift one leg to about the height of the middle of the calf of the other leg while tightening your abdominal muscles. As you progress, you might try holding the chair with just one hand, and eventually letting go of the chair.
Even core-strengthening exercises for seniors can be adapted to those with limited abilities. For example, a standard plank is done by holding yourself parallel to the floor with only your forearms and toes touching the mat. An easier version allows you to also place your knees on the mat. But a still easier method is to do the plank while standing and leaning forward. You put your elbows and forearms on a desk, table, or wall while resting on the balls of your feet and keeping your back straight.
There are a variety of stretching exercises for seniors to suit people of different abilities. If holding poses on your hands and knees is out of the question, you could try a full-body stretch in which you lie on your back, straighten your legs, and extend your hands along the floor past your head. Some stretches can be done while seated, such as overhead stretches and neck rotations.
In fact, other types of exercise also can be done from a seated position. Other chair exercises for seniors include bicep curls (with dumbbells or elastic bands), overhead dumbbell presses, shoulder blade squeezes, calf raises, sit-to-stands (chair squats), and knee extensions.
