Most noteworthy, one of the most beneficial elderly activities includes exercise. Furthermore, regular exercise makes the elderly healthy and strong. Consequently, the elderly will live an active and fulfilling life.
Elderly activities such as exercise provides the health benefits listed below.
Elderly activities such as exercise helps with the following health issues:
Most noteworthy, as you age, cells in older muscles get severely damaged. They get damaged because they do not regenerate easily and become weaker as their mitochondria (which produces energy) lose their vigor and numbers. Also, a recent study published recently in Cell Metabolism showed exercises can help the mitochondria recover. The seniors in the study experienced the following:
Most of all, the interval training participants showed increases in the number and health of their mitochondria. Therefore, interval training corrected the decline in the cellular health of muscles associated with aging.
Exercise duration and intensity guidelines from the CDC are provided elsewhere.
Most noteworthy, a 2015 study points out that morning elderly activity, such as exercise, increases rapid eye movement (REM) sleep at night by 10%. Also, REM sleep plays a role in learning to let go of fearful memories. On the other hand, elderly activity, such as exercising, late in the evening, results in lower production of melatonin than exercising in the morning.
As a matter of fact, melatonin is a hormone made by the pineal gland. And, the pineal gland is found just above the middle of your brain. Furthermore, it tells your body when it’s time to sleep and wake up. Finally, melatonin production affects your circadian rhythm.
Especially relevant, changes to the circadian rhythm contributes to stress-induced depression and affect reward pathways. In addition, the circadian rhythm also interacts with your gut bacteria. Furthermore, an imbalance in gut bacteria is associated with stress and anxiety and even insulin resistance. Therefore, restoring healthy gut bacteria helps reduce stress.
Most noteworthy, seniors with Alzheimer’s dementia may experience increased confusion and agitation late in the day, as well as increased risk of falling. Therefore, seniors with these symptoms exercise in the morning 2-3 hours after they wake up.
Also, some seniors may have symptoms of joint stiffness and pain (especially if they have arthritis, degenerative joint disease, fibromyalgia or gout). When you are asleep your joints are likely to be still. So when you wake up you may feel the stiffness. Therefore, for these seniors, it is beneficial to perform their elderly activities, such as exercising, in the middle of the day or before the afternoon nap (which may cause stiffness after they wake up).
In addition, a 2007 American Heart Association report indicated that cardiac events in seniors are more frequent in the morning. If you have cardiac conditions such as a history of heart attack, stroke, peripheral vascular disease or atrial fibrillation, you want to do elderly activities such as aerobic exercise in the afternoon.
Finally, strength training is best performed in the afternoon: a) when your joints and muscles are most flexible, or b) if you had a recent injury to your muscles, tendons or ligaments (such as bursitis, muscle sprain or tendonitis).Here are some suggestions to avoid injuries while exercising.
There are four types of exercises:
Limited endurance is often the reason seniors are unable to tolerate aerobic exercise routines on a regular basis. It has been estimated that half this reduction in endurance can be related to decreased muscle mass. For these reasons the ideal senior exercise regimen consists of the following four components:
First of all, to keep themselves healthy and strong, seniors participate in elderly activities, such as exercise. Furthermore, the elderly have a choice from four types of exercises: aerobic, strength, flexibility, and balance.