Exercise Right – The Key to Staying Active While We Age

The key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle is plenty of physical activity. Engaging in regular exercise helps keep the muscles toned, the mind active, and body is good working condition. For those who are concerned that exercising regularly is too draining, takes away from your other activities, or may be too difficult to continue, the truth is that light, low impact cardio and resistance workouts are easy to perform while delivering excellent results.

What follows are three different types of exercise activities you can engage in three to five days a week that have minimal impact on your time and deliver the results your mind and body needs.

Increasing Everyday Activities

In other works, get in a little more exercise at your own pace while doing the things you normally do every day. Here are some simple ways you can increase your activity level while maintaining your normal work day.

-        Park further away from the entrance

-        Take the stairs more often

-        Take a short walk during your lunch break

-        Stand up and stretch more often

-        Do small exercises while waiting

If you are waiting for a few minutes for something to be completed, use that time to get in a little exercise such as walking, toe raises, and the like. You will be surprised at how much time you can get in to work out without changing what you do during the day.

Cardio Exercise

Cardio or aerobic exercise is designed to boost your cardiovascular system. This usually involves workouts designed to increase the heartrate over a set period of time. The most typical cardio exercises include the following;

-        Walking

-        Jogging

-        Aerobics

-        Rowing

-        Bicycling & More

Engaging in cardio workouts three to five times per week helps to burn excess fat, tone the muscles, and improve the cardiovascular system which helps lower the risk of heart disease.

Resistance Exercises

These are exercises in which resistance is used to build muscle tissue. The two forms of resistance exercise are using weights and your own bodyweight. Typical bodyweight resistance exercises include the following;

-        Push Ups

-        Sit-Ups

-        Chin-Ups

-        Squats

-        Leg Lifts & More

Each of the exercises uses your own bodyweight to build muscle tissue. The greater your lean muscle mass, the more excess fat you will burn. This will help you maintain a lean, youthful appearance that also keeps you healthy and strong.

While most people associate weight-resistance exercise with as dumbbells or kettlebells, you can use resistance bands which are lightweight, easy to use, and provide the same effect.

Regular engagement in exercise and increase your activity levels allows you to maintain your healthy lifestyle for a long time. A combination of cardio and resistance exercises maintains bone density, increases lean muscle mass, and keeps off excess weight. This can be achieved by adding more movement to your daily activities along with exercises that are low impact, yet highly effective.

When adding stretching exercises or yoga, you can stave off the effects of aging by keeping your mobility while keeping off the excess weight.