Exercise Tips For Seniors

While both men and women suffer from the ill effects of being overweight, women carry the unique burden of trying to maintain a healthy weight. Hormonal shifts, pregnancy, menopause are just some of particularly difficult times to lose weight. Research showed that this is also especially true in women in their senior years. A 2001 report published in Women’s Health Issues reported that in women over 60 there was a strong positive association between increased physical activity levels and an improved quality of life. A similar report in the Journal of the American medical Association stated that higher body weight can increase disability rates in middle-aged and older women.

Kathy Keenan Isoldi, popular author of “The Woman’s Day Weight-Loss Plan,” addresses weight loss issues for women and why a healthy weight can be a challenge for many women in their later years. The less-hectic lifestyle, more aches and pains, declining metabolism are just some reasons Isoldi mentioned why seniors are having trouble losing those extra pounds at this stage of life. She listed some ways and exercise tips that have increased activity and worked for most of her senior patients :

1. Walk whenever you can. During inclement weather, walk around the shopping mall.

2. Do some strength training while sitting down. Many seniors can build muscle mass by doing leg extentions while sitting down. The weight of your legs or arms create enough resistance to increase muscle mass with movement. If you can, use light one-pound weight that you can strap around your ankles or wrists to increase the resistance.

3. Use 1-pint water bottles or cans as free weight to do strength training exercise if you don’t belong to a gym or don’t have any exercise equipment at home.

4. Water aerobics is a great way for many seniors to exercise without stressing painful joints.