Keeping Fit At Home
Everyone knows that exercise is good for them. It contributes to weight loss and weight management. It’s good for your heart and your cardiovascular system. And it generally keeps you fit and healthier. Most importantly, exercise is critical for effective brain functioning.
Most aging adults don’t get enough physical activity. Exercise, though, can improve health conditions and prevent some diseases. It can also improve mood and emotional well being. The keys to a sensible workout are to take it slowly and keep it up. Older people need to find a realistic mild to moderate enjoyable program, and parents should be encouraging their children to participate in physical activities early on in their lives.
Here are 10 important reasons why you (and your family) should be working out.
1. Sleeping Aid
Because exercise effects the body in so many positive ways, it is clearly the most natural option for helping address sleep related issues. Regular exercise will help tire the body physically, ensuring a natural form of fatigue that the body will respond to with a need to get appropriate rest.
2. Strength Training = Strong Bones
A critical aspect of aging is the general weakening of both muscle tissue and our bones themselves. One of the surest ways to reduce the stress on our weakening bones is to increase our muscle mass through strength training. Strength training has repeatedly been shown to be a safe and effective method of reversing muscle loss in the elderly.
3. Strong Heart
People who exercise vigorously – and often – will reduce the risk of heart disease the greatest, and studies have found that moderate exercise is also beneficial for those people with existing heart disease. The heart, like any other muscle in the body needs to be exercised in order to keep fit. The old “use-it-or-lose-it” motto is true for your heart muscle, as with all other body muscles and organs.
4. Arthritis Support
Arthritis is defined as the inflammation of a joint, but there is really more to it than that. Osteoarthritis tends to develop as the body’s bones begin to deteriorate with age. Exercise, though, is believed to strengthen the joints and in turn prevent the loss of bone. Of course, one must be taking supplements to help replace some of the minerals lost with poor diet and normal aging.
5. Lower Risk For Type 2 Diabetes
A study reported a 58% lower risk for Type 2 diabetes in adults who exercise for as little as 2.5 hours a week, even if the exercise was at a moderate level. People with diabetes are at high risk for heart disease, so the protective effects of aerobic exercise on the heart are very important for people with Type 2 diabetes. Initial indications are that strength training to increase muscle mass and reduce fat is also helpful for people with diabetes.
6. No Brain Drain
But did you know that exercise is also good for your brain? Exercise causes a rise in several growth factors in the brain that are responsible for helping brain cells survive and divide into new brain cells, or neurons. Only a couple of brain regions can produce new neurons, and exercise increases the amount and rate of neuron production in these regions. One of the brain areas producing new neurons is the hippocampus. The hippocampus plays a critical role in learning, memory and attention. Exercise induces new neuron growth in the hippocampus and improves performance on several types of cognitive tasks.
7. Improve Mental Health.
Another important role of the hippocampus is in the response to stress. In fact, studies show that war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder have a smaller hippocampus. Stress actually damages the hippocampus and can cause neurons to die, the opposite of what happens when you exercise.
Folks who exercise regularly know that they are much more capable of handling stress throughout their day than they are when they don’t exercise. This is, in part, because exercise and stress have opposite effects on the hippocampus and exercise improves your ‘buffer’ to handle the stress.
Interestingly, anti-depressants work in a similar manner. Although, we don’t completely understand the exact mechanism of anti-depressant action, we do know that several classes of anti-depressants increase new neurons in the hippocampus. They do the same thing that exercise does!
8. Improve Learning and Memory
It can actually make you smarter. Not only that, but exercise can help prevent disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and depression. It can even increase your chances of recovering from a stroke or traumatic brain injury.
It turns out that physical activity actually turns on hormonal support systems in your brain. The activation of these systems strengthens brain circuits that you already have, and helps you develop new ones.
Exercise also increases the blood supply in the brain. In laboratory studies, exercise increased the number of blood vessels that supply several brain regions. This has the effect of improving nutrient delivery and waste removal from critical regions that effect mental function.
9. Protect The Brain From Damage and Disease
Studies also show that exercise protects the brain from aging and injury. Older adults who regularly exercise perform better in cognitive tasks and have lower rates of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. They also recover stronger from strokes and from accidental brain injury.
Studies also show that in addition to exercise’s protective role, it is a valuable therapeutic tool for brain function. Fitness training improves cognitive functions relative to planning, scheduling, task coordination and attention. Adults who exercise have more grey matter, representing more brain cells, than adults who don’t exercise.
10. Exercise Is Critical For Our Children.
All of the beneficial effects of exercise are compounded by starting early in life. Many of us as parents forget about looking far into our kid’s futures. We have so much going on in our lives that keeping our kids from premature entry into the old-folks home is not at the forefront of our minds. Unfortunately, 2 out of 3 adults age 65 or older don’t engage in any regular physical activity and are not getting the brain protection they need. In order for our kids to be cognitively active adults all the way through life, we must instill the importance of physical activity early in life. Outdoor activities are always the best, but when not possible or practical, even computer games that involve physical activity can be an enjoyable option for our younger generation. Or, put a fun DVD in the TV and just Dance! The whole family can participate.
Bottom Line:
You do not need to join a gym or purchase expensive workout equipment. Get out and walk in a safe area while the weather permits. But, more importantly, you can purchase used exercise machines and equipment for a fraction of the original cost, or even buy new equipment at discount prices. There are so many options out there, anyone can find just the perfect method of exercise and the equipment to use in your own home to fit your individual needs.
