Tag: Senior exercise

One of the ongoing buzz phrases you hear a lot is “too much sitting”.  It’s true, sitting for long periods of time behind a desk, in a car or on an airplane, can be dangerous for an older person.  Too much time spent on a couch watching endless television can be deadly.

Try a couple of these movements and stretches while you are watching TV or working at a desk and you will get a little bit better blood circulation through your muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons. If you breathe deeply while you do them, you will reap enormous benefits.

Move your ankles forward and back fifteen to twenty times, and then rotate your feet at your ankles in a circular motion ten times in each direction.  It loosens up your ankles and gets the blood circulating in your lower extremities.  It’s not particularly important for a younger person, but for an older person, it can be very physically stimulating.  As we get older, we sit more and aren’t on our feet nearly as much as the younger set.  So, we need a way to circulate the blood as well as activate the muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments in the outer parts of our body.  Open and close your toes as wide and as tight as you can for ten or fifteen times.  Do the same with your fingers.

A couple of minutes of that and similar movements a few times a day is something you need to at least stimulate a little circulation, and you can do it while you’re reading the paper, when you’re watching “the box”, or wasting (I mean spending) your time on Facebook.

I used to call exercises like foot or ankle rotations and other similar exercises, “wuss exercises” until I realized how valuable they are after sitting in the car for long periods, or writing at a desk or table for and extended amount of time.

“Squirming” is another example of an “exercise” that can help keep your body circulation process going. Twyla Tharp, the famous dance choreographer now in her 80s, wrote in her recent book, Keep it Moving, Lessons for the Rest of Your Life: “A wriggling movement – squirming looks like what it sounds like, a worm moving. It is formless physical effort, the vaguest of movement inside your skin.”

Try doing shoulder shrugs while you’re sitting.  Lift one shoulder at a time toward your ear.  Then rotate both your shoulders forward and back.  Try raising one arm over your head, and then the other, bending sideways slightly in each direction while you are sitting at a table or desk.

These movements don’t really do much to get the heart beating any faster but they do stimulate joints, ligaments and tendons, and even the local muscles.  Give these moves a try and see if they don’t refresh you a bit.

You don’t have to do them in public when you think other people will stare at you, unless you’re comfortable in your own skin, and don’t mind other people knowing that you take care of yourself.  I’ve stopped letting the “wuss exercise” label hold me back, and I feel a lot better during the day as a result.

Doing just those simple moves alone will not get you fit.  They will help your circulation, mobility and overall well-being.  They should not replace a regular exercise program, but are simply things you can do short term to keep your blood circulating and your joints loose.  Give them a try while you read this article. You’ll feel better.

Thank you for reading.

There are many sources and resources for reliable Health and Fitness information (although there are relatively few good sources for seniors). These include our libraries, bookstores, magazine articles, newspaper articles, and, of course, online.

Most of these sources and resources assume a couple of things:

1. That we all want bikini or swimsuit bodies.
2. That we are all totally dissatisfied with who and where we are now.
3. We all want the same thing – BUT, in reality, all our goals are different.
4. There is only one way to get to where you want to go – their way. If you don’t do it their way, you are doomed to failure.

I believe that, as Seniors, there are many common goals that most of us share. Some of these are

1. Happiness (as only you can define it)
2. Vibrant health
3. More personal energy.
4. Freedom from long term chronic illness
5. Ideal weight, look good, feel good.
6. To be fully functional . . . Physically and mentally able to do those things we want to do.

The above terms and phrases can have different meanings for different people and our goals and meanings can be different at different ages. They will often depend on our outlook or attitude toward life in general.

That’s why it’s so important to find out what works for you. One size does not fit all.

For example everybody needs upper body strength to be able to lift, carry, push and pull. Let’s use the biceps muscles as an example. These are the muscles that form the front part of your arms. The biceps extend and contract a certain way. But there are numerous ways to cause this extension and contraction. The simplest is to raise a dumbbell from your side to your shoulder with your palms facing forward.. That will strengthen your bicep muscle.

But there are many other ways to contract the bicep. You can do dumbbell or barbell curls. You can do pull-ups. You can do a variety of pulling exercises. You can use free weights, resistance bands, or you can use a machine. You can even use soup cans and do the exercise in your kitchen. Each person will do the exercise in their own way.

It doesn’t matter which method you use, but you need to do something to strengthen the muscles in the front of your arms so you can lift, pick up and carry things in your arms, like groceries or your infant grandchild.

The same goes for all the other muscles of your body. If you really want to be fully functional, that is being physically capable of doing the things you want to do, there are many different ways to get there. Each of us must decide for ourselves what works best for us.

We all have different preferences for moving our bodies, strengthening our limbs, lubricating our joints. Some prefer swimming or water aerobics. Some prefer weightlifting at the gym. Some prefer running (you need some resistance training too). Try them all and then pick something that suits you. It doesn’t matter what your friends or neighbors do, they have their preferences and you have yours.

One size fits all is usually slanted to the lowest common denominator. That’s not you.

We Seniors are a stubborn lot overall. But we still have to make our choices daily and do what is right for us. Most of us know what we should be doing to reach the real goals we want for our senior years. Some of us do them; others don’t. It’s hard. We live in a culture where healthy people are outnumbered by unhealthy people and the marketers aim for where the money is.

It’s still our own personal choice and responsibility to take care of ourselves. One size will never fit all as long as there are at least two people living on earth. Listen to your own body. Set your own goals and make your own choices.

Be one of the few, the proud and the healthy.

Thank you for reading.