Keep Your Mind Young

Exercise may help keep your mind young. Studies with mice showed that mice that ran on a wheel daily had more newly formed neurons and memory enhancing connections in their brains than sedentary mice. Human studies on aging and exercise have found an association between physical activity and maintenance of cognitive ability in older people.

Longer Rest

As we reach middle age, it takes longer to recover from injuries and hard workouts. You may want to run every other day, instead of every day, or take two days between workouts instead of one. Be realistic about your exercise. You can keep the quality of your workouts high--just cut the quantity or frequency.

Maintaining Leg Muscle

For healthy aging and exercise effectiveness, remember that muscle tissue atrophies with age even if you exercise, although it atrophies more if you don't exercise. Walking doesn't stimulate the whole muscle, so you should do weight training for your legs even if you walk for exercise.

Mid-Life Weight Gain

Yes, we do tend to gain weight as we grow older. You need both cardiovascular and strength exercise to head off mid-life weight gain. Cardio exercise burns calories while you work out and increases your endurance for further activity. Strength training builds up your muscles so that they burn more calories at rest, raising your metabolic rate.

Exercise Safe for Elderly

Most people over 75 can safely start an exercise program without undergoing an expensive treadmill stress test. They should still check with their doctor before starting to make sure there are no reasons to modify or delay the program, according to the July 19, 2000 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association. The elderly can get similar, or more, benefits from exercise as younger people.

Special Considerations

Generally, seniors exercise the same as younger people, but there are a few areas that tend to be weaker in older people and may need more work. One is neck flexibility, so you can see behind you when driving or cycling. Another is grip strength, so you can open jars and hold heavy objects. You've always been independent, and exercise can help you stay that way.

Exercise and Risk of Death

Never mind all those horror stories about collapsing on the treadmill. The risk of middle-aged people dying during exertion (including exercise, heavy yard work, snow shoveling, etc.) is very low: 1 in about 1.5 million sessions. According to aging and exercise studies, risk is lower when the individual exercises regularly.

Exercise Helps Balance

Regular exercise improves balance in older people who have arthritis of the knee. Both aerobic and weight training improved balance in a 1-1/2 year study, while the non-exercising control group saw their balance deteriorate. (Journal of American Geriatrics Society, 2000, 48 (2), 131)

Working Harder to Stay Slim

Just maintaining fitness is not enough to stop the slow weight gain that happens in middle age, but improving fitness may do it. A 1- minute improvement in treadmill time during an exercise test decreased weight gain by 1.3 pounds in a recent study.

Balance Training

Falling can be dangerous for older people, and fear of falling can cause people to restrict their activities. Strength training can help prevent falls. Tai chi and some yoga can improve balance, and there are also specific balance exercises, some using exercise balls. Exercise training is specific so you have to do balance training on your feet. Chair exercises won´t do it.

Improving Concentration

Walking at least 45 minutes 3 times a week improves oxygen flow to the brain, and thus improves concentration and reaction time of seniors, according to a recent study in the journal Nature. The study used walking, but other aerobic exercise should work, too.

Social Benefits

For many people, their social network contributes to their sense of well being, which is part of good health. Exercising in a group setting can add another facet to the social network, which may be good for retired people who don't get as much social interaction as they used to. Besides group exercise at health clubs, you can find groups through your local parks and recreation department or health clinic. Look for walking or hiking groups, sports teams, or ballroom dancing organizations, all of which can give you good and enjoyable exercise.

More Protein

Aging athletes need around 50% more protein than the RDA of .35 gram per pound of body weight (.78/kg). It may be that everybody needs more than the RDA as they get older, but in terms of nutrition, it´s especially important when older people exercise (as they should).

Walk for Longevity

Older men who walked less than one mile per day were at almost twice the risk of dying as those who walked more than two miles per day, according to a recent study. The more you walk, the better for your longevity, so get started walking now, or start going farther if you do walk.

Recent Exercise Is Best

The benefits you get from exercise, whatever your age, depend on you continuing to do that exercise. Former college athletes who stop working out stay fit for a while, but eventually are no better off than any other couch potato. In contrast, it's a truism that people who start exercising in middle age are more healthy and fit than their sedentary peers, regardless of earlier activity. It´s recent exercise that counts.

Strength First

If you don´t work out, or have a job requiring physical labor, you may lose a lot of strength as you get older. (Everybody loses some.) When considering exercise, think about doing some strength training before starting an aerobic exercise program. Many older exercisers can walk faster and farther after strength training because their legs are stronger.

Losing Muscle

It is true, as you may have read, that you lose muscle mass with age, but you can slow that loss with weight training. You may even be able to gain muscle, depending on your initial fitness and how hard you work out. Maintaining muscle goes along with maintaining the strength necessary to perform the activities of daily living and stay independent.

Adapting to Aerobic Exercise

It's never too late to start exercise, though if you are older or deconditioned, you have to start more slowly. There are people running marathons in their 70s and 80s who didn't even start running until they were in their 60s. You don't have to be a marathoner to get benefits such as weight control, lower blood pressure, and improved lipid profile. The important thing is to find an exercise, or exercises, you like to do, and do it consistently.

Seniors and Heat Injury

Senior athletes are more susceptible to heat injury during exercise because of decreased ability to regulate temperature and feel thirst, as well as the effect of some medications. Excercise can help regulate body temperature, but problems may still arise. Discuss the issue of heat injury during exercise with a sports medicine physician if you think you might be affected.