Exercise to Stay Healthy

Benefits of exercise

Exercise has many benefits. Our bodies thrive on regular physical activity. Exercise has both physical and emotional rewards. Exercise can:

• Lower your blood pressure.
• Lower your total blood cholesterol.
• Lower your blood sugar.

These physical effects decrease the risk of stroke, heart disease, and diabetes. Exercise can also help you lose weight and keep a healthy weight.

Among the emotional benefits of exercise are:

• You feel better.
• You have more physical and emotional stamina.
• You sleep better.

Exercise affects brain chemistry. For example, exercise can help treat mild depression. It can also help you have more energy.

Types of exercise

You need to do 2 types of physical activity each week to improve your health: aerobic and muscle-strengthening.

Aerobic exercise makes you breathe faster and gets your heart beating faster. Your lungs work harder to bring in more oxygen, and your heart pumps harder to send blood to the muscles. This process strengthens your lungs, heart, bones, and muscles. Some good aerobic activities are:

• walking briskly or jogging
• swimming
• climbing stairs
• riding a bike
• dancing
• playing tennis
• cross-country skiing
• rowing

A good exercise goal is to build up at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) a week of moderate aerobic exercise, or 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) a week of vigorous activity. You might combine moderate and vigorous activity for a fun workout.

• Try to exercise for at least 10 minutes at a time and spread your total workout time over the week. That means you might do 30-minute workouts, 5 times a week.
• Moderate exercise means you're working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat. One way to tell is that you'll be able to talk, but not sing. Examples of moderate exercise are walking fast, doing water aerobics, or playing doubles tennis.
• Vigorous activity means you're breathing hard and fast, and your heart rate has gone up quite a bit. If you're working at this level, you won't be able to say more than a few words without pausing for a breath. Examples of activities that require vigorous effort are jogging, swimming laps, or playing singles tennis.

If your healthcare provider approves, get at least 5 hours (300 minutes) of moderate exercise or 2 hours and 30 minutes (150 minutes) of vigorous activity a week to get more benefit from exercise. This will also help you keep a healthy weight.

Strength training is done to work and strengthen all major muscle groups of your body (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms). You can use gym equipment or your own body weight. It will make your muscles stronger and able to work longer without getting tired. Muscle mass burns more calories than fat so as your muscle increases, so does your ability to burn calories. You should do muscle strengthening 2 or more days a week. Some of the activities you can do to strengthen your muscles are:

• lifting weights
• working with resistance bands
• doing exercises that use your body weight for resistance, such as push ups and sit ups
• heavy gardening, such as digging
• yoga

Stretching is also good exercise. It can improve your flexibility, and balance.

Regular exercise will help you stay fit and healthy. You do not have to exercise strenuously. For example, regular, moderate activity, such as three 10-minute walks a day, reduces your risk of death from heart disease by as much as 60%. Older adults should try to follow these guidelines for exercise as much as their physical ability and health will allow.

Choosing an exercise program

Before starting an exercise program, think about:

• What physical activities do you enjoy?
• Do you prefer group or individual activities?
• What kind of program fits your schedule?
• Do you have any physical conditions that affect your choice of exercise program? For example, if you have arthritis, ask your healthcare provider about ways to exercise safely and comfortably without hurting your joints.

The following table can help you plan your exercise program. It lists the average number of calories burned per hour in some common physical activities. Some of the activities can be moderate or vigorous, depending on how fast you do them.

Moderate Physical Activity          Calories per hour for a 
                                         154-lb Person*
-----------------------------------------------------------
Hiking                                          370
Light gardening/yardwork                        330
Dancing                                         330
Golf (walking and carrying clubs)               330
Bicycling less than 10 miles an hour            290
Walking 3.5 miles an hour                       280
Weight lifting (general light workout)          220
Stretching or gentle yoga                       180

Vigorous Physical Activity          Calories per hour for a 
                                         154-lb Person*
------------------------------------------------------------
Running/jogging 5 miles per hour                590
Bicycling more than 10 miles per hour           590
Swimming (slow freestyle laps)                  510
Vinyasa yoga                                    490
Aerobics                                        480
Walking 4.5 miles per hour                      460
Heavy yard work (chopping wood)                 440
Weight lifting (vigorous effort)                440
Basketball (vigorous)                           440
------------------------------------------------------------
* Calories burned per hour will be higher if you weigh more 
than 154 pounds (70 kilograms) and lower if you weigh less.
Source: Adapted from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005
published by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 
and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

It’s best to check with your healthcare provider before you start a new exercise program.

Warm-Up and Cool-Down Exercises

Include warm-up and cool-down exercises before and after aerobic exercise. Muscles and joints that have not been used are cool. Start out walking slowly and then gradually increase the pace over a 5-minute period. If you cannot walk, try easy cycling or other activities at slow, easy paces. This gives the body time to increase blood flow to the working muscles and joints and prepare them for harder work. Then stretch your muscles and bend your joints for 5 to 10 minutes. This warms your muscles and joints by increasing the flow of blood to them. It makes them more flexible and less prone to injury. Your choice of stretches depends on the type of exercise you plan to do. Hold each stretch for 30 seconds and do not bounce.

Right after exercise, allow your heart rate to return slowly to normal. For example, walking slowly for about 5 minutes will let you cool down and allow your heart and breathing to return to normal levels. Then stretch the muscles used during your exercise. After stretching, your muscles will be more flexible and less stiff. Devote a total of 5 to 10 minutes to cooling down. You can use warm-up exercises for cool-down exercises.