The best exercises you can do at any age

As we age, old injuries start to hurt more and our bodies don’t recover as quickly from workouts.

This is especially true for seniors, who have to deal with lost muscle mass and osteoporosis, especially in women.

So, what types of exercises can seniors do in order to maintain their health and vitality and keep the muscle mass they have?

The first would be walking. Walking has tremendous advantages: • You can do it anywhere, whether inside on a treadmill or outside
• All you need is a good pair of sneakers
• As a weight bearing exercise you will work all of your lower body muscles and bones

But there are two caveats to using walking as a fitness technique or to lose weight, at any age: • You must do it long enough
• You must do it strenuously enough

A little stroll around the block isn’t going to cut it. You need to watch quickly enough so that it is difficult to carry on a conversation but are not completely out of breath.

The other would be yoga. Now, I am a newcomer to yoga. Most guys view it as an exercise for ‘sissies’ or just an exercise for women.

But after my first attempt at a yoga class, I had to eat a big helping of ‘humble pie’ to that line of thinking.

I was amazed at how much of a sweat you could generate without moving off of a 2’ x 6’ yoga mat. And the way the exercise made me feel was amazing.

Yoga provides not only the flexibility attributes that you would expect, but also provides a fantastic strength training workout for your upper body that I never would have expected through holding all of the poses for the length of time that you are required to do a yoga workout properly. And of course, your heartbeat is racing so you also get the cardiovascular benefits from yoga as well.

Both exercises, walking and yoga, are fantastic sources of physical fitness not just for seniors but for all age groups. So incorporate them into your workout routine and enjoy the benefits of increased health and vitality that they can offer.