Imagine if you could look 20 years younger than you are in your golden years? It takes more than just anti-aging products to do this. You must exercise regularly, maintain a good diet and have a great attitude on life. By working out daily, not only might you live longer, but you can be healthier and enjoy life more. Attaining fitness not only helps you lose weight-it helps lower blood pressure, build endurance, and lowers you resting heart rate.
Why build endurance?
No matter how old you are, increased endurance allows you to engage in more physical activities you enjoy. With aging, one must work out even more to get in shape. Still, with time, you can increase your capacity. As you do, you’ll acquire the vitality and stamina needed to make you balance, posture, strength, and flexibility better.
What is endurance? It is the ability to perform a physical activity over a given amount of time. This necessitates muscular and cardiovascular endurance. With muscular endurance you are more able to perform activities involving repetitive muscle contractions. It is built on doing more repetitions over time. For example, you can bench press more reps or climb more sets of stairs. Cardiovascular endurance improves the functionality of your circulatory system, heart, and lungs. This is done through activity which uses large body muscles as your thighs or buttocks. Such cardiovascular activities may be rowing, running, swimming, or walking.
With regular workouts, you can improve your flexibility. This means better functioning of joints, connective tissues, and muscles. It also means pliability of your body enabling your body parts to bend without breaking. Improved flexibility means better coordination, increased blood circulation, fewer injuries, and enhanced body awareness. Flexibility workouts should be done as regularly as strength or cardiovascular training.
Can we prevent joint diseases?
Regular exercise helps prevent rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. Either disease can reduce one’s range of motion by causing pain and stiffness as he/she grows older. With a physician prescribed workout plan anyone can ameliorate their overall fitness and body functionality.
What is osteoarthritis (OA)? It is the degeneration of joints caused by the wearing away of the cartilage that protects the ends of the bones. Primary OA occurs naturally from progressive wearing and tearing of the joints. Secondary OA is caused by many factors as the overuse of a joint, diabetes, obesity, inflammatory joint ailments, trauma, genetic defects, sickle cell disease, or even Paget’s disease (bone destruction).
How is OA treated? Currently, physical therapists treat moderate to severe cases with exercise regimes (those that improve range of motion), manual techniques (massaging soft tissues), or with the use of modalities (as electrical signals, ice, heat, or sound therapy). Rest, exercise, or surgery may be used as common remedies. New ways of treating OA are being developed and tested, but still the present methods can help one cope with OA.
What is rheumatoid arthritis (RA)? It is a disease which is systematic in nature, caused by inflammation of connective tissues all through the body. RA is believed to develop from a weakened immune system, infection, or a genetic link, though its causes are not yet confirmed. As RA progresses, it may cause inflammation of the membranes surrounding the joint, or deterioration of the joint’s cartilage, capsule, or muscles. Fusion of the joint may develop which leads to immobility. Usually RA affects those between the ages of 20 and 40. RA may cause joint pain or swelling leading to extreme inflammation of the small joints in the wrists, hands, and feet.
RA can be remedied in the following ways:
- Taking medications as non-steroid, anti-inflammatory drugs, anti-metabolites, antibiotics, or aspirins
- Physical therapy
- Exercise regimes which build strength and augment posture and balance.
- Energy conservation program
- Surgery to replace joints, particularly in the shoulders, hips, or knees.
An OA or RA patient must not begin an exercise regime without informing his/her doctor. By refusing to exercise, this person’s joint disease is likely to get worse. Through daily workouts, one can ensure their body will feel and work like it did in his/her younger years.
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