How to Stay Healthy and Active as a Senior
In your senior years, everything becomes a little more challenging, and that often includes finding the energy to be active. Nonetheless, it helps a lot if you’re able to be active and stay fit for as long as possible. Not only will you live longer but you’ll be more independent and be able to fill your days with more fun and activity.
But what does it take to stay healthy as a senior and how can you make sure that you’re able to be as active as you’d like to be? These are all tough questions and things that certainly can’t just be ignored. We’re going to talk today about what kind of approach you should take and the steps you can implement right away in order to keep yourself healthy and active in your senior years. So read on and learn more.
Don’t Forget to Hydrate Yourself
First of all, you need to make sure that you’re getting the basics right, and nothing is more basic than making sure that you’re hydrating your body properly each and every day. And because we’re talking about being active here, it’s particularly important to make sure that you’re doing everything necessary to hydrate yourself when you’re being active. You’ll get dehydrated much quicker when you’re moving around and exercising, so remember that and always take a bottle of water with you.
Try Low-Intensity Yoga
Activities that are low in intensity can be really helpful for seniors. That’s because there’s less impact on the joints and bones. For example, when you go running, your feet hit the ground with every stride and that sends an impact up your leg and to the joints. But that same kind of impact really doesn’t exist when it comes to low-intensity activities such as yoga. These are very low impact while still working out your body and providing the activity you’re looking for.
Walk Each Day
If you want to do something that’s gentle and that you can easily add to your daily routines, walking is probably the best option out there. When you take the time to go for a short walk each day, it can really help you to be active and to get the amount of daily exercise that’s recommended for someone of your age. Many people get a dog and use the dog as motivation for going out and walking each day of the week.
Enjoy Fresh Foods
Your diet is obviously something else that’s really important here. You’ll want to make sure that you’re enjoying fresh foods at all times, and that’s something that’s obviously even more important as you get older and you want to do more to protect your health. So try to cut as many processed foods out of your diet as you can. Those kinds of foods are not good for you at all and they don’t offer the kinds of nutrients and vitamins you’d get from fresh fruit and vegetables.
Go Swimming Regularly
Swimming is something you might want to try doing on a regular basis if you’re looking for another example of a form of exercise that doesn’t have a high impact on your joints and bones. When you’re moving through the water, there’s no impact at all because you’re floating. It’s one of the best types of exercise for older people, as well as people who are trying to lose weight. It’s the activity you need but it’s also not too strenuous, providing a good balance.
Don’t Put Off Treatment Recommended by Your Doctor
If your doctor has recommended that you get hip replacement surgery or any other kind of surgery that’s commonly associated with old age, you should go ahead and listen to them. It’s all too common for elderly people to say that they’re fine and that they don’t need that extra help and support, but they often do. Putting it off will only make the problems worse in the long-term and that’s obviously not what you want. So listen to your doctor and get the treatment you need.
Do Plenty of Gardening
Gardening is a really good way to make sure that you’re getting all of the exercise you need from one week to the next. When you get out into the garden, pull up some weeds, and tend to your flower beds, you do a lot of exercise without necessarily even realizing it. So if gardening is something you enjoy and you like having a garden you can be proud of, use this as a source of exercise going forward. It could be just what you’ve been looking for.
Try Balance Activities
Balance activities are also very popular with older people. Lots of people tend to suffer from the poor balance as they get older, and this makes them less stable on their feet and more likely to fall. That’s obviously not something that you want to happen to you, so it makes sense to find the balance activities that work for you. There are lots of gyms that put on balance sessions specifically for people of older age, so that’s something worth exploring.
Keep Your Mind Active with Hobbies Too
It’s just as important to keep your mind active and exercised as it is for your body. By finding activities and hobbies that help you to stimulate your brain, you can really make sure that you’re staying mentally well and alert. That’s something that can be a worry for a lot of people in older age, and it’s something that you’ll probably want to start paying attention to. The sooner you start working at this, the better the results.
As you can see, there are lots of things you can do if you want to stay active and healthy well into your senior years. Different ideas will work for different people, so be sure to give as many of the ideas above a try and see which of them are most effective and most appropriate for you.
