5 Tips for Senior Health Fitness

Posted by Donna Mae Scheib on October 02, 2017

5 Tips for Senior Health Fitness

We spend most of our lives trying to create a good balance between working, spending time with family and friends, eating healthy, and exercising our bodies. Often times we have good intentions of creating good habits, but when it comes time to implementing the plan, we fail! Enter the retirement years and suddenly there should be all the time in the world to start a good workout routine, yet the self-discipline still isn’t there. We have included some tips and motivation to help you jump-start an active and healthy lifestyle!

1. Create S.M.A.R.T. Fitness Goals

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for a defined goal plan developed and discussed by business and psychology experts that can be applied in many different ways. Let’s consider it for our fitness plan to reap the benefits of creating consistent exercise habits.

• Specific: A simple, sensible goal allows you to not become overwhelmed with a daunting task that would seem unreachable for your current sedentary lifestyle like running a marathon or lifting extremely heavy weights at the gym. Asking the question, “What do I want to accomplish and why is this goal so important to me?” can be a good place to start.

• Measurable: Something that is measurable in quantity can help to track your fitness progression. “How many times can I walk around my neighborhood in a week?” “How much weight would I be able to lose in 3 months?”

• Achievable: An achievable goal is an attainable goal. Think of the things that would be necessary to have like skills, supplies, and time to make sure your goal can be accomplished. “Do I have a comfortable pair of walking shoes?” “Will I need to find a ride to get to senior aerobics at the gym?”  Striving for a goal that is out of your reach won’t help to motivate you in the long run.

• Relevant: Creating a realistic goal for yourself (not for anyone else) consists of asking important questions like, “Is this the right time to complete this goal?” or “Will my doctor agree that this is a safe exercise plan for me?”

• Time Bound: Limiting the time of your goal forces you to answer the question to “When?” and “How long?” This also allows you to track progression. As time passes, you are able to recognize if you have been able to achieve a goal.

• Examples:

  • “I will walk around the lake at the park three times a week during this summer.”
  • “I will attend the 5:30 a.m. swimming aerobics class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the next 15 weeks.
  • “On November 22, 2017, I will walk with my family in my local 1k holiday event.”

2.  Exercise with a friend

Sometimes being held accountable is enough motivation to stay active by having a workout partner. Meet up on Saturdays to play tennis, walk around your farmer’s market, or go to craft events together. Senior living centers and communities can create a workout activity calendar to rotate through different types of low impact exercises.

3. Participate in fun workouts

Staying healthy and active should be somewhat fun or it will be hard to motivate yourself otherwise! Sure, there will be some days or weeks that you simply do not want to or do not feel well, but if you are involved in something fun you will have created the self-discipline and desire to come back to a fun workout class, hop on your adult tricycle or recumbent bike, or hit the trail!

4. Remember the benefits

We always hear time and again how working out is good for our brains and bodies; however, it helps to review some of the specifics to keep us motivated to keep working out even at an older age:

• Consistent exercise can help you heal from wounds and illness more quickly
• Strengthening your body can help lead to lesser chances of falling
• Regular exercise helps to fight symptoms of depression and can help to lead to improve moods
• Exercise also helps with maintaining a consistent sleep cycle

5. Exercise your Brain

Word puzzles, word crosses, strategic card games, and Sudoku are a few examples of simple ways to start your day to help your neurons fire and strengthen those connection paths in your brain! Keeping your brain sharp also may help to prevent cognitive decline and memory loss.

Senior Living Link Promotes Healthy & Happy Lifestyles

If you ever are looking for advice or other information about best practices for a healthy and happy senior lifestyle, look no further than Senior Living Link. Get in touch with us by filling out a contact form today.