October 22 - Move it or Lose it! - The importance of exercise

Ostrich are extremely thankful to the people from Move it or Lose it for writing a guest blog about how exercise can have health benefits for people of all ages, especially the over 50s.

It is vital to exercise at any age as the benefits are amazing. Just ten minutes, twice a day, can really help!

Many people choose to lose weight by joining an exercise class, this gives people the chance to socialise and make friends while losing weight. In an exercise class people can offer support to each another which can help people shed the weight that little bit faster! However, many older people cannot attend exercise classes and that’s where The Move it or Lose it! Exercise DVDs can help. The DVDs bring the exercise classes to their living room, allowing them to exercise, build up muscle, flexibility and confidence in the comfort of their own home.

Did you know?

• Regular exercise can help with stress, depression, sleep problems and anxiety.
• Weight bearing exercise can help strengthen bones and help with osteoporosis.
• Exercise can help with weight loss and tone up muscles (Watch Kathy's story).
• Exercise can help with poor posture and back pain.
• Exercise can help with arthritis (Watch Jean's story).
• Seated exercise allows people with breathing problems or COPD to keep fit.
• Exercise leads to a healthier heart and can help reduce high blood pressure.

These are all vital to ensure we live life to the full, maintain independence and feel fit for life!

Some great tips to get you started:

For many, deciding on exercise is easy, it’s that final push from thinking about it to actually doing it that many find hard. It’s important to remember that once you've started it gets easier, so here are some top tips to get you going!

1.20 minutes a day of moderate intensity exercise will help you stay stronger and more mobile. It is important to take things slowly at the start. Trying to do too much too soon could have detrimental effects on your health. If you can, chair based exercises are useful to start you off as they can build up your confidence and strength relatively easily allowing you to then move on to more weight bearing exercises later.

2. It is important to make sure you fully warm your muscles up before doing any exercise. If you fail to warm up you could pull a muscle which could take a few days or weeks to heal. Remember to cool down after your exercise as this will aid your recovery.

3. When doing exercise it’s important to only do what your body lets you do. Listening to your body is essential as it’ll tell you if you’re pushing too much. You may find that when you use muscles you haven’t used in a long time they stiffen up and you may feel fatigued. If you find your exercise is causing you any significant pain, stop and rest for a while then start again with less strenuous moves. It is perfectly normal to feel sore and stiff when you begin to exercise but this feeling will subside the more you do.

4. Move your whole body! There is more to you then just your arms and legs so use them. Try to incorporate exercises into your routine that moves your fingers, hands and feet. Our tailored Move it or Lose it! DVDs for the over 50s can help you achieve this.

5. Exercise is difficult and takes time to generate results, but it doesn't have to be boring. Spice up your exercise routine by getting some friends of family members involved. Research has shown that people who regularly exercise with a friend are more likely to continue exercising. Our Move it or Lose it! DVDs are designed to make exercise fun for elderly people.

6. Keeping an active mind is vital as we age and learning a new skill is really stimulating for the brain. Move it or Lose it! routines combine following the rhythm of the music with exercises that challenge your coordination – with practice it gets easier.

7. Avoid being inactive for long periods as it causes the muscles to lose their strength. Resistance training has been proven to be very effective in redressing this balance – even when done sitting down. If you can incorporate any weight bearing activities into your everyday life this can help you stay healthy. Activities to incorporate include walking up stairs or carrying shopping. If you find that you cannot incorporate these try and use the resistance band routines found in DVD 1 and DVD 3.

8. A great form of exercise is Sit to Stand. This form is very important and can be extremely useful for older people. As you build up your leg strength this technique will become easier. If you would like to find out more about the Sit to Stand technique you can on the Move it or Lose it! Website.

9. Don't forget your pelvic floor! It's just as important to do exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles as any other! Once you've mastered the technique you can do them sitting or standing, about ten repetitions at least once a day to improve confidence and continence.

10. Feeling strong and confident? When you feel you're ready, you may wish to progress to exercise standing up. Weight-bearing exercises can help prevent or slow the progression of osteoporosis but as always, check with your GP if you have any medical conditions before starting a new exercise programme.