Tips to staying fit after hitting half century

For people above the age of 50 even a small amount of exercise daily can have many health benefits. Staying active in your golden years helps build muscles and keep you flexible. This in turn helps you to recover quickly and keep your immunity levels up, says Shweatali Pagar of one of the leading fitness portals in the country.

Pagar says it is very important to take proper precautions if you haven’t exercised recently, start slowly and build yourself up to the point where you’re burning calories and working out comfortably.

Forget the fear as you move towards improving your physical health. Basic fitness goals can be achieved with a minimum of 30 minutes of working out every day. It is very important to start slow and then build your endurance, strength, balance and flexibility gradually. Avoid over-exerting yourself, especially if it’s your first time trying a new workout.

After three-four weeks of consistent exercise, you should feel more comfortable while working out. The best activities for individuals above 50 years of age would be low impact yet very effective exercises such as brisk walking, cycling and swimming that helps in building confidence and strength initially.

After easing into fitness, those who are over 50 years of age should aspire to do moderate aerobic activity for 30 minutes daily, muscle strengthening at least three times a week, and balance exercises two days a week. Tai chi, ballroom dancing are also good options to stay fit, keep moving and have fun!

Practising yoga regularly has long lasting benefits for your health. It helps improve balance, protect joints and can also help control chronic pain. Go ahead and enjoy your fabulous 50s and healthy years ahead!

Researchers have found that regular aerobic exercise not only improves physical health but also improves cognitive functioning, which might protect against Alzheimer’s disease.

“This study is a significant step toward developing an exercise prescription that protects the brain against Alzheimer’s disease, even among people who were previously sedentary,” said lead investigator Ozioma C Okonkwo from University of Wisconsin in the US.

For the study, published in the journal Brain Plasticity, researchers investigated 23 cognitively normal, relatively young older adults with a family history or genetic risk for Alzheimer’s. All patients had a sedentary lifestyle. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to receive information about maintaining an active lifestyle but no further intervention. The other half participated in a moderate intensity treadmill training program with a personal trainer, three times per week for 26 weeks.

Compared to the participants maintaining their usual level of physical activity, individuals assigned to the active training program improved their cardiorespiratory fitness, spent less time sedentary after the training program ended, and performed better on cognitive tests of executive functioning (but not episodic memory).