Ideas for Senior Fitness

There's a fallacy going around that as you grow older in years, you have to stop living.

How silly!

Every day we hear or read about seniors who are waterskiing, surfing, swimming, bowling, gardening...even lifting weights and bodybuilding. I have often written about people like Kelly Nelson and Morjorie Nowlin who were not only competing in, and winning, bodybuilding competitions in their 70's and 80's (in bikinis, I might add). The key point in their stories, however, is not how old they were when they were competing, but how old they were when they, both non-exercisers, began training to compete.

Kelly was in her late 50's, and Morjorie was in her 70's!!!

Now, not every wants to train with weights or compete in bodybuilding contests, and maybe not everybody should try to. After all, not only do we each have our individual hopes and dreams, but we each have our own realities, and for seniors, that often does include certain limitations. There are so many ideas for senior fitness programs and activities that zeroing in on one does not make much sense.

What does make sense is being aware of genuine health considerations. There are seniors running marathons, but there are also seniors with joint problems who probably shouldn't do that kind of thing. There are seniors with a wide range of health issues that could possibly prevent their participation in some particular kind of exercise or sport, but I will leave that to the individual and their doctor to determine. Anyone can find some form of activity in which to become involved.

My point is that just because we are seniors does not mean we cannot live full, active lives. I am not saying that we all need to get out and water-ski or line dance, but that we do not have to give up activities and the enjoyment of life just because we are older than we used to be.

Certainly, aging does curtail some aspects of being active for most of us. For example, even a fit and healthy person who has been regularly exercising with weights for years is going to lose some physical strength as he or she ages. However, just because you cannot lift as much as you used to does not mean you should not lift anything at all...or that if you cannot run any more, that you cannot walk or bicycle either.

Ideas for senior fitness abound, and the list of reasons for pursuing regular physical activity is a long one. In fact, even writing about the health benefits of exercise for seniors, or for anybody, for that matter, could be an article much longer than this one. Suffice it to say, that regular physical activity, even if only begun in our later years,

One of the great things about "exercising" as seniors is the broad range of options that we do have available. Not only CAN we participate in almost anything we might have wanted to do when we were younger (or not), but many of us often have the time and resources to do so as well. Also, because we are not necessarily attempting to master a sport or activity so that we can compete over a lifetime, we can take the time to have fun in the process. We do not have to even concentrate on any particular sport or activity but can learn to enjoy several different activities and avoid boredom by changing up from time to time.

You may have noticed that this small article on "ideas for senior fitness" seems to be a little short on specific suggestions as to what you can do. Well, that is because the sky's the limit! I did mention personal limitations earlier, but, other than that, and the realities of time and finances, almost any regular physical activity or formal exercise program will provide physical and mental health benefits to seniors...and the rest of the population, as far as that goes.