Exercise Benefits for Seniors Touted

Just because you're getting older does not mean that you need to stop being active. The belief that older adults need to lead sedentary, inactive lives is incorrect, said researchers in a recent press release.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) found that by doing something as simple as increasing the amount of walking that they do, seniors' can improve their quality of life.

Unfortunately, too many seniors think that just because they are aging, they need to stop participating in a variety of activities. While some seniors might not be able to rock climb or participate in other taxing sports activities, this does not mean that they need to become sedentary.

By educating seniors and letting them know that becoming inactive and sedentary was not mandatory solely because of their age, researchers found that more seniors were interested in pursuing physical activities.

In a small community-based pilot study, participating seniors' participated in four 1-hour group sessions that met weekly at various senior citizens centers. The seniors participated in a 1-hour exercise class. This class included endurance, flexibility, and strength training.

After each exercise class, seniors' were retrained and given the knowledge that staying active was good for them physically and would also provide mental benefits.

Seniors were also given pedometers so that they, and researchers, had a means to measure how much walking they did. After being retrained and changing their belief that they could be active, most of the seniors increased the number of miles that they walked.

After only seven weeks, seniors who increased how many steps they took every day, thus increasing their physical activity, also reported that their health-related quality of life had also improved.

On average, the seniors had increased how much they walked by a whopping 24 percent, which equated to a 2.5 miles a week average increase.

"We can teach older adults to get rid of those old beliefs that becoming sedentary is just a normal part of growing older. We can teach them that they can and should remain physically active at all ages," said Dr. Catherine Sarkisian, assistant professor of geriatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the lead author of this study.

As the American population continues to age, it is important that myths such as the need for seniors' to become inactive be changed. Exercise has many benefits, both physical and mental. Regular exercise helps improve ones physical health and mental clarity.

Source:
http://www.newswise.com/p/articles/view/535434/
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2007.01427.x?cookieSet=1&journalCode=jgs