If you’re a Baby Boomer or senior, exercise is invaluable! After all, its many benefits can add years of healthy living to your life, helping you age your way. Conversely, inactivity causes 1 in 10 premature deaths worldwide.
So we let you peek behind the veil in this blog, and reveal 3 huge secrets about exercise that you need to know!
1) Exercise is medicine!
Well, not literally of course. But “If exercise could be packed in a pill, it would be the single most widely prescribed and beneficial medicine in the nation,” according to Robert N. Butler, MD, former director, National Institute of Aging.
The benefits of physical activity are amazing. It positively impacts the chronic diseases plaguing our society today–heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, breast and colon cancer, arthritis, and osteoporosis. Exercise reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and helps elevate mood in those with depression. And it reduces the risk of more than dozen other harmful conditions.
Exercise is Medicine (EIM) is a global health initiative managed by the American College of Sports Medicine that encourages health care providers to include physical activity in their patient treatment plans. So, the next time you visit your doctor, you may leave with a prescription for exercise, not a new medication!
Check out EIM’s website for more information (www.acsm.org).
2) Exercise does NOT play a major role in losing weight.
Many people believe that exercise lends a significant boost to weight loss. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. In fact, weight loss is 80% food management, 20% exercise.
On paper, you need to shed 3,500 calories to lose one pound. That’s 500 calories per day to lose one pound per week. For most folks, that would mean at least 1-1/2 hours of exercise daily–an unreasonable expectation. And even if you were to exercise that much, one restaurant or fast food meal, or a grande caffe mocha and croissant would easily fill up your calorie deficit.
I’m not explaining this to discourage you from exercising (look at the fabulous health benefits above!), but to educate you that it is simply not something you can bank on for happiness at the scale.
As many trainers like to say: Lose weight in the kitchen; gain health in the gym (or wherever your activity takes you)!
Then manage your weight loss longterm with physical activity.
3) Physical activity has been shown to diminish the negative effects of aging.
A regular program of moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise, strength trainin,g and flexibility/balance exercise can overcome the chronic diseases, muscle weakness, mental problems, and frailty that lead to functional decline with increasing age.
Physical activity acts at the molecular and cellular levels to help extend the number of years we can live a strong, independent life. And that’s great news for all of us!
For more ideas about healthy aging and physical activity, give me a call!
We can discuss some practical tips and discover if any of my programs or classes are a good fit for you.
If you’d like to schedule that call with me, just CLICK THIS LINK, and let me know in the message that you would like a 1-on-1 call with me right away and I will be in touch to schedule that – oh, and leave me your phone number in there too since email is not as reliable as it used to be! Thanks.