Exercises for Senior Citizens

The term ’senior citizen’ refers to an elderly person whose age is 67 years or above. As it is, senior citizens are prone to fall prey to various health hazards, such as muscle weakness, panic attack, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, acid indigestion, stroke, heartburn and high blood pressure. The best way to keep such health problems at bay is to go for some form of physical exercises. Physical exercise is an excellent way to keep your health in a very good condition.

However, most senior citizens fail to do regular exercise, to keep their health in perfect condition. There are several reasons to it, such as old age, lesser mobility, stiff joints etc. as a result, they are exposed to a number of health related problems, as the time passes.

As it is, senior citizens can opt for a number of exercising options, to keep your health in good shape, as well as to keep various health related problems at bay. The following are some of these exercises, which can be taken up by senior citizens:

1.Walking
Walking is by far, one of the best exercises, not just for senior citizens, but for everybody else. Regular walks in the morning and evening can be a good way of keeping yourself fit. One should however, stay away from overexertion. Walking not only reduces the extra fat inside the body, but it also make the body flexible, as well as uplift one’s spirit.

2.Yoga
Yoga is a form of traditional Indian exercise. The basic idea behind this form of exercise is to go for the unification of the mind, body and soul. It has a healing effect and mostly focuses on breathing exercises and meditations. Yoga plays a very important role in keeping a balance between body, mind and spirit. This can help senior citizens in reducing stress, high blood pressure, blood glucose level and blood sugar level. It promotes elasticity of body and provides relaxation.

3.Aerobic exercises
Senior citizens can also go for aerobic dance exercises, which are rhythmic by nature and warm up the body as well. With the help of these exercises, the senior citizens are able to keep the metabolism rate of the body, which would further help in toning up the body muscles. Apart from that, they strengthen the respiration process, provide sufficient oxygen, improve blood circulation, reduce blood pressure, reduce rapid palpitation and help improve mental health.

4.Muscle flexibility exercises
A very common feature of old age is reduction in the flexibility of the body. This results in lack of mobility in senior citizens. In order to improve upon their muscle flexibility, as well as their mobility, the senior citizens can take up muscle flexibility exercises, which can prove to be very effective for them.

With the help of the above exercises, you can keep your self in good health, despite old age.  In any case, regular exercise is a good practice and hence be taken up, irrespective of age.