Regardless of health and physical abilities, older adults can benefit greatly by staying physically active. Even those who have difficulty standing or walking can still exercise and benefit. In most situation the worst option is to not do some physical exercise.
Exercise and physical activity benefit many areas of your life and:
- Help maintain and improve your physical strength and fitness.
- Help improve your ability to do the things you want to do.
- Help improve your balance.
- Help manage and prevent diseases like diabetes, heart disease, breast and colon cancer, and osteoporosis.
- Help reduce feelings of depression, may improve mood and overall well-being, and may improve or maintain some aspects of cognitive function, such as your ability to shift quickly between tasks, plan an activity, and ignore irrelevant information.
The key is to get yourself into an exercise routine. The benefits gained from physical activity will depend the level of effort and consistency. There are many physical activities that can be selected for exercising. For those who have not exercised on a consistent basis it may be a good idea to develop an exercise plan with a professional to build stamina and add additional routines and difficulty as one progresses.