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A physically active lifestyle improves mental and physical functioning, particularly important as we age. While physical activity helps keep everyone healthy, a regular exercise routine is needed to gain the most significant anti-aging benefits.
Jennifer Brach, PhD, who heads a team studying the effects of exercise among older adults in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study explains the difference between activity and exercise. Physical activity engages skeletal muscles, resulting in increased caloric expenditure. An exercise regimen does this as well, except movements are planed, strutted, and repetitive - designed to improve or maintain physical fitness. While exercise is a type of physical activity, not all physical activity counts as exercise.
RESEARCH ON OLDER ADULTS
Dr. Brach and her colleagues showed the anti-aging benefits of regular exercise in a recent study of 3,075 70-year olds. Using questionnaire designed specifically for the study, participants were divided into three groups depending on their reported physical activity, inactive, active, and exercising. They were asked to record their total physical activity and separately, their exercise activity.
Total physical activity included household chores and stair climbing, as well as moderate and vigorous exercise activities. A separate exercise section of the questionnaire included walking for exercise, aerobic dance, and weight lifting, plus eight specific moderate intensity activities (like golfing and dancing) and ten specific high intensity exercises (like jogging and swimming). Participants' physical function was then measured using time required to complete one-quarter mile's fast walk, leg and knee strength, lower extremity function, and static balance (single stance). Not surprisingly, the active and exercising adults had significantly better physical function than those who were inactive.
Those study participants who regularly engaged in moderate intensity exercises enjoyed the greatest benefits. It's been known for some time that consistent moderate exercise staves off the effects of aging, including reduced balance, reaction time, and sensory motor functions.
STAY ACTIVE TO FEEL YOUNG
Golf and t'ai chi are two forms of moderate aerobic exercise popular in the West as well as China. Chinese scientists compared how four groups of men did on fitness tests. These groups included experienced older male golfers, experienced t'ai chi practitioners, healthy physically active older men, and college-age non-exercising men. The exercisers had faster reaction time, plus better static balance and sensory perception, than the physically active men. What's really interesting is that the older exercising men could perform these tests as well as their younger counterparts.
While exercise cannot actually reverse the aging process, it can delay the onset of many age-related problems, including osteoporosis. Exercise can also strengthen the heart and circulation, while improving respiratory and immune function, joint flexibility, sleep patterns, and intellectual capacity. Success with any weight-loss program improves with sustained aerobic exercise such as walking, jogging, cycling, or cross-country skiing.
FOR BONE HEALTH
Moderate forms of aerobic exercise also help reduce bone loss. Scientists studying postmenopausal Chinese women who practiced t'ai chi regularly found that they had denser bones than in their non-exercising matched age counterparts. Upon follow-up a year later, the t'ai chi women had less bone loss than the non-exercising women.
Adding resistance training is important for maintain and building strong bones and reducing vertebral fractures among older people. A recent study of women ages 75 to 85 showed that resistance and agility training substantially reduces the risk of falling - and the more serious risk of fractures. Several investigations have shown that exercise reduces pain and improves functionality among those with osteoporosis and rheumatiod arthritis. Most of these studies involved older people, yet increased bone turnover can begin as early as age 21. The earlier you start exercising, the better. But it is never too late to begin to strengthen and tone muscles.
OTHER CONDITIONS
Aside from its physical benefits, exercise staves off declining cognitive and other effects of aging. Scientists at Ohio State University examined the exercise habits of 28 people with chronic lung problems. They found that regular workouts for 10 weeks help to reduce the physical, psychological, and cognitive effects - as long as you keep at it. At a year follow-up, those who had continued to exercise maintained their gains, while those who stopped exercising experienced declines in functional capacity.
Other common problems that benefit from exercise include high blood pressure, which improves with relatively small increases in physical activity, and insulin resistance, which responds to a combination of aerobic and resistance exercises.
In addition, scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle studied 74,000 women to find that those who engaged in regular strenuous physical activity at age 35 experienced a 14 percent lower risk of breast cancer. Women who exercised the most had the greatest risk reductions.
BODY SCULPTING
AND WEIGHT LOSS
Exercise can reshape your body and help you lose weight, regardless of your age or gender. However, muscle strength is developed in older men and women by slower repetition speed. Concentrating on your breathing and muscle movements also helps slow aging.
Effective for weight loss, walking is one of the most popular forms of exercise. You can add the powerful anti-aging element of mind/body consciousness to help you shed pounds. By doing so, you gain peace of mind while conditioning your body and burning calories.
Concentrating on your breathing and the way your muscles are working keeps your attention in the present. You can create positive visualization of the pounds melting away, for decisions you need to make. Emphasizing form and breathing over speed and distance, lap swimming is another excellent way to aid visualization, the healing power of which is just beginning to be understood.
Pilates trainer Colleen Crag uses a large exercise ball for workouts. Bouncing and rolling on the ball for aerobic conditioning can be both fun and effective. Besides the excellent presentation of correct breathing techniques in her book Pilates on the Ball, Craig's ball workout will also give you the long, lean physique of a dancer.
Upper arms, thighs, and buttocks are the trouble spots for most aging women. New York exercise guru David Kirsch suggests reverse push-ups, triceps kickback, overhead extensions, and dips to tighten the arms. Also try prone leg curls, leg lifts on the mat, lunges and pelvic tilts to firm up buttocks, inner and outer thigh muscles. Resistance training at home can support weight loss and is specifically recommended for reducing abdominal fat in women, to prevent an "apple" shape.
WHEN TO EXERCISE?
Corporate fitness program directors suggest that morning is best for busy people to exercise and that those who work out then are more likely to stick with it. But almost any time that fits into your schedule will work.
Avoid exercise right after meals or before bedtime. Vigorous aerobic routines, which raise adrenaline levels make it difficult to go to sleep.
DON'T FORGET SUPPLEMENTS
Exercise, particularly if intense, increases the generation of free radicals with the most severe damage to mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondria are tiny cellular energy factories. Recent research suggests that supplementation with certain antioxidant nutrients may be necessary for physically active individuals. As we age, oxidative stress increases, and the body's ability t mobilize protective antioxidant enzyme systems decreases. Antioxidant supplements amy help reduce oxidative stress by neutralizing free radicals. Specific DNA-protective antioxidants include CoQ10, L-carnitine and alpha lipoic acid.
In addition, Japanese scientists found that the amino acid taurine reduced exercise-induced DNA damage in young men who cycled until they were exhausted. A new animal study suggests that adding thee amino acid L-arginine to antioxidant supplements may be heart protective, if you have high cholesterol.§
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