Originally published on getholistichealth.com.
Many people exercise in their younger years to stay fit and tone their bodies. Yet, many of these same people don’t keep up with exercise as they age, according to fitness expert Eugene Pallisco.
This is a mistake, as science has proven that daily exercise can improve people’s lives as they age. Exercise should become your best friend as you age, not someone you left in your past.
Below is an explanation of the importance of exercising as you get older and some tips on how you can maintain an active and healthy lifestyle.
Build Strength
Daily exercise helps to build strength, which can help fight sarcopenia, a condition that sees people lose muscle strength and mass as they age. Eventually, these losses start to affect everyday activities such as climbing stairs, cleaning, cooking, and even opening a closed jar.
You can integrate resistance training into a daily exercise regimen to combat this condition. It’ll help maintain your muscle power and strength, reduce your susceptibility to various diseases, help you maintain your independence for longer, and even improve your mood and brain health.
Build Bone Density
As you age, you begin to lose bone density. Sometime in your 40s or 50s, your body will begin to lose bone at a faster rate than it makes. This eventually can lead to osteoporosis, which often results in older adults breaking bones quite easily.
There’s no way to prevent your body from losing bone mass; you can help to prevent some bone loss. Physical activities such as aerobics and walking are great ways to do this. You could also do lower-impact exercises such as swimming or cycling, but make sure to combine them with other exercises where you have to bear weight.
Improve Cognition
A major concern for many people as they age is the health and performance of their brains. Cognitive decline can set in as you age, but exercise can help prevent it.
Physical activity has been shown to reduce the risk that you’ll experience cognitive decline as you age, and there are many other brain benefits you can realize as well. For one, exercising can help you get better sleep, directly affecting your mental and physical health.
Fight Chronic Conditions
Regular exercise can also help fight off chronic conditions such as heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure. Eugenio Pallisco says this happens because studies have shown that physical activity results in longer telomere lengths.
Telomeres serve as caps to DNA strands’ ends, and they typically shorten as you age. When this happens, it’s harder for cells to divide, which can be connected to these chronic conditions.
Exercising can help your telomeres will remain longer, which can help you fight or stave off chronic conditions. While studies aren’t yet clear on how direct the relationship between telomere length and chronic diseases is, it is clear that regular physical activity can ensure the telomeres remain long.
About Eugene Pallisco
Fitness expert and licensed trainer Eugene Pallisco works in Dallas, Texas. Since he began working with motivational fitness mentors in high school, Eugene has devoted a significant amount of time to sculpting and molding his training philosophy, which is centered on improving others.
Before starting his private training firm in the fitness industry, he gained more expertise by working one-on-one with gym patrons after beginning as a group fitness teacher.