Golden Age Wellness and Functional Fitness

The Mayo Clinic defines “functional fitness exercises as those that train your muscles to help you do everyday activities safely and efficiently.” These include activities as diverse as walking the stairs, carrying groceries while walking, yoga or multidirectional lunges. They prepare your muscles for daily living activities like squatting down to pick up a spoon, reaching up to put your mugs away on a high shelf, hiking up the mountains or running to catch up to your grand-son. 

Human bodies do age, but they are also amazingly resilient and adaptable. The good news is that most of the negative changes can be significantly slowed with regular physical activity. You can get benefits with even small amounts of exercise and the more you do the stronger the effect, based on research findings. For individual wellbeing, you may have to find your own “fit” solutions, based on life situation and personal values.

Five-Pointer Golden Age Wellness Attitude

1.      Listen to your body – If it hurts (as opposed to just feeling tired), stop what you are doing. Also be aware of your body senses.  Exercises benefit physical and mental health. What happens when mind, body and spirit are disconnected? You feel lost, fearful, insecure, fatigue, may also experience depression and pain.  What’s the difference when mind, body, and spirit are harmonized? You feel calm, in control, energetic, and hopeful. Be conscious about your body needs, connect your mind with body, and keep up your spirits.

2.      Be open-minded and flexible – the “un-known” is acceptable; being aware that we can’t totally control life. Are you living at the present time for the fullest personal potential?  Don’t have to pursuit for happiness of an ideal life, but finding your own way to live happily. Establish your self-care and fitness routine, be persistent but flexible.

3.     Simplify life for happiness – want for less (i.e., possessions, positions, profits), focus more on perusing personal value and health goals to gain life satisfaction.

4.      Build strong immune systems – Basic building blocks are nutrition, fitness, and quality sleep. Healthy life style and self-care are important for prevention. Illnesses may heal naturally with well-maintained immunity and good care. Not all discomforts require medical treatment and over treatments are almost always associated with risks.

5.      Healthy body weight - Body weight does not tell about your health.  Each person has a biological baseline weight. Not everyone can survive at a socially standard ideal weight. Care your body and nurture it to perform your personal best. Create your own healthy body image. 

Three Key Steps for Fitness Goal Achievement Success -

1, decide what you want to do (be specific and realistic)

2, taking actions and keep a track record

3, evaluate and make adjustment when necessary

It’s simple but you need to stick with it to make it work.

Helpful Pointers

“Good health” is often cited as the number one goal for people as they age. Don't let another day pass without taking advantage of the powerful medicine of physical activity to take charge of your health. If you are struggling to make it happen, here are some pointers that might help.

•  Do something you enjoy. If you don't like it, you will stop. The specifics of how much, what kind, and how hard are less important than just doing something more than you were doing before.
•  Start small, but just do something. Small “snacks” of exercise can add up effectively throughout the day to meet the physical activity guidelines. Remember that small changes over time can impact your health and longevity.
• Understand that a convenient life is not necessarily a good life. Your health will benefit from finding ways to reintroduce movement back into your daily activities. The outdoor trails are naturally more challenging than a treadmill, but the nature connection is added benefit to energize your body and fresh your mind. Bundle up and enjoy the cold air in the winter sun.  Yes, you may feel heavier with the winter gear on, just think it will also add on as weight training benefit.
• In bad weather days, indoor activities are unlimited, whether going to gym or not; home training with DVD or online exercises, try yoga and tai chi, join a dance class, and much more. Make your workout enjoyable.
• Don’t be intimidated by the extremes. There are a lot of crazy exercise fanatics out there, but you don’t have to join them to get health benefits.
• Allow yourself recovery time.  Recovery time will need to increase as you age. However, no excuse to be a couch potato.
• Track your workout for cardio, strength, core/abs, balance, and flexibility. A balanced routine will benefit your overall fitness.
• Workout with friends or sign-up for personal training to keep motivated and stay on track
• Be patient. Change will happen if you give it a chance. Persistence is the key to gain benefits.
• Keep up the nutrition for energy and food is the source for body heat. Drink enough water and enjoy hot tea.
• As the winter nights are longer, your body will naturally sleep more. Let it be and get adequate rest. Physical activities during the day will also help you sleep better at night.

Hope you roll out winter fitness action plan now and enjoy it. QualityLifeForum.Weebly.com is you trusted resource for your healthy aging journey.

Reference:

Class material from StanfordOnline HUMBIOX0101 Your Body Inside and Out: Using Exercise Physiology to Slow Aging