The Four Types of Fitness
Aerobic, muscle-strengthening, bone-strengthening, and stretching are the four major forms of physical activity. Each one works in a different way to keep your body slim and safe. Stretching targets joints and improves flexibility, while aerobic helps the heart and lungs the most.
Incorporate each of these four styles of exercise into your workout this week for a well-rounded workout. Start by looking up some steps online or speaking with a fitness professional or a doctor.
Aerobic exercise
Aerobic activity, which raises the heart rate and breathing rate, is beneficial to a variety of bodily functions. It strengthens your heart and lungs while also increasing your stamina.
Aerobic exercise also lowers blood pressure, burns body fat, lowers blood sugar levels, reduces inflammation, improves mood, and raises “healthy” HDL cholesterol. It can also help lower “poor” LDL cholesterol levels when combined with weight loss. Aerobic activity lowers the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, breast and colon cancer, depression, and falling in the long run.
Aim for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week. Brisk walking, swimming, jogging, cycling, dancing, or step aerobics classes are all good options.
Aerobic exercise
We lose muscle mass as we get older. Strength training helps to restore it.
Muscle strengthening not only makes you stronger, but it also increases bone development, decreases blood sugar, helps you lose weight, improves balance and posture, and relieves tension and pain in your lower back and joints.
A physical therapist may create a strength-training routine for you to perform two to three days per week at a gym, at home, or at work. Exercises requiring resistance from a weight, a band, or a weight machine will most likely be included, as will body weight exercises like squats, push-ups, and lunges.
Stretching
Stretching aids in the maintenance of flexibility. When our muscles are younger and stronger, we sometimes forget this. However, as people get older, their muscles and tendons lose their flexibility. Muscles shorten and lose their ability to work properly. This raises the risk of muscle cramps and discomfort, muscle injury, strains, joint pain, and falling, as well as making everyday tasks like bending down to tie your shoes more difficult.
Similarly, stretching muscles on a regular basis makes them longer and more flexible, increasing the range of motion while reducing discomfort and injury risk.
Stretching should be done every day, or at least three or four days a week.
Warm up your muscles by doing some dynamic stretches—repetitive motions like marching in position or arm circles—for a few minutes. This provides blood and oxygen to muscles, allowing them to adapt to changes.
Then do static stretches for the calves, hamstrings, hip flexors, quadriceps, and shoulder, neck, and lower back muscles (holding a stretch position for up to 60 seconds).
Balance exercises
Improving your balance will make you feel more stable on your feet and will help you from falling. It’s particularly critical as we age, because the structures that keep us balanced—our vision, inner ear, and leg muscles and joints—tend to fail.
Balance-focused fitness courses, such as tai chi or yoga, are available at several senior centers and gyms. Even if you don’t think you have any balance issues, it’s never too early to begin this form of exercise.
You can also see a physical therapist, who can assess your existing balancing skills and recommend exercises to address your weak spots.
Standing on one foot or walking heel to toe with your eyes open or closed are popular balance exercises. You will also be instructed to work on joint stability, walking on uneven ground, and leg muscle strengthening exercises such as squats and leg lifts by the physical therapist. Before doing any of these exercises at home, make sure you have the correct experience.
All About On Fire Fitness & Physical Therapy
On Fire Fitness & Physical Therapy has one mission: promoting fitness, health and lifestyle changes we all need to stay happy and healthy well into our senior years. Starting small, focusing on one behavior at a time and support from others can help you achieve your exercise or other health-related goals. Making a lifestyle change can be challenging, especially when you want to transform many things at once. But we know, the hardest step in climbing to the top of a mountain is the first one.
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