Welcome to the Senior Health Section of RetirementCommunity.com. This easy-to-use website features health and wellness information for older adults from the National Institutes of Health.

Exercise for Older Adults

Frequently Asked Questions

Staying physically active and exercising regularly can improve mood and relieve depression, and prevent or delay some types of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

Long-term, regular exercise can improve health for some older people who already have diseases and disabilities.

Making exercise a regular part of your daily routine will have a positive impact on your quality of life as you get older.

Exercise is physical activity that follows a planned format using repeated movements to improve or maintain fitness. Exercise progress can be scored and counted. Physical activity is any voluntary body movement that burns calories.

Muscle cells contain long strands of protein lying next to each other that shorten or contract when you "make a muscle." When you do strengthening exercises on a regular basis, the bundles of protein strands inside your muscle cells grow bigger. Small changes in muscle size can make a big difference in strength.

Yes, it is true. Loss of muscle and strength is called sarcopenia. This term also refers to the decreased quality of muscle tissue often seen in older adults. Strength exercises can partly restore muscles and strength, often very quickly.

In one study, nursing home residents 80 years and older progressed from using walkers to using canes after doing simple muscle-building exercises for 10 weeks.

Yes. If you are at high risk for any chronic disease such as heart disease or diabetes, or if you smoke or are obese, you should check with your doctor before increasing physical activity.

Check with your doctor if you have

• any new, undiagnosed symptom
• chest pain
• irregular, rapid, or fluttery heartbeat
• severe shortness of breath

Check with your doctor if you have

• significant, ongoing weight loss that hasn't been diagnosed
• infections, such as pneumonia, accompanied by fever
• fever itself, which can cause dehydration and a rapid heartbeat

Check with your doctor if you have

• acute deep-vein thrombosis, or blood clot
• a hernia that is causing symptoms
• foot or ankle sores that won't heal
• joint swelling.

Check with your doctor if you have persistent pain or a disturbance in walking after you have fallen. You might have a fracture and not know it, and exercise could cause further injury.

Check with your doctor if you have certain eye conditions, such as bleeding in the retina or detached retina. Before you exercise after a cataract surgery or lens implant, or after laser treatment or other eye surgery, check with your doctor.

• Check with your doctor before doing lower-body exercises.
• Don't cross your legs.
• Don't bend your hips farther than a 90-degree angle.
• Avoid locking your knees.

During vigorous activity you will find it difficult to talk, you will sweat, and your muscles may feel rubbery. Vigorous activity differs for each person and depends on your individual fitness level. If you are a man over 40 or a woman over 50, check first with your doctor before doing vigorous activity.

Most older people do not need a personal trainer. If you have special needs, your doctor will probably be able to refer you to a qualified instructor. If you look for someone independently, ask for credentials and cost.

You could also hire a physical therapist or doctor who specializes in sports medicine, or a trainer who is certified to work with older people by the American College of Sports Medicine, or ACSM. Local colleges and universities that hold special exercise classes or study exercise for older people also might be a good source of referrals.

Any comfortable, loose-fitting clothes will do. If it's cold, wear several layers of light clothing, which you can remove as needed. Athletic shoes with good padding, arch supports, and uppers that allow air to circulate around your feet are ideal. The size of your feet changes as you grow older so always have your feet measured before buying shoes.

The best time to have your feet measured is at the end of the day when your feet are largest. Be sure new shoes feel good on your feet while you are still in the store --uncomfortable spots will probably not get better. If you have diabetes, break in new shoes gradually to avoid blisters and sore spots.

No. You don't need to buy special equipment to exercise. For the strength building exercises that use hand weights, you can substitute milk jugs filled with sand or water. Hopefully, you will already have a sturdy, armless chair and a pillow to use for some of the strength-building exercises.

As you get older, you may need water even though you don't have the urge to drink. Be sure to drink fluids when you are doing any activity that makes you sweat. Your body also needs fuel for exercise and physical activities.

The biggest part of your calories should come from grains, the next largest from vegetables and fruit, then fish, poultry, meats, and dairy products. The less fats, oils, and sweets you eat, the better, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Pyramid.

Four types of exercise are important to help older adults gain health benefits:

• strength exercises, such as weight lifting
• balance exercises, such as side leg raises
• flexibility exercises, such as stretching
• endurance exercises, such as walking, swimming, or jogging.

Strength exercises, like weight lifting or push-ups, build your muscles and may make you more independent by giving you more strength to do things on your own.

Strength exercises also increase your metabolism, which helps keep your weight and blood sugar in check. (For animated demonstrations of strength exercises, click on the "Exercises to Try" button on the left of the screen.)

• Breathe during strength exercises. Holding your breath could affect your blood pressure.
• Use smooth, steady movements to bring weights into position.
• Avoid jerking or thrusting movements.

• Avoid locking the joints of your arms or legs into a strained position.
• Breathe out as you lift or push a weight and breathe in as you relax.

Muscle soreness lasting a few days and slight fatigue are normal after muscle building exercises. Exhaustion, sore joints, and painful muscle pulls are not normal.

Time yourself as you walk up a flight of stairs as fast as you safely can. Record your score. Repeat the test, using the same stairs, one month later. It should take you less time.

Record how much weight you lift and how many times you lift that weight, each time you do your strength exercises. Compare this figure to the amount you could lift a month ago.

Balance exercises, like side leg raises and knee flexions, help prevent falls and build leg muscles. Some balance exercises build up your leg muscles, and others improve your balance when you do simple activities like briefly standing on one leg. (For animated demonstrations of balance exercises, click on the "Exercises to Try" button on the left of the screen.)

If you have progressed to doing exercises with your eyes closed, ask someone to watch you the first few times in case you lose your balance.

Stand near something sturdy to hold onto in case you lose your balance. Time yourself as you stand on one foot, without support, for as long as possible. Record your score. Repeat the test while standing on the other foot. Test yourself again in one month.

Flexibility exercises, like stretching, may help keep your body limber, prevent injuries and falls, or hasten recovery from injuries. They do this by stretching your muscles and the tissues that hold your body's structures in place. (For animated demonstrations of stretching exercises, click on the "Exercises to Try" button on the left of the screen.)

• Always warm up before stretching exercises by doing them after endurance or strength exercises or by doing some easy walking or arm-pumping first.

• Never bounce into a stretch -- make slow, steady movements instead.
• Stretching should never cause pain, especially joint pain.

• Mild discomfort or a mild pulling sensation is normal when stretching.

Endurance exercises, like walking, jogging or swimming, improve the health of your heart, lungs, and circulatory system. They may also delay or prevent diseases such as diabetes, colon cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, and stroke. (For animated demonstrations of endurance exercises, click on the "Exercises to Try" button on the left of the screen.)

• Do light activity before and after your endurance exercise session.
• Stretch after your activities, when your muscles are warm.
• Drink water.

• Dress appropriately for the heat and cold.
• Use safety equipment, such as a helmet for biking, to prevent injuries.

Endurance activities should not make you breathe so hard that you can't talk and should not cause dizziness or chest pain.

See how far you can walk in exactly six minutes. Write down how far you walked -- in feet, blocks, laps, miles, number of times you walked up and down a long hallway, or whatever is convenient for you. Do this test every month.

You should start with a program that your body can tolerate -- as little as 5 minutes of endurance activities at a time -- and gradually build up from there. This is especially important if you've been inactive for a long time.

Your goal is to build up to at least 30 minutes of endurance exercise on most or all days of the week. You can divide your endurance exercise into sessions of no less than 10 minutes at a time, as long as they total 30 minutes by the end of the day.

For strength exercises, you should work your way up to level 15 to 17, hard to very hard, on the Borg Category Rating Scale to build muscle effectively. You can tell how hard an effort you are making by comparing it to your maximum effort when you are working very, very hard.

You might use the Borg Category Rating Scale, which measures how hard you feel you are exercising. For endurance activities, you should gradually work your way to level 13 -- the feeling that you are working at a somewhat hard level.

The Target Heart Rate, or THR, is a common way to judge how hard the average person should try to make his or her heart beat during endurance exercises.

The THR method is not recommended for older adults who take medications that change their heart rate, have a pacemaker, have an irregular heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation, or have any other conditions that affect their pulse. All of these situations can give you inaccurate readings.

Some older exercisers who are in basically good health and who like taking a "scientific" approach to endurance activities may find the THR method useful. Because many long-standing medical conditions and medications affect the heart rate, it's a good idea to check with your doctor before using the THR.

You take your pulse by pressing the tips of your index and middle fingers against the inside of the opposite wrist, just below the mound at the base of your thumb, and count how many pulsations you feel in a 10-second period. Multiply this number by six to get your heart rate. Don't count your pulse for an entire minute because your heart will have slowed down, giving you an inaccurate reading.

You compare that number to the Target Heart Rate for your age category. After you have gradually worked up to it, you can try to get your heart rate up to 70 to 85 percent of its maximum ability. Higher than this rate is not recommended. The chart will indicate the desired range for heart rate during endurance exercise for your age group.

Do tests to assess your progress before increasing your physical activity. Repeat the tests once a month. If you test yourself more often, you might not see improvement. Watching your scores improve every month can be very motivating.

You are more likely to keep doing physical activities if you

• think that you will benefit from them
• feel you can do the activities correctly and safely
• have access to the activities on a regular basis

You are more likely to keep doing physical activities if you

• can fit the activities into your daily schedule
• feel that the activities don't impose financial or social costs
• have few negative consequences from doing your activities.

You are more likely to keep doing physical activities if you do ones that you enjoy.

You are more likely to keep doing physical activities if you ask someone to be your exercise buddy.

• Set a goal and decide on a reward once you attain it.
• Give yourself physical activity homework for the next day or week.
• Mark your exercise sessions on your calendar.
• Plan ahead for vacations, bad weather, and house guests.

• Keep a record of what you do and of your progress.

The National Institute on Aging has developed an exercise video and free guide for older adults. For information on ordering, call 800-222-2225.

The National Library of Medicine's health information web site, MEDLINEplus.gov, contains carefully selected links to Web resources on exercise for seniors.