One of the most important healthy aging tips you can benefit from is to keep active no matter how old you are. Moving around and exercising is especially important if you are overweight and need to shed pounds. But what if you can’t or don’t want to do a high impact workout? The following are effective low-impact exercises that can help control your weight loss and improve your health.
Walking
Healthy aging is more than just having enough money to retire and live comfortably. It’s also about taking charge of your personal health and making smart decisions. You don’t want to be in your 50s and have your nasty habits such as drinking, smoking and a sedentary lifestyle catch up to you. If high intensity exercises such as jumping and running are too much, you can still burn calories by walking. Whether you use the treadmill or walk outdoors, incorporating arm movements can increase your heart rate. Using small weights, do a few weight lifting reps in between walking to burn more calories. You may also want to try walking at varying speeds or moving uphill for a more challenging exercise routine. Calories expended could amount to approximately 280 calories if you walk at a brisk pace.
Bike Riding
With an estimated 27 million adults suffering, osteoarthritis is one of the most common types of arthritis. The primary cause of this painful disease is osteoarthritis from being overweight. Losing ten pounds can have a major impact on your joint pain, but you need to get moving in addition to eating a healthy diet. Biking, recumbent bikes and stationary bike riding are all low-impact exercises that are easy on your joints. Dependent on your intensity and fitness level, you could possibly burn close to 300 calories during a workout. If you’re a beginner, it’s important to go at a moderate pace. You can then graduate to a greater intensity and more challenging terrain if you wish.
Power Yoga
Stretching exercises are instrumental in keeping the body limber, but the movements can also burn significant calories when doing the various poses. Power yoga has generated a great deal of buzz whether you do it in a heated room or change up your poses. Different from regular stretching, power yoga moves more quickly, so you’ll get an intense and low-impact workout. Because you have to use your own body weight to hold the poses and gain the right lift, it’s an excellent strength training exercise that can burn over 200 calories or more.
Zumba Class
Zumba is a Latin form of fitness class that uses dance movements set to inspirational music. The gentle dances are effective, fun and easy on your joints. Zumba classes can be found at your local gym, senior center or park district. Because Zumba targets using muscles throughout your core and entire body, you could burn an estimated 200 calories or more. Zumba also decreases levels of stress and makes your body feel more energized.
Swimming or Water Aerobics
Whether you swim laps in a pool or do water aerobics, you can burn anywhere between 150 and 360 calories without putting too much pressure on your joints. Because you use many of the body’s muscles, swimming also helps tone and slim your physique. To gain the most out of your low-impact workout, you want to enjoy a steady pace. Group water aerobics incorporates weights and other movements to the exercise program. Water is approximately 14 times thicker than working out in air, so your resistance will be much greater.
Although you need some form of impact to achieve healthy muscles and bones, your workout doesn’t have to include jumping and running. The above low-impact exercises are all excellent for getting your heart within a targeted rate and helping you to lose weight.