Message from the President
Greetings friend, and welcome to the October Comfort Connection!
The beautiful days of summer have passed, and with it, for some, the opportunity to get outside and move around. Exercise may be easier in the summer, but it is still just as important to move our bodies and exercise in the colder months. You don’t have to go crazy! Moderate exercise will still give you fabulous benefits!
Let me set the record straight right at the outset – exercise does not help you lose weight! Your weight is more related to what you put in your mouth. If you want to read more about that,
check out this article in CNN Health.
Exercise has other very important benefits! It makes you feel better and happier, increases your energy, and will help you sleep better. Later in life, exercise can prevent chronic conditions such as cognitive impairment, diabetes, and heart disease.
Check out 11 important benefits from Dr. Axe.
Mark Hamer, Ph.D. has this to say: “The take-home message really is to keep moving when you are elderly. It’s [a] cliche, but it’s a case of use it or lose it. You do lose the benefits [of exercise] if you don’t remain active.”
We all know exercise is good for us, but how will you continue in the cold, or what will help you start exercising? My mom is a great example of a senior that keeps moving! My mom has been ‘working out’ since I was a little girl. I remember she use to follow Ed Allen’s exercise show on TV. She’d be sweating it out, using books or cans of soup for her weights.
She's 89 now. More recently, she took to doing her ‘ball exercises.’ She’s got a giant exercise ball in her living room that needs to be pumped up now and again. The poor VHS with her ball workout routine was played so many times, it wore right out. I had it made into a DVD for her. Now, when it is too rainy or cold to go for her afternoon walk, she still uses that DVD to do her ‘ball exercises’. When she moved to her condo in 2007, she found out there was an aquacise class at the condo pool 3 times a week. Through the last 12 years, my mom has been the driving force behind this class. In fact, many times it was just her and her friend who would show up! That’s okay! Two is a big enough class for my mother!
I’m over 50, and I pretty much do the same thing as my mom. I’ve done various workout routines through the years. Swimming, jogging, or following workout videos at home. Where there is a will, there is a way.
It's really never to late to start or continue! Moderate exercise is a beautiful thing. Keep reading for more ideas about fitness, and specifically flexibility exercises for older adults!
I’d love to hear from you about you or your elderly parent. Let us know what you do to keep moving, and we can publish it in the next newsletter!
