There are many books and articles that encourage young and older people to exercise.
Exercise is good at any age, but to determine the right exercise program is not so easy,to be honest, it can be quite difficult. People have different body shapes, different medical issues and different musculo skeletal problems.

For that reason it is not advisable to start an exercise program that is not adjusted to meet the specific needs of the individual older adult. One have to be careful when choosing a trainer when joining a gym or health club. Many athletic trainers are not trained to understand all the potential risks and dangers involved with training the elderly.

The elderly person needs someone who understands the subtle issues that come with aging muscles and ligaments. In addition, many seniors have arthritis and osteoporosis, which changes the normal body alignment during exercise. Others may have degenerative changes in the spine. If a trainer doesn’t pay attention to these details, the person could get hurt. You have to train a seventy-eight-year-old woman differently than an eighteen-year-old football player. You have to be very careful.

Exercise is vital for any older adult who wants to remain healthy. Studies have shown that older adults who exercise regularly have better balance and a lower risk of falls. They have better control of their blood sugar levels, better flexibility, better quality of sleep and fewer symptoms of depression. They will also improve their muscle strength and have less arthritis pain on their hips and knees.

AEROBIC EXERCISE
Endurance exercise will help you to strengthen your heart and lungs and increase your stamina as well. Many older adults have much atherosclerosis (plaque) in their coronary arteries, which put them at a higher risk for heart attacks. Older adults who have not exercised for years should talk to their doctor first before starting an aerobic exercise program. The doctor may determine whether the person’s heart is able to tolerate the increased exertion associated with exercise.

It is generally recommended that people should try to exercise for thirty minutes at 75% to 80% of their maximum target heart rate. The maximum heart rate is calculated using the simple formula 220 – your age in years. This formula doesn’t work well for many seniors. For the older adult who has not exercised for years and wants to start exercising, it is recommended to set a goal of 60% – 65% , rather than 75 – 80%. For those who can’t exercise for the full 30 minutes, two 15 minute periods or three 10 minute periods may suffice.

Be careful before you buy any of those heart rate meters, if you are on heart medications called beta-blockers,which can slow down their heart rate. Many pacemakers regulate how fast the heart can beat. If you have an irregular heart rhythm problem called atrial fibrillation, you also have to be careful. So how hard should elderly people exert themselves? It is suggested that they should be able to talk comfortably while exercising.

STRETCHING
You also have to be careful with stretching exercises, especially if you haven’t stretched for decades. During that time your tendons ( which attach muscles to bones) and ligaments (which attach bones together), have undergone a variety of degenerative changes and the water content decreases. The water content of cartilage also decreases. As a result, most people become less flexible as they age. Tendons and ligaments tend to tear easier and when they tear, the healing process is slower.

Here are some helpful hints on stretching from the National Institute on Aging: Stretching exercises should only be done after a warming up period by walking or some gentle bicycle riding. Especially during the winter time when your joints and ligaments are stiffer because of the cold weather. Stretching should cause some minor discomfort, but it should not be painful. If you are getting pain, you need to lesson the tension or stop. Move slowly into a stretching position. Quick jerking motions can cause an injury. Hold the position for at least twenty to thirty seconds. If you can’t hold the stretch that long, than you are overstretching and you need to do it more gently. We believe that all frail elderly people should consult with their physician or their physical therapist before starting a stretching regimen. Don’t do just stretching exercises that you saw someone perform TV or at the gym. Even a yoga or Pilates class that is not specifically designed for the untrained older adult can lead to injuries.

WEIGHT TRAINING
There is some truth in the saying: “use it or lose it”. The real truth is that many elderly folks don’t have much more that they can afford to lose. This brings up the concept of functional reserve, which refers to the amount of extra work that can be done by an organ or muscle when needed. By the time some seniors reach their eighties or nineties, they have such a small functional reserve in their muscles that they can barely out of bed or walk.

Many seniors take up exercise programs that involve lifting weights. By lifting weights their muscles will grow in size and become stronger. Weight training would appear on the surface to make sense. Increasing muscle size and strength could help many seniors who have lost some of their size and strength over the years.

The real truth is that older adults need to be careful before beginning a weight lifting program. Proper instruction with the correct weight and form is critical. We cannot over emphasize the danger that a poorly designed weight training regimen poses to the joints, tendons and ligaments of seniors. Studies have shown that a carefully designed regimen may make seniors’ muscles a little bigger and stronger. Any benefits gained have usually been lost once the study is over. Researches have not been able to show that weight-training exercises by themselves can decrease the level of disability among frail seniors.

Some recommendations for folks who have not exercised for decades. 1. Walking – it is very simple and very effective. Even 15 minutes twice a day can help improve one’s lung function and lowers the blood sugar levels in patients with diabetes. For people who are out of shape, this a nice way to exercise without putting much stress on joints. 2. Pool exercises – you don’t have to do laps in the pool. Walking in the pool or simply moving your arms and legs as you stand in the shallow end of the pool is an excellent way to exercise. Buoyancy provides support to joints during movement and even provide some resistance. Muhammad Ali used to do pool exercises to help him train for many of his fights. It works very well for patients with arthritis of the hips and knees as a way to exercise arthritic joints without putting much weight-bearing stress on the joints. 3. Stationary bicycle – when done at low speeds and low resistance this exercise can be of great benefit for patients with arthritic knees. 4. Tai chi – this Chinese martial art promote balance and strengthening without putting much stress on the joints and ligaments. Although it does not involve punching or kicking, it is still considered a martial art. It has also been shown in several studies to improve balance and decrease the risk of falls in older adults. 5. Yoga – many older adults enroll in yoga classes in order to enjoy its many health benefits. These benefits include increased flexibility, improved balance,and an improved sense of well-being. However, older adults have to be very careful. There are yoga classes that cater for clients who have medical challenges as well as older adults. Look for a yoga instructor who has experience in adapting poses for individual needs. 6. Custom exercises – for patients who can no longer walk, there are even exercises that a physical therapist can design to be done in bed or in a chair.

It is recommended to start slowly with exercise. Once started, some folks get quite motivated and exited about there new exercise regimen. The improvement in how they feel and in their exercise performance helps to motivate them further. As the amount of exercise increases, we often see that many of them succumb to joints and ligament injuries. The point is that even if you think you can do more, it is advised not to do so.

Questions to ask your doctor 1.Is it save for me to exercise? 2. What type of exercise should I be doing? 3. Are there exercises I should avoid doing?

A final tip: Proceed with caution when starting an exercise program. Start easy and work your way up slowly.

Related Articles – exercise program, flexibility, aerobic exercise, atherosclerosis, heart rate, stretching, weight lifting, yoga,

As the toxins and the poor nutrient value in our food increases, juicing is one of the best ways to compensate for it.
Whipping fresh fruits and vegetables through a juicer and extracting a glassful of vitamin-packet nectar ensures that we get the recommended five to seven servings of these foods every day. Some people like juicing to get more carotenoids and flavonoids, which are healing compounds that can fight major diseases like cancer and heart disease.
Others see juicing as a way to get rid of the toxins in our body, boost immunity and help to treat a variety of diseases, like anemia, constipation and arthritis.

For people who don’t like to swallow pills or capsules, Juices are a multivitamin/mineral supplement.Our body can absorb the nutrients much better than from pills. Plants are filled with vitamins, minerals and other beneficial compounds, but these substances are bound to vibrous tissue and contained within cellulose walls. By grinding vegetables and fruits to make juice, you break down the cellulose walls and release these compounds, making them available for consumption.

You can get much more nutrients out of food from juice, than from just eating, unless you chew very, very well. In fact, juice is one of the most powerful whole foods that you can put in your body. It takes very little energy to digest it, so you maintain almost all of the energy and nutrients that it gives. Plus it takes a whole lot of vegetables to get the same
amount of nutrients found in one glass of juice.

A 6-ounce glass of carrot juice contains large amounts of beta-carotene, which, when it is converted to vitamin A in your body, represents 948% of the Daily Value. The same glass of juice also contains 16 mg vitamin C, 27% of the Daily Value, 0.4 mg of vitamin B6, or 20% of the Daily Value; 537 mg of potassium, or 15% of the DV, and 0.2 mg of thiamin, or 11% of the Daily Value.

Juicing can even help to control your weight.Drinking juices helps the body iron out its nutritional deficiencies, which leaves you more satisfied from a healthy diet and less likely to overeat.

In spite of their nutritional goodness, juices should be used to supplement fresh fruits, vegetables and grains in your diet, not to replace them. The contribution of fiber is not sufficient to get the 20 to 35 grams that adults need every day.
For example, eight carrots provide 17 grams of fiber, while a 6-ounce glass of juice contains a measly 2 grams.

Fresh juices gives you more than the necessary vitamins and minerals. They also contain a variety of phytonutrients.
Perhaps the best known of the phytonutrients is beta-carotene, a plant pigment that gives the orange color on sweet potatoes and carrots, and the red on tomatoes. Fruits and vegetables also contain flavonoids, compounds with strong antioxidant power and prevent
low-density lipoprotein, (LDL) cholesterol.

From a large study, involving more than 100,000 people, researchers found that when one serving of fruits and vegetables was added to the diet each day, the risk of ischemic stroke, a stroke in which the artery to the brain was blocked,was lowered by 6%.
The best protection came from citrus fruits, dark green leafy vegetables and cruciferous vegetables, which include broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage.

Other studies have shown that antioxidants help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. In 2002, a study involving nearly 5,500 people, researchers found that those people who ate diets rich in the antioxidants vitamin C and E, decreased their risk of developing
Alzheimer’s disease. Drinking a large variety of vegetables and fruit juices is an exellent way to get therapeutic amounts of all of these healing compounds.

Drink your juices right away, otherwise it will lose their nutritional benefits as well as the flavor. So juices, like cabbage, become funky in a few hours. So it’s best to make only as much as you like to drink right away.

It’s best to consume vegetable juices, they are better nutritionally. Although a tall glass of fruit juice may look appealing to you, it’s better to concentrate on vegetable juices.Fruit juices are high in sugar and too acidic to drink in large quantities.
For maximum healing benefits, drink vegetable juices from a variety of vegetables.
The more variety you can put in your diet, the better.

A good way to lose weight and body fat is to follow a low-fat diet.
There are many health benefits as a result of a low-fat diet.

The key to losing weight is to reduce the total calorie intake. The easiest way to do that is to eat less fat.
One gram of fat delivers 9 calories, which is more than twice as many as the same amount of protein or carbohydrate. In addition, our body likes fat. It’s easier to store calories from fat than from other sources.

When you eat fatty foods it will significantly increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, certain types of cancer, and many other conditions. Today, more than 66% of American people are overweight or obese and the rate of obesity has more than doubled to 32%, and most of the increase did happen during the last 20 years.

In one study, Danish researchers found that those who reduced the amount of fat in their diets from 39% to 28% of total calories and increased their intake of carbohydrates were able to lose an average of 9 pounds in just 12 weeks. Also, people who stuck to lower-fat diets were able to keep the weight off long after the study ended.

Another advantage of reducing fat from your diet is that it can increase your general sense of well-being. In a study of more than 550 women, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, found that when the women cut their daily fat intake in half from 40% to 20% of total calories – they felt more vigorous, less anxious, and less depressed than they had when they were eating their former diets.

Heart Health Fat in your diet often goes to your arteries. There is a direct link between the amount of fat in your diet and your risk for heart disease. This is particularly true of saturated fat. The dangerous type that can clog your arteries and we find mainly in meats, full-fat dairy products, and snack foods. Research has shown that eating a diet low in saturated fat is the best way to lower this risk.

It’s not necessary to go on an extremely low fat diet to get the benefits. Even reducing the amount of saturated fat in your diet only a little bit can help you to lower your cholesterol levels.

Cancer Protection
Switching to a low-fat diet offers great protection against many diseases, including cancer. Researchers at the University of Benin in Nigeria found that when laboratory animals were fed high-fat diets, they started producing enzymes that caused cancerous changes in their colons in just three weeks.

What works in the laboratory can also be applied in real life.In a study of 450 women, researchers in the department of epidemiology and public health at Yale University School of Medicine found that cutting just 10 grams off saturated fat a day – the equivalent of switching from two glasses of whole milk to the same amount of fat-free milk – could reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by 20%.

A low-fat diet not only protect you because of what it doesn’t contain, but also because of what it does.
When you reduce your fat intake, you generally eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. all of which have been shown to keep us healthier, says JoAnn Manson, MD, professor of women’s health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Good for the Eyes
To close it of, eating a low-fat diet may also protect you against macular degeneration. Which is the main cause of vision loss in older adults. In a survey of more than 2000 people, researchers from the University of Wisconsin in Madison found that those who reported getting the most saturated fat had 80% higher risk of getting macular degeneration than those getting the least.

Starting your Low-fat Diet
If you want to start reducing the amount of fat in your diet, it’s not always easy to know where to begin.
Firstly, you have to find out how much fat you’re actually getting each day. Ideally, you should get between 25% and 30% of your total calories from fat.

For example, suppose you normally get 2000 calories per day. When you’re following a low-fat diet, no more than 600 of your total calories should come from fat. This will adds up to 67 grams of fat per day.

Don’t let lowering your fat intake to 30% discourage you! This is a reasonable amount of fat to go into your diet. According to Lalita Kaul, PhD, a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and professor of nutrition at the Medical School of Howard University in Washington D.C. Eating low fat means: avoiding fried foods, forgoing rich, fatty restaurant meals for home-cooked fare, and searching for tasty low-fat recipes with which to replace some of your higher-fat favorites. Reach for a Lean Cuisine meal or a Lean Pocket when you’re looking for at-home convenience.

Probably the easiest way to keep track of your daily fat intake is reading food labels.They are based on a 2000-calorie diet. So you can look at foods which are 30% or below. To avoid partially hydrogenated oils, look for a spread that says “zero trans fat” on the label. And avoid cookies and other baked goods and snack foods that contain trans fats.Trans fats are now required to be listed on nutrition labels along with total and saturated fat.If you are dining out or buy foods that don’t have labels, you can buy a nutrition reference guide in a bookstore or supermarket.

As mentioned before, the most dangerous type of fat to watch out for is saturated fat, which is found in animal foods like meat, butter, cheese and eggs, and some plant sources such as coconut oil, palm oil, tropical oils and cocoa butter.The same foods that are high in saturated fat are also high in cholesterol. So when you decrease one, you automatically decrease the other.

The American Heart Association recommends that we should get less than 7% of our total calories from saturated fat,partly by choosing fat free or low-fat milk and leaner cuts of meat, like sirloin or top round.

Enjoy the Good Fats in Moderation Generally, you should reduce all kind of fats in your diet. Although monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat are not bad,you should eat them in moderation, because they contain as many calories as bad fats. They are found in vegetable and seed oils, such as olive,sesame, and safflower oils, and in nuts and seeds. They have been shown to actually lower cholesterol and may help prevent it from sticking to artery walls.

The fat found in fish, omega-3 fatty acids, has been shown to reduce clotting and inflammation in the arteries, which can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. You don’t have to eat a lot of fish to get the benefits. When you’re following a low fat diet, having two fish meals a week will go a long way toward keeping your arteries in the swim. Discover the best Fat Burning Techniques