The Benefits Of Keeping Your Body Active As You Age

Posted by Anna on August 5th, 2019

Read about the benefits of remaining active as you move into later life, along with tips on how to maintain your physical fitness as you age.

As we age it is incredibly important to work on a preventative basis when it comes to your health, maintaining physical fitness for as long as possible. There are many benefits to keeping your body active as you age, and many ways to maintain physical fitness too. Take a look at the following benefits of keeping your body active as you age to help you stay healthy and happy long into your golden years:

Avoiding Dementia

The Alzheimer's Society say that maintaining physical activity can help us to avoid dementia. This likely relates to blood flow to the brain, and the overall health of the body. Physical activity should include a mixture of aerobics and weight resistance.

Staying Independent

The more physically healthy you are the more mobile you are likely to be, which means maintaining independence. Although there are amazing home care services like live-in care available to help you maintain independence in your home, and live-in care services that help clients regain their mobility, ideally we all want to be independent without care for as long as possible. Physical activity helps maintain muscle mass and balance, both of which help us avoid falling. Good bone strength from physical activity will also help you withstand injury should you fall.

Staying Social

Loneliness affects a huge amount of the elderly population in the UK, and maintaining activity is a really good way to avoid becoming lonely. If you can still get out and about, you can easily get to social groups, hobbies and to visit friends and family. You may even wish to include social activities in your exercise regime, with walking groups and swimming clubs.

Avoiding Medical Issues Associated With Obesity

Obesity is a real risk for the elderly because of a lack of physical movement, overeating caused by depression or loneliness, and because of eating too many calories despite a change in nutritional needs. Staying active before any problems occur is a really great way to prevent obesity and to avoid obesity and the associated medical issues, such as, Type 2 diabetes, raised blood pressure, heart problems and more.

Enjoying Life

There are ways to work around mobility issues and to have a good quality of life no matter how mobile you are. However, if we can stay fit and healthy for as long as possible, we have more chance to live our best lives in the way that we want to. Keeping your body active as you age is incredibly important if you want to have the kind of golden years that you wish for yourself.

These are just some of the benefits of keeping your body active as you age. The earlier you can find your stride with physical activity in life, the more likely you are to avoid the issues associated with a lack of physical activity. As you age, physical activity will help to protect you from a number of problems, and help you to stay independent and healthy for as long as possible.