Navigating Healthcare: A Guide to Modern Medicine and Wellness

Tag: Exercise for older adults

Health Benefits of Walking

One of the best choices for getting your daily exercise is walking.  When Michelle Obama promoted a campaign to walk 10,000 steps daily (the equivalent of five miles), many people began to take notice that walking was easy and fun.  As a nation, we also began to understand what doctors have been preaching for years – you need to get up and move, especially if you have a job where you spend the majority of your day sitting.

You can combat a sedentary lifestyle in several ways.  Carry those loafers or pretty pumps in a tote bag and lace up your walking shoes before you leave the house.  Park as far away as possible and take the stairs if you are able to do so.  Once at the workplace, get up out of the chair to stretch several times a day or take a stroll down the hall.  If you are not one to hit the gym at the end of the work day, why not erase those dinner calories by grabbing your partner, or your pooch, or both, and walking in the neighborhood?

Swimming Is a Low Intensity Workout

Swimming is the most amazing workout ever. Not only can swimming burn more fat than just about every other exercise there is (short of climbing Everest) because it combines weight-training/muscle building with an effective cardio workout. It’s also an enjoyable workout that keeps you from sweating yourself silly. Plus, it’s oh-so-easy on the joints! And swimming does all this in a nice, pleasant low-intensity workout! You just can’t say that about any other workout. Think about it. When you go to the gym and get on one of those sweaty machines like a treadmill, you walk, walk, walk… and when you get off, not only have you spent all that time doing the same repetitive movements looking at the same walls, but you’ve also sweated yourself to a disgusting, smelly mess… and you’re in the same place you were when you started! But, when you swim, you’re gliding along in that beautiful, silky water and, instead of sweating, you actually come out feeling cooler than when you went in! Now that’s a great workout! Here are some of the health benefits and other reasons to choose a low-intensity swimming workout over any other type of workout.