EXERCISE FOR SENIORS
Good or bad?

Exercise for Seniors.
Believe it or not, as we age, 30 minutes of exercise once or twice a week will maintain independence, and two and a half hours of moderate exercise each week will maintain good health. It is amazing how little we need to gain benefits.

No health condition rules out all forms of exercise and even people who are completely chair-bound can improve their health and wellbeing with tailored exercise.Although exercise that is inappropriate or badly designed can be risky, since older muscle is less efficient at repairing itself and serious damage may never be repaired, scientists believe you are never too old to benefit from some form of it.

A Research into Ageing-funded study by Dr Dawn Skelton showed that people of 75 and over could improve their muscle strength by 27% in only three months as a result of regular gentle exercise. This is the same as waking up each day with legs that are 15 years younger. Even chair-bound people have been shown to improve their cardiovascular fitness, sleep and urinary urgency with regular exercise.

In fact all the research shows that older people benefit from exercise just as much as young people.

It is very important to find the types of exercise we enjoy, bearing in mind that ideally more than one type should be used in order to maximize the range of benefits obtained. The following web-pages talk about some popular forms of exercise and tell us what Research into Ageing has found that science tells us about their benefits.