Take Small Steps to Improve Heart Health

By Leslee Jaquette, guest blogger

Just taking baby steps toward heart health is a big step toward better overall health, says the American Heart Association (AHA) website. Kari Richie, health and fitness director at Springmoor, a senior living community in Raleigh, N.C., echoes that sentiment with an example.

“A 93-year-old resident scores off the charts for fitness because she is always walking and participating in cardio-aqua and walking with weights classes,” says Kari. “In the Up & Go test (stand up and walk 10-feet around a cone) she scored 5.4 seconds – that’s in the 90th percentile for her age!”

While not all of us can be poster athletes for our age group, we can improve our heart health by taking certain measures, including building up to 30 to 60 minutes of exercise every day.

Strength Training for Seniors – A Little Dab Goes a Long Way Toward Wellness

By Leslee Jaquette, guest blogger

In the “old days” women were cautioned not to work out with weights for fear they would look muscle-bound like Charlie Atlas. Men, on the other hand, might forego weight training because they didn’t want to get “too big” and their clothes might not fit.

These days those sorts of rationalizations simply fly in the face of research. For one thing, most women can’t get muscle bound due to the effects of estrogen. But more importantly, if we don’t work our muscles most of us will lose 20 to 40 percent of our muscle tissue as we age. With it go balance and the ability to easily conduct everyday tasks. Not working our bodies also spells an increase of risk for osteoporosis as well as obesity and diabetes.