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Many people who are over 65 years of age spend an average of 10 hours or more just sitting or lying down, and this forms a sedentary lifestyle. This lifestyle is prone to causing various degenerative diseases. Therefore, doing sports is not only useful for young people who can be said to still have strong muscles. Exercise must be done by all age levels, because by exercising the immune system increases, the metabolic processes that occur in the body are getting better, and prevents the occurrence of various non-communicable diseases such as diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, obesity, and various diseases. other chronic. Even sports that are done at a later age, help to maintain fitness, make muscles, joints and tendons strong and reduce the risk of injury.
What sports can the elderly do?
Aerobic exercise
Aerobics can help the elderly to burn excess fat, lower blood pressure and bad cholesterol, and maintain flexibility and joint health, maintain heart health, and can increase the body's overall energy level. Building body strength takes time and depends on the level of activity and health status you have.
Try to start by doing simple movements like squats or sit-ups. The process of building muscle takes time, but doing exercise is very beneficial for the elderly. You can start by doing low-impact movements, such as squats (using a chair at home), tai chi, swimming, walking, cycling. If you do this regularly for at least 6 weeks, you will feel the impact on your health, such as feeling more fit and strong.
If you are 65 years of age or older, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends doing aerobic exercise for at least 150 minutes per week with moderate levels of movement intensity. Meanwhile, 75 minutes per week for high-intensity sports.
Strength train
Even if you do sports to train only a few muscles, this still has a big impact on the elderly. That way at least you are able and strong to lift groceries when shopping, climb stairs, and get out of bed or chairs. The CDC recommends strength training at least 2 times a week.
You can do this by practicing lifting something light weights, such as 500 grams or 1 kg and done regularly, 10 to 15 times each exercise. This helps you to strengthen your arm and chest muscles. In addition, push-ups, squats, or sit-ups that are very simple to do can strengthen leg muscles, back muscles, abdominal muscles, shoulder muscles, arm muscles, and chest muscles.
To make it easier for you, here are some push-up modifications that can be done:
- Stand facing the wall and leave a distance of about 30 cm from the position you are standing.
- Lean your body towards the wall and place your palms equal to your shoulders on the wall.
- Slowly bend your elbows and do a push-up motion.
- Do this 10 times.
Exercise balance
From CDC data, it is known that every year there are 2.5 million elderly people who are brought to the emergency department due to injuries due to falls. The elderly group is prone to injury from falls because their ability to balance decreases with age. However, if you practice balance it can be prevented. Yoga is a sport that can train balance in the elderly. Then what simple movements can be done to train balance in the elderly group?
Try some of these moves to work on your balance:
- Stand with your back to the chair. Try to use a strong chair to hold yourself up.
- One hand holds your waist, while resting the palm of the other on the chair behind you.
- Then bend your right leg and hold it for 10 seconds.
- Do this alternating with the left leg and repeated 9 times, if tired, you can stop for a while then continue again.
Exercise flexibility
Do you feel stiff and then it hinders your daily activities? Or have you ever felt a tight muscle in your body? If so, this indicates that you need to stretch. Stretching is something you should do every day to prevent muscle cramps or stiffness in the muscles. Before stretching, start by warming up with a leisurely walk for 3 to 5 minutes. Here are some neck stretches that you can do even when you are seated:
- Slowly turn your head to the right and hold for 10 to 30 seconds.
- Do this but change the direction to the left.
- Repeat at least 3 times.
If you haven't done the exercise in a long time and want to start doing it again then do it slowly and gradually. You can gradually build muscle endurance, muscle strength, balance, and then body flexibility. The simplest and easiest thing to do to start exercising again is to take a leisurely walk for about 5 to 10 minutes a few times a week when you walk for at least 30 minutes and do it regularly, your body is getting ready for more or more difficult exercises. much longer, because his strength and habit were already formed.
