Keeping Your Mind Young Through Exercise

As we all know, age is just a number, right? What does 60, 70, 80 years old mean anyway? It just means that a little extra work needs to be put into maintaining bone and muscle strength and decreasing the natural decline that occurs over the years. Studies have shown that bone mineral density for one, begins to decrease between ages of 30 and 40. Once this decrease begins, women lose roughly 8 percent of their bone mass per decade and men 3 percent. Bones are remodelled all throughout our life, so as the saying goes "use it or lose it"! All stresses that are applied to bones during physical activity are vital in maintaining bone strength and mass, so stress your bones to slow the decline process!

The same principle can be applied to our muscles and organs. Exercise is important to keep our muscles strong and our bodies mobile. By being inactive you risk developing a mountain of health conditions. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke are just a few. Unfortunately, these diagnoses don't always worry some people as much as they should, especially when medications can easily be prescribed to assist in managing these conditions. But they should be scary, as they are placing unnecessary pressure on the body, are a major cause of mortality, and they can also (much of the time) be managed or avoided with lifestyle changes (such as exercise and nutrition).

Alzheimer's disease, which is the leading cause of dementia among older adults, is a neurodegenerative disease in which brain cells are progressively destroyed. It is also another disease which has risk factors that are closely associated with reduced physical activity. Exercise has been shown to slow the progression of already established Alzheimer's disease, or even prevent the disease all together. Physically active people have a lower chance of developing Alzheimer's than inactive people. Because of the complex nature of mental health conditions, it is important to try and implement healthy exercise habits before such conditions present themselves, as it can be much harder to implement afterwards.

Being told that you need to exercise does not need to be scary at all. So what if you have never been in a gym before? You think that you have left it too late to start? If you are not one of those "gym junkie" types? If you couldn't think of anything worse than exercising? Your Exercise Physiologist can work with you to develop a plan that is realistic, do-able, specific to you, and maybe even somewhat enjoyable?! Maybe the thought of one-on-one sessions with a trainer sounds terrible to you? Or maybe the support and watchful eye of a one-on-one session is just what you need to keep you motivated and on track? Well, do you enjoy socialising in a group environment?.. Whilst exercising of course! Socialising with others is just as important in keeping us "young". Talk with others, support each other and have fun, whilst working on your own, tailored exercise program which is specific to your needs.

The Active Living classes offered by The Sports Injury Clinic are set up to lead the way to you living a healthy and happy life (and of course, keeping you "young"!!)

Call us on 9783 9990 to learn more.