Is It Ever to Late to Start Exercising

When you are young you tend to be a lot more active, as opposed to when you get older. Quite why this is I dare say that nobody really knows. As time goes by we can get into habits of eating more food, and becoming very sedentary as adults.

And as a result of this become overweight. So is it really too late to start exercising no matter what age you are. It would seem that the majority of evidence points to no it isn’t. We just tend to think it isn’t something that we necessarily need to do in order to stay healthy.

Here are some statistics about which age groups do the most exercise and get their daily requirements than those who don’t. In the year 2007 72 percent of boys and 63 percent of girls, did the 60 minutes a day exercise guideline.

The girls and boys were aged between two and fifteen, as we go further up the age scale things start to look very different. Adults who were aged between 16 and 64 didn’t fare so well.

The percentages were, 40 percent for men and for women 20 percent, whom were meeting the five sessions a week 30 minutes a day requirement. But when you go up the scale further into the 65 and over then things start to go into a sharp decline. Seventeen percent of men and 13 percent of women in that age group met their daily exercise requirement.

People in their 70’s of which of these only 44 percent have some kind of exercise once a year say for example a 20 minute walk. And that is all they will do. So these results quite clearly show that, the older we get the less we tend to do as far as exercise is concerned.

So from what the above research tells us, as people get older they do less and less. So why is that ? well according to a report that was compiled which was centered around people in the over 65 years of age bracket.

The findings where a genuine lack of interest, and there wasn’t really any benefits in extending life by doing exercise on a regular basis.We tend to get into a mindset of I am too old to do this now, or “I haven’t exercised for such a long time” “I won’t be able to do it and it will be too hard”.

So the question we propose to ourselves now is, is it really ever too late to start exercising and become fit and healthy, despite the fact of how old you are. Well the evidence all points to the fact that no it isn’t. If you have had for quite some time a sedentary lifestyle, there can be huge gains if you start exercising their can be huge gains if you start exercising.

The benefits are too numerous to mention but here are a few, better bone density, more efficient cardiovascular function, better strength and endurance. One particular case to support this was a 90-year-old woman was studied, who did 12 weeks of some strength training, and as a result of this it took. Twenty years approximately off her muscle age notably her thighs. Which gave her better mobility especially when walking.

Also exercise is a good way of keeping your mental health in check as well, it relieves stress, anxiety, depression and boosts self-esteem. People can tend to have fear about exercise, in one particular case study in Scotland some people were monitored and the reasons they gave for not doing it were, shortness of breath, aching joints and a lack of energy.

These are all signs, that your body is starting to get used to what you are giving it to do, your muscles are a like elastic and if you don’t use them enough they stay in a certain position, this is what causes the aching but simply lack of use.

A lot of people don’t exercise, because of lack of self-confidence and say that they would rather do it with somebody else, rather than on their own other people cite reasons of will I be safe to go for a walk, in the park will something happened to me whilst I am there.

One of the biggest barriers really which causes this, is coming out of our comfort zone but don’t be put off of getting out of it it will be the best decision you ever making your life, there is nothing like the feeling that you get when you have done some exercise.

It is the most naturally high feeling that you will get from doing a particular activity, it really is true the old saying that is use it or lose it. Most of us tend to do aerobic exercise such things as cycling, swimming walking, these are fine but if you combine these with some strength training you will reap even more benefits. So it really isn’t too late exercise.

Quite some time ago now some interesting research came to light, where cells were put in a test-tube one set of cells was just left, and consequently stopped multiplying. Where as another set were shaken vigorously every so often and these stayed alive so there is some food for thought.

How often do you exercise ?

Do you feel that you are to old exercise ?

Is it better when you have someone to exercise with ?

Have you started exercising recently and can you tell the difference ?

It would be interesting to get some feedback on these questions just to see what peoples opinions are.

If you are having problems motivating yourself to do some exercise here are some tips:

• Don’t let fear be a barrier, to doing it set yourself a day to start and make sure it becomes part of your lifestyle. Walk to the shops instead of going in a car

• Keep a log of what you are doing this will give you a, chart of how much you are doing and when you are doing it, when you look back it will inspire you to do more. Also in your log write down how the exercise make you feel when you came back and always keep that thought in mind, this will in plant the seeds that what you are doing is good for you
• Try not to get in to the mentality of thinking this way, I suppose I’d better go and do my work out, or I might do it today, these will tell your subconscious mind that really deep down you don’t want to do it

• See a mental image of you, fitter and stronger and healthier and happier and this will take your mind towards that, if you see yourself as unfit and unhealthy then you are far more likely to end up that way

• Make your exercise enjoyable a lot of people these days use wii fit, to get their exercise, when exercise becomes something that you have to do, it seems more like a chore than something that will be of benefit to you, it won’t seem like exercise if you are enjoying it if you have an iPod but lots of your favourite music on it and the time will just fly by.

Source http://www.guardian.co.uk

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