Let's ask which you do most often, picking up a hundred-pound box, shoveling a walk, or vacuuming the house? More than likely, it would be shovel and vacuuming. We certainly need our strength as we age, but we more than likely need endurance to keep ourselves independent and able to keep up with everyday life.
How can we do this? Through structured programs designed for the needs of people like us. It is called functional fitness, exercise that caters to our needs, helping us keep the endurance, strength, and ease of motion to finish our favorite and not so favorite activities. Range of motion exercise gently helps us maintain ease of movement in all our joints, so vital to remaining pain free. Of course, this all takes strength, but the kind that can increase through our endurance and range of motion exercises.
A word of caution when choosing a fitness program. You may see programs that advertise themselves as seated exercises and chair exercises. They sound the same, don't they? Seated exercises are just that. We can do these while sitting in a chair. Chair exercises are most often standing exercises, but you keep a chair nearby in case of loss of balance, or that little added security we often need. Evaluating our own needs and current abilities will help us choose the proper one.
There are excellent choices out there. Just make sure it is right for you at the fitness level that you are at. You'll want a program you can take part in today, with an eye to the future as your endurance and strength increase. Many of these programs are available at home.
We all want to age in our own homes, so like one famous brand says, just do it.
