3 Kinds of Exercise Baby Boomers Need

To really make the most of an exercise routine, it really is important to shake up your routine and challenge your body. Baby Boomers can keep their bodies and minds in shape, enhance their functional fitness and protect themselves from injuries by incorporating 3 types of exercise into their physical fitness plan:

• Aerobic Exercise
• Strength Training
• Flexibility Training

Benefits of Aerobic Exercise:

(1) Makes the heart work harder, which in turn makes it stronger
(2) Lowers your resting heart rate and blood pressure
(3) Releases endorphins, the "feel good" brain chemicals
(4) Helps your cardiovascular system work more efficiently
(5) Helps the body use fat as a source of energy and decreases body fat
(6) Helps relieve stress and the "blues"
(7) Helps protect you from heart disease and stroke, and can help manage diabetes
(8) Increases your stamina and endurance

When doing aerobic exercise, you should be moving fast enough to increase your heart and breathing rate, and you should continue the exercise for at least 30 minutes. Include a 5 to 10 minute warm up and cool-Regular aerobic exercise should be done 3 to 5 times a week for best results.

Benefits of Strength Training:

(1) Helps increase bone strength; very important for boomer women
(2) Helps build muscle
(3) Boosts your metabolism
(4) Reduces symptoms of a wide variety of conditions: arthritis, diabetes, back pain, even depression
(5) Increases your flexibility and sense of balance, just as flexibility training does
(6) Enhances your sleep quality
(7) Makes you feel more confident and boosts energy

If you do an aerobic routine on one day, change it up by strength training the next day. You can try aerobics on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; then pump it up on Tuesday and Thursday, then give yourself a break on the week-end. It's important to give muscles a rest after strength training. Experts advise not to strength train two days in a row.

Benefits of Flexibility Training:

(1) Helps your body move more freely and prevents the loss of mobility that often comes with age.
(2) Improves your posture and sense of balance
(3) Helps you relax and de-stress muscles
(4) Helps decrease muscle soreness
(5) Reduces risk of injuries by increasing mobility and making muscles more pliable
(6) Improves your ability in other types of exercise

One thing to remember is before doing a stretching routine, do some kind of warm-up activity. Walk around while swing your arms for about 10 minutes. If you stretch cold muscles, you risk injury.

If you do a search the Internet, you'll find videos or slide shows that teach basic stretches for all parts of the body. Other options include taking Yoga or Tai Chi classes.

Eventually, as you become accustomed to your exercise routine, you should intensify your workouts in order to challenge your body and keeps it guessing. That can be done by exercising for a longer period of time, adding new exercises, or switching to interval training.

It's easy to see why all these three types of exercises have an important place in a baby boomer's fitness routine. Each of them enhances our bodies in different, yet equally important ways. Let's go for it, fellow boomers: A fit life is a happy life!

Camille Goscicki, AKA Bea Boomer
Get your daily dose of health and wellness, check out:
http://www.beaboomerswellness.com/
To read about positive aging topics, go to:
http://www.beasgraceless-aging.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Camille_Goscicki