Dance Exercise for Seniors

It is important for everyone--including seniors--to find and enjoy a fitness routine. For senior citizens, low-impact dance can be a fun and healthy way to add exercise while enjoying a social atmosphere.

Choose Your Dance

Types of dancing for seniors are ballroom dancing, tap dancing and square dancing. These kinds of low-impact dances are not only fun, but they strike a sentimental chord with seniors. And they allow everyone to interact in a lively and social way, without causing too much stress on aging joints.

Livestrong.com (Lance Armstrong's exercise-focused group) describes the dances as follows:

• Ballroom dancing may bring back a memory from the past that makes it enjoyable and sentimental.

• Tap dancing is their chance to stomp it out on the dance floor, while improving their coordination and balance.

• Square dancing is a dance type that engages the seniors as couples working with a group. Many seniors belong to square dance clubs which travel to dance conventions where they meet and dance with other seniors enjoying life.

"Dancing is a great way for seniors to get more cardiovascular exercise in their lives," report experts from Livestrong. "The movement of the dances improves their circulation, lowers blood pressure, reduces stress and eases tension. In addition, dancing helps seniors become heart healthy."

Chair Dancing

Another great way to utilize dance as a senior is to do the "Chair Dance" workout. This program developed by Jodi Stolove allows seniors to groove to the music without leaving their chairs. The workout can help coordination and offers a fun activity for those who may not be so sure on their feet. Stolove tells seniors that this fun and upbeat low-impact workout can be done at any time of day and requires no aerobic ability.

All dances improve cardiovascular circulation, and the movements, and especially the camaraderie in a class setting, have been known to lift the spirits of participants.

Many local gyms and senior citizen clubs offer dance classes. To find one that suits you, check with your local organizations catering to seniors. If a dance class isn't offered--start your own!

Source:http://www.ehow.com/way_5661884_dance-exercise-seniors.html

EXERCISE BENEFITS

• strengthens your heart and lungs

• can lower your blood pressure

• helps protect against the start of adult-onset diabetes

• can strengthen your bones, slowing down the process of osteoporosis

• helps you move about more easily by keeping joints, tendons, and ligaments more flexible

• can help you lose weight (when combined with good eating habits) or maintain ideal weight by burning excess calories and by helping to control your appetite

• improves your appearance and self-confidence

• contributes to good mental health by keeping you socially active

• contributes to sleeping better

• promotes a sense of well-being

• helps to keep you "regular," and improves digestion

Source:

http://seniors-site.com/sports/exercise.html

Senior Citizens Live Longer, Healthier, Happier Lives if They Exercise, Study Finds

Physical activity may delay the spiral of decline that begins with inability to perform daily activities and continues through illness and death

Senior citizens who exercise – even if they start as late as age 85 – live longer, healthier, happier lives, according to a report in the September 14 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

"Physical activity is a modifiable behavior associated with health, functional status and longevity, and encouraging a physically active lifestyle has become an accepted public health goal," the authors write as background information in the article.

However, most research on the benefits of physical activity has focused on middle-aged populations. Jochanan Stessman, M.D., and colleagues at Hebrew University Medical Center and Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, studied 1,861 individuals born in 1920 and 1921. Participants underwent assessments in their homes at ages 70, 78 and 85 years, during which they were asked about their physical activity levels.

Those who performed less than four hours per week of physical activity were considered sedentary, while those who exercised about four hours weekly, performed vigorous activities such as jogging or swimming at least twice weekly or who engaged in regular physical activity (for example, walking at least an hour daily) were considered physically active.

The proportion of participants who were physically active was -

● 53.4 percent at age 70,
● 76.9 percent at age 77 and
● 64 percent at age 85.

When compared with those who were sedentary, individuals who were physically active were -

● 12 percent less likely to die between ages 70 and 78,
● 15 percent less likely to die between ages 78 and 85 and
● 17 percent less likely to die between ages 85 and 88.

They were also more likely to remain independent and experienced fewer declines in their ability to perform daily tasks.

These active seniors also reported fewer new instances of loneliness -

● 12.2 percent vs. 22.6 percent from ages 70 to 78 and
● 26.5 percent vs. 44.1 percent from ages 78 to 85.

They also were less likely to have poor self-rated health -

● 77.3 percent vs. 63.3 percent from ages 70 to 78 and
● 63.8 percent vs. 82.6 percent from ages 78 to 85.

The benefits associated with physical activity were observed not only in those who maintained an existing level of physical activity, but also in those who began exercising between ages 70 and 85.

"Although the mechanism of the survival benefit is most likely multifactorial, one important finding was the sustained protective effect of physical activity against functional decline," the authors write.

Physical activity may delay the spiral of decline that begins with inability to perform daily activities and continues through illness and death by improving cardiovascular fitness, slowing loss of muscle mass, reducing fat, improving immunity and suppressing inflammation.

"Despite the increasing likelihood of comorbidity, frailty, dependence and ever-shortening life expectancy, remaining and even starting to be physically active increases the likelihood of living longer and staying functionally independent," the authors write.

"The clinical ramifications are far reaching. As this rapidly growing sector of the population assumes a prominent position in preventive and public health measures, our findings clearly support the continued encouragement of physical activity, even among the oldest old. Indeed, it seems that it is never too late to start."

Source:

http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Fitness/2009/20090914-SenCitLiveLongerHealthier.htm

Senior Citizen Exercise Appears to Prevent, Improve Mild Cognitive Impairment

Moderate exercise in late life for men and woman was associated with a 32% reduction in the odds of developing cognitive impairment.

Moderate physical activity performed in midlife or even as a senior citizen appears to be associated with a reduced risk of mild cognitive impairment, whereas a six-month high-intensity aerobic exercise program may improve cognitive function in individuals who already have the condition, according to two reports in the January issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Mild cognitive impairment is an intermediate state between the normal thinking, learning and memory changes that occur with age and dementia, according to background information in one of the articles. Each year, 10 percent to 15 percent of individuals with mild cognitive impairment will develop dementia, as compared with 1 percent to 2 percent of the general population.

Previous studies in animals and humans have suggested that exercise may improve cognitive function.In one article, Laura D. Baker, Ph.D., of the University of Washington and Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, and colleagues report the results of a randomized, controlled clinical trial involving 33 adults with mild cognitive impairment (17 women, average age 70).

A group of 23 were randomly assigned to an aerobic exercise group and exercised at high intensity levels under the supervision of a trainer for 45 to 60 minutes per day, four days per week.The control group of 10 individuals performed supervised stretching exercises according to the same schedule but kept their heart rate low. Fitness testing, body fat analysis, blood tests of metabolic markers and cognitive functions were assessed before, during and after the six-month trial.

A total of 29 participants completed the study. Overall, the patients in the high-intensity aerobic exercise group experienced improved cognitive function compared with those in the control group.These effects were more pronounced in women than in men, despite similar increases in fitness. The sex differences may be related to the metabolic effects of exercise, as changes to the body's use and production of insulin, glucose and the stress hormone cortisol differed in men and women.
"Aerobic exercise is a cost-effective practice that is associated with numerous physical benefits. The results of this study suggest that exercise also provides a cognitive benefit for some adults with mild cognitive impairment," the authors conclude.

"Six months of a behavioral intervention involving regular intervals of increased heart rate was sufficient to improve cognitive performance for an at-risk group without the cost and adverse effects associated with most pharmaceutical therapies."

In another report, Yonas E. Geda, M.D., M.Sc., and colleagues at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., studied 1,324 individuals without dementia who were part of the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging. Participants completed a physical exercise questionnaire between 2006 and 2008. They were then assessed by an expert consensus panel, who classified each as having normal cognition or mild cognitive impairment.

A total of 198 participants (median or midpoint age, 83 years) were determined to have mild cognitive impairment and 1,126 (median age 80) had normal cognition. Those who reported performing moderate exercise—such as brisk walking, aerobics, yoga, strength training or swimming—during midlife or late life were less likely to have mild cognitive impairment.

Midlife moderate exercise was associated with 39 percent reduction in the odds of developing the condition, and moderate exercise in late life was associated with a 32 percent reduction. The findings were consistent among men and women.

Light exercise (such as bowling, slow dancing or golfing with a cart) or vigorous exercise (including jogging, skiing and racquetball) were not independently associated with reduced risk for mild cognitive impairment.

Physical exercise may protect against mild cognitive impairment via the production of nerve-protecting compounds, greater blood flow to the brain, improved development and survival of neurons and the decreased risk of heart and blood vessel diseases, the authors note.

"A second possibility is that physical exercise may be a marker for a healthy lifestyle," they write. "A subject who engages in regular physical exercise may also show the same type of discipline in dietary habits, accident prevention, adherence to preventive intervention, compliance with medical care and similar health-promoting behaviors."

Future study is needed to confirm whether exercise is associated with the decreased risk of mild cognitive impairment and provide additional information on cause and effect relationships, they conclude.

Source:http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Fitness/2010/20100111-SenCitExerciseAppears.htm