Exercising for Longevity
Copyright (c) 2012 Rico Caveglia
Everyone knows that exercise is good for you and necessary for optimal health. However an excess of most everything can create problems. It's important to realize that strenuous exercise creates free radicals in your body and if you aren't getting proper rest and adequate nutrition you are damaging and prematurely aging your body. Also many supposedly good exercises like running and weight training can be doing your body more harm than good. If you are running multiple miles 5-6 days a week especially on asphalt or concrete, you are most likely damaging your joints and aging faster. If you are working out several times per week and lifting heavy weights overhead, you are most likely compressing your spine and tearing your body down long term. Unless you are in your twenties and training for sporting events I don't recommend doing either one if you want to age well and feel well all of your life.
The following are the exercises I recommend for feeling great and living as long as possible. Most of these exercises incorporate muscle strengthening, aerobic training, flexibility, balance, good posture and what I call Functional Fitness. Functional Fitness is basically using your own body weight as resistance as you exercise. This type of training not only helps you function better in your normal daily activities, it is easier, safer and fun to do. You can do flexibility and aerobic exercises everyday and resistance exercises 2-3 times per week.
Exercises for Longevity: • Power walking • Swimming • Cycling • Dancing • Yoga• Tai Chi . Qi Gong • Rebounding • Resistance training using your body weight such as: pushups, dips, lunges, squats and core muscle exercise. The idea here is to do exercises that do not pound your joints like running and jumping and are fairly safe to execute. Also these are all fun things to do, that you can do for your whole life, so you will be more motivated to stick with them.
It's important to take it easy at first if you are a beginner. Remember you have your whole life to get and stay in good shape, so take your time. Always be sure and warm up 5-10 minutes before any fairly intense exercise session by walking, cycling or doing whatever exercise very slowly for the warm up period.
I highly recommend consulting with a qualified, experienced trainer who can help you develop a safe and effective program that you can enjoy for a lifetime. This will definitely be one of your bests investments.
So take it easy on your body if you want to avoid injuries and live long and thrive.
About the Author
Rico Caveglia is an author of 15 books on wellness and a personal trainer for 31 years.Get your complimentart wellness training videos at :http://www.AgelessLivingLifestyle.com. He can be contacted at: ricoc@AgelessLivingLifestyle.com.
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