LaDonna Werth, Phone: 402-336-2760 |
|
Summer is Here: Get Out and Move
Everyone wants to feel better, live longer or just improve one’s health. Physical activity can help us do that by keeping our heart and lungs healthy, building healthy bones, muscles, and joints, boosting energy, and promoting sound sleep.
Exercise has also been known to improve some disabilities and diseases. It helps enhance health and well-being while improving moods and reducing feelings of stress and anxiety. Some of the benefits of physical activity include relieving stress, sharper thinking, stronger muscles, healthier blood flow, improved relationships, enhanced coordination, and better balance.
A person can build stamina by getting 30 minutes of exercise a day that makes one breathe harder. The time can be broken up into 10-minute increments rather than all at once. These aerobic exercises improve our heart and lungs which is why even a little exercise is better for us than no exercise. But remember if you can talk without trouble, the exercise is too easy and if you cannot talk at all, it is too hard.
Activities done while sitting keep your mind sharp but after 30 minutes of sitting, we need to find a reason to move whether it is to get a drink, talk to a co-worker, or any other reason we can find to get up and get moving. While sitting, we can also build stretching and strength by working with resistance bands and weights.
Flexibility and stretching activities keep our muscles and joints moving easily. Adding balance activities to the regimen will help prevent falls. By adding weight training, we will strengthen our muscles and help make daily activities easier.
We can build exercise into our day by parking farther away and using stairs instead of elevators. We can find a friend to walk or play golf with and add music to our routines. Billboard.com has “Workout Songs” and Fitness Magazine has “100 Best Workout Songs in the World” for you to get inspiration from to create a playlist that is meaningful and that works with your exercise routines.
If you are inactive: walk whenever you can and make leisure time as active as possible.
If you are a sporadic exerciser: plan activities throughout the day and set realistic exercise goals that you know you can reach most of the time so that you do not give up when you fail to reach your goals.
If you are consistent in your daily exercise routine: limit screen time; do stretching and strengthening exercises; give your heart and lungs a workout by adding aerobic activities and continue to walk.
Source: Move Your Way Fact Sheets; Patricia Luck - UNL Food Educator and NEP Extension Associate in Dawson, and Custer Counties (UNL For Families – June 3, 2024)