Exercise - The New You

Yes you have ‘January Good Intentions’ to do more exercise! But how do you put this into the overall context of keeping your biological age well below your actual years?

Well the simple answer is ‘just get moving’ but it needs to be well thought out to get the maximum benefit for the time and effort involved. Here are 5 things to think about.

1. Prioritise consistency and being energetic

The trouble with exercise is that it has to be a regular thing to be beneficial. So first, be consistent -  move in some way, every day of the week. Moving can be anything you like eg walking, swimming, cycling, roller skating, dancing, playing tennis, doing a yoga sequence or a quick body weight workout just to name a few options.

Blow me down with a feather- where did all that muscle go?

You know the story: “Mum’s got a bit frail… Dad has difficulty getting up the stairs, now … my folks don’t seem to be able to do much for themselves these days, it’s very sad to see”

This is frailty – a combination of loss of muscle [sarcopaenia] and loss of strength [dynopaenia] that causes adverse outcomes, eg difficulties in all activities of daily living, likelihood of osteoporosis and falls, also meaning higher risk of hospitalisation, a longer hospital length of stay and risk of re-admission if there is an illness. The final consequences are loss of independence and death sooner than might be expected. The good news is you can prevent it or recover from it.