You would be surprised but we in our golden years can become our worst enemy when it comes to regular exercise. Although attitudes amongst us are changing, older Americans often pass off regular exercise as an activity that is something for the young. Regular exercise will help us in every facet of our life both mentally and physically. Exercise has the power to improve the quality of our life and extended our life span. To begin a life of exercise and reap the rewards we must understand the benefits, strategize to stay on task, and the different type of exercise that complements us in our later years.

What are the benefits of exercise? Well I could spend an hour just reviewing the numerous benefits of regular exercise, but today I will just review some key benefits.

1. Improves the ability to do daily activities

2. Reduces depression

3. Releases endorphins which are a natural pain killer

4. Weight control

5. Gives you more energy

6. Improves sleep

7. Improves ones self-esteem and well-being

As you can see there are some good practical reasons to motivate us to exercise on a regular basis, often we sometime mistake the purpose of exercise as the pursuit of looking good, although yes it can serve that purpose, but it should rather be viewed as natures true medicine for happiness and health.

Starting an exercise routine and maintaining an exercise routine are two entirely different concepts. So many of us get so jazzed up to begin our mission of good health and slender bodies that we start off too fast and too in-depth which results in failure and causes us to give up, I recommend that you start off slow, and work your way slowly to more challenging routines. Starting off slow allows your body to adjust to your exercise program as opposed to starting off too strong and possibly pulling a muscle or causing a sprain which will temporarily end your hopes of good health and cause you to become unmotivated toward future ventures of exercise.

As you begin you will find that there are several types of exercises that you can take-up, but they can be all categorized into three types.

1. Aerobic activities: Walking, jogging, and tennis

2. Strength building: Weight lifting

3. Flexibility: Yoga

By far the most effective exercise for us in our older years are walking, swimming, and yoga.

Be aware of taking on too much of strenuous activities, you always want to protect your joints and bones from injury, so when becoming fully engaged into your exercise program, you must get to know your body and learn the differences between sore muscle after exercise and pain that may be a result of damage to your joints