Exercise for Older Adults : Is It Safe for Me to Exercise?

by National Institute on Aging

(Page 3 of 12)

His Garden Grows

"My exercise focus is on gardening," Arthur Canfield, 83, of Fairfax, Virginia, told us. "I hate the thought of exercise for exercise's sake. I've never done that," he said.

Mr. Canfield grew up close to the soil. He remembers driving horses pulling hay, sometimes all day, and carrying water down to the garden on his uncle's farm. His wife grew up in a family that made its living in the wholesale florist trade, so she, too, understood gardens.

Mr. Canfield and his wife brought their lifelong affinity for gardening with them into their marriage. When they settled in Fairfax, near Mr. Canfield's job as an economist, the house they bought had about an acre of land, and they worked it - and worked it. "I didn't want to be deskbound when I became a bureaucrat. That's when I decided to become a serious gardener," he said.

Gardening, Mr. Canfield told us, gives you an opportunity to exercise every part of your body and get satisfaction out of it at the same time. He said that gardening does more than build muscle and endurance. "You have to keep your balance. You're reaching up to prune trees, bending over to check your tomato plants. The actual energy output at any given moment may not amount to much, but your whole system is participating the whole time," he said. It adds up.

Mr. Canfield lives on his own and drives himself wherever he needs to go. He works in his garden 3 or 4 hours every day.

"It's got to be fun," he said. "I like to work what I do into a rhythmic pattern. Splitting wood, chopping down trees - the rhythmic pattern of exercise is like music. You're absolutely a free spirit. You forget about it as you're doing it."

Mr. Canfield thinks that the idea of exercise sounds grim to most people - as though they have to do it, because there will be penalties if they don't.

"But raking leaves is not something you should dread; it's a joyous thing. In New England, it's as much of an event as sugaring-off the maples; it's the center of things for a while," he said.

He wants to give other older adults the following message about increasing their physical activity: "Once they start, they'll see that it builds on itself. It feels so good."

Chapter Summary

Research suggests that growing older does not mean you have to lose your strength and ability to do everyday tasks and the things you enjoy doing. But an inactive lifestyle does mean that you probably will lose some of your strength and ability, and that you will be at higher risk for diseases and disabilities. Fortunately, even many frail people can improve their health and independence by increasing their physical activity.

Challenging exercises and physical activities done regularly can help many older adults improve their health, even when done at a moderate level. They may prevent or delay a variety of diseases and disabilities associated with aging.

Is It Safe for Me to Exercise?

"Too old" and "too frail" are not, in and of themselves, reasons to prohibit physical activity. In fact, there aren't very many health reasons to keep older adults from becoming more active.

Most older people think they need their doctor's approval to start exercising. That's a good idea for some people. Your doctor can talk to you not only about whether it's all right for you to exercise but also about what can be gained from exercise.

Chronic Diseases: Not Necessarily a Barrier

Chronic diseases can't be cured, but usually they can be controlled with medications and other treatments throughout a person's life. They are common among older adults, and include diabetes, cardiovascular disease (such as high blood pressure), and arthritis, among many others.

Traditionally, exercise has been discouraged in people with certain chronic conditions. But researchers have found that exercise can actually improve some chronic conditions in most older people, as long as it's done when the condition is under control.

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is an example of a serious chronic condition common in older adults. In people with CHF, the heart can't empty its load of blood with each beat, resulting in a backup of fluid throughout the body, including the lungs. Disturbances in heart rhythm also are common in CHF. Older adults are hospitalized more often for this disease than for any other.

No one is sure why, but muscles tend to waste away badly in people with CHF, leaving them weak, sometimes to the point that they can't perform everyday tasks. No medicine has a direct muscle-strengthening effect in people with CHF, but muscle-building exercises (lifting weights, for example) can help them improve muscle strength.

Having a chronic disease like CHF probably doesn't mean you can't exercise. But it does mean that keeping in touch with your doctor is important if you do exercise. For example, some studies suggest that endurance exercises, like brisk walking, may improve how well the heart and lungs work in people with CHF, but only in people who are in a stable phase of the disease. People with CHF, like those with most chronic diseases, have periods when their disease gets better, then worse, then better again, off and on. The same endurance exercises that might help people in a stable phase of CHF could be very harmful to people who are in an unstable phase; that is, when they have fluid in their lungs or an irregular heart rhythm.

About the Author

www.nia.nih.gov
NIA, one of the 27 Institutes and Centers of NIH, leads a broad scientific effort to understand the nature of aging and to extend the healthy, active years of life. In 1974, Congress granted authority to form NIA to provide leadership in aging research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs relevant to aging and older people.