Aerobic exercise is an important aspect of living a healthy lifestyle. Running, biking, swimming, and even walking can provide people with a host of health benefits that can last their entire lives. Consistent aerobic exercise not only improves cardiovascular health and performance, but can help build stronger bones, improve your sleep, and even extend your life. Older individuals stand to reap the most health benefits from aerobic exercise. As people age it is common for them to experience chronic lifestyle ailments which can severely limit their ability to live an active lifestyle. Poor heart health can make it difficult to do daily activities and chores, and weak bones can make once enjoyable things like going for a walk in the park potentially dangerous. While conditions such as cardiovascular disease, bone loss, and heart attacks are terrible problems facing older adults, these can all be mitigated through regular exercise.
Regular aerobic exercise at a moderate intensity will, over time, lower both heart rate and blood pressure. Having a high blood pressure is linked to cardiovascular disease, and is a very common ailment in the United States. Many people are prescribed hypertension medication to control their blood pressure, but exercise can be a free and just as effective remedy. In addition, regular exercise can dramatically lower one’s risk for having a heart attack (Leon, 2005). Heart attacks are often sudden and potentially lethal, and pose a serious risk to older individuals.
In addition to these heart-healthy effects, high aerobic exercise can increase bone density. One study found that high intensity aerobic exercise in postmenopausal women ages 50 to 73 increased bone density in the hip by 2.2% over a 12 month period (Welsh & Rutherford, 1996). Postmenopausal women are particularly vulnerable to dramatic bone loss which can hinder everyday living, and turn once relaxing activities into potentially dangerous tasks. This study only found this change if high impact exercises were used, such as stepping and jumping, though.
Insomnia is another condition which hinders the lives of millions of people, and it too can be mitigated through exercise. Insomnia comes in many forms, but is generally characterized by reduced amounts of sleep, and worse quality sleep that is often interrupted by bouts wakefulness. Insomnia is often difficult to treat, with sleeping medications being costly and often causing dependence.
However, one study done in the Sleep Medicine journal found that for insomniac adults age 55 and older, engaging in exercise not only improved sleep quality and length, but improved daytime functioning and reduced depressive symptoms (Reid et. al. 2010). Similar improvements in sleep have been found across all age ranges, including college students. This is yet another example of how leading a healthy lifestyle can help treat chronic health problems.
The final and most compelling reason to do aerobic exercise regularly is because it can make people live longer. By lowering the risks of having heart disease and heart attacks, and allowing people to live more active lifestyles, regular exercise can actually extend people’s life expectancy. Meeting basic exercise guidelines can increase an individual’s life expectancy by several years (Gremeaux et. al. 2012).
Aerobic activity is by far one of the best ways to live a longer, healthier life. Risks for chronic lifestyle diseases like hypertension and cardiovascular disease are dramatically cut down by 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise (just walking) on most days of the week. In addition the likelihood of suffering a heart attack decreases drastically, bone density can reach healthier levels, and even sleep can benefit. Decades of research and mountains have science have proven that regularly exercise can improve essentially every aspect of your life, including its length. The price of living a longer, healthier, happier life is just 150 minutes of movement per week, so put on some sneakers and hit the pavement today.
Source: www.sites.psu.edu
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