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I do a lot of walking - and it is beneficial for general health.
Resistance exercising with weights (or body weight) provides functional longevity.
Doing simple tasks at home, like routine yardwork, is also beneficial. I mostly do the dishes by hand... yeah it's easier with the dishwasher, but handling the dishes & small pieces like silverware is great for dexterity and maintaining hand, wrist, and grip strength. Plus - I get my dishes cleaner by hand than the dishwasher.
Ha, I never thought of that. I mostly do my dishes by hand, also, unless I had people over and generated more dishes than usual. Good to know it's beneficial!
I do more vigorous forms of exercise, like riding my bike and hiking. I thought that would be even better than walking. Then I read an article about walking and brain plasticity.
Colorado State University did a study of 250 seniors. They were divided into 3 groups. Group 1 only did stretching and balancing exercises 3 times a week. Group 2 walked briskly 3X a week for 40 minutes. Group 3 did line dancing and choreography 3X a week (more vigorous exercise).
After 6 months, the results:
"Objectively, both the walkers and dancers were more aerobically fit. And while both cohorts now had larger white matter connections, the increase was most prominent in the walkers. Walkers also boosted their performance on memory tests whereas the dancers did not. Meanwhile, members of the control group who had not exercised aerobically at all showed thinning white matter and falling cognitive scores."
So now, I try to add one or two walks a week. Use it or lose it!
Out of all of my relatives I've seen with dementia, I don't know of any who exercised regularly or who walked regularly.
I do more vigorous forms of exercise, like riding my bike and hiking. I thought that would be even better than walking. Then I read an article about walking and brain plasticity.
Colorado State University did a study of 250 seniors. They were divided into 3 groups. Group 1 only did stretching and balancing exercises 3 times a week. Group 2 walked briskly 3X a week for 40 minutes. Group 3 did line dancing and choreography 3X a week (more vigorous exercise).
After 6 months, the results:
"Objectively, both the walkers and dancers were more aerobically fit. And while both cohorts now had larger white matter connections, the increase was most prominent in the walkers. Walkers also boosted their performance on memory tests whereas the dancers did not. Meanwhile, members of the control group who had not exercised aerobically at all showed thinning white matter and falling cognitive scores."
So now, I try to add one or two walks a week. Use it or lose it!
Out of all of my relatives I've seen with dementia, I don't know of any who exercised regularly or who walked regularly.
That's a fascinating study. I would think the dancers would have done best on memory due to concentrating more when they dance. I also believe walking outside in the sunshine is much better than inside.
I do more vigorous forms of exercise, like riding my bike and hiking. I thought that would be even better than walking. Then I read an article about walking and brain plasticity.
Colorado State University did a study of 250 seniors. They were divided into 3 groups. Group 1 only did stretching and balancing exercises 3 times a week. Group 2 walked briskly 3X a week for 40 minutes. Group 3 did line dancing and choreography 3X a week (more vigorous exercise).
After 6 months, the results:
"Objectively, both the walkers and dancers were more aerobically fit. And while both cohorts now had larger white matter connections, the increase was most prominent in the walkers. Walkers also boosted their performance on memory tests whereas the dancers did not. Meanwhile, members of the control group who had not exercised aerobically at all showed thinning white matter and falling cognitive scores."
So now, I try to add one or two walks a week. Use it or lose it!
Out of all of my relatives I've seen with dementia, I don't know of any who exercised regularly or who walked regularly.
When I go for walks, I tend to think about things and do some reflection. When I exercise rigorously, I need to be laser focused on what I'm doing. I wonder if that's the reason, more thinking. They should have had a control of people reading a book or something equivalent just to see.
That's a fascinating study. I would think the dancers would have done best on memory due to concentrating more when they dance. I also believe walking outside in the sunshine is much better than inside.
I bet the kind of dancing they did was imitate what the person teaching the class was doing. Kind of like an aerobics class, but with dance moves. So not much thought involved.
Actually, learning new dances (like bachata) requires a lot of concentration and, initially, a lot of memorization until the moves come naturally.
I do more vigorous forms of exercise, like riding my bike and hiking. I thought that would be even better than walking. Then I read an article about walking and brain plasticity.
Colorado State University did a study of 250 seniors. They were divided into 3 groups. Group 1 only did stretching and balancing exercises 3 times a week. Group 2 walked briskly 3X a week for 40 minutes. Group 3 did line dancing and choreography 3X a week (more vigorous exercise).
After 6 months, the results:
"Objectively, both the walkers and dancers were more aerobically fit. And while both cohorts now had larger white matter connections, the increase was most prominent in the walkers. Walkers also boosted their performance on memory tests whereas the dancers did not. Meanwhile, members of the control group who had not exercised aerobically at all showed thinning white matter and falling cognitive scores."
So now, I try to add one or two walks a week. Use it or lose it!
Out of all of my relatives I've seen with dementia, I don't know of any who exercised regularly or who walked regularly.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing.
I know when I started running and biking after a prolonged cancer battle of several years, I almost immediately began to regain my thought processes. I was having to use a garmin for any trips out of town or I would get lost. I also regained better speech ( especially vocabulary.) a big plus was I was able to wean myself from the anxiety meds! I love what exercise has given me back. (I basically just run 3 miles 4-5 days a week now)
Physical therapist here. I agree that walking is one of the best exercise one can do. If possible, walk sideways for a bit (“crab-walk”) as it will make the muscles on the inside and outside of your legs stronger. They rarely get exercised unless you go to a gym and consciously work on them. For older adults especially, these muscles provide lateral stability which can help prevent falls.
Living in a walkable city is so great. We recently vacationed in SoCal and walked everywhere as we had no car. I checked all the distances online so I could get an idea what kind of exercise we were getting. The Coaster train is .7 each way, grocery store was a mile each way, favorite restaurants at the harbor 1.1 mile each way and so forth. So just by general living, we walked a couple miles each day. Then, walking on the beach at sunset.
No FitBit, no earbuds, just out in Nature, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine and getting exercise to boot.
I wish we had that here at home....so I just do my exercise bike and elliptical as it's too hot to walk outside.
Living in a walkable city is so great. We recently vacationed in SoCal and walked everywhere as we had no car. I checked all the distances online so I could get an idea what kind of exercise we were getting. The Coaster train is .7 each way, grocery store was a mile each way, favorite restaurants at the harbor 1.1 mile each way and so forth. So just by general living, we walked a couple miles each day. Then, walking on the beach at sunset.
No FitBit, no earbuds, just out in Nature, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine and getting exercise to boot.
I wish we had that here at home....so I just do my exercise bike and elliptical as it's too hot to walk outside.
What town in California?
Downtown Juneau is like that- very walkable. It's easy to walk a couple miles by just going to the grocery store, post office, etc. This includes 300 ft. of fairly rapid elevation loss/gain from our location. Alternatively, a mountain valley and two separate peaks can be accessed by walking or jogging right out our door. The Mount Juneau ridge hike is the most ambitious, a long loop of about 14 miles with 3,000+ ft elevation gain. All of the mountains in SE Alaska are steep.
In Hawaii, I can easily pick up 10,000 steps (about 5 1/2 miles) simply by working the very large yard on foot, no riding equipment. Without the fitbit I'd have no idea how many steps had accumulated. Last week I did a run of 3 1/2 miles plus some yard work, etc. and picked up 20,000 steps in one day.
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