It is highly important that you continue to stay physically active as you age in order to maintain good health. For many seniors, beginning or continuing a workout routine can be quite challenging. The good news is, many hobbies and activities that seniors enjoy are great at keeping them physically active.
Leisure-activities such as gardening or golf are all good ways to promote a person’s fitness level. Furthermore, with a few tweaks, these simple everyday hobbies can become serious calorie-burning exercises.
Advertisement
Here are some tips on how you can turn your favorite activities into more intense workouts.
Tips to turn leisure activities into fitness activities
- When golfing, skip the golf cart and walk from green to green. The average golf course will have you walking four miles.
- If possible, carry and pull your own golf clubs.
- Avoid filling up on a heavy meal mid or post-golf session. Stick to a well-balanced meal instead.
- Prior to golfing, ensure you are stretching to reduce the risk of injury.
- When at home, gardening can burn up to 300 calories.
- Use a push lawn mower rather than a power mower to increase resistance and help tone your upper body.
- Planting a garden will ensure you are getting outside more often. Planting and tending to a garden targets the glutes and thighs—an area that becomes weak due to our prolonged sitting habits.
- It will also ensure that you eat healthier, as you will have ready-to-eat produce at your disposal.
- Always maintain good posture while gardening, and if something doesn’t feel right, avoid that movement or stance.
These tips can help you get more out of golfing and gardening, which are popular habits among older adults. They may not seem like much, but they are actually just enough to get you to burn calories and improve your fitness.
Related: Brief stair climbing is a good way to boost fitness
Mohan Garikiparithi got his degree in medicine from Osmania University (University of Health Sciences). He practiced clinical medicine for over a decade before he shifted his focus to the field of health communications. During his active practice he served as the head of the Dept. of Microbiology in a diagnostic centre in India. On a three-year communications program in Germany, Mohan developed a keen interest in German Medicine (Homoeopathy), and other alternative systems of medicine. He now advocates treating different medical conditions without the use of traditional drugs. An ardent squash player, Mohan believes in the importance of fitness and wellness.
