Over the last few weeks we discussed how nutrition impacts your long term health and your need for long term care. Today I want to start talking about how you can manage your health using exercise. I want to note here that staying healthy requires both good nutrition and exercise. To get the most benefits from your nutritional efforts you need to exercise and to get the most benefits from your workouts you need a healthy diet.
There are two main forms of exercise, low impact and high impact. Low impact exercise is exercise that doesn’t involve a lot of impact on your joints. Low impact exercise includes things like walking, weight lifting, biking and swimming. Low impact exercise is great for people who have arthritis, who are overweight right now and for people with joint issues.
High impact exercise, on the other hand, does involve jarring movements to the joints. Running, contact sports, jump rope, vaulting, various forms of gymnastics, basketball and baseball are all high impact activities. High impact exercise burns calories because of the intensity of the exercise, however, they also can cause joint problems and stress injuries. If you have low bone density, joint problems or other similar health concerns, then it is a good idea to talk with your doctor about what exercise is right for you.
Your body doesn’t know if you spend 60 minutes walking four miles or if you walk one mile at fifteen minutes per mile four different times throughout the day. The results are the same. This means that you can split up your exercise sessions through your day when you have a little extra time to work with.
Getting healthy is the best way to improve your long term health. As a healthier adult you will reduce your need for long term care and you will reduce how much you spend on long term care health insurance.
