Inquiry Question

How can a six week physical exercise health intervention improve the lifestyle of 70-year-old man?

Sub-questions:

1. How does physical exercise improve your mood/mental health?
2. Is exercise the most efficient way to lose weight?
3. What are the consequences of not being physically active?
4. How much physical exercise/activity is recommended for 70-year-old-men?

Question 1:

How does physical exercise improve your mood/mental health?

Physical exercise can improve your mood and mental health in a number of ways. One of these ways is by exercising regularly as it can have a profoundly positive impact on depression, anxiety, ADHD and many more. Regular exercise is good for you as it also relieves stress, improves memory, helps you sleep better, and which then can boost your overall mood. Most people who exercise regularly tend to do so because it gives them an enormous sense of well-being. They will feel more energetic throughout the day, have better sleeps at night, have sharper memories, and feel more relaxed and positive about themselves and their lives. Exercise is also a powerful medicine for many common mental health challenges.

Regular exercise can also help to lift your mood as it helps to boost the production of ‘feel-good’ chemicals in your brain. The “feel-good” chemicals of endorphins and serotonin are increased in your brain through the use of physical activity. This is because the chemicals helps to distract your mind from the anxious thoughts that are in your brain.

Choosing an activity that you enjoy that fits easily into your lifestyle is important, as if you don’t it can create stress. Aerobic activities such as swimming, jogging, and cycling can significantly raise your heart rate and get your blood pumping. Every little bit of any activity, no matter what you choose or what intensity level you exercise at, can be beneficial to help improve your physical and mental health.

Question 2:

Is exercise the most efficient way to lose weight?

The are serval different ways in which you can lose weight as many people choose to lose weight in a way that suits them the most. The main form of losing weight is through exercise, as exercise can help you achieve the goal of losing weight by burning off some extra calories. However, study’s suggest that “too much exercise is actually more dangerous for your heart than not being active enough.” According to the U.S Department of Health, a normal amount of exercise consists of 2.5 hours a week of moderate exercise or 1 hour 15 minutes of strenuous aerobic workouts is beneficial for your health. It is shown that too much exercise can leave you exhausted, find yourself always sick or feeling depressed, upset your sleep schedule, leave you feeling sore for days at a time, and have a short fuse. Some serious warning signs of too much exercise includes of having trouble breathing, chest pain, excessive sweating, severe dizziness, numbness and tingling, and make you overall feel off or out of it.

A new study observed 3,175 men and women over 25 years and looked into the connection between working out and atherosclerosis, which is the fat accumulation in arteries which can lead to heart attacks. This investigation revealed that “white men who exceeded three times the recommended guidelines of exercise were at a higher risk of fat building up on their arteries by the time they reach middle-age.” Cardiologist Dr. Joel Jahn told CBS News that “There is a stress reaction to long distance and long duration exercise – your cortisol is up for a long time”. Dr. Jahn advises that to reduce your cortisol levels after a long work out, you should practice stress-reducing meditation or yoga. In the end this study did find that people who didn’t exercise enough were more likely to have high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

Some people also claim that exercise isn’t effective for weight loss on its own. This is because exercise increases hunger in some people, making them eat more calories than they burned during the workout. It has been suggested that exercise may make you overestimate the number of calories you’ve burned and reward yourself with food. This can prevent weight loss and even lead to weight gain as exercise burns calories, uses up your glycogen and stimulates your appetite. When you exercise it also dehydrates you and if you don’t drink enough water before, during and after your workout, you’re going to feel hungry. According to weight-loss experts, “exercise works great for weight maintenance, but not weight loss.” Exercise is also important for decreasing belly fat, reducing your risk of heart disease and diabetes, and increasing your level of happiness. You can tame your hunger after exercising through, meal timing, meal composition, hydration, pre-workout fuel, and mindful eating.

Despite all of this there are other ways that can be used for weight loss apart from exercise. The ‘National Academy of Sports Medicine’ say that the most effective way to lose weight is to combine resistance training with aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise can burn a large number of calories in a short period of time, but burns very little extra calories after a workout. Resistance training however burns a lot of calories after a workout through a mechanism known as excessive post exercise oxygen consumption. This means if you do both resistance training and aerobic exercise you’ll burn large amounts of calories over the course of a day if you combine the two. Exercising is certainly a tedious task and is not everyone’s cup of tea. Most people cannot devote enough time for a full-fledged workout regimen, but there are some exercise alternatives that can still help you to lose weight without exercising. These alternatives incorporate of being active, counting your calorie intake, avoiding junk food, drinking water or herbal tea before each meal, avoiding late night snacks, having proper sleep, and even laughing often is considered good for losing weight without exercising.

Therefore exercise can be the most efficient way to lose weight but is sometimes not suitable for most people. Consequently there are other forms of losing weight without exercising which include of burning off calories, eating and drinking healthy, and getting good hours of sleep. When this is all considered it can turn out to be more effective than exercising.

Question 3:

What are the consequences of not being physically active?

Not matter what age you are, your physically activity plays an important part in your health and well-being. Some people may think that only sportsmen and women need to have physical activity into their lives. However everyone needs to keep their bodies working well in order to be healthy. Physical activity is necessary as it will stimulate the body’s own natural maintenance and repair system. Your bones, joints and muscles, especially your heart, will actually stay younger if you keep them busy. If you are not physically active you increase your health risks in many ways. Physical activity and exercise can have immediate and long-term health benefits, which is important as regular activity can improve your quality of life.

Therefore, there are many consequences that are considered when you are not being physically active. Your health risks can increase in many ways due to not being physically active. These health risks include of Coronary Heart Disease, strokes, high blood pressure, breathlessness, flabby body, little energy, stiff joints, osteoporosis, poor posture, overweight.

There are three main components that are considered when it comes to being healthy, which are stamina, strength and suppleness. Stamina is important for being healthy as stamina is the strength and energy that allow you to sustain physical or mental effort for long periods of time. Increasing your stamina helps you endure discomfort or stress when you’re doing an activity. Having high stamina allows you to perform your daily activities at a higher level while using less energy. You can increase your stamina through exercise, music, caffeine, yoga and meditation.

Strength training is also apart of being healthy as it increases bone density, builds a stronger heart, reduces your resting blood pressure, improves blood flow, halts muscle loss, helps control blood sugar, improves cholesterol levels, and improves your balance and coordination. Muscular strength and endurance are also important for many reasons as it raises your ability to do activities like opening doors, lifting boxes or chopping wood without getting tired and reduces the risk of injury, which can lead to healthier, stronger muscles and bones. Benefits of strength training include, increased muscle mass, stronger bones, joint flexibility, weight control, and balance.

Suppleness is considered good for being healthy as stretching your body to become more supple and flexible offers many physical benefits. Such training allows for easier and deeper movements while building strength and stability. Stretching your muscles and joints also leads to greater range of motion, improved balance, and increased flexibility. Improved flexibility produces a wide range of physical benefits and can have a positive effect on your overall well-being. Increased flexibility is likely to help you through having fewer injuries, less pain, improved posture and balance, a positive state of mind, greater strength, and improves your physical performance.

Question 4:

How much physical exercise/activity is recommended for 70-year-old-men?

It is recommended that seniors age 65 and older get at least 2.5 hours of moderate aerobic exercise every week. That averages out to about 30 minutes on most days of the week. Examples of moderate activity includes of , walking very brisk at 6 kph, cleaning heavy such as washing windows, vacuuming, mopping, mowing lawn with a power mower, bicycling light effort at 16-19 kph, badminton recreational, and tennis doubles. Apart from moderate exercise, you can also do 1 hour and 15 minutes of vigorous exercise each week. Vigorous exercise can include of, hiking, jogging at 10 kph, shovelling, carrying heavy loads, bicycling fast at 23-26 kph, basketball or soccer game, and tennis singles.

Experts say seniors should aim to be as active as possible. If you are an older adult, you can reap the many benefits of exercise to live a longer, healthier life. It is in fact safe for most adults older than 65 years of age to exercise. Even patients who have chronic illnesses can exercise safely. These include heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis. And because of exercise, many of these conditions are improved and benefit from it.

In addition, many seniors should incorporate physical activity into your daily routine. Some examples of working more activity into your day include, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking farther away from your destination, walking or biking places instead of driving, walking your dog, working in the yard, and doing light exercises while watching TV.

It is also important for seniors to warm up and cool down after and sort of exercise or physical activity. A warm-up and a cool-down both involve doing exercises at a lower intensity and slower pace. This is good ad it improves your athletic performance, prevents injuries, and helps with recovery from exercise. By doing a warm up before any physical exercise is necessary as it, improves your performance, blood flow, and oxygen efficiency, as well as having faster muscle relaxation, injury prevention, and mental preparation. A cool down is also an important part of exercising as it helps you to recover after intense exercise, and reduces delayed onset muscle soreness. Consequences of not warming up and cooling down consist of, increased risk of injury, blood pooling, and increased stress on cardiovascular system.

It is important to know what physical activity is right seniors and how long they should exercise for as it can have many benefits and defaults due to the time, length of the activity, and the before and after processes.