by Niki Bezzant
Many of us have grown up with the idea that cardio exercise is king. We’re used to focusing on the quantity of exercise we do. We’re big walkers; we’re always out there plodding away, or catching up with girlfriends over an urban hike and a coffee.
Official recommendations for everyone are to get 150 minutes a week – so about 20 minutes a day – of moderate-intensity exercise. That’s achievable for most of us if we break it up into chunks; 10 minutes here, 5 minutes there. Everything counts; the main thing is: just move! The benefits of exercise are firmly established in science: it’s great for mental health; sleep; stress; bone health; body composition and lowering the risk for many diseases.
There’s new and important evidence emerging that doing resistance training – exercise that helps build and maintain muscle – is perhaps even more important for boosting our long-term health and longevity. That could be body-weight exercises like squats, lunges or push-ups, or training with weights. You’ll probably be doing some resistance exercise as part of your Flexercise classes.
It’s important because we lose muscle mass as we age (from about age 30!) so it’s a ‘use it or lose it’ situation: if we don’t work our muscles, we will very likely get weaker, and that has consequences for our overall health. It’s never too late to start doing resistance work – and you’ll find you feel so good as you get stronger, you’ll want to keep it going!
Whatever exercise you do, keep at it; consistency is key, so choose something you enjoy and just keep going! Your body and brain will thank you.
Niki Bezzant is a journalist and author specializing in women’s health. Find Niki at www.nikibezzant.com