Maintaining an exercise program as a lifestyle is not easy despite its proven importance and health benefits. As one ages, the call for exercising is often based on preventing on battling medical breakdowns. The good news is that, even if starting later on in years, the body will respond favorably although not ideally had the regimen been in use since younger age.
For women, whose bodies are compromised by loss of estrogen in menopause, the value of working out is even more pronounced: better health, slowing deterioration, improving mood, minimizing the ill effects of hot flashes, etc.
If you are inspired to make a change to your life, regardless of how old you are, go for it NOW! You need not expensive gear nor a gym membership or a personal instructor – head out for a walk, recruit a friend to do it with you, download an exercise program, take on yoga, park your car farther than the closet parking spot, take the stairs instead of the elevator, etc. The body does not know how fancy your workout clothes are — all it does is respond to your challenging it to do more than you did the day before. What you need is a mission of health and a dose of self-discipline. The benefits will be worth it.
A recent research titled, Exercise May Boost Quality of Life Post-Menopause, is the latest contribution to this body of knowledge, surmising that
- “Menopause has become a period during which many women take the opportunity to change their lifestyle by adopting preventive and well-being-promoting activities focused on a ‘healthy living plans’ that includes healthy eating, regular exercise, and maintenance of an active family and social life…”
- “The findings support the idea of exercise as a “consequence, safe, non-drug” alternative treatment method for vasomotor symptoms stemming from menopause.”
An update to the above per a new study: “Older women who get more moderate to vigorous physical activity may be less likely to die prematurely than their counterparts who don’t get much exercise,” researchers found in a study involving some “17,700 women with an average age of 72 who were asked to wear accelerometers every day for a week.”
