Should Seniors Walk, Jog, or Run For Aerobic Exercise?

Everybody needs some good cardio exercise, ususally through aerobic exercise, and seniors are no exception. However, many seniors may have special needs or considerations. Many simply are not sure if some forms of exercise are acceptable or may actually be dangerous for them.

While any form of senior exercise needs to be carefully scrutinized and considered, activities such as walking, jogging, and running need to be looked at a bit more carefully.

There might be many considerations, but there are two major ones that can especially concern a senior.

1. Any cardio exercise stresses the heart and cardivascular systems. After all, that's what it's supposed to do. That's why you do it.

While most healthy hearts and cardiovascular systems benefit from aerobic exercise, the condition of these is often deteriorated or comprimised in the older exerciser. This makes such an individual subject to dangerous complications from what would be an obviously healthy activity in others.

Such people could potentially be risking heart attack or stroke by exercising too strenuously.

2. Cardio exercises such as walking, running, or jogging can worsen the affects of arthritis, which is common in seniors.

However, despite this, these activities may still be valuable and viable in various forms and at various levels, and should not be left out of a senior exercise program simply as a matter of course.

Of course, any participation in such programs should be with the knowledge and blessing of the individual's doctor. Consideration should be given not only to the activity and the health status of the individual, but to their present physical condition as well.

For example, a senior exerciser with no joint problems or cardiovascular contraindications may quite reasonably participate in marathons with appropriate training. However, even they will not be able to begin exercising one day and run that marathon the next. Everyone should start low down on the ladder and gradually work their way up.

Walking is the "easiest" of the three to do, but, if done properly, can provide a great aerobic exercise. Jogging, the combination of walking and running, is a bit more intense, and running is the highest of the three.

If you have cardiac issues, you really need to get your doctor involved and maybe find some aerobic activity, such as walking or swimming, which can be done at a lower level.

But, what do you do if you have osteoarthritis or other joint pain?

Well, circuit training, a combination of short periods of resistance exercises and cardio activity may be the answer for some. A couple of drawbacks here are that if you have a condition which interferes with cardio, it may also interfere with resistance training. Also, cardio needs generally to be done almost every day, and circuit training may be a bit tough to handle that often.

Many find that elliptical trainers are good exercise machines for cardio when there is a joint issue, such as osteoarthritis, involved.

Bottom line is that finding exactly the right cardio for you is an individual "exercise"...pun intended. However, there are many ways to accomplish this, and, while you might not be able to run marathons, many will benefit from walking, jogging, or running, and many may need to opt for some alternative form of aerobic exercise.
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