Reducing Wear and Tear

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

21 Sep 2006 02:32 PM

The older we get, the more wear and tear there is on our bodies. Feeling stiff? Weak? Weighed down? Here are some tips for reducing wear and tear and feeling young again.

From stiff to limber

Our daily lives conspire to make us feel stiff and rickety. Do you drive to work in the morning and home in the evening? Do you sit at a desk all day? All the non-moving stuff we do all day makes our muscles shorter. The shorter muscles and tendons get, the less range of motion you'll have.

Don't mistake your stiffness and pain for arthritis. However, your awkward motion -- in order to avoid the pain and stiffness -- can put stress on your joints that leads to arthritis.

Gently stretching through the pain of stiff muscles and returning to a natural range of motion will help you avoid arthritis. Try yoga to add more stretching to your workout! The gentle stretching of yoga will help ease you through the aches and pains. Your joints will become more stable as your muscles become stronger and more flexible. And as an added benefit, you'll enjoy better balance and more muscle elasticity.

From weak to strong

Starting around the age of forty, we begin to lose muscle. By the age of eighty, a body has lost approximately forty percent of total muscle mass. So how do you hold off this decline? Weight training. Building new muscle can help protect your joints.

From burdened to healthy

The more weight you carry, the harder it will be on your body. Extra pounds mean extra stress (and more pain) on your joints. However, this also means that trying to lose the extra weight through vigorous physical activity is going to be a challenge. Look for low or no impact exercises like walking, bicycling, tai-chi, and swimming to keep the stress off your joints.

Visit the fitness blog for tips on healthy exercise. Visit the weight loss blog to learn more about losing weight.

Learn more about Aimee Amodio

Aimee is a fiction writer... dog lover... music lover...

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