OhioHealth Medical Minute: Exercise at Any Age
We know that exercising is crtically important to long term health. The good news is, you can jump start a plan at any age, but you need to do it right to avoid injury. In this OhioHealth Medical Minute, Amy Kleski, general manager of the OhioHealth McConnell Heart Health Center, breaks it down.
MT: “Hello once again, everyone. Thanks for joining us for another OhioHealth Medical Minute. My name is Marcus Thorpe, happy to be joined by Amy Klesky, who’s the general manager of the McConnell Heart Health Center. Thanks for joining us, Amy. Good to see you.”
AK: “Thanks for having me.”
MT: “All right, so we’re talking about a really important topic. It’s exercise, but exercise at all ages and stages of their life. I know it’s different for everybody, depending on where they are in their journey. Let’s talk about that. Not every exercise is created equally. Tell me a little bit about that.”
AK: “So, generally, what’s recommended for every age group is going to be at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity. That’s really not going to change. Really more what’s going to be personalized is what you’re capable of doing.”
MT: “All right, so now we know that all exercise is not created equal. Let’s talk about the right way to do it at different ages of life. Teens and 20s, you’re very flexible, you’re very energetic… What should people be doing at that point in their life?”
AK: “With teens and 20's, that’s really where we recommend getting that exercise routine established because that’s going to make it easier as you get older. It feels like you’re time is more demanded with family and career. If you have these habits established when you’re younger, you’re able to maintain that as you get older. You do have a little bit more higher capacity for higher intensity exercise, but we really encourage people in their 20s to make sure that flexibility and mobility training is part of their exercise routine as well because that will help with recovery and avoiding injury.”
MT: “All right, so our teens and 20s are gone. Now we’re thinking 30s and 40s. What’s the next evolution?”
AK: “Most of us will peak in physical condition when we’re in our 20s. That’s not necessarily the case for everyone, but generally, that’s normal. With 30s and 40s, I think it’s really just trying to adapt to a little bit of a new normal, and recognizing that you have to be a little more cognizant of higher intensity exercise. We still encourage it with this age range, but a lot of times at this point in life, career and family are taking up more of your time. We may find it harder to get those longer bouts of exercise in. Trying to get in even 20 minutes a day is helpful, so that’s where that higher intensity does play a part, but again, making sure that flexibility and mobility training is part of your routine is important.”
MT: “Now we’ve graduated from that stage of our life. We’re now talking 50s and over, and it really changes for people here that want to not only maintain, but also stay healthy in their later stages of life.”
AK: “When we’re in our 50s and 60s, even 70s, we want to think about maybe looking at how higher intensity exercise may not be as doable, but we really want to maintain that moderate intensity exercise, so three to five days a week with that. We also really want to incorporate some balance training and flexibility training because we do start to see more falls as we get older, so fear of falling starts to creep in. Having that balance training is vitally important.”
MT: “Amy, great information. Thanks very much.”
AK: “All right, thanks for having me.”
MT: “And if you’d like more information about what’s happening here at the McConnell Heart Health Center, you can go to ohiohealth.com. We’ve also put the link right here in the description of the story. And also check out the story from 10TV on the most recent HOOFIt. I’m Marcus Thorpe. Thanks for joining us for this OhioHealth Medical Minute.”
Interested in learning more about preventing injury as you age? Check out the series on the OhioHealth Blog.
