Exercises for the 70 years young crowd

You are never too old to obtain a positive result from exercise. Whether you are over 50 or over 70 years young, if you have not been exercising regularly, starting a daily exercise program can help you to reduce your risk for chronic disease and enhance the quality of your life. Studies have shown that regular exercise by middle aged & elderly people can set back the clock 20-40 years when compared to those who do little or no exercise.

Dr. Everett L. Smith, director of the Biogerontology Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin compared bone loss among women in their 80's. With those women that did seated exercises for 30 minutes, 3 times a week for 3 years, bone mineral actually increased nearly 3 percent, whereas in a similar group of inactive women, bone loss averaged a little over 3 percent.

Walking daily is a great exercise for the over 70 crowd. Here are a few exercises you can do while sitting down to increase your cardio muscles and overall health.

Sitting in a chair and raising your arms up and down with 1 pound weights if you are a woman or 2 pound weights if you are a man.
Sitting in a chair and raising your legs up and down.
Sitting in a chair and bending down to touch your head in your lap stretching your hands toward the floor.
Sitting in a chair and twisting your upper body back and forth at the waist.
Sitting in a chair and pulling a 2 foot piece of rope or a rolled up towel, back and forth with your arms resisting with one arm against the other.