Health Benefits

Get active to look after your health

There are so many reasons to get active! Taking part in exercise can help with:

• Weight loss / maintenance (if you would like to shift a few pounds)
• Helps to reduce blood pressure (Exercise is great at reducing stress and helps to improve circulation)
• Helps improve mood (Exercise releases a happy hormone which will help to prevent mood slumps)
• Helps you to sleep better (plus have more energy in the day)
• Helps with osteoporosis and arthritis (Want to get rid of those aches and pains)
• Helps to improve your balance and stay steady on your feet
• Helps to prevent diabetes and is an ideal social opportunity.
• Plus many more health benefits

The Forever Active programme has something for everyone, whether you are 50 or 100 and whether you are fit as a fiddle or haven’t taken part in exercise or sport since school. Its time to get active and stay Forever Active!

National Guidelines – How much exercise should I be doing?

Older adults who participate in any amount of physical activity gain some health benefits, including maintenance of good physical and cognitive function. Some physical activity is better than none, and more physical activity provides greater health benefits.

You should aim to be active daily. Over a week, activity should add up to at least 150 minutes (2½ hours) of moderate intensity activity in bouts of 10 minutes or more – one way to approach this is to do 30 minutes on at least 5 days a week.

Moderate intensity physical activities will cause you to get warmer and breathe harder and their hearts to beat faster, but you should still be able to carry on a conversation.

For those who are already regularly active at moderate intensity, comparable benefits can be achieved through 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity spread across the week or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity. Vigorous intensity physical activities will cause you to get warmer and breathe much harder and your heart to beat rapidly, making it more difficult to carry on a conversation.

Older adults should also undertake physical activity to improve muscle strength on at least two days a week. Physical activities that strengthen muscles involve using body weight or working against a resistance. This should involve using all the major muscle groups.

Older adults at risk of falls should incorporate physical activity to improve balance and co ordination on at least two days a week.

All older adults should minimise the amount of time spent being sedentary (sitting) for extended periods.

For further information: Start Active, Stay Active: A report on physical activity for health from the four home countries’ Chief Medical Officers (2011).