In addition to aerobic exercise and strength training, flexibility and balance exercises should earn a spot on your to-do list for staying young and healthy. As you get older, your muscles become less elastic and tissues around your joints get thicker, which makes movement more difficult. If you don’t take action to counteract this, you can lose 10 percent of your flexibility every ten years. Incorporating stretching into your exercise routine gives you more freedom of movement and makes daily activities like bending down, getting dressed, and reaching for something on a high shelf much easier. Staying flexible can also help you maintain balance; prevent falls; relieve chronic pain and tension; and improve circulation, mental focus, and energy. Just think about how good it feels to stretch after sitting in a chair for a long time!
Balance work is also a critical addition to your anti-aging fitness plan. Research confirms that your sense of balance declines with age, partly because of reduced muscle strength and control. The National Institute on Aging estimates that more than one-third of people age sixty-five or older fall each year. Falls and related injuries, such as breaking a hip, can limit your activities or keep you from living independently. Balance and strength exercises, particularly for your core abdominal muscles and lower body, are key to preventing falls because they give you more control over your body, keep your muscles strong, and improve your coordination.
You’ll get the most flexibility benefits by purposefully stretching your muscles at least three times a week; adding stretching sessions to your other workouts is often convenient, since your muscles are already warmed up. You should stretch all your major muscle groups: calves, quadriceps and hamstrings, hip flexors, chest, and upper back. You also can stretch your neck, shoulders, wrists, and ankles. Always warm up first, since stretching a cold muscle can raise your risk of pulling it. Don’t force the stretch or bounce, but slowly and smoothly ease into the stretch, keeping your joints slightly bent, and hold it for at least thirty seconds. Be sure to breathe normally throughout. Repeat each stretch three to five times, and try to reach a little further each time. You might feel a little discomfort as you extend your reach, but you should stop if you feel pain. You can stretch periodically throughout the day if that makes it easier to fit it in, or you can set aside a block of time to stretch your whole body. Exercises like yoga, Pilates, tai chi, and resistance stretching (a technique that over-forty Olympian Dara Torres uses in her training) combine multiple benefits of flexibility, balance, and strength.
You can do balance exercises just about anywhere, but when you start, make sure you have a wall or chair nearby in case you become unsteady. Start by supporting yourself with both hands, then remove one hand, try supporting yourself with just one finger, and finally let go. If you’re steady on your feet, you can increase the challenge by doing the exercises with your eyes closed. The National Institute on Aging recommends basic balance exercises such as standing on one foot, walking heel to toe, and walking with slow, exaggerated steps in a straight line with your arms stretched out to your sides. You can also try standing up from a seated position without using your hands, one-legged squats, and many upper-body exercises (like biceps curls) while standing on one foot. All of these exercises engage small muscles in your abdominal core to keep you upright and steady. A few fitness tools, such as stability balls, Bosu balls, wobble boards, balance disks, and even a pillow can help you improve your balance. You can do specific balance exercises on them, but doing traditional moves like crunches, squats, and push-ups with them is also beneficial because they engage your core, challenge your muscles in new ways, and make you work harder to maintain balance.