forever young naturally exercise

Don’t be anxious to speed through to the part of an exercise program you believe does you most good: sit-ups perhaps or yoga backbends. It might be more useful for your muscles, joints, and commitment to spend time in relaxation at the start of a yoga class releasing tense parts of the body toward the floor, or to devote adequate time to warming up in preparation for cardio work.

If you exercise regularly, don’t be afraid to take time out for vacations and illness. Make sure you have one day of rest each week. Sometimes having a break allows us insights into new ways of working, and builds up enthusiasm when we feel jaded. If you are training very hard, for a marathon perhaps, be aware that you run the risk of depleting your immune system. In one study people who ran the Los Angeles marathon were six times more susceptible to a cold or the flu than those who exercised regularly but didn’t run the race.

It’s important to keep hydrated during exercise as you get older. Even if you drink the recommended eight glasses of water a day, drink more after taking sweaty exercise to replace lost fluids.

If you feel you do not have enough time to exercise, try writing a schedule, blocking out time in your diary for fitness sessions as you would for a work meeting or doctor’s appointment. Consider that time sacred and don’t allow anything to eat into it. You owe it to yourself, your family, and your job to be good-natured, efficient, and focused, and exercise brings all these benefits.

Stop exercising and seek medical advice if you suffer any of the following symptoms:

chest pain

back or pelvic pain

shortness of breath (mild breathlessness is good)

headaches and dizziness

muscle weakness or extreme fatigue

difficulty walking

calf pain or swelling

The most effective way to ensure you work out consistently is to choose activities that make you feel positive and confident about yourself, and to train in a place convenient to home or work. If you struggle to keep up with your class or you have to travel miles, you find you run out of the willpower you need to drag yourself off the sofa.

If you don’t find a form of exercise that suits you, you won’t stick with it. Try a few taster sessions before signing up to a course of lessons.

Try a new activity once a month: if you enjoy dance, try a ballet workshop, or go for something completely not you, such as soccer. Dare yourself to try a sport you enjoy watching but have never plucked up courage to do surfing or skating, trampolining or climbing.

Keep the mind alert by varying activities with the seasons. Enjoy outdoor exercise on light summer evenings: find a tennis partner or join a softball team. In winter, cosset yourself in a cozy yoga class or warm up with an intimate salsa session.

Bollywood to belly-dancing, samba to tango, line dancing to buttshaking street styles, dancing is the way to exercise without knowing you’re exercising. Learning and executing steps and working to complex rhythms exercises brain as well as muscles, and posture awareness becomes second nature.