Keeping Fit at 40
The benefits of physical activity and exercise begin at the top of your head and continue to the tips of your toes, affecting every body system in between and contributing more to your overall health and longevity than any pill or diet ever will. And studies find that your mid-30s through your 40s is a critical time period for determining whether you'll remain physically active after menopause, something you definitely want to strive for. The best reason? You'll likely live longer. One large study of older women found that exercise reduced all major causes of death in postmenopausal women.
Regular exercise lowers blood pressure, reduces levels of "bad" cholesterol while raising levels of "good" cholesterol, and slows your resting heart rate, enabling it to work more efficiently. In one study, women who walked briskly for three or more hours per week slashed their risk of heart disease 35 percent compared to women who walked less frequently.
Several studies have found that physically active women experience less intense and fewer symptoms of menopause, including the ubiquitous hot flashes. In one survey of 625 runners aged 34 to 72 (average age 51), three-quarters said running had a positive impact on menopause, one-third said it improved their mood and overall emotional status, and one-fourth said it decreased menopausal symptoms.
Physical activity also reduces your risk of colon cancer, perhaps by helping food move through the digestive tract more quickly, thus limiting the contact of cancer-causing chemicals with the cells that line the colon. It reduces the risk of kidney stones, gallstone surgery and diverticular disease. And, weight-bearing exercise, like walking, riding a bike or lifting weights, not only strengthens muscle, but also strengthens bone, helping increase bone density and prevent osteoporosis.
Exercise has numerous emotional benefits, too. It can help you fall asleep faster, sleep longer and deeper, and relieve depression. One small study found that just 30 minutes of daily walking on a treadmill at various intensities worked faster than medication to lift depression. Even if you're not depressed, the release of feel-good hormones called endorphins during physical activity can provide a euphoric feeling.
Then there are exercise's well-studied stress-reducing benefits. In study after study, aerobic exercise (i.e., walking) reduces anxiety, improves depression, helps you better cope with stress and contributes to a positive mood, self-esteem and mental functioning. Not bad for a brisk march around the block.
You can gain significant benefits in as little as 30 minutes a day of physical activity, ranging from vigorously cleaning your house to riding your bike to swimming laps. And you don't need to do it all at once; you can break your exercise into smaller increments that together add up to 30 minutes.
"Don't get all hung up about time and intensity," said Bess H. Marcus, Ph.D. "The most important way for people to be able to stick with physical activity is to be flexible in their approach-particularly women." That means walking around the block while your child is at piano practice. Doing a light jog or a brisk walk around the soccer field while your kids play. Using a 15-minute break at work to briskly walk up and down the stairs, or a free half hour at home to weed the garden or rake leaves. The important thing is to plan for the activity. "We want people to make physical activity a priority so that they write it into their schedules," said Dr. Marcus. "But people also need to be flexible enough to roll with the punches and get away from all-or-nothing thinking."
Forget high-impact aerobic classes with blaring rock music. Today's health club offerings are likely to be mellower, featuring lots of stretching, flexibility exercises and even meditation through yoga, Pilates and tai chi classes. It makes sense that health clubs are expanding in this direction, considering that those 55 and older make up the fastest-growing demographic in their membership. The stretching, increased flexibility and improved balance that are the hallmarks of these programs are particularly beneficial to older women, who often lose flexibility and balance as they age.
Physical activity can be a literal lifesaver, or at least a quality-of-life-saver, for nearly every chronic condition. The only caveat: Make sure you check with your physician before beginning any exercise program if you've been doing little more than sitting on the couch punching the remote.
Another way to push beyond a lack of motivation is to exercise with someone, experts say. It's hard to slough off your work if someone is waiting for you at the gym or on the street corner.
You should stop thinking in terms of "exercise" and think in terms of movement. For instance, if you're gardening, that counts. If you walk briskly around the mall when you're shopping rather than lollygagging, that counts. You can also fit an activity into a spot that's already taken up by a daily activity. So if you watch the news every night at 6 p.m., watch it while riding a stationary bike or walking on the treadmill. If you read the paper every morning, read it while working out on your home machine. If you'd rather spend your free time curled up with a book, get a book on tape and take it with you on a walk around the neighborhood. Many of us are masters at multitasking. We need to make sure that getting our activity in is high enough up in our thinking that it's one of the things we multitask with. Another good way to find the time is to track how you do spend your time, including any exercise you did that day. Many of us are so busy we don't remember if we walked or not.
If you're motivated by what you've read here and are ready to change your sedentary lifestyle into one filled with physical activity, follow these suggestions:
* Start slowly. One of the primary reasons people quit exercising is they overdo it early on, get injured or become frustrated when they don't see quick results. But it could take up to 12 weeks to see measurable changes.
* Warm up and cool down before and after every exercise session to prevent injury and soreness. A warm-up consists of five minutes of low-level aerobic exercise followed by mild stretches. To cool down, walk slowly until your heart rate is below 100 beats per minute. This is especially important for older women; skipping your cool-down can sharply reduce your blood pressure and cause muscle cramping.
* Rest when you're not feeling well.
* Wear the right shoes and clothing. It's worth going to a specialty athletic shoe store where employees have the expertise to make sure you get the right shoe, the right fit, for the right sport. Replace your shoes about once a year if you're a regular exerciser.
* Vary your activities. This is known as cross training. So one day you walk, the next you lift weights, the next you bicycle, and so on. It keeps you from getting bored and targets different muscle groups.
Adapted from content from the National Women's Health Report, 2002. Reproduced with permission of the National Women's Health Resource Center. 1-877-986-9472; www.healthywomen.org.
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