Exercise and aging

Yesterday afternoon I went to see if my 95 year-old neighbor might want help with clearing the snow off of her driveway.  Much to my surprise, she had already shoveled two thirds of it herself.  Wow! She told me she shoveled a few rows at a time and then would go into the house to rest.  She wanted the exercise.

Another of her fall exercises is raking leaves.  At the beginning of December I took five large bags of her leaves to our mulch pile, since the garbage company was no longer accepting leaves. Isn't it great when one can get exercise while also doing a chore?  I  wish more of us would naturally get exercise by driving our cars less and walking or riding our bikes more.

While exercise by no means guarantees a long life, it certainly can't hurt!

Outdoor exercise has added benefits over indoor workouts

Do you want to get the most of your workout?  Well, it seems that rather than paying for a gym membership you might be better off getting a workout in the great out of doors!  An article in the New York Times, The benefits of exercising outdoors, discusses the many benefits of being outside, rather than in, while working out.

The benefits of outdoor exercise include a greater level of strenuousness, improved level of enjoyment. People walking outside versus inside experienced higher levels of vitality, enthusiasm, pleasure and self-esteem, while measuring lower levels of tension, depression and fatigue.