and found that the more fit men and women were, the lower their chances of developing serious health issues over 26 years of follow-up. Need more reasons? Fitness can help stop osteoporosis. 25 [Beth Orenstein for Everyday Health]
Work slowly back if you are used to high-intensity exercises. For a cold, a 1-2ish week buffer between getting back to full exercise is likely good. For more severe illnesses such as influenza or pneumonia, I would take at least 2-3 weeks after all of symptoms have subsided to work back into things with full intensity. The problem with going back to high intensity right away is that even if all of symptoms have gone away, there are still bacteria or viral loads in your body, just not enough to make you symptomatic. So high intensity exercise can depress your immune system enough to make the illness come back, sometimes even stronger than ever. Thus, it is best to be conservative with this. If you’re using a typical 3x a week type of exercise schedule, start with 20-30% of typical full workouts, and ramp up by 10% for 2-3 weeks until you reach 100%. Be conservative rather than get ill again and be out another couple of weeks . 26 [Steven Low]
Have you given up on exercise? A lot of older people do. Just one out of four people between the ages of 65 and 74 exercises regularly. Many people assume that they're too out-of-shape, or sick, or tired, or just plain old to exercise. They're wrong. “Exercise is almost always good for people of any age,” says Chhanda Dutta, PhD, chief of the Clinical Gerontology Branch at the National Institute on Aging. Exercise can help make you stronger, prevent bone loss, improve balance and coordination, lift your mood, boost your memory, and ease the symptoms of many chronic conditions. 27 [R. Morgan Griffin for WebMD]