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Senior Fitness Tips Continued..

Senior Fitness Tip #2

Start Slow

Remember it took you 40 plus years to get where you are today so don’t expect to lose tons of weight and get fit overnight.

If you have led a sedentary life for many years, then it will take some time to get used to being more active. Buy a good pair of walking shoes and start taking leisurely to moderate speed walks as a start.

Once you have broken in your new shoes and feel that you are ready, step it up to a brisk walk. Be sure you are walking correctly in order to minimize shin splints and joint soreness.

Check out this article on Walking for Exercise to learn more.

Mix up your exercise choices by adding something new and fun. Water aerobics is a great senior fitness exercise. Or try something you enjoy like gardening, golfing or even bowling. Here are even more fun activities that burn calories.

If you don’t always have time for the golf course or the bowling alley, try getting fit with Wii. Video games have come a long way since we were young. Gaming has gone virtual and gets you up and moving. Try playing Wii golf or Wii fit.

Senior Fitness Tip #3

Strength Training for Seniors

Getting up and active is the first step to getting fit for seniors. But don’t just limit your activity to aerobic exercises. Add some strength training to your weekly workouts. Strength training is not just for body builders. More and more seniors are picking up the weights and getting fit with strength training.

Building lean muscle not only helps you get fit but has many health benefits as well. Strength training helps lower the bad cholesterol and raises the good. You also get the benefit of increased bone mineral density and overall increase in strength. But the benefits don’t stop here. Be sure to check out all the benefits of strength training.

Senior Fitness Tip #4

Check Your Calories

Have you noticed that you are getting the “middle aged” spread? Well welcome to the 40 plus age. No longer can we eat what we ate just 5 or 10 years ago.

Remember, your metabolism has slowed down which means you need to consume fewer calories in order to just maintain your weight, let alone lose weight. You may have been able to eat what you wanted in the past, but now it's time to make changes.

It's time to make some changes in your calorie consumption. This may not seem fair but it's what we have to deal with.

Adjust your food intake and lower the calories if needed. Double check your calorie needs with this free online weight loss calculator. This calculator will give you your calorie consumption for maintaining your weight as well as recommended calories for losing 1 pound a week.

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Buy Kit Online

Here's a senior fitness kit that includes the test manual and the fitness test software. In the past most physical fitness tests have been geared towards the younger crowd. The updated Senior Fitness Test Kit addresses this problem and is geared towards senior adults.

It is a simple, easy-to-use battery of test items that assess the functional fitness of older adults. The test is safe and enjoyable meets scientific standards for reliability and validity, and it has accompanying performance norms based on actual performance scores of over 7,000 men and women between the ages of 60 and 94.