How At-Home Exercise Boosts Immunity for the Elderly

At-Home Exercise Boosts Immunity

Most physical activity tracking apps are showing considerable decrease in exercise during the past month and it’s no wonder. With current restrictions caused by the pandemic, most of us don’t even reach the recommended daily step target – not to mention we can’t follow our usual gym routine either.

Honestly, I’ve been struggling with the same issues myself. What convinced me to start moving was what a big impact exercising has on our health (and, of course, immunity) especially since the elderly are at risk right now.

Improving cardiorespiratory fitness

Improving what?! That was my question too initially. In simple words, cardiorespiratory fitness is an indicator of our health in general, like how well the heart pumps the blood or how efficiently the lungs send oxygen to the heart while we’re moving.

A training study performed by Jere H. Mitchell, MD, put 5 healthy people to bed rest for three weeks. After just 21 days, their cardiorespiratory fitness decreased by a whopping 27%, which only emphasizes how important even the easiest physical activity is for our health.

Exercise tips for the elderly

Regardless if you’ve been exercising all along or not, there’s always room to be more efficient by performing physical activities at home. Here are some tips that helped me so far:

1. Set a goal to have 30 minutes of exercise a day, but not all at once; you can do fifteen minutes of yoga in the morning, another fifteen riding the exercise bike in the afternoon and so on. This helps you do more types of activities in an easier way;
2. Make a schedule, because quarantine tends to bend the rules of time and might make us all lazier;
3. Use every opportunity to get moving. Be creative and set rules like walking around the house every time you talk on the phone – it really helps;

The best thing we can do right now is to use every tool to improve our immunity and stay as healthy as possible. By the way, did you know that vitamin D can actually control how your immune cells work? In this post I explain how to use this simple nutrient to help your body fight off disease, so enjoy your read and stay safe!