Many people stick to one specific exercise routine and think that they are doing enough. However, recent research shows that each of us can gain marked different benefits from doing different types of exercises. These exercises should target strength, flexibility, endurance, and balance. Doing one of these for an extended period can improve your ability to do these other exercises, too. Adding variety to your exercise routine tends to reduce the chances of you getting bored or injuring yourself.
Reason 1: Endurance
When you are exercising to build up your endurance level, what you are actually trying to do is increase your heart rate. Performing endurance activities allows you to stay healthy and perform day-to-day tasks with ease. Doing endurance exercises helps improve the function of vital organs such as the heart, lungs, liver and more. Endurance exercises may even prevent common diseases such as breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and many other common ailments. Activities that help build endurance include swimming, climbing stairs, playing basketball, and even something as simple as doing yard work.
Reason 2: Strength
Building muscular strength can make a big difference in both your ability to maintain balance and keep up your endurance levels. This is because having stronger muscles allows daily tasks to become easier, from climbing stairs to carrying groceries to your apartment. Strength exercise routines involve using resistance bands or weights and are often referred to as resistance training.
Never attempt the same strength-related exercise two days in a row and try to strengthen all the major muscle groups in your body each week. When you are starting out, you should use one or two-pound weights, and in some cases, no weight whatsoever. This is because your body needs time to adjust to the resistance training. Aside from weights, you can also use bottled water with frozen water inside. You should start off with light weights and then gradually add weight each week, because starting off with weights that weigh too much may injure you. Also, you should always use smooth movements and avoid locking your joints in order to prevent any strength training injuries.
Reason 3: Balance
Balance exercises are especially important for older adults to perform in order to prevent devastating falls. A common balance exercise is known as Tai Chi, which involves shifting the body slowly while taking deep breaths. Another example is standing on one foot and then the other. If you need some support when doing this particular exercise, you should remember to hold on to something sturdy, such as a table. Try to work your way up to doing it by yourself.
Reason 4: Flexibility
Flexibility goes hand-in-hand with stretching. Becoming more flexible allows you to do tasks such as tying your shoes or bending down to pick something up with ease. A common flexibility exercise is stretching your calf. You can stretch your calves by placing one leg behind you and one leg forward, with the leg behind you as far back as you are able to place it.
