At fifty, many of us take stock of our lives.

We can look back on careers, friends, and family that we are proud of, but what do we want to do with our middle years?

How can we make the most of our lives?

Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of our later years, as well as the one that may have the greatest impact on our overall well-being, is our health and fitness.

How, then, can we best ensure our health and fitness into our mid and later years?

Exercise can help slow down the onset of the symptoms of aging.

The health benefits of a good exercise program are numerous.

Exercise helps maintain muscle strength and joint flexibility.

In addition, the stress put on our bones through exercise help maintain their strength and integrity.

Even our mood can be improved by staying healthy—researchers have discovered a link between exercise and a decrease in depression and anxiety.

This may be due to the increase in energy and the improved sleeping patterns among fit fifty year olds.

Of course, nothing beats exercise for battling weight gain and getting our body into the kind of shape that can still turn heads as we walk down the street.

Besides that, our blood pressure tends to drop, lowering the chance of heart disease.

Even our immune system gets a boost from regular exercise.

Believe it or not, physical activity has even been linked to improved mental function!

Think of the advantages of living a longer and a more active life.

From walking, running or cycling, to push-ups and sit-ups to actual weight lifting, at home or at the gym, each form of exercise has its own benefits to keeping you fit and strong.

This will reduce the discomfort to the joints and muscles after the exercises are done.

Similarly, after a workout, make sure and take the time to stretch and cool down.

How you decide to stay fit and healthy is up to you.

If the thought of bouncing around a gym or workout center in spandex makes you cringe, take heart.

Chair aerobics are designed to give those with mobility problems a good cardio workout without putting strain on the joints and bones.

A chair aerobics session may include kicks, punches and stretches, and often includes the use of workout bands and weights to increase strength and resistance training as the workouts get more intense.

Better heart function, lower blood pressure, increased circulation and heightened alertness, say the experts.

It’s the perfect solution if you can’t leave your desk or if you work at home and can’t get to the gym.

It’s also an excellent solution for older Americans who may not be as mobile as they once were, but who can benefit from regular exercise.

According to many recent studies, engaging in moderate exercise three to five times a week can help reduce the risk of heart disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes and arthritis.

Among the exercise that the American Physical Therapy Association recommends for seniors are golf, gardening, walking, swimming and jogging.

Water fitness classes are among the best aerobics exercises you can do, especially if you suffer from joint stiffness or arthritic pain.

Because you’re in the water, there’s no impact shock, making water exercises the ideal form of low-impact aerobic exercise.



By: Varun Pratap

About the Author:

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve” – W. Clement Stone

Like any learned skill, there are certain basics that must be mastered first. The very bedrock upon which all health and fitness achievement rests are thoughts. Everything man-made in the world or any action you’ve taken in the past all started with a thought. There is not one man-made object or goal that didn’t start as a thought in someone’s head that was then made into reality. Your toaster, your TV, your automobile, your desire for better health.

A single thought ultimately transformed into physical reality.

In order to achieve any health or fitness goal you must start with this basic concept; thoughts are things. Thoughts are the foundation upon which you build the framework for attainment of your goal. Every thought has a physical manifestation in our bodies; every thought produces physical substances called neuro-transmitting enzymes that have instant effects on how we feel and who we are at the cellular level.

Don’t believe me? Think of biting into a big, juicy lemon or think about fingernails slowly running down a chalk board and tell me you didn’t have an immediate, physical response.

Or how about a thought that changed the world?

Every day, thousands of times a day, all over the world people fly from destination to destination. It’s amazing that a person can step into a device that lifts them off the ground and flies through the air at great speed sometimes over great distances safely carrying them to their destination in a matter of minutes or hours! Only a bit over a hundred years ago that would have been considered impossible or a miracle. Yet it happens every day today and it started with a thought in someone’s head that man could fly. On December 17th, 1903 the thought that man had had for generations to fly, became reality.

That is the power of thoughts!

If you can have that kind of immediate response from such a simple thought, just imagine what you can accomplish with a focused, burning desire backed by faith and persistence!

Life isn’t fair or normal, there’s just life. But that should be a comforting thought. If life were fair all things would be equal and all people would be equal. The logical conclusion is that there could be no social movement up or down, no bettering of yourself nor worsening, no getting healthier, just stagnation. Because life isn’t fair it means you have the ability to control whether you improve your life or make it worse but at least you have the ability to make change.

What about external influences which you have no control over? Say your significant other is killed in a car accident or you become paraplegic in a skiing accident. The list could go on and on. But there is one thing you have total control over.

Viktor E. Frankl, a concentration camp survivor, put it best in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning,”

“The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose ones attitudes in any given circumstance.”

The only absolute freedom you have is choosing how you react to life. And how you choose starts with a thought.

Who you are right now is the sum total of what you’ve thought about up to this moment. If you’re not satisfied with who you are right now, the good news is who you will be from now on is entirely up to you. Change your thoughts and you can start changing yourself. If you want to lose weight or be more fit, it all starts with a thought.



By: Jeff Baker

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