Seniors For Living

This guest blog post is contributed by Boomerater, a free online resource for Baby Boomers helping you find everything from advice on where to retire to the best vacations for seniors. Seniors for Living contributes its properties to Boomerater’s Assisted Living directory.

A new Q&A discussion from Boomerater’s forums appears here each Friday. In this week’s post, members share their ideas about having fun while staying fit.

As we get older it often gets harder to stay in shape. Particularly during retirement, the day-to-day physical demands of our jobs are often replaced with more passive activities. Getting enough physical activity can be a challenge, so why not make it entertaining? Even if you can’t afford a membership at a spa, gym or fitness center, there are a number of ways Boomerater members have found to make fitness fun. And the more fun it is, the more likely that you’ll stick with it!

“I’m 56 and work from home and know I’m not getting enough physical activity,” a Boomerater member wrote. “I’ve heard that some of the new video games have fitness programs. I wouldn’t mind investing in one if they really work without getting too monotonous. Also interested in good tapes or TV fitness shows that are geared toward the 50s crowd. I’d like to hear of any ideas for ways to stay fit without going to a gym.”

Other members shared their tips:

Reply #1: Wii Fit is a good one to try. I’ve played it with my granddaughters and I will tell you that it kept me entertained as well as huffing for air. It has yoga training and different “games” that make exercising fun. It combines basics (tracking your weight, balance) with strength training, yoga, and games that help you work on balance and coordination. After taking your BMI, weight and balance readings, it calculates your “Wii Fit Age” which varies from day to day. You create a “Mii” that’s also used for other Wii games, and you get to choose a male or female trainer (I thought the woman was kind of mean and bossy, so I switched to the man).

Besides chiding you for not doing it enough, it also provides helpful reminders (“Did you know that Dad’s birthday is in 3 days? Have you considered doing something special like a surprise party?”).

I love “competing” against my family on the ski jump game to see who can go the farthest. The tightrope game is a bit nerve wracking but fun. It also rewards you at different levels by unlocking new games to add to your routine. Yoga is relaxing and challenging, and the strength training exercises are actually challenging.

Reply #2

A few years ago I found the flashing lights and pounding music at my gym’s exercise classes really beginning to bug me, so I looked into home video exercises tapes, and found Collage Video.

They are real experts on exercise tapes and DVDs for all ages, fitness levels, etc. In addition to Kathy Smith, Denise Austin and other well known exercise series, Collage has a great selection of videos including dance for fitness, seated exercise, programs tailored to “senior” exercise, arthritis, back pain etc. The web site lets you search by lots of options and the listing for each video are quite detailed. But what I really like about Collage is how knowledgeable and pleasant the customer service people are. When you call, you get actually get a real live person on the phone! And one who is really knowledgeable about what’s on each different tape, can match you with a single tape or series to fit your needs, likes (or music dislikes!), they are friendly and don’t look down their nose at you if you aren’t a 20 something year old looking to perfect your six pack!

Add your own advice and find out what others had to say about fun ways to keep fit on Boomerater.com.