Senior News Line: How much exercise do we need?

What does “vigorous physical activity” mean? Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it means the hard stuff, like playing basketball or singles tennis, or swimming laps or running, ideally for 75 minutes per week.

“Moderate intensive activity,” such as playing doubles tennis or pushing a lawn mower, requires that we double the number to 150 minutes per week. Those are the kinds of numbers that will keep the sedentary among us from even trying.

The first step would be to check in with our doctor, certainly, to make sure we can start vigorous exercise. And the second step would be to find a basketball court. At the very least, for moderate exercise, we would need a walking partner or a lawn to mow.

Leave it to the Brits to come up with a study that we can get behind. This study concluded that a mere 15 to 20 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week was associated with a 16% to 40% lower mortality. Bump that up to 50 or 57 minutes per week, and the numbers are even better.

What this says to us is that small amounts of exercise per week can add up to reduced mortality and chronic disease.

Even the CDC agrees that at least some amount of physical activity is better than none. Get out of the chair, walk around — take an exercise class for seniors.

SilverSneakers, a seniors exercise program, is available online if you have a membership. If you have a Medicare Advantage plan, see if the SilverSneakers membership is part of your plan. If so, you can attend in person in your area or sign in and watch online.

The National Institute on Aging has a section with exercise information videos for seniors at www.youtube.com/@NIHAging. Included are videos on balance, endurance, flexibility, strength and standing on one foot.

While you’re on YouTube, do a search for “exercise for seniors” and see if anything appeals to you.

It only takes a few minutes.