LIBERTY – Exercise and physical activity are good for your health as well as improving your endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility to help you do many of your everyday activities. Both terms refer to the voluntary
movements you do that burn calories.
Physical activities help get your body moving such as gardening, walking the dog, raking leaves, and taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
Exercise is a form of physical activity that is specifically planned, structured, and repetitive such as weight training, tai chi, or an aerobics class.
Exercise and Everyday Activities Go Together
Endurance activities will make it easier for you to:
Push your grandchildren on the swings or your elder in the wheelchair
Vacuum
Rake leaves
Flexibility, or stretching, exercises make it possible for you to:
Look over your shoulder to see what’s behind you as you back the car out of the driveway
Make the bed (perhaps with your care receiver still in it)
Bend over to tie your shoes
Strength training can maintain your ability to:
Carry a full laundry basket from the basement to the second floor
Carry your smaller grandchildren
Lift bags of mulch in the garden
Assist your relative as they cautiously lower themselves from standing to sitting.
Balance exercises can help you:
Stand on tiptoe to reach something on the top shelf
Walk up and down the stairs
Walk on an uneven sidewalk without falling.
The bottom line? There are many ways to be active every day. Find something you enjoy doing, include it in your regular routine, and try to increase your level
of activity over time.
Source: Exercise & Physical Activity, Your Everyday Guide from The National Institute on Aging, http://www.nia.nih.gov
*This article is excerpted from the Winter 2009-2010 edition of the Caregiver Support Quarterly. The Caregiver Resource Center is a partnered program of Cornell Cooperative Extension & Office of the Aging of Sullivan County Joe Walsh, Director Cornell Cooperative Extension / James A. Lyttle, Director Office for the Aging. The Caregiver Support Quarterly is a free publication assisting family caregivers. Supported through grants from
The N.Y.S. Office for the Aging. Editor – Bonnie Lewis, R.N., Coordinator/Educator, bjl25@cornell.edu or (845)292-5250 ext.122.
The Catskill Chronicle 
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