Gym training after 60 years old and its cardiovascular benefits

Many people expressed concern that 60 years old should run or not? Recently, researchers have discovered a correlation between physical activity and the risk of heart disease in the elderly over 60 years old. Specifically, the performance of sports activities and especially gymnastics after the age of 60 will help reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

” It’s never too late to improve your health, ” says Michael Miyamoto, a cardiologist at Mission Hospital in Southern California. Accordingly, the condition for a healthy heart in the elderly is to jog for at least 1 hour a week and gym training over 60 years old is completely feasible and brings many benefits.

Jogging or exercising after 60 is good for the heart

According to the European Journal, researchers looked at more than one million people aged 60 and over, regardless of gender. All participants were screened twice between 2009-2010 and 2011-2012.

Along with the physical examination, each person will be asked a number of questions about their lifestyle and physical activity level.

From there, the researchers calculated the number of elderly people who changed between two health checks, before and after performing light-to-heavy gym workouts each week. Accordingly, more than 20% of the participants showed signs of an 11% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease after just a few weeks of exercise.

The lead author of this study is Kyuwoong Kim – a PhD student studying at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Seoul National University. ” We weren’t too surprised by our findings, the benefits of exercise in the elderly on their cardiovascular health are clear, ” said Kyuwoong Kim.

People over 60 who are inactive will increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases

Even people with disabilities or chronic diseases, after switching from inactivity to moderate or vigorous exercise at least 3 times a week will significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

“ Mobility is the key. Anyone of any age should regularly stimulate the heart and lungs to increase heart rate and breathing rate ,” said Dr. Thomas F. Boyden, Director of Preventive Cardiology at SHMG Heart Hospital (Michigan), know.

The doctor also explained, stimulating the cardiovascular and respiratory systems will reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks, strokes and reduce the likelihood of cancer. For people over 60, the condition is even more verifiable.

Meanwhile, 54% of study participants said they hit the gym at least 5 times a week before shutting down completely. As a result, this group of elderly people had an increased risk of cardiovascular problems by up to 27%.

” In short, the elderly going to the gym will significantly reduce the risk of several cardiovascular diseases ,” said Dr. Richard C. Becker, director of the Division of Cardiology at UC Health, Ohio.

This is the first time I have seen this result so clearly, the benefits of physical activity will not be maintained if someone stops exercising .

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Limitations of the study

According to Kim, this study was limited by two factors: One was the observation of changes in exercise frequency based entirely on questionnaires provided by the older population. Second, information is missing for other types of physical activity such as housework and muscle-strengthening activities.

In addition, the researchers were not able to assess why some participants changed their fitness levels.

However, the above findings have important implications for the trend of population aging in the world. “ Globally, this finding has implications for public health as well. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the world population aged 60 and over is expected to reach 2 billion by 2050, an increase of 900 million people compared to 2015 ,” Kim said.

Notes when exercising after 60 years old

According to a report from 2014 in the Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, each year around the world there are about 3.2 million deaths due to inactivity.

There are currently no specific gym guidelines for the elderly. However, hitting the gym after the age of 60 is not as complicated as you think. You can absolutely do gentle exercises for the elderly such as walking, jogging… every week.

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Experts emphasize that sedentary people need time to get used to physical activities, not training with high intensity suddenly.

You should talk to your doctor, before starting long-term physical activity. This helps your doctor figure out the route that works best for your age and health condition. Ideally, the elderly should have a doctor’s medical supervision during exercise. Staying in the gym after age 60 can significantly improve heart health. (*)

(*): Heartline / Heart health: Heart health