Getting Lean in 2013: Part 2 ~ Functional Fitness

Exercise and physical activity are good for your health. It’s important to note that you don’t have to run a marathon or prepare yourself for the next Olympic tryouts to be physically active. In addition to improving your endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility, it can help you perform many of your daily activities. You may be surprised at how active you are already. For instance,
• Activities that make it easier for you to push your grandchildren on the swings, vacuum, or rake leaves are associated with your Endurance
• Strength training maintains your ability to carry a full laundry basket upstairs from the basement, carry your smaller grandchildren, or lift bags of mulch in the garden.
• Exercises that help you stand on tiptoes to reach something on the top shelf, walk up and down the stairs or walk on an uneven sidewalk without falling help your Balance
• Flexibility or stretching exercises make it possible for you to look over your shoulder to see what’s behind you as you back out of the driveway, make the bed, or bend over to tie your shoes.
These types of daily activities equate to what I like to refer to as “Functional Fitness”; exercise and physical activity that you can use to improve your quality of life. Translation - exercise will,
• Help maintain and improve your physical strength and fitness
• Improve your ability to do the things you want to do
• Improve your balance, mood and overall well-being
• Manage and prevent diseases like diabetes, heart disease, breast and colon cancer, and osteoporosis.
• Help reduce feelings of depression, may improve or maintain some aspects of cognitive function, such as your ability to shift quickly between tasks, plan an activity, and ignore irrelevant information. The benefits speak for themselves.