fitness

Healthy living is about building and sustaining healthy habits. Now in its second year, AARP’s Healthy Living initiative has launched programs of value to consumers of all ages. Part of what makes the programs unique, however, is that they equip people ages 50+ with information and tools they can use to help them manage changes that come with age.

Information and advice on living more healthy lives, it seems, is everywhere. It’s on every platform, digital and traditional—online and print, videos and books, webinars and live seminars, network news and online features.

AARP launched its Healthy Living work this year with a Challenge: Walk 30 minutes a day for eight weeks.  Seem like a lot?  Maybe so— seem, that is.

The state of fitness among adults 50 plus doesn’t look good. According to a new AARP survey, just 1 in 5 adults gets the recommended amount of physical activity they should although they know exercise is the key to optimal health. The recommended amount of exercise is 150 minutes per week, but only 17% of Americans over age 50 say they get  the minimum and 26% don’t exercise at all.

Good news for speed walkers. Many studies have shown that walking and other exercise helps protect the brain as we age. Now a new study finds that slow walking speed may be a sign of early Alzheimer’s disease.

There were  yoga classes in California’s Silicon Valley and  line dances in Washington. There were  bocce ball matches in Rochester, N.Y., and  water volleyball games in Mason City, Iowa. But best of all, across the country, there were younger people and older people coming together to participate.

For years, doctors have recommended exercise as one of the best ways to keep our brains healthy as we age. Now new research finds that regular sustained exercise may be able to slow or even reverse the biological changes that cause dementia. What’s more, exercise may even be an effective treatment for those with Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.

Guilty as charged: I’ve grown lax about my workout program in the last few months, leading to a loss in strength and a gain in weight.

Walking. Indoor cycling. Yoga. Older Americans continue gravitating to these activities as a favorite way to burn calories, but now there’s a new kid in the town gym: It’s called high-intensity interval training, and it seems destined to become a HIIT.

The sandwich generation — those of us (usually women over 45) squeezed by the competing demands of kids, aging parents, work, community, romantic partner and so on — rarely have time to think about the things that will make us feel fit and stylish.