Our bodies are designed to move. When you study its composition, you’ll notice that every strand of muscle has its own duty to perform specifically when moving. Even as simple as typing words over your keyboard, you are using muscles to do the job. When you perform everyday tasks, it becomes harder to recognize the importance of these muscles since it comes naturally as reflex but in reality, it is the mind-and-body coordination at work. For younger adults, moving comes very naturally.

Unfortunately for seniors, moving becomes quite a task and some age-related illnesses usually force seniors not to move a muscle. This in return, contradicts what the body is made for. When this happens, something in there is bound to break down eventually causing areas of mobility to deteriorate rapidly. Before moving on, seniors should know that these unfortunate events can be prevented—or delayed—if you have introduced regular exercise earlier in your life. Here are some known points of deterioration in seniors when you decide to stop moving your body:

·    Staying power or endurance. Most seniors tend to lose endurance as they age which limits almost all physical activities. When a simple activity proves to be very exhaustive such as walking and climbing the stairs, you would know you lack exercise or you don’t move around that much. Endurance is something you train and it certainly can be pushed when the body is trained to do so however, lack of endurance training will result to decreased staying power on the senior’s part.
·    Muscle mass. Muscles are dead giveaway to your age since, naturally, it shrinks along as we age which results to frail, sagging look. In this day and age when looks are important, looking all crinkly and saggy is a crime indeed! Furthermore, when muscles stopped moving, it will start wasting or what medically referred to as muscle atrophy. Decrease muscle mass will result to weakness since force depends on the mass.
·    Impaired balance. This is the most hazardous implication of them all and sadly, it is prevalent among seniors since there are many reasons for balance impairment aside from lack of exercise. Impaired balance, almost always causes falls and slips among seniors and it could be very disabling to fragile bones. On the other hand, there are exercises that can improve your balance such as yoga and Pilates.
·    Lessened tractability or flexibility. As we age, it is but natural to experience joint stiffness every now and then but when a person lacks motion, it progresses fast enough to disable the suffering person. Compromised flexibility will result to reduced mobility and limited range of motion.

Overall, a person’s body needs to move so you can use it better. If a senior wants to enjoy his or her retirement years, it is important that you indulge your body more. Taking care of your body will compel it to pay you back handsomely and will guarantee you a happy life years ahead.