When the age of retirement arrives, and the number of years is felt, one may be tempted to slow down and rest. However, in order to continue to enjoy life, it is better to give a significant place to physical activity, as well as other diversified activities. Indeed, inactivity is harmful for all sorts of reasons.
Why stay active after retirement?
Ÿ Prevention of disease risks
Regular physical activity helps prevent the development of many diseases such as osteoporosis, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and even certain types of cancer, such as breast cancer. colon.
Ÿ It’s good for morale
Physical exercise releases endorphins (pleasure hormones) after 30 minutes of sustained effort. Another hormone, serotonin, affects mood by reducing anxiety and stress. Exercise also wards off depressive symptoms.
Ÿ It allows you to live better
In addition to improving the quality of sleep, reducing rheumatism and body aches, improving balance and posture, maintaining a healthy weight, practicing regular physical activity helps preserve independence and mobility, strengthening muscle mass.
Ÿ It’s good for social life
Practicing a sport or other activities allows you to meet people, make acquaintances and even friends. It helps to fill the void that forms when you retire or when the children leave home and it allows you to create a new network.
How to stay active?
Walk, take the stairs, ride a bike, swim, play with the grandchildren, garden, walk the dog… there is no shortage of ideas for physical activities that are easy to integrate into daily life.
Use weights to strengthen your muscles, do stretches to improve your flexibility and movements for mobility. Take every opportunity to move, exercise and get outside. But be careful not to overdo it, or you could hurt yourself or get discouraged.
Choose activities that you enjoy and that make you happy; this will help you maintain them over time. Try to integrate them into your daily life; it will help you maintain your motivation. Bet on regularity in order to benefit from the advantages of your investment.
Testimony of Solange
“I don’t like being bored! »
Solange, 71, is a visual arts teacher, retired ten years ago. She feels a visceral need to move. “Spending energy gives energy” is his credo.
In addition to the work she has to do at home, she walks almost every day between 30 and 60 minutes. To motivate herself and meet people, she signed up twice a week for cardio and strength training classes and dynamic stretching. This allows him to strengthen his muscles and his heart on the one hand, and to maintain his mobility and his autonomy, on the other hand.
Move – Outside
Every day, she gives herself at least one hour of physical exercise, preferably outdoors. In the winter, she does a lot of cross-country skiing and in the summer, cycling, swimming and hiking. “It helps keep me alive and in shape,” she says. Physical activity calms his anxiety and allows him to live normally.
As much for the body as for the spirit
Solange, who doesn’t like competition, prefers individual sports or activities that allow her to “release stress and find inner peace”.
Dancing, reading and artistic creation are other activities practiced with pleasure by Solange. For twenty years, she has been dancing Argentine tango in a club where she finds a nice group of friends. She is also part of a reading group that meets once a month. Also, since the beginning of the retreat, she has started creating sculptures in her studio.