Indoor Walking Workout Ideas for Seniors in San Ramon
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To summarize:
- You only need to start with five to ten minutes of walking, with short intervals if necessary, to begin your indoor walking workout
- To kick-start your senior mobility improvement journey, combine steps with sit-to-stand practice or other stretches and exercises to boost strength and balance
- Ensure you are keeping your exercises sustainable by aiming for 150 minutes per week, split into multiple sessions
In San Ramon, CA, Discovery Commons San Ramon is a beautiful community space situated near parks, shops, and lush greenery. It's the perfect spot to start working on your cardio, but during the winter and summer, you might want to escape the weather, and for that, an indoor walking workout is ideal.
Below, we explain how to create safe walking routines you can utilize for low-impact cardio. Discover how to pair shorter sessions with balance and strength exercises, and how you can adapt these safe walking routines to fit them into your daily life in our community.
Is Indoor Walking Good for Seniors During Winter?
As stated elsewhere on our blog, engaging in indoor fitness for elderly individuals and other physical activities can help boost endorphins, which in turn can reduce anxiety.
Slow, gentle steps can even support joint comfort by keeping the synovial fluid that protects them moving around, rather than exacerbating existing conditions. Meanwhile, using a consistent indoor walking route that offers several turns can help with steadying one's balance.
Johns Hopkins even confirms that exercise can help control many of the potential risks associated with heart disease. It can promote a longer, healthier lifeand also give practitioners a new sense of purpose and drive.
How Can I Do Indoor Walking?
Start with a simple warm-up and stretch to get the blood flowing and to prepare your body. Be sure to do this at the end as well, to cool down your body and help prevent cramps.
Establish safe walking routines in community hallways and free rooms to help with senior mobility improvement without worrying about using cardio machines.
Then, start the timer and get moving! If needed, use supports like walls and railings to help with balance, but avoid leaning on them. Then, track your progress so that you can refer to it later and take pride in any increase in capability.
If you experience any chest pain or unusual sensations, including unexpected shortness of breath, stop immediately and rest. Don't push yourself too hard, and consider reaching out to a staff member for community support if you feel you need assistance.
Daily Steps to Perfect Your Daily Steps
It's usually a good idea to also add some balance exercises for seniors to your walking efforts. On "off days", when you aren't exercising by traversing the community's corridors, practice your balance with anything from shifting your weight to a complete Tai Chi workout.
If you want to go the extra mile, consider picking up a health and fitness device, such as a smartwatch. These can offer additional information with which you can adjust your efforts, whether that be changing the specific exercises you perform, lengthening (or shortening) bouts of exercise, or giving you the knowledge that you should slow down if you overexert yourself.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Indoor Walking Workout
Is Walking Inside a House Effective for Many Older Adults?
Indoor walking can often count towards a weekly activity target. You simply need to know that you are exerting yourself to consider it exercise.
A good way to test this is to see if you can talk while doing it. If talking is a small challenge, but singing is totally out of the question, you are likely doing enough.
Can an Indoor Walk Be Thirty Minutes or Split Into Shorter Sessions?
Three ten-minute sessions, two fifteen-minute sessions, and one thirty-minute session are all equally valid. As long as you complete the task on time, it doesn't matter when it happens.
You may even find that splitting things up helps far more than it hinders, as having a scheduled morning and afternoon exercise can help you start your day with energy. Then, you can engage in an evening activity that allows you to sit down and recover that energy.
If you achieve a single 30-minute session per day at a later time, that's great. Though there should be no pressure, and you should only get to that point when you feel most comfortable.
However, make sure to have a good warm-up before you start the clock. It's essential to get the blood pumping before you begin the exercise; otherwise, you may find that you need to stop as soon as you get going. Warming up can also help you feel more comfortable as you go for longer, which in turn enables you to avoid cramps and other issues.
Might Walking in Place Be Similar to Treadmill Walking for Light Cardio?
If you have access to a treadmill, it can be a similar cardio activity. However, it does differ in several ways, including your expected stride length and the surface on which you walk. Whichever works best for you should be the one you choose.
Sally Forth With a New Exercise Routine
Start the week with a short walk down a single hallway and five minutes of movement, then gradually add extra time later to increase your exercise to impressive levels. Then, add balance drills and strength exercises to round out the effort. Finally, go the extra mile and invite a neighbor, or even make a whole event out of it, for a little more fun.
Here at Discovery Commons San Ramon, the indoor walking workout coexists alongside dozens of other ways to enjoy retirement. With the Vibrant Life events and a full activity calendar, you are sure to find hobbies and pastimes that work perfectly for you.
To learn more about what we offer and what a future with our community would be like, get in touch today. We can provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the amenities we offer to every person who steps through our door.