Quick Tips for Prime-Time Physical Fitness:
Here are some prime-time physical fitness tips for aging adults who want to stay in shape, keep up their energy levels, and feel young again:
• Commit to at least 20 minutes a day of strenuous movement.
• Dance! Dancing is a fun way to boost aerobic fitness and flexibility.
• Throughout day squeeze in anytime, anywhere exercises: stretching, flexing, and isometrics.
• Do endurance exercises: brisk walking, elliptical training, or swimming at least 10 minutes a day, 6 days a week.
• Do strength-building exercises at least 10 minutes a day:
- 3 days a week, upper body
- 3 days a week, lower body, back, and abdominal
• Try HiiT: high intensity interval training
• Use the 1-2-3-4 strategy to build more muscle in less time
• Do stretch-band movements 5 minutes a day while watching TV or just standing around.
Dr. Sears, or Dr. Bill as his “little patients” call him, has been advising busy parents on how to raise healthier families for over 40 years. He received his medical training at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital in Boston and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the world’s largest children’s hospital, where he was associate ward chief of the newborn intensive care unit before serving as the chief of pediatrics at Toronto Western Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Toronto. He has served as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California School of Medicine, and University of California: Irvine. As a father of 8 children, he coached Little League sports for 20 years, and together with his wife Martha has written more than 40 best-selling books and countless articles on nutrition, parenting, and healthy aging. He serves as a health consultant for magazines, TV, radio and other media, and his AskDrSears.com website is one of the most popular health and parenting sites. Dr. Sears has appeared on over 100 television programs, including 20/20, Good Morning America, Oprah, Today, The View, and Dr. Phil, and was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in May 2012. He is noted for his science-made-simple-and-fun approach to family health.