Move YOUR Way to Better Health

Physical activity is important at any age for health and well-being. The DHHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion suggests doing three kinds of physical activities every week:

• Aerobic Activities that elevate your heart rate (i.e., walking, bicycling, swimming, pickleball or other sports). Aerobic activities help keep minds and bodies sharp for everyday tasks.
• Muscle-Strengthening Activities (i.e., lifting weights or a plastic bottle of water, carrying bags of groceries, using resistance bands, doing lunges or squats to strengthen legs). Muscle-strengthening activities can help with other everyday activities – standing up from a seated position or opening the lid of a food container.
• Balance Activities (i.e., standing on one leg while holding onto a wall or chair for support, or stepping sideways – first to your left, then to your right). Strengthening your balance can help prevent falls or injuries.

Graphic: https://health.gov/moveyourway

The DHHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s Move Your Way® website offers a range of tips, tools, and motivational videos to help you, family members, and friends develop a customized physical activity plan. https://health.gov/moveyourway

The website’s interactive Activity Planner tool offers a set of questions and customized answer choices to build a personalized activity plan that can be printed or Emailed for your use.

• Motivations/reasons for taking action (I want to get active to…e.g., feel less stress, sleep better)
• What kinds of activities are you looking for? (Show me activities I can do…e.g., alone, with others, indoors, outdoors)
• How often you want to do each activity (e.g., total number of minutes and days each week you want to do this activity)

You can also return to the Activity Planner at a future date to incorporate new objectives or activities, for additional health benefits

Sources:

DHHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Move Your Way® https://health.gov/moveyourway Retrieved on 11.18.21.

DHHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Fact Sheet: Move Your Way – How Can I Stay Active As I Get Older?                                                                                                      https://health.gov/sites/default/files/2021-07/PAG_MYW_FactSheet_OlderAdults_07-08_508c.pdf  Retrieved on 11.18.21.

Curated by: Dale Adler