Hey Elderly, Please Stay Active!

Along with the changing times, humans are often facilitated in various activities, so i sedentary lifestyle is often found in the community. One of them is the elderly who live in urban areas. Elderly who live in urban areas are often found preferring to stay at home and rarely do physical activity, such as sports. It caused by injury, physical problem when activity was occurred,  a decrease in interest in physical activity, or encouragement from family members that not allowed them to carry out active activities independently. Did  you know why elderly should stay active?

The aging process will be resulting a decrease of the ability of the tissue to repair itself and maintain its normal structure and function. This will make humans experience a decrease in endurance and body function, metabolic disorders, and shrinkage of body structures that cause various health complaints and diseases due to age, which is often called a degenerative disease. Physical activity in the elderly has an impact to slow the aging process and increase endurance in the elderly.

In essence, the human body was created to move. Humans are an organism that is composed starting from the smallest part of the body such as cells. Cells will form a tissue, where amount of tissues will form an organ. Then the organ will build organ system so that from a group of organs will form an organism, which one of them is human. All cells, tissues, organs move and do activities in the body so that an organ system will be able to function properly, so that humans can move well. When someone stops moving actively, which is exercise, it will affect the body system inside. The activity of cells, tissues, organs and organ systems will be affected due to excess energy sources in the body, such as sugar and fat. They were not burnt due to lack of physical activity and will be ruin body's metabolic system and make elderly to have risk of diseases.

Physical activity in the elderly must be continuously done, so that various positive impacts will be obtained. Based on a study and articles that reviewed several journals related to physical activity in the elderly  in 2004 found that regular physical activity can give a positive effect on mental health and cognitive function in the elderly,. Cognitive function is a mental ability consisting of attention, ability language, memory, visuospatial ability, ability to make concepts and intelligence. Cognitive function change significantly with the aging process, but these changes can be inhibited. In addition, based on research conducted by McPhee in 2016 showed that the participation of the elderly in carrying out physical activity is still low even though it shows a positive effect in reducing the risk of heart disease and metabolic disease, reducing the risk of obesity, increasing balance in the elderly thereby reducing the risk of falling , and inhibits osteoporosis and muscle weakness in the elderly.

Then, what kind of exercise is right for the elderly? Sports or physical activity for the elderly can be done in accordance with the capacity, physical abilities and objectives of the activity itself. In general, the elderly can do light exercise such as stretching or stretching when you wake up in the morning or at their leisure time. If there is no physical complaints such as pain in the lower limbs, the elderly can walk on the spot or walk lightly in the park or field for 30-45 minutes at least twice a week. Yoga or gymnastics, also can be an alternative physical activity or sports that are fun for the elderly.