With this summer’s European Championships now in full swing and getting close to the exciting knockout phase, we were thinking about ways to keep active during the summer. We believe, as you get older, it is imperative to keep an active and healthy lifestyle. Regular exercise can help boost energy, maintain your independence, and manage symptoms of illness or pain.

Regular exercise isn’t just good for your body, but it’s good for your mind and can often improve your mood if you’re feeling down. We wanted to share our top 5 exercise tips for the summer, but before we do, a piece of advice; if you have not been physically active for the last while, please start slow. Don’t over work yourself, we would suggest slowly building up your strength, endurance, flexibility and balance.

1. Start walking: Probably the easiest way to start your routine, as you can chose the pace you go at. It can be a 10 minute walk every evening that eventually builds up to a 30 minute walk. Start it now, it will be so much easier if you can build a routine when the weather is nice, rather than trying to start in the winter.

2. Fitness Class: There are plenty of fitness classes in gyms and community centres throughout the year. Boxercise, spin and Zumba are to name but a few. These classes are great as you can meet with friends and have a trainer to help you get motivated.

3. Yoga: This is something that you can do in your own living room, just buy a yoga mat, clear some space on the floor, look up some basic yoga video’s on youtube and away you go. It’s an exercise that combines different poses with breathing and helps build balance, strength and flexibility.

4. Water Sports/Aerobics: Exercising in water is a fantastic way to work your entire body and can be relaxing too. Exercising in water can also help reduce the stress and strain on the body’s muscles and joints.

5. Dancing: Another social activity that you can do with friends or your partner, try googling senior’s nights or dance classes for seniors. These can be great fun and a serious workout.

Try to be active every day, any amount of physical activity is better than none at all. The more active you are, the greater the benefits to your health. We would suggest visiting your GP first before starting any new exercise routines and see what they recommend. If you ever feel pain at any moment while exercising, be sure to stop and call for help if necessary.

If you wanted to find out more about the type of work we do or you want to enquire about homecare for yourself or a loved one, then please don’t hesitate to call us on 01 8338000 or send an email to info@communicare.ie