By Terry Yin
South Cove Manor hosted breakfast seminar on Feb. 27. Certified personal trainer and sport nutrition specialist Terry Yin spoke about “How to Boost Your Immune System With Exercise”.
As people age, our immune response capability becomes reduced, which in turn contributes to more infections. Exercise regularly is proven to naturally keeping your immune system strong and healthy. For people over age 65, 20-30 minutes daily low impact exercise can help cardiovascular health, lowers blood pressure, helps control body weight, and protects against a variety of diseases.
Here are a series of senior exercise routine:
- Warm up and stretch
- Upper Back Stretch
- Chest Stretch
- Sit and Reach Stretch
- Neck Stretch
- Inner Thigh Stretch
- Shoulder Circles
- Flamingo Stand
- Single Limb Stance with Arm
- Toe the Line
- Side Leg Raises
- Clock Reach
- Front Arm Raises (Seated)
- Seated Shin Strengthener
- Tummy Twist
- Side Bends
- Seated Knee Lifts
- Bicep Curls (with weight)
- Upright front row (with weight)
- Plies
- Knee Extensions
As people age, eating a healthy diet can help to improve immune system. Eating well can also be the key to a positive outlook and staying emotionally balanced. When seniors’ metabolism slows, their body doesn’t burn as many calories. As a result, the food elderly eating should be as nutrient rich as possible. Here is Yin’s recommendation based on USDA Food Guide:
- Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.
- Make at least half your grains whole grains.
- Enjoy your food, but eat less.
- Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals — and choose the foods with lower numbers.
- Meat and beans: 6 ounces or less of chicken, meat, and fish plus 4 to 5 servings of nuts, seeds, and/or dried beans per week.
South Cove Manor’s next breakfast seminar will be held on March 26 from 9:30a.m. to 11a.m. at Boston Chinese Evangelical Church. Director of Health and Access and Wellness Sonia Teixeira Amado will speak about health insurance including MassHealth and Medicare.