People ask us all the time ‘whats the best exercise to keep me healthy, to keep me strong, for my spine and my nervous system’.
The number one thing we want for your spine and your health is movement. All five of these exercises that we are going to suggest help increase movement. Movement alone is not the important part of exercise, obviously you want a cardiovascular benefit for your heart and your lungs to get healthier, stronger and have more endurance.
We want to have a muscular benefit because as we age our muscles decrease and loss of muscle mass inhibits you from doing important things with your activities in your daily life. While you are doing your exercises posture is fantastically important, we don’t want you to stress and strain yourself.
Poor posture while you are doing exercises accelerates arthritic activity in your joints, and it also affects your nervous system. Because postural degeneration affects both the spinal nerves and the spinal cord itself.
Research is clear, there are 5 great exercises some are better than the others. Here are the exercises from least helpful to most helpful (from a bio-mechanical stand point).
5) Yoga
4) Low impact Pilates
3) Speed walking
2) Weight training, combined with an elliptical in the gym
1) Swimming
Thanks,
Dr.Brad