Staying Active Has Its Rewards

Silver Sneakers Day speaker Dr. Jeremy McVay gave out plenty of advice at the Bayside ‘Y’ on Wednesday.

Stay active. The rewards can be financial as well as physical and mental.

So said Dr. Jeremy McVay of McVay Physical Therapy, who gave a talk about staying active on Wednesday afternoon for the Bayside Family YMCA’s Silver Sneakers Day.

“Seventy percent of Americans get arthritis,” said McVay.  “Every hour of walking increases life expectancy by two hours.”

If you can walk for 30 minutes, five days a week, you’ll reduce your risk of dying prematurely by 20 percent, he said.

What other kinds of things can people do to stay fit?

There are three components of fitness, McVay said.  These are aerobic conditioning (walking, cycling, and swimming), flexibility (stretching and yoga), and strength (do some squatting, weight lifting or Pilates).

It’s a good idea to mix all three of these components if possible to get optimal fitness results, he said. Waterskiing is an example of an exercise that combines all three components.

McVay said that exercise in general is good to curb depression, heart disease, and arthritis, to control weight, and help deal with the symptoms of fibromyalgia.

He also stressed the importance of choosing a form of exercise that you find enjoyable, since that will help motivate you to stick with it.

You might not like to jog. You might not like to swim.  But maybe you like to dance. The important thing is that exercise should be a priority.

Not all exercise is good for you if you happen to have certain medical conditions.  People with osteoporosis, for example, need weight-bearing exercises to reap benefits. People with stenosis (arthritis in the back) can benefit by doing Pilates.

McVay stressed that sometimes exercise hurts and, if so, pain is not okay.  A little soreness is pretty normal after a workout, but real pain means something is wrong.

“Listen to your body,” he said.

It’s a good idea to check with your doctor to make sure certain kinds of exercise are okay for you to do, McVay said.

“Physically active people save $500 a year in healthcare costs,” McVay said in closing. And that’s a very big advantage to staying active.