Get Exercising With Some Golden Oldies Music For Your Golden Years

Get Exercising with some Golden Oldies Music for your Golden Years

Are you looking for a way to increase the positive effects of your commitment to exercise? According to doctors and researchers, you can increase your motivation and concentration and decrease your conscious effort when you exercise by making one simple change – the music that’s playing while you work out.

People have known for decades that music makes work seem easier – but now researchers have proved that music is one of the strongest personal motivators known. According to studies headed by Dr. Jimmy Smith, a sports psychologist who practices in Texas, the right music can make you exercise harder and burn calories faster. Because exercisers are focusing on the music instead of on their bodies, he believes, they don’t feel the strain as much, so they work harder and longer. One of the most interesting findings of his research is that the best music isn’t high-energy, fast-paced dance music, as many workout trainers have assumed.

Instead, Dr. Smith found, the ‘best’ music for working out depends on the tastes of the exerciser. In one study, he had 15 students each do four workouts on exercise bikes. The first one was done with no music, the second to slow music, the third to fast music, and the last to music that they picked out themselves. In every single case, the students worked harder, longer and faster when they were listening to their favorite music. The results on all the other tracks were mixed, but when students were listening to their own choice of music, they pedaled faster and harder, and worked out longer than with any of the other three selections of music.

What does this mean for your workouts? Pop in your favorite music, say the experts, and let the good times roll! For many seniors, that means pumping up the volume on the Golden Oldies while they pump up the meter on their hearts and lungs. Working out to the Oldies is one of the most popular aerobics exercise classes at many senior citizen centers. Others get into the swing of exercising with the Big Band sounds of the Forties, or the Fabulous Fifties. And for an increasing number of fit and active seniors, exercising to music means square dancing and line dancing.

According to the Central Puget Sound Square Dancing Council, square dancing is the perfect low impact aerobics workout for seniors. They quote Dr. Arron Blackburn, who conducted a study of square dancers as old as 80 and concluded that they were as healthy and fit as adults ten years younger. According to Dr. Blackburn, “It’s clear that square dancing is the perfect physical exercise. It combines all the positive aspects of intense physical exercise with none of the negative elements.�

What Dr. Blackburn says about square dancing can be said of nearly any kind of dance. Rhythmic movement to music is more than just great exercise. It also challenges the mind, involves the whole body and includes social aspects that are hard to find anywhere else. Dancing is “the ultimate togetherness workout� says Phil Martin, an instructor at California State University at Long Beach. According to Martin, steps like the Samba, the Cha-Cha, the East Coast Swing, the Foxtrot and the Viennese Waltz can raise your heart function to the levels required for aerobic benefit without the strain of a more boring workout. You just don’t notice the effort because you’re having too much fun.

And having fun is another part of the benefit of working out to your favorite golden oldies. Studies show that seniors who have a regular social outlet are less likely to be depressed and are healthier than those who are solitary and alone. Part of the reason may be the fun factor, says Martin. It’s a lot harder to keep up a regular three times a week workout than it is to go dancing every Saturday night.

Whether your favorite workout is the Lindy, the Charleston, a break-dance or a polka, the music you choose can be the key to keeping yourself in shape, and having fun while you’re doing it. You can find local dance socials by checking with your senior citizen center, or in the Events section of your local newspaper.