- I'm Norman Brown. I'm a Senior Personal Trainer at Nuffield
Health in Warwick. I'm 70 years old.
I'm very pleased to be here today to talk to you about
how to stay fit and healthy as you approach retirement.
- Hi, my name's Adam Byrne and I'm the Joint Pain Advisor in Nuffield
Health Wimbledon. - My name's Brendan Street.
I'm a Cognitive Behaviour Therapist with Nuffield Health.
- It's a myth that as you get older, you need to do less.
In fact, regular cardiovascular exercise will help to improve so many functions
in your body and your mind. For example, problem-solving, mental agility,
your ability to move around, make complex decisions.
All of these will improve by doing exercise regularly, four to five times a week,
for about 10 minutes a time. - Research indicates that there are four areas
that you should focus on. Number one, safety.
Feeling psychologically, environmentally and physically safe has a huge impact on mental
health during retirement. So make sure you're aware of sources of support
if you are worried, for example, about having a fall,
feeling financially insecure, or discrimination. Number two, physical health.
Physical health and mental health are intrinsically interlinked.
We don't just have bodies from the neck down. We are bodies.
If you have good physical health in retirement, you're likely to have good mental health.
So be on the lookout for what you eat, how you sleep,
what you drink, and how much you exercise.
Number three, living a life with value. Note down all the things that you value in
life. So being a parent, community, being healthy.
Prioritise them, then make a note of all the behaviours,
all the things that you could do that could feed those values.
By doing that, you'll make sure that you live a value-driven retirement.
Number four, stay connected. Relationships are vital for good mental health
during retirement. - When you first start going into retirement,
you may want to think about adapting your lifestyle.
So what does that mean? It means, how are you going to stay busy?
How are you going to prevent yourself from getting bored?
And one of the easiest ways to do that is to take regular exercise.
Now, regular exercise doesn't need to be going into the gym.
It could be as simple as walking everyday. Get a dog and take a dog for a walk for 5
or 10 minutes. With a dog you'd have to do that twice a day,
so that's going to give you 20 minutes, or perhaps an hour's exercise everyday, and
you won't even think about that. - So exercise can help you feel more energetic
because when you train, you're improving your CV system,
or your cardiovascular system, which actually helps the heart pump blood
and oxygen around the bodies and muscles.
So the more you actually exercise, the more energetic you become.
Also, with that, when you exercise, your body releases a hormone called endorphins.
It's the feel-good factor, so it actually makes you feel better,
which actually makes you want to exercise more,
and you're able to go out and do more things. If you have a limited range of motion or disabilities,
there's many ways to exercise. You can go for a walk.
You can go cycling on a bike. You can come in to the gym and speak to a
personal trainer or an expert. We have such things as therabands,
stability balls, and Yoga classes and Pilates that will also
help. Also, the personal trainers, who are experts
in mobility, can actually bring you through some exercises
that can actually enhance your ability and ease away pain.
- And in this way, we can see this phase of our lives
as something to celebrate, and something to savour,
and something to plan for. And that's important because research indicates
that people that do plan,
that see retirement as a promotion and ensure that they're still able
to make an impact on life, they're still able to contribute to society,
they're still able to connect with others, and they're still able to be creative,
are much healthier and more well-adjusted in retirement.
They're happier, too, and also, they live five years longer, on
average, than people that don't prepare.
And those five years are much healthier physically.