As you get older, you may feel like your body has begun to slow down as you begin to feel less limber and simpler tasks become more difficult or painful to accomplish. This needn’t be the case, however, as regularly working out, even casually, will have tremendous benefits for keeping your body functioning to its best ability even as you enter your senior years. To accomplish this, here are some of the best exercises for older adults.

Swimming

Swimming is sometimes referred to as the world’s perfect exercise because it not only improves cardiovascular fitness but is also a great way to build muscle without putting any great strain on your joints or bones. This makes it the ideal option for adults suffering from arthritis or osteoporosis. As a bonus, these benefits can be obtained as long as you’re in a body of water—whether it be swimming in lanes or playing Marco Polo with your grandkids.

Stretching

To keep yourself spry and limber, stretching exercises such as yoga is an ideal, low-impact form of exercise that can benefit core stability, aerobic fitness, build muscle strength, and improve or retain total-body mobility so that simple tasks like bending down don’t put such a major strain on your body.

While activities like yoga are also very low impact on joints, it is still an activity where you must support your own body weight. This is a positive, however, as you’ll not only be improving your muscles, but your bone strength as well.

Cardio

Simply taking a walk is enough to get your heart pumping and blood flowing, while it’s also easy and accessible to all. It’s recommended that you practice at least 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise per workout to get the most of its benefits, but that small time commitment makes it one of the best exercises for older adults with busy and hectic schedules. It’s easy to fit into your day, and can be as simple as walking to the next destination of your schedule.

Bodyweight Training

We’ve touched on building muscle as a major positive throughout this article, but that’s because it’s common for older adults to experience severe muscle loss as they become less capable and more sedentary. Bodyweight exercises are perfect, as you don’t have to do anything like lifting weights to build a bit of muscle. Instead, these are exercises that use your own weight as resistance and include exercises such as lunges or squats.