SALT LAKE CITY — The National Institutes of Health noted in a recent study that nearly a quarter of all adults worldwide are inactive, meaning they just don’t move enough or get any exercise.

Salt Lake County likes to highlight great programs to help senior citizens with better mental and physical health.

“Exercise helps every system in the body,” said Paige Corley, a health educator.

The physical benefits of exercise can’t be overstated. But the mental fitness that’s so important as we age is one of the best side effects of EnhanceFitness – just one of many programs Salt Lake County Aging and Adult Services provides up and down the Wasatch Front.

“You can be just at the beginning of your fitness journey and maybe you need to sit for most of the class. That’s OK, we can accommodate you. Or maybe you’re really fit and you just want to continue that journey with the older adult community and we can accommodate you as well.”

Corley hopes that those who feel they’re headed toward the sunset of their careers into the new dawn of retirement don’t just sit around. There’s still work to be done.

“Life is heavy — I always say that to people,” she said. “Life is heavy. So if you want to stay in your home and stay independent, you need to have muscle on your body.”

The only way to get that muscle is to move, lift weights, and throw in some cardio, then you’re on your way to better bone density, disease prevention and overall strength.

“Even if you don’t love exercise, just coming in and being around other people… come in and just move your body a little bit… but share a laugh with somebody else,” Corley said. “Share an experience with somebody else.”

If you’re over 60 and you’d like to join in, most classes run Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And most senior centers like River’s Bend are open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Check the Salt Lake County Aging and Adult Services website to learn more.

All of us can benefit from focused training that includes both aerobic and anaerobic activities – but what’s the difference between the two?

Kaylan Keathley, ISSA Master Trainer and NASM Certified Personal Trainer at Vero Fitness, explains, “Aerobic training increases your capacity to utilize oxygen and burn fatty acids during exercise through what is known as the oxidative energy pathway.

“Aerobic training can maximize your body’s oxidative capacity within muscle fibers, increase your aerobic capacity depending on your genetics, increase utilization and mobilization of fat, increase blood flow, and increase development of your slow twitch muscles fibers, among others.”

She adds, “Anaerobic activities, as the name suggests, require no oxygen for energy.” The main purpose of anaerobic training is to build muscle mass.

In simple terms, Keathley says to think of aerobic activities as endurance activities that raise your rate of respiration and last more than two minutes while anaerobic activities involve short bursts of intense power.

Web MD gives examples of aerobic exercise:

• Running or jogging
• Biking
• Swimming
• Walking
• Hiking
• Rollerblading
• Cardio machines, like a treadmill or elliptical machine
• Stair climbing
• Rowing
• Dancing
• Skiing
• Jumping rope
• Playing sports like tennis, pickleball, basketball, soccer, hockey and volleyball.

Examples of anaerobic exercises include:

• High-intensity interval training (HIIT)
• Weightlifting
• Calisthenics, such as pushups and squats
• Plyometrics (jump training)

Aerobic activity tends to dominate exercise guidelines for overall health and fitness. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans specifies 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise as the minimum amount all adults should aim for every week.

But that doesn’t mean you should forget about anaerobic exercise. This form of exercise offers unique health benefits, making it an essential component of a well-rounded fitness routine.

Medical News Today explains that the two types of exercise are distinguished by how the body uses stored energy; the intensity of the exercise; and the length of time a person can maintain the exercise.

Aerobic exercise helps increase endurance, whereas anaerobic exercise helps increase muscle mass and strength.

Both types of exercise strengthen the heart muscle, boost circulation, increase metabolism and aid in weight management.

Keathley says, “Capacity and efficiency of aerobic and anaerobic activities and the physiological benefits of these activities is based more on your genetics than age, gender, or even current fitness level.

“Understanding the blueprint of how your specific body was designed can help massively increase your training potential and results while minimizing frustration and confusion.”

The benefits of aerobic exercise include:

• Reduced risk of chronic illness: Routine exercise, including aerobics, reduces your risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure. It also lowers your risk of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and some cancers.
• Less stress: A heart-pumping cardio routine can also help lower your stress levels.
• Weight management: Regular physical activity, including aerobics, can help you maintain a healthy body weight.
• Better sleep: People who exercise regularly tend to fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly. And research shows that regular aerobic activity can improve sleep quality in people with insomnia symptoms.
  These benefits apply to anaerobic exercise, as well, and there are also others that are unique to anaerobic:
• Better VO2 max: VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen your body uses for energy during intense exercise. It measures your cardiorespiratory fitness, which is essential for endurance. And studies show that HIIT (high intensity interval training) may be better at improving VO2 max than moderate, steady-state exercise.
• Shorter workouts: Ongoing research suggests that HIIT is an effective way to boost your health in a short amount of time. One study found that as little as three weekly HIIT sessions (10 minutes or less per session) may improve aerobic capacity and endurance.
• More muscle power: For people looking to make athletic improvements – like swinging a bat harder or running faster – anaerobic exercise can help. Generally, anaerobic training increases muscle power for athletes.

Keathley suggests that if you’re just starting out – or want to maximize your exercise program – working with a professional is beneficial. Among other things, you’ll get an initial fitness assessment to determine where and what your “weak spots” are and how training should be programmed to “bridge the gaps.”

“There are thousands of fantastic exercises, sports and workout regimes today. The trick is pairing the correct exercises with the body you have with the goals you hope to achieve,” she says.

Kaylyn Keathley is ISSA Master Trainer, NASM Certified Personal Trainer and executive director of Vero Fitness’ IDLife Program. She has worked full time as a personal trainer since 2013. She also offers DNA-based training, nutrition, and supplementation coaching. Vero Fitness is located at 1060 6th Ave. The phone number is 772-567-1400.

Most of us are familiar with habit stacking – the practice of adding a new habit with an old one, the theory being that in combining the two it will help you stick to your goals. It seems that there is a similar trend emerging in our approach to working out, in which we’re fitness stacking to build our ideal exercise routines. If, like me, the thought of a 40-minute long HIIT or cardio session convinces you to disregard it before you have even started, then the idea of snacking on shorter exercises one after the other might be for you too.

My newly curated formula of 20 minutes of at-home rowing, bolted on with a 10-minute stretch and 10 minutes of mindfulness, has helped me to get back on track with a workout that motivates in the same time frame. Part of my newfound motivation is the luxury of being able to tap into digital fitness wherever I am, facilitating this new way of stacking my workouts together, depending on what I want to do or what my time allows.

Apple, whose Fitness+ platform has seen huge growth in this style of exercise, with mix-and-match workouts, has developed its short, time-sensitive class offering off the back of the demand for this type of training. The platform’s tech allows users to create a custom plan. “This is about fitness for everyone and making it fun. It’s always been our mission statement,” explains Jay Blahnik, Apple’s vice president of fitness technologies. Guest Fitness+ trainer Joe Wicks, AKA The Body Coach – our very own modern-day Mr Motivator, who kept the nation moving during the pandemic thanks to his at-home YouTube workouts – now advocates for the curated workout that suits our needs today. “Action leads to motivation and a 10 to 15-minute boost of exercise is the sweet spot. Digital fitness is enabling this – you can put 10 minutes of exercise together without effort.”

The personal trainer who regularly puts me through my paces, Luke Worthington, agrees that stacking is conducive to a great workout routine. “A well-balanced health and fitness regime should look to address all five measurable pillars of wellness: strength, cardiovascular fitness, mobility, body composition and emotional wellbeing. At first glance, trying to do all of this potentially from a standing start might make you feel overwhelmed. Creating routines in the first place is the hard part – the trick is to start to add small things bit by bit. Fitness stacking takes advantage of the routine we already have and simply adds to it, without creating extra demand to your motivation.” Fitness stacking has been born out of our appetite for streaming workout classes and signing up to fitness apps. When you have a variety of different exercises in one place, you no longer need to go out of your way to find a new studio or discipline, it’s all in the palm of your hand.

Bryony Deery, founder of Pilates by Bryony, a digital platform that offers a streaming library of more than 400 classes, has also seen a shift in how people are consuming their workouts. “We have noticed more people have created at-home workout stations so they can dip in and out of movement throughout the day, and our classes are designed to be stackable and to work for and with you. One of our most popular classes is a five-minute core workout, which people add onto their Pilates practice, or the 20-minute core and bum-focused class. People use the app to fit around their needs.” The evidence all stacks up.