One of the best overall exercises for any age group is walking. Walking briskly for at least 10 minutes a day has been proven to benefit not only physical health but emotional and mental health as well. However, you can enhance the benefits of walking by doing Functional Walking. Functional Walking is walking at a normal pace while making various functional or "real life" movements periodically during the walk. For example, after walking for a few minutes, reach down with your right hand and touch the ground, then stand up and continue walking. After a while, reach down with your left hand and touch the ground. In another few yards, turn around and walk backwards, then walk sideways for a while. After walking for another few yards, stop and reach around behind you and touch the ground as far back as you can. Continue to walk another few yards, stop and reach around behind you on the other side, stretching as far as you can to touch the ground behind you.
This is Functional Walking. It is taking regular walking and adding real-life "functional moves" such as bending, stretching, reaching, rotating the body and reverse or lateral walking. To make it more challenging, walk at different paces, perhaps adding speed walking, sprinting or incline walking to the functional walk.
Functional Walking develops flexibility, coordination, balance, core strength as well as overall fitness while mimicking real-life bodily movements. The body is designed to move, bend, stretch and reach in various planes and at various angles involving multiple joints, which is why this type of exercise is so beneficial for everyone at any age. To begin, try Functional Walking for 3 times a week for 10 minutes each time and then increase both time and frequency as you improve in your condition.
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