So you want to buy exercise equipment. There are four types of fitness to think about - cardiorespiratory or aerobic fitness training, strength training, flexibility and range of motion, and balance. You may need all of these as you get older, in addition to muscular endurance.
Muscular endurance
Muscular endurance is the ability to sustain muscular contraction without fatigue. You know when you carry something like grocery bags for too long of a distance, and your arms get tired? That is muscular endurance. In the initial stages, the work of carrying is easy for you, but as the action becomes prolonged, it becomes too much for you. You can carry more in a packsack or back pack or bag than you can in your arms. Better yet, use a wheeled cart. You know, if hockey players had to carry all their gear instead of using a wheeled bag, from the parking lot to the arena, they would be working on muscular endurance.
Cardiorespiratory equipment and aerobic training. Caution is required.
Your heart rate will rise, the body temperature will rise, the breathing will increase. People die every day from aerobic exercise, because they do something too strenuous - such as heavy snow shovelling, or stair climbing. It is true that you can be restricted by your medical advisor or physician from doing strenuous exercise, but you can still go into a department store or sports store and buy a treadmill, which may kill you. If you have been told that you have a serious heart condition, stay away from strenuous exercise until you can consult with a cardiologist. Hire someone else to shovel. Do not use a treadmill without medical supervision.
So, you have medical clearance - what is a good form of aerobic equipment to buy and try? I personally think treadmills are great, but they have to be higher quality to last a long time - buy one better than average. It's an expensive machine and requires room and electricity to operate. Motorized treadmills allow you to adjust the speed and adjust the grade, or angle of incline. The highest quality ones will allow a heavier person to walk at a slow speed. But, you can get a similar work-out just by walking. If you can add stairs or a slope in the walk, your heart rate will increase like it does on a treadmill. If you can, use a heart rate monitor to keep your heart rate in a safe zone. If you don't want to buy a treadmill, then a gym membership is a good idea.
Let's say you live in a very very small place, with no room for a treadmill. You can get a folding treadmill. But a very simple alternative, walking in one place, is to get a step or block. Step up and down in one place. The heart rate will rise. You will be surprised. Stair climbing can make the heart rate increase as much as running does in some people, because you are repetitively lifting the body weight.
Other types of home exercise machines include stationary bicycles, which have been reinvented in recent years and have become more expensive. Does your heart really know the difference between a standard exercise ergometer and a computerized one connected to a network? No, the heart does not. The purpose of the exercise is to raise the heart rate to a training zone, and hold it there, at least 10 to 20 minutes a time. The American College of Sports Medicine has published guidelines on the recommended type and volume of training exercise for different ages of people. Look them up. They do not tell you that you have to spend a lot of money on exercise equipment. They tell you that you have to spend time on exercise training.
People often ask, what is the minimum I have to do to stay in shape? It really depends on your definition of being in shape. Athletes require much more time to achieve their desired level of performance. Body builders also spend a lot more time than average people. Sedentary individuals, people who do not regularly exercise, don't need as much time, and they shouldn't exercise as much, because it will be much harder for them. Especially as they get older.
One advantage of regular aerobic training is that at a given speed of walking or cycling, the heart rate will be lower. The body is able to produce the same amount of work at a lower percentage of maximal heart rate. Another way to say this, is that is after training, it is harder to get your exercise heart rate up, without working harder. In untrained persons, or sedentary, unfit persons, this is not true.
Take care with very heavy exercise, climbing stairs, hill climbing, etc.. It is too easy to get the heart rate up to high levels in untrained persons. For example, an older man can go out to the driveway, shovel some snow for 10 minutes, and get his heart rate up to maximum. He is working at 100 percent of his aerobic capacity. A younger man can go out to the driveway, shovel snow for 10 minutes, and get his heart rate up to 50% of maximum. The younger person has more aerobic capacity. He may still be unfit, but he is protected by his age. He can work more because he is younger.
Your maximum heart rate is predicted to be 220 minus your age in years So a 20 year old man has a maximal heart rate of 200 beats per minute. This would be very rare to achieve this level. But he may get it up to 160 beats per minute, or maybe 80% of maximum. An older man, age 60, would have a maximal heart rate which is 40 beats lower than when he was 20 years of age. A heart rate of 160 would be the maximum. If he is not trained, and attempts very heavy exercise, it is possible he could reach this level, which would be 100% of maximal aerobic capacity. He is going to be exhausted when he reaches that heart rate. However, if he goes slow, and exercises on a regular basis, his heart rate will not go to maximal level. You have to exercise regularly to have this benefit. Consult a registered kinesiologist on how to do it safely.
What is a safe level of aerobic exercise? This is a difficult question to answer. If you don't have any medical information or heart rate knowledge, use the talk test. The exercise is too strenuous if you cannot easily talk or if you are significantly out of breath. This is associated with a very high heart rate. You will also get very hot when you exercise this hard.
Be careful, visit your physician, ask him to refer you for a stress test. A stress test is a medically supervised treadmill test which monitors heart function. After this is completed, you can ask what is a safe level of exercise for you to perform. If they say no exercise is safe, then you have to listen to them. Don't buy a treadmill if your cardiologist advises against it. They are not for everyone, even if they sell them almost everywhere.