HHS HealthBeat (November 4, 2011)

Go4Life

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Nicholas Garlow with HHS HealthBeat.

Not everyone likes to exercise, but we should all do it. Go4Life is a new campaign that encourages older people to incorporate exercise into their everyday lives. Go4Life focuses exercise on four categories; aerobic, strength, balance, and flexibility.

Dr. Chhanda Dutta is at the National Institute on Aging.

“We strongly encourage people to incorporate exercises from each of these four categories into developing their own personal routine.” (8 seconds)

 Go4Life even includes an exercise buddy agreement. Sign it with a friend. Set goals. And build incentives to keep you going.

“This buddy agreement is a way of sort of formalizing something with a friend who’s not going to let you get off easily, and then you have built in incentives for both of you to keep the motivation going.” (11 seconds)

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Nicholas Garlow.

Last revised: November 4, 2011