“Exercise” is the dirty word that often turns the elderly into couch potatoes, and there appear to be plenty out there. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 60 percent of older adults are inactive.

Fear of exercise can keep seniors with arthritis and other aches and pains from leading the active lifestyles they may have enjoyed in their younger years. But mention activities such as lively conversation, a good television program, a trip to the senior center, a captivating book or a brisk walk on a nice day, and your elderly loved one is likely to perk right up.

Incorporating movements into those popular senior pastimes, oftentimes with the assistance of a family or professional caregiver or companion, is one way to keep seniors young and vital well into their elderly years, according to Colin Milner, founder of the world’s largest senior fitness association, and Melina Cunningham, co-owner of the Home Instead Senior Care office with her husband, Bob, which serves areas from Belmont to Cupertino.

“People think you have to exercise for hours to achieve any benefits, but that’s just not true,” said Milner, founder and CEO of the International Council on Active Aging.

“But to stay independent and enjoy the quality of life that we all want as we age, we need to do some activity. Because if we don’t, our muscles will atrophy and our bodies will deteriorate sooner.

There’s evidence that seniors do enjoy being active. Recently, Home Instead Senior Care’s 26,000 caregivers ranked the activities their senior clients enjoy most. Among the top 10 activities were walking and social functions, such as those at churches and senior centers.

“Even though seniors often have interests in various activities, a little encouragement from a caregiver can be a great motivator for older adults who may be reluctant to get involved,” Cunningham said. “Companionship is just what many seniors need to get up and active again. A family or professional caregiver can be a great motivator in getting seniors up and active again.”

Milner offered some practical suggestions for caregivers to recommend seniors incorporate activity into their lives.

“For the true TV couch potatoes who use two remotes, suggest they stand up, move around and walk in place whenever a commercial comes on. That’s a start. Recommend they walk to the store or park in the back of the parking lot, and walk to the corner to drop the mail in the mailbox rather than hand it to the mailman when he comes to the door. Remind them they can read a book on a stationary bicycle or, better yet, organize a book club and talk about what they’ve read on a walk around the neighborhood. There are a lot of basic ways to build activity into the day,” Milner said.

Fitness centers are also a good option, but the kind of facilities that feature blaring music and predominantly young bodies working out can be intimidating for seniors, Milner said. That’s why his organization has established an age-friendly fitness locator on its Web site at www.icaa.cc where the elderly or a caregiver can click on a state and a city and find a facility that has met strict age-friendly criteria.

Milner said that seniors also could learn about the value of strength training from such a facility. “According to the Centers for Disease Control, only 11 percent of seniors actually do strength training,” Milner said. “And loss of strength is the No. 1 reason why most people get admitted to a skilled nursing facility.”

If they can’t go to a facility, seniors can do strength training at home, according to Milner. “Seniors don’t even really need equipment. There are some programs that explain how you can do strength exercises with soup cans,” he said. One place to look for information is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov, which has a program, “Growing Stronger Longer,” that features information about strength training and other activities for seniors.

“If you think about it, our bodies were built to move,” Milner said. “Not moving is the unnatural thing. And that’s true at any age.