Displaying items by tag: senior exercise

While wellness for older adults is essential all year long, August is recognized as National Wellness Month. It’s a time to focus on the habits that support you in feeling your best. Wellness for older adults goes beyond physical health and prevention of illness. During the Golden Years the key elements of wellness include: 

• Emotional Fulfillment and Social Connection
• Mental Stimulation 
• Physical Movement

Let’s take a closer look at each of these; then, check-out our tips to help you create a wellness routine in older adulthood.

• Emotional Fulfillment and Social Connection

Having opportunities to connect socially is directly related to feeling emotionally fulfilled. These two areas of wellness intersect, and both are vital to older adult well-being. You don’t need to be a socially butterfly, but you do need to have outlets to connect with others as these engagements help combat loneliness, depression, anxiety, and support overall healthy aging. 

How an older adult defines emotional fulfillment, and the extent of their social connections will vary for each person. At Everbrook Senior Living, we offer programs that support older adults as they explore activities and engagements that creates a sense of purpose and brings more meaning to their lives.

• Mental Stimulation 

An active mind promotes brain health and protects against cognitive decline. This means your better able to focus, concentrate, recall information, and engage in problem-solving. Now, you don’t have to solve calculus problems as a hobby to keep an active mind! Daily mental stimulation through games, puzzles, art and music, travel, book clubs, volunteering, or nurturing an existing or new hobby are all great ways to support brain health.

• Physical Movement

Keeping physically active as an older adult is essential for your mobility, balance and coordination, muscle strength and stamina, heart health, and brain health, too! Whether you walk, swim, practice yoga, hike or garden, movement on a daily basis protects against diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Exercise routines tailored to older adults helps older adults maintain their independent longer, too. 

Never too Late for Wellness in Older Adulthood 

Transitioning from the busy, working adult years into active older adulthood brings about many changes. If you’ve had the benefit of planning ahead for your emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing in older adulthood—good for you! If you haven’t—or if you’re struggling now to find balance in these essential areas of wellness, it’s not too late to get started.

Here are three easy ways to begin:

1. Prioritize Self-Care. Self-care means putting first the things that matter most to sustain your health and vitality. This includes healthy nourishment, sufficient sleep, adequate water intake, taking medicines as prescribed, tending to preventive health screenings, drinking in moderation, avoiding nicotine, caffeine and processed foods, and making time for family and friends. If you’re struggling to prioritize self-care, consider talking to a health coach who specializes in older adult wellness.
2. Manage Stress. Yes, managing stress is a part of self-care, but it’s so important to mental and physical health (at every age) that it gets special attention. For older adults, chronic stress can make existing health conditions worse and trigger new health problems. Stress is linked to illnesses such as autoimmune conditions, heart disease, cancer, dementia, and anxiety and depression. One of the best and simplest ways to manage stress is to spend time in nature. Also consider yoga, mindfulness meditation, and learning deep breathing techniques.
3. Create a Daily Routine. You might need to look at your daily routine to identify where you are wasting energy and time on things that don’t matter and don’t support health. Routines create stability, reduce stress, and even promote happiness. Change is not always easy, but it doesn’t have to be hard. Start small and stay consistent. Consider telling one close friend or family member what you’re wanting to accomplish and ask them to be your accountability partner. You’ll have a greater likelihood of success with social support! 

The communities at Everbrook Senior Living provide every resident with opportunities to participate in physical activities, social engagements, creative outlets, and much more. Our dedicated and compassionate staff will support you in establishing routines that mesh with your unique needs, interests, and goals—in all the key areas of older adult wellness. If you’re curious about what life could have in store for you in the Golden Years... come visit Everbook Senior Living and discover the possibilities for a healthy, active and vibrant life – the life you deserve.

Spring is blooming all around us and as soon as the chill leaves the air, you’ll be wanting to step outdoors to recreate. Older adults can keep the spring in their step and prevent falls by maintaining a simple routine of balance and strength building exercises.

If you’ve felt unsteady around your home during the winter months, or if you (or a beloved older family member) have a history of falling or being unsteady, it’s important to step into physical activity with extra caution. Though it is tempting to venture out on a long walk on the first warm day of the spring season, not being physically ready for the increase in physical activity can lead to a potentially devastating fall or other injury. Older adults want to pay attention developing and maintaining balance, coordination, and strength in the legs as well as their core muscles around the midsection. 

“Having good balance can help older adults avoid both the frequency and the severity of their falls, reducing the the likelihood they will suffer a serious injury that will lead to a significant and permanent change in their quality of life. That is why exercise is so important on a daily basis!”

~ Michael Levandowski, B.S. EP-C, CDP, Everbrook Exercise Physiologist

The following are basic exercises that senior citizens can be doing year-round, particularly during the weeks and months leading up to spring. If you haven’t participated in an exercise program in quite a while, be sure to get cleared by your physician before you begin. Also, seek the guidance of a certified fitness trainer who specializes in working with older adults.

Strength and Balance Training: Essential for Older Adults

For older adults, certain movements or activities can present cause them to feel unsteady and increases their risk for falling, such as:

• squatting to pick up an item from the floor
• standing up from a chair
• sitting down into a low seat
• walking on uneven surfaces
• pivoting to reach for an object or move out of the way of something

Exercises for Fall Prevention in Older Adults

Sit-to-Stand Exercise

The sit-to-stand exercise builds leg strength and improves body mechanics and balance, which are important in reducing falls. This exercise mimics the movements that are necessary to rise from a seated position and return to that position. Seats of varying heights can be used based on a person’s starting range of motion and ability to move independently or with an assisted device such as a cane or walking stick. 

Balance Training Exercises

The ability to stand on both feet, and on either foot independently, is essential for fall prevention as well as for climbing or descending a flight of steps. At home, it’s easy to work on balance training exercises. Just be sure you are nearby a steady piece of furniture, such as a couch or a countertop that you can easily reach out to if you do feel unsteady.

Standing Feet Apart

Start with both feet on the ground, shoulder distance apart. Stand without holding onto anything for 10 seconds, working your way to 1 minute for a set of 3-5 repetitions. 

Standing Feet Together

Start with both feet on the ground, shoulder distance apart. Stand without holding onto anything for 10 seconds, working your way to 1 minute for a set of 3-5 repetitions. 

Standing on 1 Foot at a time

• 2. 2-3 sets for 10-12 repetitions 
• Perform with eyes open and with eyes closed

Yoga or Tai Chi Class

If you are already steady on your feet. Practicing yoga or Tai Chi 1-3 times a week is an excellent way to maintain and even improve your strength, balance and coordination. You might also benefit from a regular workout, twice a week, using strength training equipment under the supervision of an exercise specialist, as noted above.

Fitness and Wellness at Everbrook Senior Living

Senior fitness and wellness are a priority at Everbrook Senior Living. Whether you are part of our independent living community or require assisted living services, our cutting-edge exercise program is led by a certified exercise physiologist who delivers evidence-based, safe and fun exercises designed for older adults. In addition to a focus on individual needs, we also offer a variety group exercise and Wellnes 4 Later Life programs, all designed to help you feel your best at every age and state of life.

We’d love for you to see what the Everbrook family of senior living residences has to offer you. Get in touch with us, today, to schedule a tour.

Additional Resources on Fall Prevention Exercise for Older Adults

National Council on Aging

Tufts School of Medicine “Exercise Decreases Fall Risk for Elderly People”

In the Month of April, the American Heart Association promotes everyone to MOVE MORE! This month we encourage everyone to participate in more physical activity. Make it your goal to move more and sit less. Staying active is one of the best ways to keep our bodies healthy, maintain our quality of life and keep our independence longer as we age. Start adding more activity into your day one step at a time. 

How long have you been sitting today? You sit while you eat your meals, drive your car, work at your desk, reading a book, watching TV, while you’re on your computer, or talking on the phone. It all adds up. People now spend a majority of their waking days sitting. The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study in 2019 that stated adults in the U.S. spent more than 6.4 hours a day sitting.

Try to reduce the amount of time you spend sitting every day to help improve your health. No matter how active you are, even if you’re getting the weekly recommended amount of exercise (150 minutes of moderate exercise), you still might be sitting too much. 

Making small changes in your daily routine will allow you to move more. Fit in 2, 5, 15, 30 minutes when possible. Be active however and wherever you can. Here are some tips to get yourself to move more throughout the day. Get up and move at least once every hour. If you’re watching TV, during the commercials take a walk down the hallway. After reading 20 pages in your book stand up, stretch and walk around. Walk while you’re talking on the phone. Park further away from the store when you go out shopping. Vacuum or dust the house. If you can’t walk or stand try seated knee lifts, arm circles, or straight leg raises. The important thing is to remember to move more, sit less.

Fears of being placed in a nursing home preoccupy a supermajority of older adults as in surveys about their course of aging they consistently ranked memory loss, financial insecurity and losing independence as their top three concerns.¹ Yet, after age 80, the risk of being placed in a nursing home increases significantly. Seniors of advanced age experience what is termed “functional aging”, that is an inevitable, progressively declining continuum in functional ability from having a stable capacity to perform daily activities through a state of physical vulnerability (influenced by cognitive loss) in which the person is losing independence.² At advanced ages, some caregiver support becomes necessary for many, and for some, a nursing home admission. 

Although most seniors accept that the aging process accelerates physical and cognitive decline after age 80, they want to know whether they have any means to control the degree or pace of their functional losses. This article discusses the evidence-base showing that changes in lifestyle, particularly engaging in exercise targeted to improving functional fitness even in seniors who were mostly sedentary, can slow and in some cases reverse functional impairment, which in turn reduces the risk of being placed in a nursing home. In fact, there is strong evidence that long-term habitual exercise is linked to a slowing of the biological aging process, which certainly enhances independence.³: but, studies also show that even sedentary older adults who begin to exercise in later life can see significant improvements in physical and cognitive health.⁴

Functional impairment is caused by not only age, cognitive decline, multiple chronic medical conditions or following an acute medical event, but also from lifestyle choices- a sedentary lifestyle is shown to decrease functional fitness levels which in turn increases functional impairment while engaging in a physically active lifestyle appears to derive a polar opposite effect.⁵ Functional impairment reduces ability to perform activities of daily living, “ADL’s”:⁶ and, consequently, the most common reason that very old adults are placed in a nursing home is loss of ability to perform ADL’s.⁷ (Over 80% of nursing home residents need assistance with 3 or more ADL’s). Thus, when functional fitness is improved through exercise, that is, when an older adult experiences an enhanced ability to the summon strength, energy and executive function needed to carry out basic ADL’s, independence is retained for longer which reduces the risk of being placed in a nursing home.⁸