While exercise is not at the top of everyone’s enjoyment list, it is something we all need, including the elderly.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 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 and a brisk walk on a nice day, and your elderly loved one is likely take interest.
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 Theresa Zurilla from Home Instead Senior Care.
“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, a Vancouver, B.C., company with 4,000 primarily U.S.-member companies including senior-friendly fitness facilities and senior-care facilities that are committed to wellness. “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.”
“Seniors’ health issues often are not with aging, but rather with disuse,” he added. “The main benefit of activity for people who are aging is actually reversing the impact that disuse has on their bodies. And that can be like a fountain of youth.”
A recent press release said there’s plenty of 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 events at 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,” said Zurilla, owner of the Home Instead Senior Care office that serves Blair and Cambria counties. “Companionship is just what many seniors need to get up and active again.”
A press release listed some practical ways that caregivers can recommend that seniors incorporate activity into their lives.
“For seniors who enjoy TV, 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,” Milner said.
Milner also pointed out seniors could learn about the value of strength training.
“According to the Centers for Disease Control, only 11 percent of seniors actually do strength training,” Milner said. “And loss of strength is the number one reason why most people get admitted to a skilled nursing facility.”
If they can’t go to a gym, 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 called “Growing Stronger Longer” that features information about strength training and other activities for seniors.
Another resource is Home Instead Senior Care, which recently published a CAREGiver Activity Training Guide for its professional CAREGivers across North America. This new training tool is full of leisure, recreation and hobby ideas to help CAREGivers enhance their time with their clients.
“This guide features dozens of popular senior activities for all seasons,” Zurilla said. “It focuses on the importance of knowing clients’ interests and pastimes, how to introduce activities to clients and ways to easily modify them to meet clients’ abilities.”
“If you think about it, our bodies were built to move,” Milner said. “Not moving is an unnatural thing. And that’s true at any age.”
