Healthy bodies and healthy minds are important for seniors—and exercise can help with both. The CDC recommends that adults over the age of 65 get 150 minutes of exercise each week in addition to performing muscle-strengthening exercises at least 2 days each week.
Perhaps the seniors in your life have been avid exercises for years, but are finding it challenging to get motivated to keep up their fitness levels. Or perhaps they’ve been too busy with kids and careers to get started with an active lifestyle. If it’s the latter, it’s never too late to begin an exercise regimen.
Senior living communities are wonderful places to stay active or start being active. Fitness facilities, planned activities, and opportunities for communal encouragement are hallmarks of the best communities. Communities like Bellaire at Stone Port even offer chef-prepared meals, and proper nutrition goes hand-in-hand with the active lifestyle that is key to helping seniors stay healthy.
The following ways to encourage exercise can help seniors of all physical activity levels live their best lives.
Start Small
When getting back into an exercise routine—or starting one—it’s important to start small, set reasonable goals, and not do too much too quickly.
Encouraging a senior to exercise can be as simple as asking them to take a walk with you. Exercise doesn’t have to be a lengthy, planned event. It can be an impromptu stroll in the garden or even a walk through the local mall.
Particularly if the senior in your life hasn’t been engaging in regular physical activity, starting small can help to prevent injury. No big, expensive equipment is necessary either. Resistance bands or light weights are inexpensive and take up very little space, and they’re an excellent way to begin a new fitness routine.
Provide Options
Not everyone likes to run, and swimming isn’t enjoyable for everybody. As with anything in life, options are important. Even if steak is your favorite meal, you probably don’t want to eat it 7 nights each week. So, even if the senior citizen in your life is an avid cyclist, they will still appreciate some additional choices to change up their routine.
Switching up the type of exercise not only helps with motivation, but can also prevent injury. Seniors’ knees and hips will be thankful that running is not the only activity on offer.
The National Institute on Aging says that, not only do different kinds of activities prevent boredom, it’s also necessary for health reasons to get 4 different types of exercise. Endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility are all areas of focus to prevent injury and keep seniors healthy.
Make It Fun
While exercise is necessary, it certainly doesn’t need to be boring. The idea of walking on a treadmill while staring at the wall in front of you doesn’t sound like a good time for most people. To make it fun, think of unconventional ways to exercise.
Dancing is a great opportunity to have fun while working up a sweat. The senior in your life might enjoy taking a salsa lesson, or showing off their waltzing skills. If they would prefer some friendly competition, perhaps a game of golf or some lawn bowling are in order.
Not all exercise has to seem like exercise either. A great sale at the local mall can be all the encouragement needed to engage in a speedy walk around the shopping center. Even starting a little garden on the patio and trimming the tomatoes and watering the sunflowers can help seniors stay active.
Get Social
A friend or small group of like-minded seniors can help motivate one another to exercise, and can help to pass the time while being active.
Loneliness is a huge problem in the senior population, and an active social life can be just as beneficial as physical activity. So why not combine both? Studies show that taking a communal exercise class can help to alleviate feelings of isolation, reducing the risk of depression and anxiety.
Yoga, Tai Chi, and ZUMBA are great group options with some formal instruction. But really, just getting together with friends for a walk, or even some weight training, is all it takes to incorporate some social time into exercising.
Educate
Getting seniors interested in exercise is easy when they know the benefits. Lowering the risk of dementia, experiencing a better quality of life, and reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression are just a few of the reasons to incorporate exercise.
People with arthritis can benefit from exercise too. Activity can alleviate pain and stiffness, offering more mobility for daily tasks. Regular movement has been proven to help seniors stay independent for longer. Ultimately, most seniors want to retain the ability to get around, bathe, shower, and dress themselves as long as possible. Seniors will jump at the chance to start exercising when they learn that just a short period of physical activity each day provides incredible benefits and helps them stay more independent for longer.