senior exercise Archives

When people grow older, physical changes and lifestyle adjustments can sometimes lead to a decrease in energy. As such, those who provide elder care for an aging parent or relative may find that their parent struggles to muster up the energy for even basic everyday tasks. How to Boost Elderly Energy
At Visiting Angels, our elder care professionals encourage healthy, active lifestyles among our clients as much as possible, and we know how important energy is to making that happen. To help you keep your loved one healthy and energized, we’ve compiled a list of ways you can make energy-boosting activities part of your loved one’s elder care regimen.

Keep Moving & Stay Active

Exercise is one of the easiest ways to boost and maintain energy levels. Yes – easy. While the word “exercise” might conjure up images of treadmills, bikes, and dumbbells, healthy exercise is much more fun and simple than a trip to the gym.
Most doctors recommend focussing on low-impact, mild exercise when building an elder care activity plan. Some examples might include:

Walking
Hiking
Tai Chi
Aquafit
Dancing
Gardening

The key is to build a program with activities that are enjoyable for your loved one. This can occasionally be difficult, especially if your loved one is inactive to the point that even low-impact activities are challenging. If this is the case, introduce these activities gradually. Do activities for short periods at first, and allow for breaks if your loved one becomes strained.
And remember to always consult with your doctor before making regular exercise a part of your loved one’s elder care regimen.

Eat Energy-Boosting Foods

Your loved one’s diet plays a major role in their level of energy on a day-to-day basis. There are a few ways that you can modify your loved one’s elder care plan to improve nutrition.
Sometimes, boosting energy can be as simple as eating at the right times. You’ve undoubtedly heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That’s doubly true for energy-depleted seniors. Ensuring your loved one eats a full, healthy meal at the start of the day will ensure they are properly “powered up,” with the energy to fuel them through the morning and afternoon.
Another way to boost energy is to increase your loved one’s consumption of lean proteins and reduce intake of carbohydrates. Carbs, especially those found in sugar, white flour, and other similar foods, cause sharp energy peaks and valleys. They also encourage the production of serotonin, the chemical that makes people sleepy. Instead, a high-protein diet will keep your loved one energized without causing them to “crash” midway through the day.
Two other ways that you can boost energy are hydration and vitamin intake. Ensuring your loved one drinks roughly two liters of fluids daily will help your loved one stay energized. A diet high in vitamins A, B, C, E, niacin and folate – or supplements for these vitamins – will also help increase energy levels.

Healthy Sleep

Insomnia problems are common among the elderly and can lead to depleted energy levels. If your loved one is suffering from sleep issues, you may wish to work with them on healthy sleep habits as part of your elder care plan. Some of the ways insomnia can be avoided include limiting the use of TV or computers in the hours before bedtime, ensuring a dark, comfortable sleeping space, and performing breathing exercises to help induce sleep.

Stress Management

Stress has been referred to as the silent killer for the impact It can have on a person’s health, mood, and energy. To reduce stress in your loved one, make activities like mindful meditation a part of your loved one’s elder care plan and encourage regular social interaction, which helps reduce stress and other emotional challenges.
If you’re looking for help with your loved one’s elder care, including ways to increase energy and activity, contact the elder care professionals at your local Visiting Angels. Our elder care providers have been helping American families for over 18 years and can help you promote a healthy lifestyle for your loved one.
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Exercise for Healthy Aging

Sixty-year-old Ester Kurz does a lot of things, but taking prescribed medicine isn’t one of them. While most people her age take a pill for one thing or another, Kurz, from Baltimore, self-prescribes exercise for healthy aging.
On a daily basis Kurz, who will turn 61 in June, goes to the Life Time Fitness in Rockville, Md., to enjoy everything from boot camp to yoga. Her favorite day is Monday, she says, when she goes from kickboxing to indoor cycling class to boot camp. “Each year, I seem to up the number and types of routines,” she boasts.
Kurz’s attitude is counter to the majority of her peers. Just 30 percent of people between ages 45 and 64 say they engage in regular leisure-time physical activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2010 National Interview Survey. As people get older, they move even less: 25 percent are active between the ages 65 and 74 and only 11 percent of those 85 and older say they are active.
That’s a problem because studies indicate there’s a correlation between activity and a lower death rate in older adults.
“Healthy aging is the ability to maintain your mental, physical and cellular health,” says Jason Stella, a personal trainer at Life Time Fitness, The Healthy Way of Life Company. “The process of aging is inevitable, but the choices you make, good or bad, throughout your lifetime dictate the rate at which you will age and the positive or negative health affects you develop.”
In particular, Stella says behaviors that sabotage healthy aging include eating processed foods, taking too many medications, not controlling stress and inactivity.
“I have had almost no injuries and very few aches and pains other than when I push myself too hard,” Kurz says. In addition to staying physically active, Kurz is a lobbyist for a grassroots advocacy organization, a wife and mother of two sons, ages 19 and 21, as well as a volunteer with several organizations.
“A few years ago, I fell down a flight of stairs and, other than a few bruises and scrapes, did very little damage to my body,” Kurz says. “I have to believe exercise had a great deal to do with that.”
Regular exercise and physical activity are critical to helping older adults stay independent as they age. Strengthening bone and joint health to protect mobility is all the motivation most active older adults need to exercise.
Kurz appreciates those benefits, too, but likes the added challenges. In February she competed in the Life Time Fitness Alpha Showdown, a national competition that tests the body’s core energy systems: power, strength and endurance. Most competitors were much younger than Kurz. “I did not win,” she says, “But I don’t think I came in last either, which was an achievement.”
Firmly in the second half of her life, Kurz is certain she has never been healthier or felt stronger. Life Time Fitness is part of her health aging program, but the facilities, programming and events cater to all ages and abilities, from those new to an exercise routine to those who are emphatic believers in exercise as good medicine, like Kurz.
“Every checkup, my doctor asks me, ‘Still exercising like crazy?'” she says. “And then he adds, ‘keep it up.'”

Provided by: ARA