How Can Seniors Benefit From Routine Exercise?
Residents at Villa Rose participate in routine stretching classes.
Routine Exercise is one of the easiest and surest ways to improve health, especially for the aging adult. The loss of physical capacity that occurs with aging can be counteracted by participating in regular exercise. Exercise can help seniors live better quality lives. With regular exercise, seniors can overcome health problems early on. Aging is often associated with a decline in strength and flexibility. Thus, exercise has shown benefits, even when started late.
Simple, even unambitious strength training can help older people perform everyday activities. According to studies, exercise is vital among seniors to avoid worsening the muscular and cardiorespiratory systems. It also helps improve bone, functional, and cognitive health. Routine exercise can help combat diseases such as hypertension or diabetes, and fight against loneliness and depression.
The need for exercise in aging adults is crucial for both physical and mental health. To get the best out of this, you need to know that older people may need assistance that their relatives often cannot offer due to a lack of time or knowledge. In these cases, it is very common to turn to home caregivers or independent living communities. Communities like Villa Rose offer a variety of activities that allow seniors to stay active.
Two Pillars of Healthy Senior Living
In the first instance, as we already know, with aging comes a series of changes in our mental and physical beings. Standing up to fatigue is a challenge within itself. If we want healthy aging, we must attend to all the changes that come with it. To do this, we have to keep in mind the two pillars of healthy living: a balanced diet and physical exercise.
Having a balanced diet is easy when 3 meals a day are included in Villa Rose’s rental program. Exercise on the other hand can be a great helping factor, especially for the aging seniors living in care communities in Bethalto, IL, and other surrounding areas. Combined with a balanced diet suitable for the elderly, exercise reduces bad cholesterol and blood pressure, risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, heart failure, and strokes. Also, it can reduce type 2 diabetes, among others.
Exercise for aging adults is very important, beneficial, and easy to carry out. Moving the body alone has infinite benefits, but we want to focus on those benefits that we consider the most important for aging adults. Aerobic exercise is a great way to get started for seniors who are not physically active. Hence, the following are some examples of exercises:
Take a walk
Rotate your arms in a clockwise rotation for 30 seconds
stretch your legs by trying to touch your toes
sit-to-stands
light-weight training
exercise at your local gym
Seniors & Gym Memberships
Most of your local gyms such as Leisure World Health Club will accept Silver Sneakers, United Health Care, and AARP. This grants seniors free access to the gym’s wonderful amenities. Leisure World is just located 2 minutes down the road from Villa Rose Senior Living Community.
Leisure World in Bethalto, IL - Just 2 Minutes From Villa Ros Senior Living Community
What Happens to Our Body as We Age?
In general, the musculoskeletal system suffers certain alterations as we age. On most occasions, it will not be an obstacle to the development of activities of daily living. But combined with another series of pathologies, both physical and cognitive, it can hinder mobility and, therefore, the autonomy of a person.
For instance, bone density decreases in older people, which makes bones more brittle. Also, sarcopenia leads to loss of muscle mass associated with aging and is one of the main causes of muscle weakness. As muscle mass decreases, body movements lose strength and resistance. Again, the joints become more rigid and all movements will tend to be less flexible.
All of these changes affect body posture, which tends to be more stooped, and gait (walking pattern), which can be slower and weaker. On the other hand, the cardiovascular system is also affected with age, as there is an increase in cardiovascular pathologies and disorders associated with aging.
Apart from the above-mentioned, many other changes occur in the body as a result of age, and all of them can be rightly seen as something normal, typical of getting older and getting older. But the good news remains that any exercise, no matter the type, goes a long way in not just keeping the body physically fit but also mentally healthy.
Conclusion
It is safe to say that exercise and having a balanced diet are crucial for seniors who are wanting to prosper during their golden years. Nonetheless, this is why many seniors choose Villa Rose Senior Living community as their home. Villa Rose serves 3 meals daily and offers many engaging activities for seniors to participate in. Having support from a community may be all you need to help you get on your feet again.
Photo By Route 3 Films
