Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, millions of older Americans are spending more time at home than ever before. As a result, a growing number of homebound seniors aren’t getting the regular workout they need to stay fit and healthy.
If there’s an aging-in-place loved one in your life, helping them find ways to exercise at home should be a priority. What follows are several low-impact exercises that average seniors can safely and easily do even when you’re not there.
How Regular Exercise Benefits Older Adults
Many people over the age of 60 live with joint and muscle discomfort that limits their ability to exercise. Other seniors have chronic health conditions like osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and cardiovascular disease that make exercising more challenging. For most, participating in high-impact forms of exercise like weightlifting, running, or aerobics isn’t such a good idea.
On the other hand, studies have found that seniors who regularly exercise by doing low-impact workouts still enjoy many of the same health benefits as do those using high-impact exercises.
In general, regular exercise benefits older adults in these ways:
- Relieves stress
- Improves cardiovascular endurance
- Increases muscle strength and bone mass
- Helps normalize blood sugar levels
- Builds self-esteem
- Improves flexibility, balance, and coordination
- Sharpens mental acuity which helps prevent cognitive decline
For all these reasons, exercise is a proven way to help the average senior enjoy a higher quality of life – even while sheltering in place and social distancing.
Great Low-Impact Exercises for Seniors
When setting attainable goals with your senior, shoot for a total of 150 minutes of low-impact exercise every week. If it’s been a while since they last exercised, be sure that your loved one has been medically cleared by a doctor before getting started.
Safe and effective low-impact exercises for seniors include:
Walking
Walking is an easy aerobic exercise that’s also gentle on the knees, ankles, and back. Taking a 2 to 3-mile walk several times a week will help lower stress and improve cardiovascular endurance. Before they hit the road, make sure that your senior has a good, supportive pair of walking shoes. Also, remind them to practice social distancing when they encounter other people along the way.
Yoga
Practiced for thousands of years, Yoga is a total mind and body form of low-impact exercise that improves flexibility, balance, and coordination, along with building core muscle strength. Because of the breathing exercises that are used in Yoga, it’s also highly beneficial for relieving stress and enhancing one’s mood.
Sitting exercises
Great for those with mobility issues, sitting exercises like chair aerobics allow a senior to build muscle, increase blood circulation, and improve joint flexibility without having to worry about falling.
Aquatic exercises
If your loved one has a pool at their home, encourage them to swim or do water aerobics 3 to 5 times per week. The natural buoyancy of the water allows it to support a person’s body weight while taking pressure off arthritic joints. Overall, water exercises are a gentle-yet-effective way to tone up and slim down.
Strength-building exercises
Since heavy weightlifting isn’t recommended for older adults, encourage your senior to use light hand weights, large cans of soup, or resistance bands to work out their arms and legs several times a week. As their muscle strength increases and they continue to train with light weights your loved one should also see an improvement to their joint flexibility and range of motion.
We Love Helping Seniors Stay Active and Fit!
Convincing an aging-in-place senior to get off the couch and exercise can be challenging when you’ve got a household to manage or live far away. At Assisting Hands Home Care of Boston Northwest, we are a home care provider that specializes in genuine, professional in-home care and skilled services. Our highly trained team of professional caregivers knows how to help seniors stay more active and fit by offering them encouragement and hands-on support.
In addition to helping your loved one exercise as they should, our compassionate caregivers can also provide dignified in-home personal care services including respite care, companionship care, dementia care, and even 24-hour care and live-in care. To learn more about Assisting Hands now, or to schedule a FREE assessment for a senior in the Concord, Winchester, Bedford, or Northwest Boston area, please visit us at Assisting Hands of Boston Northwest.
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