Guide: How To Help Seniors Exercise

How Important Is Exercise for the Elderly

Extremely. Regular exercise or physical activity in the elderly population allows them to maintain their independence longer and decreases the amount of caregiving that is needed to keep them safe. This aspect by itself should be enough for caregivers  to find a way to encourage more physical activity on the part of their care recipient(s) than other benefits because it directly affects the caregiver.

In addition to contributing to ongoing independence, exercise also protects against and slows the progression of most if not all the so-called lifestyle diseases that can add to the burden of caregiving. 

Regular exercise protects against heart and cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, heart failure, stroke, diabetes, and even some types of cancers. It helps to improve mental health and decreases depression. Some studies show that it can also delay the onset of dementia.

But, more tangibly, regular exercise will keep muscles strong so that care recipients can do for themselves. If they are strong, they can get into/out of bed easier, continue to dress themselves, have better balance, maintain the ability to go up and down stairs safely, and spend more time with family on outings or running errands.

How Often Should the Elderly Exercise

It’s my opinion that seniors and the elderly should be “exercising” on a daily basis. But, as I will explain a little further down in this guide, caregivers may need to modify what they understand to be “exercise” and “exercising”.

While people have been formally exercising for thousands of years, those people who performed manual labor had no need to “exercise” as we understand it today. In the early and mid 20th century, making a living, home making, and raising a family eliminated the need to physically exercise. Society wasn’t as sedentary as it is today.The adoption of technology and automation has reduced the need to be physically active or physically fit. 

If we don’t move it, we lose it. And when you “lose it”, that’s when you become more dependent on others to care for you.This is the main reason why adopting a daily habit of intentional movement and activity is important for senior citizens.

Why Don’t the Elderly Exercise

How to actually get older folks to buy into regular exercise can be tricky. And, a lot of the problem may be that caregivers who advocate for more exercising may not fully understand where their care recipient is mentally and emotionally. 

What you consider “exercise” may not be what they want or need. Exercise in the 21st century is a lot different from what may have been considered exercise when they were younger.

In today’s manic media environment, older folks are bombarded with advertisements for fad fitness products that are promoted by young, fit, and beautiful people sweating and working hard at staying young, fit, and beautiful. This is “exercise” and this is “how it’s done”. 

These marketing messages are not meant for the 70-80 year old crowd, but it is what they see consistently. So, when someone brings up the idea of “exercise”, it’s automatically associated with something the elder has no interest in.

Another thing that caregivers should keep in mind is that after 70-80 years of working, raising a family, exerting themselves to live as best as they could, the idea of “working” to stay fit is also a non-starter. They are tired and retired.

How to Get Elderly Parents to Exercise

Trying to get the elderly to exercise (or exercise more) is a matter of meeting them where they are mentally and emotionally. A study conducted by the “Home Instead Senior Care Network” identified the top 10 things that seniors fear the most. This study gives us an insight into where your elderly parents may be mentally and emotionally. 

While your elderly parents may not have participated in the above study, it’s a pretty safe bet that several of the following 10 concerns cross their minds routinely. And, they may not understand how adopting a simple lifestyle change can slow or prevent these fears from becoming reality for them.

1. Loss of independence 

2. Declining health 

3. Running out of money 

4. Not being able to live at home 

5. Death of a spouse or other family member 

6. Inability to manage their own activities of daily living 

7. Not being able to drive 

8. Isolation or loneliness 

9. Strangers caring for them 

10. Fear of falling or getting hurt

Each one of these “fears” can be directly addressed and alleviated to some degree by a regular exercise or physical activity program. 

Subtly suggesting you identify with the above fears and that by increasing their physical activity level or starting a home exercise program to avoid these issues may be a way to get them to buy into it.

How to Exercise at Home for Elderly

In one of my first college anatomy classes, one of my professors would always repeat the phrase “the body was made to move” in an effort to get his students to understand how dynamic a machine the human body actually is.

Regular movement keeps the body tuned and in shape, ready to answer the demands that come day by day.

Unfortunately, in a modern society, as we age, our activity level drops and we move less and get “rusty”.. This is a huge problem for baby boomers (or anyone for that matter) as the aging process progresses. 

So, what’s the best way to start exercising if a person has been sedentary or recovering from an illness?

For any activity or exercise program to be beneficial at least 2 boxes need to be checked. Box 1, the activity needs to physically challenge the individual beyond their normal limits, raising their heart rate and fatiguing their muscles to a minimal or moderate degree.

Box number 2, the exercise program needs to be done consistently over the course of time. In the case of most seniors, this actually means a lifestyle change for them. 

I usually recommend to caregivers and care recipients to start slow and establish the “habit” of exercising first. Starting slow gives people time to assess how their bodies will respond to regular physical activity and allows them to try to modify movements or exercises to avoid injury or setbacks.

An easy way to start an exercise program for the elderly at home is to pick 2-3 exercises or movements you’re going to trial. Then choose specific times/days to do them. Make a chart or write them on a calendar and keep track of your performance. 

If you’re going to walk for a designated duration on Monday and Thursday at 9am and then workout with resistance bands on Tuesday and Friday at 11am before lunch, write it in a “legend” on the calendar and make it a goal to be consistent. This will make it easier to keep track of. 

Once the habit is established, the activity level and number of exercises can be gradually increased.

Another thing that would be beneficial to establish this habit is if the caregiver can actually participate with the care recipient and exercise together. It’s always easier to keep on track if you have a workout partner and someone who you’re accountable to.

What Exercise Should an Elderly Person Do

This guide assumes that its readers are caregivers of the segment of the elderly population that has been more sedentary and that need to “get started” with an exercise program.

When trying to figure out where to start with an exercise program, I usually encourage people to consider “what they (their care recipient) have trouble doing”. Their exercise program should mimic the physical activity they have trouble performing.

For instance, if an elderly person has trouble going up or down stairs, starting on a step up program using an “aerobic step” might be a better approach than simply doing dumbbell curls or “chair yoga”.

Practicing the activity that a person has difficulty doing will not only strengthen the muscles used in that activity, but allow the senior to work on their “technique” in performing the exercise.

Sitting down in a wheelchair doing “leg lifts” will not help a person learn to walk.

You also need to consider what effects being sedentary has on the body. The effects of being sedentary are pretty pernicious. Our bodies generally assume the position and shape that it’s kept in for prolonged periods of time. Example: you will never see a surfer who is hunched over and unable to stand up straight.

Likewise, there are many examples of people who have been sedentary, whether truck drivers, desk jockeys, or the retired elderly, who have a distinct posture that is bent forward, flexed at the hips, and unable to walk for long periods because it makes their backs hurt. You see them regularly leaning over their grocery carts or in the community struggling to walk bent over their walkers with their faces toward the ground.

While some may have legitimate health conditions that have caused this type of posture, it’s my opinion that the primary cause is that of being sedentary for a prolonged period of time.

Sitting for prolonged periods shortens the body tissues where the joints bend, namely the neck, the rounded shoulders, the hips, and the knees and makes them tight. But, it also weakens the opposing tissues because while sitting, these muscles are “turned off” because they don’t have to work to hold the body up against gravity. As therapists we refer to these weakened muscles as “the posterior chain”. 

And so in addition to performing exercises that mimic activities that are challenging, its also important to adopt exercises that strengthen the posterior chain muscle groups. 

What is the Best Exercise for the Elderly

While there are many exercises that may be beneficial for many different people, the best overall exercise I think the elderly should start with and do on a regular basis, if at all possible, is simply walking.

The reason why I recommend people emphasize walking is that this movement is basic and fundamental to our sense of individuality and independence. And, going back to those 10 “fears” that most elderly have, which ones aren’t addressed by maintaining the ability to walk.

The inability to safely walk is the primary physical reason for the increased need for caregiving with older adults. The inability to walk can lead to more falls, decreased attention to hygiene, inability to care for the home, an increase in the need for durable medical equipment, etc.It also contributes to loss of independence, depression, and overall decreased quality of life.

But the above reasons for encouraging a walking program for exercise are not the only ones. Walking is something that is simple to do and requires no gym membership or special equipment. It can be done almost anywhere and anytime ( I realize that during the winter months and the very hot summers, getting outside to walk may be difficult, but, where there is a will (and a plan) there is a way.

One more thing to keep in mind and why I think walking is the overall best exercise for most elderly people – They have been doing it for longer than you have probably been alive. No one has to really teach them how to do it. It’s innate and inherent. There may be a degree of fear to overcome and pain to deal with in some folks, but it’s still a lot easier and cheaper than most other exercise programs.

How to Exercise at Home for Seniors

In summary, getting seniors moving in the home is important. Exercise helps with so many physical, emotional and cognitive challenges that the elderly face ( and that lie in store for each of us).

It’s something that should be done on a (near) daily basis. Walking and 2-3 exercise movements that focus on activities that seniors struggle most with is really all that’s needed until it becomes a new lifestyle.

Older persons are motivated differently than their younger caregivers and so the elderly will not necessarily respond to the same incentives that may be common to the mainstream. Elders fear losing their independence and having to have help to move or clean them up. The elderly want to be able to stay in their own homes rather than be “put in a home” away from all that’s familiar. And older folks are also fearful of becoming chronically sick. 

The above reasons just may be enough for seniors to consider changing their lifestyle and family caregivers need to keep in mind that, even though their elderly care recipient may not express these fears out loud, chances are, they are there lurking in the back of their minds. Heck, to be honest these same fears are probably lurking somewhere in the minds of anyone over 50.

If you don’t know where to start, consider (if physically possible) getting the elderly to begin a regular and progressive walking program. It’s easy, inexpensive, can be done most anywhere, and familiar to the majority of the elderly population.

Once a physical activity habit is established it’ll be a lot easier to add more challenging and difficult movements to it. It can really change a person’s outlook, ability, and decrease the need for outside assistance.