Ways to help an older person stay active

Maintaining an active lifestyle can be difficult as you get older, but it’s easy to include some simple exercises in to your day-to-day living to keep you active. 

An inactive older person puts themselves at risk of losing muscle mass over time, which can hinder mobility, as well as increasing the chances of heart attacks and other cardio-vascular conditions. According to NHS guidelines, older people should aim to be active for at least 150 minutes (2½ hours) a week, with moderate intensity activity in sessions of 10 minutes or more.

 

Now while 2½ hours a week may sound like a lot, especially for an older person, if you break it down to 30 minutes a day it becomes a lot more manageable and can be done without having too much of an impact on a person’s daily routine. 

 

Here are just some of the ways for an older person to stay active:

 

Walking

A walk around the local area can work wonders on your loved one’s general health and wellbeing. A brisk walk will get the blood circulating around the body, and the fresh air will leave them feeling much more energised.

 

Chair exercises

Chest stretches and arm raises are just some of the exercises that you can do from the comfort of a chair, perfect if your loved one has limited mobility.

 

Tai-chi or yoga 

To improve balance and flexibility, your loved one can try yoga or tai-chi as a gentler form of exercise, it can help increase flexibility as well as encouraging mindfulness.

 

Strength training

Lifting weights or using resistance bands are just two of the ways in which a person can improve strength, increase muscle mass and break a sweat at the same time.

 

Swimming

Swimming is a perfect low impact option for an older person, not only does it offer cardio-vascular benefits, it can strengthen your whole body through a variety of different swimming strokes, targeting a variety of muscle areas.

 

Aerobics

If your loved one is fairly mobile, why not take them along to an aerobics class? It’s a fun way to stay active but also gives them a chance to socialise with other people at the same time.

 

At The Burlington, we offer a varied calendar of activities including light exercise for our residents, for more information about what we offer, contact us here.