Reliant Senior Care Blog

Staying Safe While Exercising

You may already know that exercise is an important part of staying healthy. But how can you stay safe while exercising? The good news is that exercise and moderate physical activity are safe for almost everyone, including older adults. Here are a few things to keep in mind while exercising.

1. Take precautions to avoid injury. The key to exercising safely, especially when just beginning an exercise program, is moderation.

• When starting an exercise program, start slowly with low-intensity exercises.
• Wait at least 2 hours after eating a large meal before doing strenuous exercise.
• Wear appropriate shoes and comfortable, loose-fitting clothing.
• Warm up with low-intensity exercises at the beginning of each exercise session.
• Drink water before, during, and after exercise, even if you aren’t feeling thirsty.
• If exercising outdoors, pay attention to your surroundings, including the weather, traffic hazards, uneven walking surfaces, and strange

2.  Keep an eye out for signs that you should stop exercising.

You might experience minor discomfort or muscle soreness when you start to exercise. This should go away as you get used to the activities. However, if an exercise is too intense, your body will give you stronger signals that you need to stop. If you experience any of the following, stop exercising and follow up with your doctor to discuss your symptoms and any modifications you should consider.

• Pain or pressure in your chest, neck, shoulder, or arm
• Dizziness or feeling sick to your stomach
• Breaking out in a cold sweat
• Muscle cramps
• Severe pain in joints, feet, ankles, or legs.

3. Consider talking with your doctor.

In some situations, it’s a good idea to check with your doctor before starting an exercise routine. If you have an ongoing health condition or certain other health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease, or arthritis, or if you haven’t seen your doctor for a while, check with your doctor about your plans to start exercising.

To find out more about how you can exercise safely, visit the Go4Life website at www.nia.nih.gov/Go4Life. Go4Life is an exercise and physical activity campaign from the National Institute on Aging at NIH. It has exercises, success stories, and free materials to help you get ready, start exercising, and keep going.

What’s involved in moving to a senior facility? What can you do to help your loved one make a smooth transition?

Moving to a senior facility—especially for long term care, as opposed to temporary rehab care—involves adjustments that are both emotional and practical. A person may be dealing with misconceptions, fear, anger or depression. It’s no surprise that moving to someplace new often leads to feeling that you’ve “lost your bearings”—your sense of security and belonging. Making new friends and settling into a whole new scene takes effort and a willingness to stretch and take risks, no matter what a person’s age or health status.

There are practical considerations too: What to take? How to pack? What to do with the things we don’t take. If your loved one is moving to a nursing facility, you can help ahead of time, on move-in day, and during the days and weeks following the move.

Before the move, friends and family can help by:

• Learning from the facility about space limitations and what personal clothing and items will be needed and helpful
• Helping pack these personal items
• Making arrangements for other things not taken
• Making arrangements for forwarding mail
• Canceling any unneeded personal or household services, such as the daily newspaper
• Marking all clothing and personal items with the person’s name
• Making a list of the personal property being taken to the facility
• Dealing with any special concerns, such as care of a pet.

On the day of the move, support of a family member or friend can make all the difference. Here are some simple steps:

• Help your loved one unpack.
• Place photos, favorite mementos and other personal items where they will help create a feeling of home.
• Share a meal.
• Get to know a few people on staff and a few of the other residents.
• Learn a bit about the activities, amenities, and services the facility offers.
• Spend some quiet time in conversation as the process winds down.
• If you can, plan ahead for your next visit and share that with your loved one.

After the move

One of the biggest fears for senior facility residents is that they will be left out. That they’ll be forgotten. That where they live will come between them and the people they know and love.

The truth is there will be differences. Your loved one and his or her support network will have some adjustments to make. But almost always the downside is outweighed by an upside. Care will be improved. Medical and personal care challenges will be dealt with. Staying “socially connected” and “physically active” will become easier. And all of these differences can mean living longer and with a higher quality of life.

You can help your loved one adjust to the move—in fact, take advantage of it—by staying actively involved as friend, guest, advocate and troubleshooter. Check in often with your loved one, with staff, and with a few of the other residents. Ask how things are going and how they could be going better. And if your loved one approves, plan to be part of his or her care conferences.

Copyright ©IlluminAge AgeWise, 2011

Over the past few years, researchers have offered new insight into the ways music promotes healthy aging and a sense of well-being for seniors. Recent studies show that listening to music gives the brain a good “workout,” as it makes sense of the patterns and melodies. For example, in a 2011 Emory University study, lead researcher Brenda Hanna-Pladdy, PhD, reported, “Musical activity throughout life may serve as a challenging cognitive exercise, making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of aging.”

Another 2011 study, from Northwestern University, confirms that musical training promotes memory health, and also improves hearing ability in seniors. Researchers showed that listening to music improves the ability to perceive speech in a noisy environment, which is a common challenge as age-related hearing impairment occurs.

Studies have shown detectable brain changes when a person is listening to music. Music influences brain waves, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, and muscle tone. It provides many other important health benefits. For example:

• Music can decrease the perception of pain. It provides distraction from aches and illness. Listening to music that a person enjoys can actually raise the level of endorphins (brain chemicals linked with a feeling of well-being).
• Music has the capacity to reach hidden brain areas. It is stored differently in the brain than are speech and memory. This is why people with Alzheimer’s, stroke, Parkinson’s disease or other conditions that cause a diminished ability to speak or carry on a conversation, may still be able to sing.
• Music serves as a storehouse for memories. Pictures, thoughts and vivid recollections can all be encoded in the mind with music. So by enhancing memory, music is a good addition to reminiscing activities.
• Music helps people who are cognitively impaired. Many people with dementia become more aware of the present, of their surroundings, and of other people while listening to music.
• Music is a wonderful resource for people with visual impairment. It provides another way of staying in touch with the world.
• Music encourages seniors to exercise and be more active. What’s more fun, calisthenics or dancing? With the addition of music, movements become a pleasure rather than a chore.
• Music can improve sleep quality. Recent studies show that seniors with sleep problems experienced an improvement after listening to soft music at bedtime.
• Music brings people together. People who “co-experience” the same rhythms, moods and neurological responses enjoy a togetherness which is familiar to concertgoers or church congregations. Listening to music together enhances communication, and can lend a sense of unity to people of different abilities and of different generations. Music helps us interact with others and feel part of a group.
• Music can have positive emotional effects. It can uplift the spirit. It can reduce anxiety, stress and agitation. Music which is associated with pleasant memories can be a source of relaxation. And the therapeutic use of music has been shown to be effective in reducing depression.
• Music provides a sense of meaning and fulfillment. Studies show that most of us have our own strong musical tastes, with which we often identify. Reacting to music in one’s own way builds self-esteem.
• Music provides comfort at the end of life. Patients receive palliative benefit from appropriate, personalized music. Music helps meet the physical, emotional and psychosocial needs of hospice patients.

Copyright ©IlluminAge AgeWise, 2011