Caregiver Dunwoody GA – What Can Your Senior Do to Move More?
The CDC recently revamped their guidelines for how much exercise is recommended for older adults. In the past, the CDC included minimum recommendations for moving. The prevailing theory now, though, is that moving even a little bit more is beneficial and can help your senior to be healthier. Being just a little bit less sedentary can help your senior to increase her activity level even more.
Talk to Her Doctor about Her Plans
The very first step is to make sure that your senior is physically able to start moving more. If she has spent several years being extremely sedentary, then she’s going to need to start slowly and rebuild muscle. Some health issues may cause her to not be able to move as often as she would like. Her doctor can help her and you to understand how much activity is right for her right now.
Walk More Often
Walking is one of the easiest exercises to start out with, even if your elderly family member is starting from a very low activity level. Standing up and walking in place during commercials might be where she begins, and that’s not a bad way to start out. Gradually increasing the length of time that she walks helps your senior to build up her muscles even more and improve her endurance.
Develop Active Hobbies
Active hobbies are another way to incorporate more movement into every day. Some hobbies, like knitting, are wonderful, but they’re very sedentary. Hobbies like cooking or gardening involve your senior moving her body more and that can make a big difference. It can help a lot to have someone there with her as she becomes more active, so hiring a caregiver might be a good plan for supporting this goal.
Use Goals to Drive Progress
Goals can help your elderly family member to achieve even greater progress. Start out by setting small goals that are easily attainable. That helps her to see progress, for starters, and it also offers intrinsic rewards. Her goals can gradually get bigger and more complicated, which bring with them even more rewards. Talk to your senior about what she ultimately wants to accomplish and help her to chunk that down into smaller goals to work on gradually.
Moving more can help your elderly family member to maintain her health, maintain her independence, and even age in place if that’s something that she wants to do.