{"id":618,"date":"2016-02-10T11:15:47","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T11:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/?p=618"},"modified":"2026-02-02T15:02:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T15:02:32","slug":"getting-seniors-to-exercise-all-year-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/2016\/02\/10\/getting-seniors-to-exercise-all-year-round\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Seniors to Exercise All Year Round"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Exercise

Exercise at all ages is important and can have a significant positive effect on aging.<\/p><\/div>\n

For the last year or so, my husband has been meeting his childhood friend for a weekly 3-mile run. They\u2019re pretty consistent\u2014running outside through most any weather\u2014and in October, they ran a local race together. To anyone in town who sees them, it\u2019s just two guys out for a run. And it is\u2014except his running buddy lives at an assisted living facility and was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer\u2019s several years ago.<\/p>\n

Not every person who is sick or aging will be able to keep up a running routine like my husband\u2019s friend (he was a gym rat long before his diagnosis), but he is proof that a diagnosis doesn\u2019t have to be the end of a physical lifestyle or doing something one loves. In fact, studies show exercising regularly at an elevated heart rate (elevated heart rate being the key\u2014that\u2019s more than an easy walk or gentle stretching) is perhaps better than medication at slowing the progression of diseases like Alzheimer\u2019s. It may also improve the brain functions that affect daily living.<\/p>\n

For most of us, winter isn\u2019t the best time of year for our exercise regimes. We spend more time indoors (usually sitting), and seniors, especially, lose the physical fitness they built up over the summer when they could walk the beach, golf, and garden. It\u2019s no coincidence that this is also the time of year when we start seeing increased falls and hospital stays.<\/p>\n

Often times, we as caregivers contribute to the reasons for not exercising by saying things like, \u201cIt\u2019s too cold, you shouldn\u2019t go out,\u201d or \u201cYou need to be careful not to do too much.\u201d It may be tempting to tell someone with balance issues not to exercise but that actually makes their problems worse. Same for someone who has trouble walking\u2014the less you do it, the worse your walking will become.<\/p>\n

Rather than find excuses for our aging loved ones not<\/em> to exercise, we need to try to find ways to get them up and moving, especially in the winter. If the weather is bad or it\u2019s icy, encourage them to find indoor places to walk (or run if they\u2019re still able): The mall, the halls of their assisted living community or apartment complex, the gym at the senior center. If the weather is mild, as it\u2019s been lately, don\u2019t be afraid to go outside to a place where the sidewalks are ice-free or the roads are empty. I like to run on Marblehead Neck this time of year because the roads are clear, the cars are few, and the hills will elevate your heart rate.<\/p>\n

Maybe take Dad somewhere for indoor mini-golf to practice his putting (and get some walking in at the same time), or take Mom to the Peabody senior center\u2019s big band dance Thursday mornings. The Marblehead senior center has an active workout room and gymnasium for seniors to walk in, and both Marblehead and Swampscott hold weekly exercise classes. The YMCA has water aerobics, as well as disease-specific programs focused on Parkinson\u2019s and Cancer.<\/p>\n

Lack of physical exercise can lead to more doctor visits, depression, and impaired cognitive functioning\u2014all things seniors are already prone to. It\u2019s imperative that we as caregivers help our loved ones find ways to do as much exercise as they\u2019re physically able to do as often as they can do it. And if we exercise with them, we\u2019ll benefit from the exercise, too.<\/p>\n

Molly Rowe owns FirstLight Home Care with her husband, Steve Rowe, and lives in Swampscott with their two sons. FirstLight provides non-medical in-home care to adults in Swampscott, Marblehead, Nahant, Lynn, Salem, Peabody, Danvers, Beverly, and Lynnfield. For more information and help caring for your loved ones in the comfort of their own homes, please visit FirstLight\u2019s website at <\/em>www.salem.firstlighthomecare.com<\/em><\/a> or contact Molly at <\/em>781-691-5755\/mrowe@firstlighthomecare.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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For the last year or so, my husband has been meeting his childhood friend for a weekly 3-mile run. They\u2019re pretty consistent\u2014running outside through most any weather\u2014and in October, they ran a local race together. To anyone in town who sees them, it\u2019s just two guys out for a run….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}