• FLEXIBILITY
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• BALANCE
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• STRENGTH
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• ENDURANCE

Start Exercises For The Elderly and Seniors Now

Welcome To Our Getting Started Page!

If you are looking for one of the best resources for senior and elderly exercise on the internet, you found it!

The main topics of this section are:

• Your doctor: Discover why you should talk to your doctor first.
• Enjoy yourself: Learn to do what you enjoy.
  
• Goals:  Learn how to correctly set a goal.
  
• Equipment: What you should and should not use.
• Schedule: How to organize your exercises.
• Intensity: Learn how much effort to put into a session.
• Training zone:  What is a training zone and why you should know yours.
• Duration: How long should you exercise.
• Weight: How much weight should you use.
• Safety Guidelines: What you should and should not use.

The ways this section will help you improve include:

• Strength: Create a stronger torso and legs to increase you stability.
  
• Safety:  Increase your ability to get up, walk and exercise.
  
• Mobility: Achieve a lasting ability to get around more easily
  
• Activities: Enjoy those tennis lessons or bike riding again
  
• Social: Begin to see and enjoy your friends and family

First Things First

Before starting you should consult your doctor. Let him or her know you are going to begin exercising or increasing your activity level. This is especially true if you have any of the following:

• Chest pain or pain in your left arm and neck

• Any shortness of breath

• A heart condition

• Any bone or joint problems

• If you are currently taking blood pressure or cardiac medications

• Any unexplained dizziness or fainting

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Enjoy yourself

Regular physical activity can improve your quality of life in so many ways. Doing something you love to do is a great way to stay motivated.

Over exerting yourself or participating in an exercise program you don't really like will make you exhausted and very likely cause you to discontinue activity.

In order to gain the many benefits of regular exercise, including increased energy, weight loss, improved heart health and strong bones, you must like what you are doing.

If swimming feels great, dancing gets your excitement up, bicycling is refreshing, then by all means do what your enjoy!

In our exercise classes, my students really like strengthening and stretching. When they miss a few sessions from time to time, they tell me that they can really feel the difference.

Set Your Goals

Athletes, from runners to weight-lifters, have used exercise logs and goal setting to achieve success.

By recording your progress toward your goals you will gain perspective and be able to answer the question I get most often...How do I know if I'm getting stronger?

Let’s say you want to be able to get out in the yard and garden for one hour. That is your short term goal. You decide to begin with a walking and weight lifting program.

• On your first day of exercise you can walk for 5 minutes at a brisk pace and lift a five pound weight 10 times before getting tired.

• You then continue to exercise and record what you are able to do at least weekly in your journal.

• At the end of 6 weeks you have increased your walking time to 20 minutes and lifting capacity to eight pounds 10 times.

Wow! Now you can answer the question yourself…
I AM getting stronger!  And ultimately one hour in the garden is easily accomplished. ( As long as the weather holds!)

Equipment

Setting up an exercises for the elderly and seniors program at home doesn't require a lot of investment in equipment. 

Unless you really have your heart set on that new all purpose gym from Sears!

More than likely though it will be in your garage serving as a clothes hanger in a few short months.

All you really need is a sturdy armless dining room or kitchen chair and a few weights.

Make sure you have athletic type shoes that offer good support such as walking or running shoes.  

Your clothing should also be comfortable and loose fitting. Find a sturdy kitchen chair to hold on to for balance.

You can use a water bottle or can of soup to lift if you don't have weights.

If you can afford to purchase small hand weights, try picking up a 2 pound, 3 pound, 5 pound and 8 pound weight.

These will likely serve the needs of most older adult exercisers.

Schedule Your Exercise

How do ants make an ant hill so tall? They consistently add one grain of sand at a time. 

It’s the little bit you do every day that will over time increase your strength and endurance.

To be consistent requires taking a good look at your day and week.

What days will I most likely be able to fit in exercise? What time of day would be best?

The longer you are faithful to the schedule the easier it will be to stick to the exercise program.

How hard should I exercise?

Strength workout: Strength exercises are vital to maintain your ability to function independently in your home.

If you are only using weights for a strengthening workout, start with 3 to 5 pound weights.

Perform 8 to 12 repetitions (Reps). Rest 1 minute and perform another (set) of these exercises.

You should not have any pain with these exercises.

When you can comfortably perform more than 15 to 20 repetitions, you should consider increasing your weight by a pound or two.

Strengthen a minimum of twice a week.

3 to 5 times per week is optimal to maintain a strong body that withstands the rigors of daily life as we grow older.

Stretching: Flexibility exercises allow you to more easily move and reach when doing your daily tasks around the home.

Select a stretch to perform for the upper or lower body.

Hold the stretch for 30 seconds. Then repeat the stretch 2 to 3 more times. You should not feel any pain.

Generally stretches should feel good. Only hold your neck stretches for 5 seconds if you feel any dizziness.

Stretch a minimum of twice a week. To increase your flexibility, try stretching at leas 5 days per week. Why not, it feels great!

Endurance: Endurance exercises include brisk walking, running, low impact aerobics, swimming, water aerobics, cycling or any exercise that makes you breathe faster and your heart to speed up.

Endurance exercises or activities should be performed at least 2 times per week.

For optimal improvement in your heart and lungs and muscles, try 3 to 5 times per week.

Think of how much easier it will be to walk, grocery shop and play with your grandchildren!

Your workout should be intense enough to make your heart beat faster and your breathing to increase but not so high as to over stress your system.

This is your training zone. Try to work out in this range to get the most benefit out of your endurance exercises.

Below you will find three good ways of monitoring your intensity level for your endurance activities and finding your training zone.

Pick one that will work for you and your situation.

Method 1: Maximum Heart rate : This method is the most precise when finding your training zone for your endurance exercises, but can be the hardest to learn.

Take a breath... and see if you can follow along...

• A good range for the typical senior exerciser is between 60% to 70% of your maximum heart rate.

• To find your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from the number 220.

• This is your maximum predicted heart rate for one minute.  

• For example, let's say you are 75 years old.

• 220 - 75 = 145 beats per minute.

• 145 is the maximum your heart can beat in a minute.

• 60% of 145 = 87 beats per minute (low end of range)

• 70% of 145 = 101 beats per minute (high end of range)

• Therefore your training zone is 87 to 101 beats per minute.

Since it is impractical to count your pulse for 60 seconds you can take a ten second count and multiply by six.

A 75 year old man needs to exercise between 14 and 17 beats when counting for 10 seconds.

• 14 beats in 10 seconds is your low range.

• 17 beats in 10 seconds is your higher range.

Review the 10 second counts so that you don't have to do math in your head while exercising.

Slow down for the pulse count but keep your legs moving.

It is usually better to take your pulse at your wrist (radial artery)  instead of your neck ( carotid artery).

It is possible to press too hard on the carotid artery which could cause slowing of the pulse.  

It is a good idea to take your pulse:

• Take your pulse at approximately 5 minutes into the exercise.

• Take your pulse again at approximately 10 minutes into your endurance exercise or after the hardest part. 

• Take your pulse just after your cool-down.

• Wow..eeeehhhh!..., I know this sounds complicated..... but once you find how many beats per 10 seconds you need to have.... you are done!

Method 2: Rate of Perceived Exertion:

Don't like the previous heart rate method?

Too complicated? 

Want an easier way to tell how hard you are working during your workout?

An easier method is to just rate your feeling of how hard you are working on the 6 to 20 scale.

This is called the "Borg Scale of Perceived Exertion."

• 6 No exertion at all

• 7 Extremely light

• 8

• 9 Very light

• 10

• 11 Light

• 12

• 13 Somewhat hard   "TRAINING RANGE"

• 14

• 15 Hard

• 16 

• 17 Very hard

• 18

• 19 Extremely hard

• 20 Maximal exertion

For most older adult exercisers, you can work in the "somewhat hard" range which is 12 to 14.

Give it a try.. it actually works quite well. 

Method 3: Talk Test: Still too complicated?

Want a VERY easy method to tell how hard you are working and make sure you are training correctly and safely in your training zone?

Try the talk test. It doesn't get much simpler...

Basically, you should be able to speak in your normal voice and tone during your exercise session.

If you are out of breath and are unable to speak regularly, then you need to lower your intensity level by slowing down.

How's that? Easy, eehh?

How long should I exercise?

You don't need to work hard for a long time to gain benefit from exercise.

30 minutes is a good daily goal.

You can exercise 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes after lunch and 10 minutes at night.

Don't be in a hurry. Start slowly and gradually get used to exercising before increasing your exercise.

Begin with 10 -20 minutes of exercise to start.

Build up to 30 minutes if you are able. Most seniors can tolerate up to an hour or more of exercise.

How often should I exercise?

Generally it is a good idea for seniors to rest a day before exercising again.

Try working out 2 days a week to start leaving a day or two between sessions.

Then increase a day or two as you get comfortable with exercising.

3 to 5 days a week is usually well tolerated. Don't work the same muscle group on consecutive days.

Don't exercise beyond 5 days a week unless you receive personal instruction and a professionally designed program.

How much weight should I use?

Arms: Try starting with 2 pounds.

This is usually tolerated by most seniors.

 Women can safely train up to 5 pounds and men can safely train up to 8 pounds for the upper body.

Legs: Our legs are fairly heavy and may not require additional weight.

If you choose to use weights for the legs, use ankle weights.

Seniors can usually safely start with 1 pound ankle weights.

Work up to 3 pounds if you are tolerating the weight well and can do at least 15 to 20 repetitions comfortably.

What if I have a Medical Condition?

There are several special exercises for the elderly training considerations that must be kept in mind for these conditions.

You can safely exercise with these conditions by following some simple suggestions and checking with your doctor.

• Exercise and Heart Disease

• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

• Exercise and Obesity

• Elderly Diabetes

• Lower Back Pain Exercise

• Arthritis exercise

• Exercise for Osteoporosis

What are some general safety guidelines for exercise for the elderly?

1. Remember that with age, sudden intense exercise may be a challenge for your heart.
   
   Try to prepare your muscles with a 10 minute warm-up  before exercising.

2. Also, quickly stopping during a workout may cause blood to pool in your legs, increasing the strain on your heart.
   
   That is why a 10 minute cool-down session is important.

3. Monitor yourself for overexertion which is indicated by shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness or getting that shaky feeling.
   
   Make sure you listen to your body!

4. Make sure you increase your activity level gradually.
   
   Only add 5 to 10% increase to any workout.

5. Think "posture" as much as you can during your workout.
   
   Good posture will help protect your joints and prevent any unnecessary injuries.

6. Practice good breathing. Never hold your breath.
   
   Try to breathe in through the nose and out the mouth.

7. Train at the Goldie Locks intensity.
   
   Not too high and not too low.
   
   We want your heart to make improvements in its aerobic fitness which requires training in the 50% to 75% range of your maximum heart rate.

8. Remember, exercises for the elderly training will only show benefits if it is done regularly with the correct duration, frequency, and intensity.