When it comes to establishing trust with your elderly clients, the first thing you need to do is assess their health and goals. Then, create a training plan that works around their injuries and past workout experience or lack thereof.
Getting your seniors to exercise is an excellent way to eliminate their dependence on others for basic activities like walking, eating, bathing, and dressing. It also improves their mental well-being, making them happier and more independent.
Strength Training
The most common in-house fitness training for senior citizens is strength training. This exercise focuses on building muscle mass and strength, improving balance, strengthening bones, increasing independence, and boosting cognitive function.
Senior folks should build more muscle and strength since doing so can assist them in avoiding musculoskeletal ailments. Seniors might benefit from the instruction of a personal in-home trainer like Alexandra Chipurnoi to preserve bone density and develop a solid base for activities of daily living like stair climbing, moving furniture, and pushing a supermarket cart.
Proper exercise progression and regression are critical for a successful strength training program. This means that the exercise must be challenging enough to force the kinetic chain to adapt to the stimulus but not so difficult that it overwhelms the system and causes injuries.
Cardiovascular Training
Cardiovascular training is the most common in-house fitness training for senior citizens, which involves working out large muscle groups by making rhythmic motions. Examples include walking/jogging, cycling, swimming, and stair steppers.
Cardiovascular exercise, also known as aerobics, increases your heart rate and improves the circulation of oxygen and nutrients throughout your body. It also lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
To get the most benefit from cardiovascular training, start with low-impact activities and gradually increase your time and intensity as you build up your fitness level. Interval training involves alternating short bursts of high-intensity workouts with brief rest periods, which is also an effective way to build cardiovascular strength.
The best part about cardiovascular training is that it helps you stay mobile, strong, and active as you age. This can be especially important for aging adults who may become more sedentary as they struggle with health issues and other challenges.
Flexibility Training
Flexibility training can be done through static stretches, dynamic stretching, ballistic or contract-relax stretching (PNF), or a combination of techniques. Flexibility training aims to improve movement patterns to reduce injury, minimize pain, and increase performance.
Regardless of your client’s age or physical fitness level, it is important to incorporate various stretching exercises. Different methods can encourage muscle memory and help develop a complete range of motion.
1. Active Flexibility: This type of stretching entails activating muscles while holding a stretch with the limb in place, resulting in an increased range of motion. This technique can be used before and after a workout or on its own.
2. Static Passive: This form of stretching involves no active muscle involvement to hold a stretch. The force to hold the stretch is provided by gravity or a partner.
When starting, stretch a little farther each time until your body gets used to it. You should also keep track of your progress.
Yoga
The most common in-house fitness training for senior citizens is yoga. Not only does it improve your body’s overall flexibility, but it also helps reduce stress and anxiety.
Research shows that older people who practice yoga experience fewer stress hormones and are less likely to develop depression, osteoporosis, and asthma. This is because it has been found to effectively lower the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is responsible for producing stress hormones.
Older adults who practice yoga also tend to have more muscle strength and better balance, reducing the risk of dangerous falls. This is especially important for older women, who are prone to fall rates that are twice as high as men.
Yoga benefits older adults with arthritis or osteoporosis because it can ease pain and reduce stiffness. In addition, it helps reduce the symptoms of hypertension and improves breathing control, which can make the disease much easier to manage. It also reduces inflammation and increases blood flow to the heart.
