With an aging population, it is important now more than ever to keep senior citizens energized and healthy to prevent total dependence on others. This is also required because there aren’t enough caregivers available to cater to a high number of older citizens.
Maintaining a healthy and active senior population will help reduce extensive medical issues and help people lead more independent lives. But fitness training works differently with senior citizens. They can’t perform demanding workouts, so fitness trainers must design workouts that work with their health levels and prevent muscle strain. This is why senior fitness requires a balance between health and wellness. Here’s all you need to know about it.
How Does Wellness Help Senior Citizens?
Makes Seniors More Active
The biggest issue with the senior population is that they’re made redundant once they retire. It’s believed that seniors don’t need to involve themselves with any part of an active lifestyle. This assumption is wrong. Just because a person isn’t a part of the workforce doesn’t mean they’re useless. As a fitness trainer, you can help older citizens create an active lifestyle and be more involved in the community. When they do this, they move their bodies and prevent the muscles from jamming up. This allows them to maintain their energy levels and lead an active lifestyle.
Reduces Health Issues
A lot of health issues are due to lack of movement, where the fat count increases and the muscles aren’t conditioned. This is specifically true for older people, as they usually have pre-existing health issues. Regular exercise can improve blood flow, condition the muscles, reduce fat count, and improve joint health. Not just that, but it also improves the immune system to some extent. As a result, senior citizens can build up immunity to certain diseases and lead healthier lives.
Helps Reach A Relaxed Mental State
Exercise isn’t just good for the body, but it also plays a vital role in wellness. Senior citizens are at an increased risk of mental health issues. This, combined with other health issues, can do a lot of damage to a person. Exercising helps release endorphins, a type of ‘feel good’ hormone that relieves stress and leaves people feeling happy and satisfied. Not just that, but it also improves the sleep cycle and helps people stay energized.
Relieves Pain
Most senior citizens complain of muscle and joint pain. While this can be due to arthritis, not working out also plays an important part. Without proper blood flow, a lot of the muscles start to ache. Combined with pre-existing joint pain, it can be uncomfortable for many people to walk and perform basic tasks. With proper exercise, trainers can ensure the muscle groups stay conditioned, and there’s no discomfort when people make regular movements such as walking or reaching for things.
Improves Blood Flow
Enhanced blood flow offers several benefits. It strengthens the muscles, improves joint health, reduces stress, and increases brain cell generation. But lack of movement can reduce the blood flow efficiency. Proper exercise and wellness can help reduce muscle-related issues and help people achieve a relaxed mental state. This helps seniors get more actively involved in their lives, try out new hobbies, and improve their mental state.
Reduces Risk Of Mental Decline
Alzheimer’s, dementia, and Parkinson’s diseases are quite common among senior citizens. While these diseases don’t have proper cures, people can delay their onslaught or reduce their risk of getting them. Exercise helps improve the brain’s functionality, strengthens the connection between the brain cells, and improves memory. It also helps quicken the generation of new brain cells. All these things help reduce the likelihood of brain-related diseases and help people lead happy and healthier lives.
What Workout Programs Are Ideal For Seniors?
Regular Walking
Any type of physical activity is good for the immune system and the muscles. For seniors, even just going for a walk regularly helps maintain their fitness. Fitness trainers can set walking goals for senior citizens to help them maintain the minimum required steps per week. Ideally, walking 150 minutes per week is considered good for a person’s health and delivers meaningful results. But that doesn’t mean your clients have to immediately reach this level. You can start them according to their levels and move them up slowly to reach the ideal requirement.
Yoga And Meditation
While walking helps with physical fitness, yoga is helpful for health and wellness, especially mental wellness. Yoga helps people reduce their mental strain and improve brain functionality. At the same time, it also strengthens different muscle groups and improves joint health. Best of all, yoga is low-impact, so it’s relatively easy to follow, and senior citizens can see visible improvements in their health and wellness in just a short time. However, consistency is the key with yoga, so if your client isn’t regular with their workouts, they won’t feel any difference.
Low-Impact Exercises
Low-impact exercises like jogging, running, swimming, and light cardio are all great for people who don’t have much stamina and lack muscle strength. As a fitness trainer, you can help senior citizens stay on top of their fitness by recommending unconventional workouts. Among these workouts, swimming is the best option as it offers several benefits. First, the density of water helps reduce the strain on the joints allowing people to achieve more movement. Additionally, swimming conditions a wide range of muscle groups, so a single session is equivalent to a proper workout.
Get Your Fitness Certifications With W.I.T.S Education
W.I.T.S Education is a fitness training institute that offers practical skills certifications for people in the fitness industry. They offer a wide range of fitness certifications, including those for the certified personal trainer, group exercise instructor, senior fitness trainer, medical fitness trainer, and more.
They also offer courses related to health coaching and fitness management for students looking for diverse options. The institute is accredited by the American Council on Education and the NCCA and offers students course credits toward their degrees.
Their courses are delivered online through 5-star instructors, while the practical labs are held in state-of-the-art locations all over North America. So hurry up, enroll today, and start your fitness training journey with W.I.T.S.
