While exercise is
often touted as a fountain of youth, it often gets harder to do as you
get older.
Physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) physicians, also called
physiatrists, are doctors who restore and maintain function lost due to
injury, illness and age-related conditions such as osteoporosis,
arthritis, joint replacements or stroke. They often prescribe exercise
to prevent and treat many of these conditions, working with their older
patients to help them get the right kind of exercise so that they can
remain active and independent. PM&R physicians offer these tips to help
caregivers and their loved ones overcome five common fitness obstacles:
OBSTACLE: Declining
strength
What you can do:
Use your endurance. It’s true we lose muscle mass as we age, and older
people have been told that weight training will help prevent this loss
of strength and keep them young. However, many seniors find they can’t
lift the heavy weight experts say is necessary to actually build muscle.
A recent study has shown that while muscle strength diminishes with age,
muscle endurance does not. You may benefit from working muscles longer -
doing more repetitions - with lighter weights. Exercises that emphasize
endurance, such as swimming, walking or biking, may be more enjoyable
and beneficial for you and your loved one than those that require great
strength.
OBSTACLE: Arthritis or other
conditions that make moving difficult
What you can do:
Your loved one can, and should, still exercise. Ask your doctor, or
physical therapist, about how to use a cane, rollator (rolling walker)
or other assistive device. These can be especially helpful when
recovering from a joint replacement, or a serious illness such as stroke
or cancer. Another condition that becomes more common as we age is
neuropathy, which is nerve damage in the feet and extremities that makes
it difficult to maintain balance and walk steadily. For all of these
conditions, assistive devices can keep your loved one active while
helping to prevent a fall and further injury.
OBSTACLE: Exercise
and activity after surgery
What you can do:
Follow
your doctor’s orders, but the best general rule is to get your loved one
moving as soon as possible. The type of surgery you had and the type of
exercise planned will influence when you should start exercising after
an operation. But a recent study found that people who began physical
rehabilitation two days after heart surgery recovered faster than those
who delayed. PM&R physicians say keeping active becomes more important
as the body ages and loses its ability to recover. The longer you delay
returning to activity, the more difficult it will be to regain fitness.
OBSTACLE: A history
of inactivity
What you can do:
Get
started on the path to fitness by using everyday activities as exercise.
Recent studies have shown that “functional exercises,” those that mimic
actual daily activities such as walking up stairs and getting in and out
of chairs, can be most effective for you. Climbing a flight of stairs
several times or repeatedly rising from and returning to a seated
position is an effective way to build leg strength. As you become
stronger and more fit, increase the challenge by holding some sort of
weight on your shoulders, like soup cans. PM&R physicians say that even
mundane household chores such as transferring wet laundry from the
washer to the dryer, one piece at a time, can be used to increase
strength and flexibility in your abdominal, low back and hip muscles.
Once you've established a routine of exercise, functional fitness
exercises can also be used to maintain your health.
OBSTACLE: Chronic
pain and inflammation
What you can do:
Choose
low impact activities to keep moving and minimize pain. Experts say that
certain types of exercise can reduce joint stiffness, pain and
inflammation associated with arthritis conditions that affect more than
40 million Americans. A PM&R physician can advise you on the exercise
best suited for your arthritis, but activities such as walking, swimming
and water-based exercise are generally effective and well tolerated.
PM&R physicians also advise arthritic patients to take breaks from long
periods of sitting so that joints don’t become stiff and painful.
For More
Information
If you or your loved
one face chronic pain or other medical conditions, consult a PM&R
physician who can help you overcome obstacles and develop a realistic
and effective fitness program. PM&R physicians are experts at diagnosing
pain and restoring function, treating the whole patient, not just
symptoms. Many recommend a simple tool to help aid accurate diagnosis,
development of tailored and effective treatment and evaluation of
progress: keep a log of daily activity, pain and questions that you
bring with you to appointments with PM&R physicians or other doctors.
This article is provided by the American
Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. For more information or
to find a PM&R physician near you go to their website
www.aapmr.org. You can also request a copy of
a free brochure with more information on physiatry by writing to the
American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, One IBM Plaza,
Suite 2500, Chicago, IL, 60611.
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