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Fitness at 50+:
Five Barriers You Can Beat
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 seniors 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 than
those that require great strength.
OBSTACLE:
Arthritis or Other Conditions That Make Moving Difficult
What you can do: you 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 if you’re
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 you active while
helping you 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 moving as soon
as possible. The type of surgery you had and the type of exercise
you plan to do 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, are 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.
If you 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.
To find a PM&R physician near you
go to www.e-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. |
