One of the many opportunities that The Estates at Carpenters, a Life Plan Community, offers seniors is the chance to participate in wellness activities that improve physical health and mental health. Since regular exercise is an important component of the overall health of seniors, it’s common to find fitness centers, aquatic classes, and marked walking trails as options for senior living residents.
“The Estates at Carpenters promotes a wellness-focused lifestyle,” says Jeanie Tini, Director of Marketing and Sales. “Our exercise classes and fitness equipment make it easy to improve your overall well-being. Whether you want to maintain lifestyle habits or boost your health, our community will make healthy living easy and fun!”
Maybe you’re wondering what the health benefits of exercise are for seniors and what kinds of activities you want to include in your fitness plan. Continue reading for some ways to stay healthy at your senior living community.
Benefits of Regular Exercise for Seniors
Exercise programs offer benefits to people of all ages but provide particularly significant advantages to older adults. They can improve your quality of life and even reduce the levels of long-term care you may need.
Some health benefits older adults can gain from regular exercise are:
- Fewer Falls and Reduced Functional Limitations: With the help of exercise, you can improve your strength, balance and flexibility. This can help you maintain stability and decrease your risk of falling. It can also impact your ability to complete everyday tasks like bathing and dressing.
- Improved Cognitive Functioning: Exercise can sharpen your thinking, learning and problem-solving skills as you age.
- Mental Health Boost: Physical activity can reduce anxiety and depression.
- Improved Sleep: Exercise can also improve your sleep quality, provided vigorous activity doesn’t occur too close to bedtime.
- Reduced Disease Risk: Consistent cardiovascular exercise can decrease the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some forms of cancer.
- Weight Management: Whether you want to maintain your body weight or shed some pounds, exercise can be an effective strategy to meet these goals. A nutritious diet, of course, also affects weight.
- Strengthen Bones and Muscles: As you age, it’s common to lose muscle mass and bone density. Regular exercise can slow these processes and even help you build muscle and strengthen joints.
- Social Interactions: Whether you make a new friend at the fitness center or meet up with an old companion for a weekly walk, exercise is a great way to connect with others.
5 Recommended Exercises for Older Adults
The CDC recommends seniors engage in 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise. While this may sound like a lot, you can separate this time up into multiple intervals throughout a week and choose from a variety of activities.
Here are some great exercises for older adults:
- Swimming and Water Aerobics: Swimming provides a way for those with limited mobility, decreased stability, or a restrictive injury to still work out. Water exercise has been shown to alleviate joint pain, build muscle, and support a longer life.
- Walking: The convenience of walking is obvious. You don’t need much more than comfortable shoes and a safe path. You can easily visit with a friend on a walk and reap the benefits of being outside. At a Life Plan Community, there are often outdoor walking trails on the premises just for this purpose.
- Yoga or Chair Yoga: Yoga provides seniors with a multitude of benefits, including decreased blood pressure, relief from chronic pain, increased balance, and improved respiration. Chair yoga is a lower-impact option that offers similar outcomes. Senior living communities commonly offer yoga classes for residents.
- Pilates: Pilates is a great exercise for increasing body awareness, which can prevent falls. It’s also a gentle, modifiable exercise that increases strength and endurance. For these reasons, pilates is often offered by senior living fitness programs.
- Personal Training: Senior living communities like The Estates at Carpenters provide residents with access to a personal trainer. Since needs and limitations vary from person to person, a trainer can customize exercise plans and help residents meet their individual wellness goals.
Welcome to Uncompromised Senior Living
Our Elevage Fitness programs at The Estates at Carpenters help residents lead a balanced lifestyle. With our top-of-the-line Precor fitness equipment and personal training, we guide residents toward holistic health and wellness.
The Estates at Carpenters is a not-for-profit Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) offering independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing care and rehabilitation. We provide a full continuum of care and a unique advantage to Lakeland and surrounding Winter Haven, Florida, area retirees. Come tour our community near the renowned Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center and see all that our wellness-based lifestyle has to offer.