Best Exercise to Stay Fit into your 80’s

Older seniors can suddenly be faced with an overwhelming number of obstacles as they celebrate 80 or more birthdays. Not only do we find ourselves getting weaker, but medical problems also seem to appear out of nowhere. Today’s question is a great example of a real world situation many of us will face.
Limitations in our functional activities generally increase as we age. 85% of seniors between 65 years old and 69 years old report no problems with self-care or walking. That number drops to 51% of seniors aged 85 or older reporting no problems with self-care or walking.

And we experience these changes differently according to our genetics and our lifestyle choices through the years. Smoking, inactivity, overeating, and stress, can have a great effect on how we age. Recently a 96 year old patient of mine said, “I was fine until 93, and then I started to slow down.” Personally, I will consider myself very fortunate to make it to 93 with most of my health intact.

Staying Strong

To stay strong and vital, include a program of progressive resistance exercise into your fitness routine. That is, use weights, resistance bands, or your own body weight to gradually build up your strength. Muscular strength is the foundation of successful ageing. Our physical strength will determine our independence and to a large extent, our happiness as we age.

As a physical therapist working in a hospital, I will be asked for a simple exercise to perform at home to maintain strength. Well, I like to make things as simple as possible and for patients because there is so much other stuff happening at discharge. Not only are seniors getting over an illness, but the hospital physician likely has also added some prescriptions and other orders to the discharge instructions. So I basically give them one simple exercise.

Simple Home Exercise

Ok, here it is. This simple exercise not only strengthens the legs and arms, but also works on improving balance, posture, aerobic endurance and the flexibility of the shoulders and upper back. Wow, that is a lot of benefits from one exercise! Let’s see how it works.

First things first. Find a chair without arms; usually a kitchen chair will work wonderfully. This will allow the arms to move freely and provide a stable base to exercise. Then find something to hold in your hands. This could be a two small books or two cans of soup.

To begin the exercise, sit on the front edge of the chair, bring toes underneath knees, hold arms with the book or soup can lightly at sides, lift the chest, raise the chin and look straight ahead at a vertical line like a doorway or window.

Take a breath in slowly through your nose, filling the lungs to the very bottom of the chest. Then, breathe out slowly through your lips, bend forward from the hips bringing the torso over the ankles, and slowly push up to standing during a count of four. That is, it should take four seconds to stand. When fully standing, bring shoulders back, chest is raised, chin is up and eyes are forward.

Inhale again through your nose, and as you exhale through your lips, slowly bend your elbows while raising both hands to shoulder level, and continue extending your arms toward the ceiling to a count of four. Bring arms down slowly, take a bow from the hips and sit down again on the edge of the chair.
This movement can then be repeated 10 times.

You can do it!

That’s it! Try standing slowly and lifting your arms slowly. It will not only improve leg strength, but work on balance too. If performed 10 times in a row, your heart and lungs will also benefit. Challenge yourself as you improve by bringing one foot in front of the other when standing. Select a heavier object to lift overhead to progress in upper body strength. Now it is your turn. Give it a try.

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