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Balance Exercises For Seniors

Balance Exercises For Seniors To Improve Confidence And Mobility

Balance Exercises For SeniorsAs people age, they encounter various health problems that can increase the risk of losing her balance. Seniors can face vision problems, and weaker legs and hips can make their mobility more complicated. Other factors include spinal degeneration, poor posture and an inability to lift one’s feet. Reaction time can also decrease, and the medications one takes Also factor into the equation. Additionally, low blood pressure and lightheadedness go hand-in-hand.

Not only is important for seniors to exercise, but it’s also important for them to work on balance exercises. It’s also important for seniors to be educated further about the three essential balance elements, which are visual cues, internal spatial orientation and the inner ear. The following are some examples of balance exercises for seniors to use to help them regain their balance.

Much of the loss of balance can be attributed to a decline in activity among seniors overall. Everyone knows how important cardiovascular exercise is to a person’s health, but in order to achieve better balance, the focus is on improving both lower and upper body strength.

Tennis

Tennis helps seniors work on their posture, with a focus on keeping the hips and knees in a flexed position with their feet wide apart. Players move their upper body forward, and all of this is a great way for seniors to work on building strength and balance while staying safe and in a stable position. Tennis challenges both your balance system and your brain. It is one of the best advanced balance exercises for seniors.

Balance On One Leg

This may seem like a very simple exercise, but it is very efficient and helpful. With a firm grip on a chair in front of you, lift up one leg and balance; then, repeat with the other leg. Ultimately you want to keep the center of gravity above your ankles, which is for optimal balance. Do this exercise for a few seconds when beginning, and then work your way up to a minute on each foot as you continue to practice daily.

Marching

This type of exercise focuses on the knees and help strengthen your leg muscles. When the marching, you might want to do so near a counter.

Other great exercises include the grapevine, body circles, balancing wind, dynamic walking, clock reach and staggered stance. Not only do you need to know what exercises to perform, but you also need to know what equipment is required when performing certain activities. The following are some examples of things you might need.

An armless chair is required for certain senior balancing exercises. As you make progress, you eventually might be able to let go of the chair. Be very careful and build your confidence and technique prior to attempting to let go of the chair.

The shoes that you wear when practicing balancing exercises should have a smooth bottom. Other shoes can catch on flooring materials and cause you to trip and fall. Dance shoes work out quite nicely, and you can even use them for having fun with dance classes.

The kitchen counter also comes in handy for doing certain balance exercises, especially for beginners. Whether you have a long or a short counter in the kitchen, it can work great for the marching and walking exercises. You also need some type of soft item, such as a stuffed animal, for you to step over; however, whatever item you use should not be more than 6 inches tall.

Painters tape also comes in handy. This tape is easy to remove and can help measure your accuracy when attempting to walk a straight line. You can use this for many of the various balancing exercises. Wrist and ankle weights can also come in handy as you get more advanced with your exercises, as well as more confident. However, you should never use more than 2 pounds, whether for your arms or legs.

A notebook can also come in handy, not just for notes, but as a focal point for your balance and walking exercises. What you would do is focus on this notebook as you’re doing your balancing exercises.

Some of these balance exercises for seniors can be quite challenging, and that’s why you should always start out slowly. You don’t want to risk injury or have an accident, instead, you want to focus on proper exercise and technique to help you build both lower and upper body strength for better balance.

training to improve your health

The Top 5 Reasons Training Can Improve Your Health


training to improve your healthPeople have been told for most of their lives that exercise is good for them. They’re told that it can improve their health and make their life better. But rarely are they told how.

Here are 5 ways that training and exercise can help improve your health.

It Can Help You Maintain a Healthy Weight

Exercise can help you lose excess weight and maintain your weight without going on a restrictive, and often unhealthy diet. Physical activity burns calories and the more intense the training routine, the more calories burned. This allows a person to lose weight by exercising regularly while reducing their caloric intake.

When a person is at their goal weight, they can continue to train and increase their caloric intake to a healthy maintenance level. To maintain a healthy weight, a person may not need to train as much, so a person will have more free time to do the things they enjoy.

It Can Help Reduce the Risk of Certain Diseases

Certain diseases can be prevented with regular physical activity. Heart disease, high blood pressure, and other medical conditions can be caused by lack of exercise. Exercise gets the blood in your body flowing, which can reduce a person’s risk of heart disease.

Exercise can also help to manage certain diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, arthritis, stroke, and depression. The type of training allowed would be determined by the person’s physical condition. However, there are exercises that most people can do, even if they need some help doing them.

It Can Improve Your Mood

Exercise can be a mood booster. It can help you blow off steam when you’re angry or calm your mind after a stressful day. A fast-paced game of racquetball, a brick wall in the park, a few laps in the pool or a training session at the gym can all stimulate different regions of your brain, helping to adjust your emotions and make you relax.

Exercise can also make you feel better about your appearance which can help with confidence issues. Since exercise can help you lose weight and help with dome diseases, it can make a person feel healthier which can reduce depression. Being healthy and feeling attractive can improve a person’s self-esteem.

It Can Improve Your Strength and Endurance

Some people take certain physical limitations as a sign of aging, or may have other excuses why they can’t lift something or are winded when they have to walk up a flight of stairs. The simple fact is, many times the inability to physically do someone activities is caused by a lack of exercise.

A regular training regimen can help improve the endurance and muscle strength of a person of any age, any gender and in any physical condition. The changes may be slow, depending on the condition the person started at, however, these changes will occur. Many people never notice the change until one day they are able to complete their chores without feeling tired.

It Can Make You Change Your Lifestyle For the Better

Small changes are the easiest to make. You might start by taking a daily walk, then get into more intense regular training sessions. In time, you may also start doing various physical activities you enjoy, like hiking or biking. All of these changes occur over time and each one is making your life better.

A person may also notice that after they begin training that they pay more attention to the food they eat. They may decide to quit smoking or drinking after they see the effect it has on their workout. By taking the first step to start training regularly, everyone can change their lifestyle for the better…

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