Staying active plays a crucial role in maintaining healthy wellbeing, especially in seniors. Remaining active and exercising leads to various mental health benefits and delays brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. There are many reasons for seniors to maintain an active lifestyle and plenty of options to stay active that don’t involve hitting the recreational center.
Why Seniors Need To Stay Active
Staying physically and socially active for seniors has a lot of benefits, such as maintaining good emotional health, physical health, and improving cognitive function among many other benefits.
Weight Management
Staying active can help seniors better manage weight gain or even lose body weight. As bodies age, metabolism naturally begins to slow, and moving around becomes even more important. Maintaining an active lifestyle increases metabolism and promotes positive weight loss.
Emotional Well-Being
People feel emotionally better when they take care of themselves. They also feel more confident the longer they can enjoy independence. How long seniors remain independent is directly tied to how active they were in their younger years and how active they stay after 60. Exercise also produces feel-good hormones that can boost the mood.
Social Connections
Often activities are done in pairs or as part of an organized group. Staying active with others provides a fantastic opportunity to create new connections and strengthen old ones. This is especially important for seniors who do not have a spouse to share their time with.
Cognitive Function
Staying active does not always mean exercise. It can mean participating in trivia night, playing a chess game, taking up sewing, or participating in a painting class. Whatever activities seniors choose, they are keeping their brains active. This improves cognitive function and fights against the potential for memory loss problems in the future.
How To Keep Seniors Active
The good news is there are a lot of ways to keep seniors active. Some people do feel concerned about outdoor activities, but there are plenty of ways to stay active indoors too.
Visit Local Venues
Local events are an excellent way to meet other people and get involved with the community. Taking a more open approach can lead to opportunities and hobbies they would not have otherwise encountered.
Fitness Classes
To keep muscles loose and supple, fitness classes can do wonders. It might surprise you to learn how many people picked up yoga later in life or started to perform simple stretches in their living room.
Dance Gatherings
Seniors often love to dance and have their own moves that can turn heads for all the right reasons. Dancing gets the muscles moving just like working out does and helps builds healthy bones. Dancing works on bones much like it works on muscles — by making them stronger.
Game Night
Games are an excellent way to put the human brain to work without it realizing and growing exhausted. Some seniors love crossword puzzles and trivia. Others might prefer board games or card games. Karaoke and other sing-a-long competitions have also won the hearts of many. It’s important to find out what each person likes and pitch activities they will come to love.
Culinary Arts
No one is too old to learn how to cook, and no one is too experienced in the kitchen to learn a new recipe. Cooking classes also make it possible for seniors to improve self-care skills. Sometimes, seniors are placed temporarily in senior living while they or a loved one recovers from a temporary illness, so learning life skills can make transitioning back to home life unforgettable.
Religious Fellowship
People generally become more conservative and reserved the older they become. They also tend to turn to religion for comfort and the Church for fellowship. Because of this, celebrating Biblical holidays and participating in Bible studies can play a huge role in mental health. For non-religious seniors who still identify as spiritual, meditation programs might prove beneficial.
At Caring Places Management, we believe fun activities are indispensable to senior care. While not every senior wants to stay active or make friends, we provide the opportunity. After years of providing elder care, we find that even the most anti-social seniors tend to warm up to their neighbors. If you are considering assisted living for your loved one, take a look at our communities.
