For old people, the intensity of physical activity gradually decreases,, and movements become sluggish. , Many begin to complain about their problems, and some just do not want to live their lives. For such, Gymnastics for old people is suitable. In this article, we will consider several exercises that will allow old people to keep fit and live a full life.
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advantages of exercise for old people
Without movement, muscles become weaker, and ligaments and joints lose their elasticity. The nervous system also weakens, and with age becomes more difficult to control the motor apparatus. The gait of the elderly turns into shuffling, and a stoop appears.
Daily morning exercises
are the best prevention of many diseases of old people. And in terms of the benefits to the body, this habit surpasses any medicine. It is enough to adhere to some rules and practice regularly. This will strengthen the nervous system, blood vessels, and heart muscles. Your weight will decrease, your metabolism will improve, your correct posture will be restored, and strength and working spirit will appear.
A well-designed Gymnastics complex for old people can normalize respiratory functions, improve blood and lymph flow through the vessels, and increase immunity.
Some consider the exercise a kind of rhythmic movement to active music.
If the body is prepared for such loads, then yes, this alternative is okay. But we are talking about a more relaxed version of gymnastics, aimed at working out joints and muscles, which is possible for any person of advanced age.
In fact, gymnastics improves the health of old people and is a way to maintain all the functions of the body. It functions as a reversible buffer that delays aging.
The benefits of regular exercise for old people are undeniable:
- Gymnastics for old people: the best exercises for various diseases
- The nervous system has been restored.
- Metabolic processes are normalized (which is important for older people).
- The heart and blood vessels are maintained in good shape, and the respiratory system is trained.
- The activity of the musculoskeletal system improves, and the likelihood of osteoporosis decreases.
- The body becomes less susceptible to constipation and venous thrombosis.
- Strengthens immunity, and increases overall tone.
- There is an optimistic mood.
Morning exercises for old people are a great way to improve brain function and prevent age-related atrophy and possible weakness of muscle groups that are rarely involved in everyday life. Also, regular exercise improves the movement of lymph and blood through the vessels and normalizes the work of the respiratory system and metabolic processes.
As a result:
The body is bursting with power and vitality. there is a feeling of satisfaction from the procedures performed, depression and anxiety disappear, and brain activity improves.
Features of gymnastics for old people
The best physical activity for the body is exercising in the morning. When compiling a set of exercises for old people, it is worth considering some nuances.
Gymnastics for the elderly should meet two main criteria:
- Only those exercises are performed that his doctor recommends to a particular person.
- Gymnastics should not be performed by force. Joyful impressions can be obtained only with a conscious desire to train.
The doctor should prescribe an individual load level, which should be gradually increased as much as possible for a particular case of old people. If there are no specific restrictions, it is preferable to engage every muscle group while performing gymnastics. The basic guideline is that no activity should be done when in discomfort.
Check out your body's responses to each exercise. If an old person becomes ill or if his general health deteriorates, the instruction should be terminated.
Health-improving Gymnastics for old people can be active (when a person does the exercises himself) or passive
There are a few basic rules that should be remembered before starting training:
- Gymnastics is not a sport, so there is no need to achieve tangible results at any cost. On the contrary, such a desire can only harm the elderly, because, with age, muscles, joints, and ligaments change, and can no longer cope with excessive stress.
- It's important to progressively boost the exercise's intensity. This will enable the muscles to maintain their form.
- Utilizing your entire body while exercising is beneficial (back, arms, legs, chest).
- Classes should be supervised by an experienced specialist.
Regardless of the chosen complex, it is worth stretching before the start of classes. Such exercises will be useful in themselves, as they allow you to restore the former elasticity of the joints and ligaments.
precautions and contraindications
When an elderly person strives to lead an active lifestyle, it is necessary to observe the uniformity of loads during exercise. This is required because of the various physical characteristics of the body at this age:
- There is a slowdown in the pace of metabolic activity.
- The body's concentration of decay products rises, resulting in weariness, and the skeleton's shape alters.
- High tone and concurrent muscle mass loss; alterations in gait brought on by a change in center of gravity;
- The vestibular system may be impacted by insufficient blood flow, along with the lungs' capacity and the cardiac muscle's transformation.
- The eyes' range of rotation gets less.
Each of these age
related changes can act in tandem with various kinds of diseases. Senior gymnastics should be practiced under the guidance of a qualified expert who controls breathing (arbitrary inhalation should alternate with a deep exhalation, without any tension). All exercises are performed smoothly and at a pace convenient for the practitioner. For exercises from a prone position, old people are advised to put a pillow under their heads to block the flow of blood to the brain.
Gymnastics for the elderly should be performed according to certain rules:
- Measure blood pressure and pulse (before and after exercise). If the pulse rate of an elderly person is higher than the maximum permissible, then an individual load level is determined for him.
- The training time should not exceed 20-30 minutes a day, 2-3 times a week.
- It is allowed to change the starting position, but standing exercises should not prevail over the rest.
- It is recommended to perform all movements smoothly and slowly, except for fast and sharp bends and turns.
- The list of mandatory should include exercises to restore the vestibular apparatus.
- Try to avoid exercises that increase the likelihood of falling. In old people, this can lead to fractures of the limbs.
- Gymnastics can be useful only when a person feels good. In other cases, training will have to be rescheduled.
Recreational physical education has the following drawbacks as well:
- Diseases of internal organs during an exacerbation, are accompanied by depression in their functions.
- big blood artery and cardiac aneurysms.
- Mental disorders are characterized by memory lapses, problems with orientation in space and time, and peculiar reactions to various situations.
- Urinary incontinence.
- Atrophy.
- bone and cartilage tissues that have undergone dystrophic alterations.
In addition, Gymnastics should not be performed at high temperatures, during a period of acute pain, during inflammatory processes, or in the presence of internal bleeding.
Recreational gymnastics for old people aged 70 and over is carried out individually, under the supervision of a health worker.
Morning exercises for old people
Regular exercise and leading an active lifestyle help to promote health and lifespan. Gymnastics in the morning invigorates the body, improves the functioning of the heart and nervous system, and normalizes appetite and sleep. The elderly man starts to get up and accomplish more during the day. He has muscles and a straight posture. It is recommended to do gymnastics even after a stroke, albeit in a simplified form.
Do exercises in the morning, because they bring maximum benefit at this time when the body has not yet wasted energy on digesting food. The room should be well-ventilated and slightly cool. It is advisable to start training with a leisurely walk or a step in place (in a cramped room). You are free to move about the room during the breaks in between activities.
Recommended set of exercises:
- Warming up the cervical region: we tilt our head forward and down, and turn it alternately to the right and left, like a pendulum.
- We perform the rotation of the head to the right and left shoulder, after which we begin to reach each shoulder.
- Make four complete rotations of your head.
- We put our hands on our shoulders and turn them in a circle back and forth, repeating 6 times in each direction.
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- We stretch our arms to the sides, bend them at the elbow joints and turn them around. Furthermore, six times in each direction.
- When inhaling we straighten our arms, and when exhaling we lean forward. After that, we stand in the starting position and make a deflection, spreading our arms to the sides.
- We do half-squats. Heels together, socks apart, hands on the belt. Half-squatting, knees apart.
- We rotate our arms and do complete squats.
Such gymnastic games for the elderly are considered traditional and suitable for all age categories.
The best gymnastic exercise sets for old people
Gymnastics is best practiced in the early hours of the day. However, if there is a chance to work out at a different time, you shouldn't hold back. Incorporating traditional walking or stretching exercises into your daily routine will only increase the effect of the lessons.
There are quite a few types of gymnastics designed for old people They can be aimed at eliminating certain diseases: problems with joint mobility, constipation, recovery in the post-pain period, etc.
We shall outline a few senior gymnastics complexes that, barring any medical conditions, can be completed in a single exercise for the sake of clarity.
1. Warm-up
When exercising, you should pay attention to your body and avoid overdoing it. Situations shouldn't cause the practitioner distress or even agony. Training should be discontinued as soon as these symptoms show up. The main thing is that gymnastics has become a source of positive impressions for old people.
Take a comfortable position, sitting on a chair or on a bed, and stretch your legs forward. Pull your socks towards you and hold them in this position for 8-10 seconds. Then relax your feet. Ten times through the workout.
In the same starting position, alternately raise and lower your right hand. and then do the same with your left hand. Movements should be slow.
Without changing the position, alternately raise the legs, holding them in an elevated position for 2-3 seconds. Ten times each leg should be used in the workout.
Best performed while lying on the bed is the following workout.
This will protect, among other things, from possible injuries. Make a bridge: lean on the limbs and arch your back so that it becomes like a bridge. In case of a fall, you will find yourself on a soft bed, do not be afraid to hit.
When performing the complex, make sure that breathing is regular.
2. The main complex of gymnastics for old people
In this case, the lesson can be started with the warm-up described above, or a separate workout, including only the exercises, described here.
Stand in any comfortable position and make sure that your breathing is slow. After that, lower your head, slowly rotating it clockwise for 1-2 minutes. Take a break for a minute and repeat the rotation in the opposite direction. It is best to perform 3-4 such approaches.
In the same position
Your right shoulder should be the target of a little head tilt. Act slowly when making moves. The muscles' state of stretching must be felt. With your right shoulder, make an attempt to contact your cheek. Leaning toward your left shoulder, perform the movement once again. Do 5–6 sets total.
Set your hands on your shoulders while you are standing. following that, bend your elbows, alternately rotating them forward and backward, changing direction every 1-2 minutes.
Without changing the position, spread your legs shoulder-width apart, take a deep breath and lean forward. simultaneously, reposition your hands. When you are back in the beginning posture, breathe out. Exercise 5–10 times more.
3. body-strengthening gymnastics
The following set of exercises for the elderly is best performed on a sports mat.
- Spread your legs apart while seated on the ground. With inhalation, alternately stretch to the left, middle and right leg.
- Reach for your legs by extending them out in front of you without bending your knees.
- Let's change the position a little: we move the straight leg to the side and pull the bent knee under the US. Next, we do the slopes, as in the previous exercise. Change the legs in numerous ways.
- After that, pull the knees towards you, tilt them to the right, then to the left. The head must turn the other way.
- Without changing the starting position, we put our hands behind us. When lifting one leg, strive to draw an imaginary circle. Likewise, we carry out the second leg.
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- In the supine position, alternately lift straight legs up.
- Stay in this position, pull your legs towards you and perform Exercise Number 4.
- Rotate your upper body alternately in different directions.
- In the supine position, raise one hand in front of you and place it behind your head. Put your hands back in the beginning position.
- Stay in the supine position, tighten your abdominal muscles as much as possible, trying to press your sacrum to the floor.
- Lift both legs and bend them at the knees. Simulate cycling movements by changing the direction of rotation.
- Lie on the floor, on one side, and lift the straight leg up. Alternately use the opposite leg for the workout.
- Doing gymnastics (exercises) for the elderly (in the video below) can be an excellent prevention against many diseases.
Tips for old people who decide to do gymnastics
- Before starting training, consult your doctor. It will help you choose the desired load level and exercise speed.
- If you decide to take up gymnastics, move quickly. The fewer doubts, the faster the result will be.
- Before exercising, walk around the room, lifting your legs high. This warm-up will be excellent preparation for the main set of exercises.
- Don't start with the maximum amount of repetitions right away. Start off small, with three, if possible.
- Never work out with a full stomach.