The Common Denominator Aging!!

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By Joburg Post

 

Whether we want it or not – we are all connected by one thing – which happens to all of us – AGING

Why do people grow old?  How can we live longer?  Gerontologists have been dealing with this fascination for many years.

But now their most important question is :

‘How can people stay healthy and independent as they grow older?”

Fitness professionals are growing with this niche market – learning more all the time about “Senior or Older Adults”

One of the challenges brought about by aging is the decline in functional abilities due to decreased fitness levels and bad nutritional habits.  Most of this decline can be prevented, reversed or delayed through exercise and sound healthy eating and drinking.

“Old” has many meanings to different individuals, but there are few obvious signs, which contribute to that title.  Let’s look at a few:

• You are OLD when you rock forward and back to get out of a soft chair


• You are OLD when you resist CHANGE


• You are OLD when you have a touch of arthritis and it flares up when weather changes


• You are OLD when you have decreased motivation to continue LIFE


• You are OLD when you have decreased independence due to lack of comprehensive training


• You are OLD when your body fat/muscle ratio has shocking measurements due to lack of good nutritional habits, which brings more debilitating factors with it


• You are OLD when poor body mechanics let you down – lack of core strength, thus lack of balance, change in gait, and tiredness in all activities of daily living.


• You are OLD when you decide you are OLD.

And more but these are a few of the popular ones.

When trainers put ‘the older adult’ through a physical performance assessment, they look at different ways to try and assist individuals to prolong quality, real age versus quantity, chronological age.

The degree of physical impairment, which is associated with functional limitations or disability, is one of the first items on the list.  Short and long term goal setting for a more active life expectancy and reduced onset of frailty is next.  Identification of physical deficits (for better exercise prescription) and determining the physiological state of mind (due to loss of independence) gets done through specific screening and evaluation.

The final destination for any trainer should be the beginning of Functional Fitness Training for Activities of Daily Living, which means providing activity that trains movement.  The goal leads to enhancement of quality of life by improving or maintaining physical, psychological and social well being.  Exercise prescription is key – advanced PLANNING.  Foundational fitness forms the basis which will lead to functional, stability and balance training.

“You don’t stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing”

 

 

 

 

 

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