Proper form is a key part of injury prevention, especially with strength training.
If you are new to strength training or it’s been a while since you’ve done a particular exercise, talk with your health care provider to make sure that exercise is appropriate. If you’ve had hip or back surgery, talk about which exercises might be best for you.
Safety tips for strength exercises:
Exercise is safe for almost everyone. For people with arthritis, exercise can reduce joint pain and stiffness. It can also help with losing weight, which reduces stress on the joints.
Flexibility exercises can help keep joints moving, relieve stiffness, and give you more freedom of movement for everyday activities. Examples of flexibility exercises include upper- and lower-body stretching, yoga, and tai chi.
Strengthening exercises will help you maintain or add to your muscle strength. Strong muscles support and protect joints. Weight-bearing exercises, such as weight lifting, fall into this category. You can use bottles of water or soup cans if you don’t have weights.
Endurance exercises make the heart and arteries healthier and may lessen swelling in some joints. Try low-impact options such as swimming and biking.
If you have a chronic condition, before beginning any exercise program, talk with your health care provider about the best activities for you to try.
When it comes to keeping the brain young and staving off the effects of aging, two types of workouts appear to be the best: cardio and strength training.
A new review of nearly 100 well-designed studies found positive cognitive effects were linked with activities like walking, cycling, and yoga when people did them for an hour three times a week.
Proper form is a key part of injury prevention, especially with strength training.
If you are new to strength training or it’s been a while since you’ve done a particular exercise, talk with your health care provider to make sure that exercise is appropriate. If you’ve had hip or back surgery, talk about which exercises might be best for you.
Enhance Fitness focuses on dynamic cardiovascular exercise, strength training, balance, and flexibility — everything older adults need to maintain health and function as they age.
Program Benefits
Led by a certified instructor, classes are held three times a week in community settings and are a great workout. Each class may include up to 25 participants and participants may either be amongst peers of their own level of fitness or a group of various fitness levels from the frail to the more fit older adult. Participants completing the program report experiencing:
