A new year is here, and many people are thinking about ways they can get healthier in 2024. If you are considering starting a new exercise routine, check out these tips to help ensure success in your healthy living journey.
Step 1: Get a Check-up
Have you ever skipped a step in a task or project to later find out skipping that step led to failure or starting over? The first thing you don’t want to skip is seeing your family doctor. Before starting any exercise routine, you should make an appointment for a health check-up to get your weight, height, and blood pressure. Then you want to request a blood panel and make sure you are clear to exercise. This is advice for everyone, regardless of your age, you want a clear understanding of where your cholesterol levels are, fasting blood sugar amongst other things. This way after you begin exercising, if you experience any physical changes or feel different, you have a benchmark to reference. Exercise has been proven to lower blood pressure, blood sugar and reduce body weight. All these things could have an impact on how much medication you take and may require adjustments over time. Please consult with your primary care doctor before any exercise program!
Step 2: Start with a Baseline
After getting your check-up, you want to start by doing some kind of fitness assessment. My advice is to keep it simple and relatable. Here at The Williamsport Home Apartments, residents do the senior fitness test. This test is nationally recognized and checks for upper and lower body strength, flexibility, endurance, and balance. This includes the ability to stand up from a chair multiple times, lift a certain amount of weight, walk or march for a length of time and measure the ability to touch your toes or reach behind your back. This test is more appropriate for seniors 65 and older and was designed to help seniors maintain their ability to be independent and do daily tasks for as long as possible.
Did you know that a healthy and active 65-year-old is equivalent to a 25-year-old who is not active and leads a poor lifestyle? Prior to moving to The Williamsport Home Apartments, most residents don’t engage in a structured exercise program and may be physically declining. The only way to know this is by starting with an assessment, and we have seen residents living a better quality of life at 90 plus compared to when they were 85 because they were declining in their own homes. We call this bending the aging curve and see residents thriving at our independent living apartments as they age versus the curve sharply declining, leading to higher levels of care and more health care costs. Another tip to get started on an exercise program is to seek out a reputable trainer or health coach. You will get back double what you pay in better quality of life, lower health care expenses, reduced risk of injury and the knowledge you gain, is yours forever! Kaleb Roudabush is the Wellness Coordinator at The Williamsport Home Apartments where he develops and coordinates wellness programming for apartment and personal care residents. For more information about the programs available at The Williamsport Home visit our website at www.thewilliamsporthome.com or follow us on FACEBOOK at www.facebook.com\TheWilliamsportHome .
