Exercises For Seniors With Dementia You Can Facilitate

Our elderly loved ones can do so much in their day-to-day with just a bit more motivation. Keeping fit helps to keep the brain active and healthy. First things first. Before we begin with any exercise, we need to plan out a regimen for them before recommending any exercises for seniors.

Planning activities for people with Dementia

We begin with learning about the person’s current lifestyle and how we can improve from there. First, understanding the needs of the person with dementia will help you to plan appropriate activities for them. This includes employment history, hobbies, recreational and social interests, past travel experience and significant life events.

While running the plan, it’s good to do a trial and error, also not to overwhelm the person with dementia. Choose the right locations with less crowds, or any constant movement and unnecessary noise, like the mall. The park would be best for people with dementia to feel less overwhelmed.

Recording activities can help with making sure the tasks are consistent and easy to follow. Carefully planned exercises may suit the needs of the person with dementia.  It can be helpful to write out an activities care plan if there are a variety of people caring for one elderly. This will help make sure that the activities are consistent and are suited to the needs of the person with dementia.

Prepare a safe working area

Those with dementia may often have difficulty with visual perception and coordination. To keep them safe in their surroundings while performing exercises, we shall keep all surfaces uncluttered or clear from mess to avoid any accidental contact, with few distractions and as little noise as possible. Good lighting is important, along with seats with ample height. You may use plastic containers to avoid shattered glass should there be any breakages happening.

Consider the hours of the day that suits them

Choosing the times that suit them best to achieve the most success when carrying out activities. Sometimes walking may be best done in the morning or the early afternoon when the air is fresher. For patients who become restless later in the day may have a late afternoon walk to bring meaning to their lives.

Encourage an emotional connection

For many people with dementia, there may be a sense of rhythm that often remains. Establishing emotional connection would mean being able to enjoy listening to music, dancing, play with children or friendly animals to gain positive vibes. People with dementia may want to be reminded by the memories they have of past events, by looking through old photos, any memorabilia and books that can help them recall their experiences with things during their time.

The opportunity to relive treasured moments can feel deeply satisfying. If reading skills may have deteriorated, you may create audio records for them. While we’ve grounded all aspects of the exercise and have made considered the following mentioned above, we now proceed to the exercise proper. These are a few simple activities they can do to stay fit. This includes:

1. Stretching in bed – done before sleep or upon waking up it’s the movement performed by various body parts. It’s stretching stiff muscles while lying in bed, which is done independently or with assistance.
2. Walking – a simple exercise done around the house, in the backyard, or at the park. We may combine walking with an errand together like walking the dog or going to the grocery store.
3. The sit to stand exercise – this exercise strengthens the muscles needed for using the toilet and other daily activities. Stay balanced in a standing position (support can be facilitated when needed) – to enhance balance and posture.
4. Cycling
5. Gym work (if applicable) – such as treadmills, stationary bicycles and weight machines.
6. Aerobics (if applicable) – this means attending classes together or rather follow the appropriate low-stress aerobic workout videos.

Exercises for Seniors? How much exercise is recommended?

The objective of exercising is to help our elderly loved ones improve the quality of their health. Once they have a degenerative disease. One’s health and cognitive abilities are different, so that will take some trial and error to find the type of exercise suitable for your loved one.

The complexity of the exercise regimen shall build up over time as the elderly improves. For any sort of exercise no matter the amount is good enough. Forcing regimens onto the patients will only cause injuries, so a slow and steady progress is needed. We can begin with a 10 minute session for the day, increasing the time to 20 or 30 minutes depending on how they are improving over time.

The benefits of exercise for dementia patients will differ for every person. In general, exercising makes one stay active, improving health and well-being. Here are the detailed benefits of exercising:

• Slows mental decline
• Reduces depression
• Improves strength and balance
• Reduces constipation
• Improves sleep
• Increases motivation
• Improve capacity to do daily activities
• Improves mood
• Improves heart rate
• Reduces stress
• Becoming more calm
• Decreases aggression and agitation
• Demonstrate the activity yourself and ask the person to follow your lead.

Safety first!

Before proceeding, here are the tips to follow:

• First, consult a doctor on your elderly loved one’s intentions of keeping fit if it is safe to pursue.
• For outdoor tasks, wearing medical gear or trackers will be easier to manage and watch over seniors while they do their exercise.
• Remember, try to stay hydrated.
• Whenever they feel weak or dizzy, activities need to be paused immediately.
• Discuss with the doctor more exercises that are safe and fit.
  
  

The exercise that is recommended by medical practitioners will help improve their thinking, memory, decision-making and social engagement has a lot to do with the brain.

Brain training exercises help patients stay fit and active all throughout the day, in time improving the quality of their life. The courses laid out for them helps them to remember the past events they have had, help them become more decisive, sleep better, solve problems through the puzzles they’d use to sharpen their thinking.

One brain training exercise called the NeeuroFIT Brain Training course reduces the risk of further cognitive decline. Furthermore, it leaves brain health tips, increases productivity, enhances memory and logical thinking.

Find out how Neeuro can improve your cognitive abilities by clicking on the banner below!