In summary:
Morada Waxahachie, in Waxahachie, TX, sits just south of the downtown with its parks and shops. The location is perfect for walking to, but if you are currently living a sedentary lifestyle, you may need a little help in overcoming the challenge.
Indoor walking exercises are a great step in improving your Assisted Living fitness in Morada Waxahachie, and our staff can help support this form of low-impact daily movement. Many people have started walking indoors for health reasons, recognizing that aging and exercise go hand in hand, and that maintaining one's physical well-being is crucial.
So, enjoy the following senior mobility tips to ensure that you make the most of your indoor walking exercise efforts.
Regular indoor exercises are not only practical, but they have also recently received attention from various online publications that support them.
The short, frequent opportunities to walk can help support the heart and lung health of the walker. As seniors age, their health and stamina can both benefit from such an opportunity, even if the outdoors is not always perfect weather.
Every short walk, whether it lasts ten minutes or more, can serve as a brief aerobic exercise. Additionally, repeating the process several times throughout the day or week can start to add up.
If you'd like, you can even involve friends or peers, creating a group of walkers who aim to improve their mobility and foster a community spirit that benefits everyone involved. Meanwhile, the American Heart Association has discussed how walking can help in various ways, including reducing the walker's stress, which can have numerous other benefits.
If you don't have much space, consider creating loops within some of the available rooms instead of roaming around the corridors. Doing a mix of hallway laps with planned turn points and room "tracks" will provide variety as you move around the spaces, allowing you to engage with a wide range of people as you travel.
Consider adding timed rests to your circuit to help you manage energy. If you are in a mixed group, you may want to use these, even if you are not the one who needs them, to help motivate others as well.
Don't limit your efforts to just walking, however. For example, the CDC confirms that adults aged 65 or older often require a more varied mix of activities. Together, these can protect them from both poor health and the dangers of trips and falls.
Make sure to inform Waxahachie's staff of your intent, however. They can provide tips, and kitchen staff may even be able to customize a dish for your chef-cooked meals to offer better food for a more active lifestyle.
If you are having trouble engaging in the walk, remember that there are also other options available to you. If your Assisted Living includes help with getting from one spot to another, for example, then ask for assistance standing and engage in briefer walks. In some cases, even just crossing the room will be enough.
For those who cannot even do that, chair exercises are a common and practical option to give participants an engaging and heart-pumping activity without leaving the confines of their seat.
Don't fret too much about the time you take when you first start. Aim for only ten to fifteen minutes, or even shorter in some cases, and understand that breaking that down into five-minute blocks is acceptable if it helps increase your heart rate. After all, taking short rests is a regular part of exercise, so if you need to break up a larger walk, go for it.
Over time, increase those numbers as you feel comfortable. If you eventually end up walking five times a week for a total of 150 minutes, then that is an achievement worthy of celebration.
Walking is walking, and it's not the location that makes you more fit but the effort. It's much more vital that you aim for consistency, so that your body gets used to the regular effort.
Indoor walking also has several benefits, including avoiding the summer heat and winter cold, as well as allowing you to exercise even when it is raining or snowing. At the same time, the well-designed flooring of a senior living community like Waxahachie avoids steps and steep ramps, making it easy for you to move around. There's not even a car in sight as you traverse the cushioned flooring.
Ensure that you keep your cane on your stronger side, unless your clinician has instructed otherwise. Then, step with the cane and the weaker leg together, using the stronger leg to balance on.
You should shorten the strides that you take when you go around turns, planting the cane firmly before you pivot around the corner.
In Assisted Living, you may have a staff member with you. If so, ask them to help you navigate the corridors and ensure that you avoid any obstacles that may impede your cane, and make the most of the chance to move around.
Indoor walking exercises are a tremendous way to start improving your fitness when you cannot get out due to the weather or other limitations. So, strap on some comfortable shoes, and consider turning on some music to create a beat you can walk to.
Our community features numerous accessibility options that make navigating around even easier, including a single-floor design and various events and activities that provide opportunities to get from A to B. To learn more, please contact us today and discover how we can assist you.