Brain Fitness And Senior Balance Exercises

Senior Balance Exercises For Healthy Living

By Suzanne Stoke, Physical Therapist @ Exercise For Balance via www.exerciseforbalance.com

   Medical researchers have detailed several key components for healthy living in our later years including participating in fitness activities as well as performing senior balance exercises on a daily basis. Please see more information at   http://www.exerciseforbalance.com/buy-now The Golden Years can be filled with challenges, but there are important factors that can help maintain a high quality of life including:

-Eating a good diet of healthy foods

-Getting a good night's sleep

-Staying connected socially with family and friends -Participating in fitness programs that include strengthening and stability exercises

   One of the elements of healthy living involves keeping your mind sharp through brain fitness activities to combat changes that occur in the brain. As a person gets older, changes occur in all parts of the body, including the brain:

•    Certain parts of the brain shrink (such as the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus); both areas are important to learning, memory, planning, and other complex mental activities.

•    Changes in neurons and neurotransmitters. Neurons are the basic working unit of the brain; they’re specialized cells that send information to other nerve cells, muscle, or gland cells.

•    Changes in the brain’s blood vessels occur. Blood flow is reduced because arteries narrow.

•    In some people, structures called plaques and tangles develop outside of and inside neurons, which in much larger amounts, can result in Alzheimer’s disease.

•    Damage by free radicals. Free radicals are a normal by-product of the body's metabolism. Normally, free radicals serve important functions, such as helping the immune system fight off disease. Free radical damage may contribute to memory loss.

•    Neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson’s disease, AD, or other dementias can affect a person’s mental capacity (their ability to perform complex tasks of attention, learning, and memory).

  These changes in the brain can lead to other issues including problems with balance and a greater risk for falling. In fact, changes in brain activity influences one’s chances of falling. The ability to keep balance and avoid falling depends not only on leg strength, but also on complex and simple reaction times, known as ‘brain speed.’ As a result, it is imperative for older adults to perform certain senior balance exercises to help advance their steadiness and lessen their chance of falling.

Senior Balance Exercises For Daily Living

    Reducing the risk of falling for older individuals can be enhanced by practicing senior balance exercises, strengthening exercises and brain exercises. Because walking is such a complex motor activity, older adults need to have adequate brain speed to process complex movement activities. Seniors can practice equilibrium routines that will help with brain speed and with stability skills. As an example, aging individuals can start to rehearse steadiness routines called tandem walking. tandem walking is where you walk a long a line heel to toe. Tandem walking provides an opportunity to establish excellent stability with walking, which translates to necessary steadiness with a brisk walking program. You can learn how to perform senior balance exercises and lower extremity exercises by following along with the instruction of a qualified Physical Therapist in the Exercise For Balance DVD.

Senior Balance Exercises In The Exercise For Balance DVD

    To walk safely, get started on a course of the best balance exercises with the Exercise For Balance DVD. The healthcare provider recommended Exercise For Balance DVD is a high quality instructional DVD to use at home or in a group setting. The easy to understand and simple to follow Exercise For Balance DVD includes  a step by step series of the latest balance and strength exercises necessary to optimize senior fitness and to carry out basic daily activities like shopping, doing laundry,  walking, standing, cleaning house, stair climbing or to advance to more difficult pursuits like skiing, dancing, playing golf and hiking. In the  comprehensive Exercise For Balance DVD, you will learn how to improve stability, how to apply steadiness techniques and how to safely execute balance routines from a  qualified balance specialist --- licensed Physical Therapist---who has worked with balance and dizziness disorders for over 25 years. Get your copy of the Exercise For Balance DVD by clicking on the BUY NOW button

Choose to start balance exercises today with the Exercise For Balance DVD to improve balance and prevent falls.
For more information see http://www.mayoclinic.com/health-information/