Key Movement And Senior Balance Exercises

Senior Balance Exercises For Safe Movement

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

   Moving safely is a key ingredient to healthy living for older individuals and can be accomplished by adding a dose of physical fitness combined with practicing senior balance exercises to each day. Please see more information at http://www.exerciseforbalance.com/buy-now Recently, medical researchers have published informative studies on improving health for older adults by staying active and by keeping balance techniques in mind with all movement activities. Medical scientists are finding that physical activity is a key component to healthy living. According to the American Physical Therapy Association, physical therapy interventions can be effective in "resetting the aging clock of the human body." (Richard Shields, PT, PhD, FAPTA). Shields remarks in regards to the physical therapy profession includes:

Discussing the future of the physical therapy profession at "micro" and "macro" levels, Shields said that for much of the profession's history physical therapists have remained in the center of this continuum. "But the frontiers of our profession lie at the extremes. Those are the places we must travel if we wish to truly transform society by optimizing movement," he said, alluding to APTA's vision for the profession—"Transforming society by optimizing movement to improve the human experience." On the micro level, Shields said that physical therapist interventions "are powerful regulators of genes that activate the energy systems" that can reduce the rate at which cells and tissues age. These movement-based interventions trigger cellular changes "in ways that the pharmaceutical industry"—if not Doc and Hermione—"can only dream about." Shields explained how, upon contraction, skeletal muscle is more than "a mere force vector." It also releases proteins known as myokines into the blood stream, where they regulate genes in cells throughout the body. Frequent movement, then, promotes the expression of healthy genes and represses the expression of genes that can damage tissues. And while the effect is to slow biological aging in cells and tissue, the benefits are not for only the already aged; they can be applied across the lifespan. Shields said that although PTs and PTAs "most often think about strength, endurance, coordination, and function; the cellular changes that we trigger are the most fundamental ways that we improve the health and well-being of humankind." Shields explained that it's possible to estimate how many healthy genes are being blocked as a function of a person's age, injury, immobility, or disease. "It is our role as physical therapists to prescribe interventions that unblock the genes that are health-promoting," Shields said. In line with the comments that Shields makes in regards to promoting cellular function with physical activity, other healthcare professionals agree that movement activities should include a foundation of senior balance exercises, in order to enhance stability and minimize the risk of falling with all fitness regimes.

Senior Balance Exercises For Better Health

    One key component to maximizing your quality of life  and optimal health is to avoid falling by rehearsing senior balance exercises every day. To maintain an ongoing healthy lifestyle and to Keep your activity level up, one of the best stability routines is standing one one foot for about twenty seconds, three times on each foot. This single leg standing equilibrium routine will enable  you to establish adequate steadiness for all your movement activities. You can progress this single leg standing routine by doing the exercise standing on a soft surface like a couch cushion or really thick piece of carpet.  You can further promote standing exercises by performing them on balance equipment like a balance board or BOSU. Once you feel more confident with standing routines, you can enahnce your walking abilities by doing tandem walking where you walk along a line in a heel to toe manner. Both single leg standing and tandem walking exercises will prepare you to be able to perform activities of daily living at home like house cleaning or cooking or outdoor activities like hiking, brisk walking, playing tennis or many other healthy events. You can find out how to practice these and other senior balance exercises correctly by joining in with the instruction from a knowledgeable Physical Therapist in the Exercise For Balance DVD.

Senior Balance Exercises In The Exercise For Balance DVD

[caption id="attachment_6500" align="alignright" width="150"] Learn balance exercises with the Exercise For Balance DVD[/caption]
    To optimize your health, 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

Be healthy by starting 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/