Exercise ideas for my mother
blankazsanna5
Posts: 23 ✭✭
Can I please ask for ideas on gentle exercise classes? It's getting harder for Mum to walk and get out and about, so I'm looking for suggestions on something simple but fun to keep her blood flowing? Thank you
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Hi @zsanna5,
Welcome to the Q&A Hub! Thank you so much for your thoughtful question.
There's growing evidence that physical activity can have a positive impact on cognitive health and recent studies have shown that exercise may improve memory and slow down the progression of dementia. It's great that you're thinking of incorporating some form of gentle exercise to your mum's routine. :)
I'm not an expert myself, but my great grandmother lived with dementia. What helped us a lot was starting slow and building up movements over time - we started off with some very light sitting exercises, stretches particularly. We put on some music and involved my grand mother and mother as well to make it a little more fun.
We watched lots of yoga and tai chi videos on youtube first, they helped a lot.
I also wanted to share a couple of resources with you, they're full of tips and suggestions from members of our community:
Hope this helps, I'm sure others will be in touch with more tips as well!
Best,
Blanka
What stage is she? we enjoy swimming and tai chi
Hi Blanka,
Thank you so much for your response. I'll look into these and let you know how it goes.
All the best,
Zsanna
We have been told lots that it is important to get my Grandma to do more exercise, as this will also help with her appetite. She isn't overweight or anything but doesn't do much in the day, and no wonder she isn't hungry cause she forgets to eat but also doesn't build up much of an appetite. Maybe some exercises will help! Thanks for the those useful suggestions Blanka, I will take a look at some of them and see if anything works!
Hi, we enjoy doing some gardening and we regularly do some "exercise" at home. We put on some music and do the cleaning together. It's an easy way of keeping more active and there's always something to do around the house (folding the laundry, dusting the shelves etc).
I find going for a walk once a day really helps! We try and include it as part of our routine, and my husband is much calmer when we are in the park. I know everyone is different, but fresh air works wonders!
Thank you so much everyone for all the suggestions!! They're all very helpful. Good to know we're not alone.
Can I ask the group for any ideas on sitting exercise classes? As winter approaches I am just thinking that I wont always be able to take him out and something we can do at home would be reallly helpful!
@KatherineKilloran I looked into simple exercises this weekend and found some good ones on Youtube, we haven't tried them yet but we liked these a lot: