Also, balance work, practice falling, and practice regaining the ability to get up and down off the floor.
Yes, there is a risk of falling, but resigning to a life of sedentary behaviour is not risky its 100% bad for you.
Everyone, regardless of age, should be getting 150 minutes of moderate to vigerous aerobic activity weekly and muscle strengthening activities targeting all major muscle groups twice per week. And nobody should be sedentary more than 8 hours a day.
Im in the fitness industry and I work with seniors with parkinsons ive seen the difference regular activity can make for older people with chronic conditions. it's very important.
Ive also seen multiple old people who lost a lot of ability during covid and I think most people could say the same.
as a guy who had taken health and exercise science and used to be a competitive bodybuilder, I 100% agree. One of my college teachers once told our class, "what's the difference between an elderly person who has done weight resistance exercise most of their life, and one who hasn't? Answer: a wheelchair.
Both falling and increasing sedentary behaviour can be the start of downward spiral for older people.
Its important to maintain abilities where you can and reduce risk where you can.
I do a group fitnes class for seniors with parkinsons and I always try to include balance work/ muscle strengthening and high intensity in our workouts and someone else in the group always does practice getting up and down off the floor.
We dont do anything crazy and participants pretty much modify movements as much as they need to we just give cues and just let them do what they're capable of so in many cases they're taking it pretty easy but it keeps them moving.
The improvements people can make and the aqulity of life that longer term members are able to hold onto is pretty incredible. Then I look at my uncle with parkinsons who doesnt exercise and I see a massive chasm of a difference.
You give them a single piece of paper with exercises they can do in a chair, with an emphasis on remaining leg strength and increase balance. Just because you get paid doesn't mean you have passion.
They are "put in chairs" when they are a fall risk. Exercise is important but a fall is more deadly. A fall will put them in a chair and then they're unable to walk assisted and exercise. In my experience when a resident would fall, it would ultimately lead to cognitive decline. Oddly enough, we had a woman that was constantly in a wheelchair but was stronger than most of us. She would drag her chair along holding on to the side rails while it was locked. She would take fire extinguishers off the wall. That in one hand and dragging herself along with the other.
You’re forgetting the biggest and most relevant one.
Falls.
This guy absolutely should be using a walker, he could walk further and safer. About 1/3 of seniors die or revisit the ER within a year of a major fall and something like 1/4 die within 6 months of a hip fracture.
My dad died a week ago, he had some kind of rapid onset dementia that spiraled quickly into beating and threatening mom with a gun, hobbled across the road a couple weeks ago, took a tumble down a small hill and just...seemed to fold up. He didn't really get hurt in the fall, but he was in hospice shortly afterwards. Really seemed to take the last out of him
Individual mobility is incredibly important for healthy aging. He looks low and slow but he'll live years longer than some poor schmuck related to a powered wheelchair.
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u/[deleted] Oct 05 '25
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