As your senior ages, she’s likely to lose muscle tone. If she doesn’t pay attention to this change in her body and make some changes of her own, she’s more likely to experience some side effects from muscle loss that make her life more difficult than it has to be. Here are just a few of the reasons that your senior needs to improve her muscle strength, and how elder care can help.
Weight-bearing Exercise Keeps Bones Strong, Too
The same types of exercise that help to give your elderly family member stronger muscles helps also to protect her bones. Bones get weaker as they age, and if your senior has significant risk factors for osteoporosis, she may experience bone weakness even more quickly. Weight-bearing exercise, even simple walking, helps to keep your senior’s large muscles strong and also helps with bone strength.
Stronger Muscles Support Joints
Another huge benefit of stronger muscles is that those muscles are better able to support joints. This is especially important when joints are weakened or are experiencing a great deal of pain, including from arthritis. Osteoarthritis in particular weakens the cartilage between joints and that leads to serious pain and difficulty moving. Exercise that builds stronger muscles also helps to keep joints moving and can improve range of motion in affected joints.
Stronger Muscles Assist with Balance
Balance is often more tremulous when someone is sedentary. This of course can also lead to increased muscle loss. When your senior does stand and walk, the increased issues with balance and the decrease in muscle strength can contribute to serious difficulties balancing properly. Your elderly family member may even become more sedentary because she’s afraid she will fall.
All of the Above Reduces Fall Risk
When you add all of these factors together, you end up with a much higher fall risk than your senior should likely have. Talk with your senior’s doctors about what her full fall risk is so that you both understand what she’s facing. Another good idea is to hire elder care providers who can work to help your senior as she’s following her doctor’s care plan.
Your Senior Will Feel Stronger and More Secure in Her Abilities
As your aging family member builds her muscles, she can experience more than just physical results. She may find that she rebuilds her confidence in moving her body and that she feels stronger every day. Help from home care providers can also help her to feel safer and more secure at home. Moving more and becoming stronger supports her emotional well-being and can help her to keep up with the progress that she has already made.
Elder care providers can be there just to support your senior with companionship as she works to rebuild her strength. But they can also help her to conserve her energy from daily tasks to put toward exercising more and becoming stronger. That allows her to focus on what is going to give her the biggest impact over time.
If you or an aging loved one is considering elder care in Billings, MT, call the caring staff at SYNERGY Home Care of Billings today. 406-839-2390
