Senior Exercise with Josephine Porokoso
RN Case Manager Josephine Porokoso at Serengeti Care talks about senior exercise.
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*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.
This is a special present taking of Answers for Elders with Serengeti Care, and welcome back to the program everyone. Coming up on this segment I have a wonderful lady Ballionam of Kim Spencer, who’s with Serengeti Care, and I love it. It’s a beautiful weather out, we’re in the summertime and we’re going to talk about exercise for seniors. Kim, welcome to the program hi, thank you for having me. You know, Kim, this is a huge issue because seniors oftentimes have mobility issues, they have health care issues and everything, and so you know, I know it was when I was taking care of my mom. It was a it was just like pulling teeth to get her to do any exercise. But it’s really important, isn’t it? It’s very important as we age. So tell me about some things you know, like like fears. First of all, we start talking about exercise, what do you find most common with seniors when it comes time to exercise? Well, a lot of seniors are afraid they’re going to get her if they exercise. So I highly recommend if they aren’t active, before starting exercising, they should talk to their doctor. Well, and I think the other thing is just the whole fear of falling. I’m if they fallen before. There’s that psychological fear of oh, if I walk or if I do something and what if I fall? There’s ways to obviously secure yourselves, you know, even if you’re have a walker or a cane or something like that. Those things can certainly help you from feeling a little bit more safe, isn’t that true? It is true. Yeah, and I think having a walking exercise buddies always good too. That way you feel a little more secure. Sure. Sure, and and also just a treadmill is nice because you have something to hang onto or different things like that. So tell me. If a senior is, you know, starting to have some mobility issues and different things like that, what are the kinds of exercises that you recommend? Well, there’s a wide range of exercises. If they live in a community, they have exercise classes daily. Simple exercises’ll they call them sit and fit fun. Yeah, if it’s in a circle and the group get together and sometimes they have music. You know, they make it. I think the big thing is just to make it fun. Yeah, because more people will want to partake if it’s fun. Sure you know. So. You listen to music, you visit with your friends, you’re you know, simple like shoulder, throat thrust up down and moving your more, moving your arms, moving every part, your feet, your legs. Sometimes beach balls are included in it. Sometimes parachutes are different things. Cool. Now, what do they do with a parachute? Oh, just put it up and down and all. That’s great, and it’ll like float up from the death. That’s really cool. So so like, obviously, with exercise, you know it keeps seniors young, doesn’t it? It really does, and studies of proven that people, you know, live longer that exercise. Their weight is down, they feel better, their depression decreases, because as people age they get more and more isolated and more depressed. And studies have shown that people that socialize and exercise together just are happier and healthier. And I think you know for the most part it’s your mind, body and spirit. Absolutely or, in the words of Tony Robins, emotion is created by motion and other woods. Getting out and walking around and getting your heart beat up and and having that a live feeling helps you feel better throughout the day and and of course, most certainly, you know, it’s kind of hard sometimes to get mom ordad off the couch because Dad’s probably watching the TV with the remote control and doesn’t want anything to do with exercise. But to find activities that you can integrate or help your parents maybe to give them some incentive to get out right, get up and do things. And Yeah, when you have a buddy, even men. I’m used to work in communities and I’ve worked as an activity director doing exercise classes years, years ago, and you know, they would do the weights because the men like the weights and sure, you know, bade them feel good. They had the two to three pound weights and then for the heavy lifters, you know, eight pound weights. So a lot of different exercises men can do too. It’s not all women, sure, absolutely and and you know, certainly as we get older, we get more sedentary. It’s just a natural part of aiding, obviously, and it’s more of a challenge to get out and do things and and the more and more that we can help our parents do things that are more you know, things that bring joy to them. I know with my mom, I used to take her out, we’d go to lunch but what I would often do is say, you know, when I know you have a wheelchair, but we’re right by the front door, so h but we do this just because it’s easier. Is Let me go in first, and I paved the way and that I’d have a walk into the restaurant and you know, I just doing a little bit of a reconsition a sense up front to make sure that there’s a comfort level that they can hang on to. You. You know, it’s that walking from a close parking place, a handicap parking place, into the restaurant which she knew she was going to have a good time, you know, and that’s the incentive at the end which is really exciting. And of course, you know, for my mom she had vascular issues with COPD, and so it was really important for her to get some exercise to move those legs as much as possible. And you know, sometimes you have to turn into a drill sergeant, right. Sometimes you do well, when you exercise, you get your blood flowing and pumping and your endorphins going and it’s just I don’t know if I know for myself, I feel better when I exercise and years ago this sweet little lady Thelma. She was ninety five years old and she gave me this advice. She said her doctor when she was my age, so those years ago, she said, told her to drink one big glass of water every morning and to exercise, walk for thirty minutes each day. Wow, that’s awesome. Yeah, and she said if you don’t exercise every day for thirty minutes, then next day you just double up. So then that would mean the next day you would do an hour. And she was walking, she was alert, oriented, walking every day without a cane or a walker at ninety fising. Amazing him. I thought I want to be like Thelma when I’m her age. Absolutely. By the way, we are again talking just Kim Spencer from Serengeti Care and and you know your Business, obviously is to come into the home and care for seniors and part of that, obviously we’ll be doing some exercise with them. Is that correct? We do the caregivers. We have a lot of clients that have always been very mobile and love to get outdoors, Walk Participate in exercise program so we help, if they’re in a community, help them go down to the exercise classes and encourage them to partake in them and then also go outside and walk. And make it fun, like I said, like you said, and and obviously it really depends. There’s different types of health conditions. Obviously that can vary. Is that correct? And you would customize? Tell me about how you’d customized plans for seniors, I think for for anybody, whether you’re senior or not, listen to your body. You know, don’t overdo it, you know, to be competitive. Don’t go for that. If you can only handle the two pound lifting up and down, don’t go for that eight pound. Not yet, not yet, you might be Grad you know, it’s just a little bit of a time. I know I have a friend that has a cane and she takes her walker for to walk, but, bless her heart, she walks up her driveway to the road and back a couple of times a day and I think that’s wonderful. And of course normally she doesn’t, you know, need the Walker for day to day, but because she does her exercise, it just makes her feel more comfortable to have that Walker and I think that’s really a wise decision to do. That is great. If somebody has heart disease, obviously, or or any sort of like lung issues like COPD. There’s a shortness of breath. Is that correct? And tell me a little bit about how that affects exercise. Well, that affects they’re breathing and and what they can do. So a lot of times the person, the instructor, class instructor, will modify things for people because they’re aware there’s lots of people that have different ailments and can’t do as much as they used to do. So I think you know, make sure first of all, before you start, talk to your doctor. HMM, we’re loose fitting, cool clothes, right, not ones that you’re going to overheat and right or and then the most important thing is to have a new pair of sturdy shoes and they should probably be shoot questionably, I fit on you too. They should. I know my mom used to wear these, remember the old days, these rebox that were like ballet shoes, all right, and refuse to get rid of thee of course, there was just no bed of those shoes for her to stand on and she refused. We went actually took her out and got her a good pair of orthopedic shoes that had the wider girth at the bottom so that she could stand on have more security. She refused to wear them. So finally, one day I just went and got those rebux shoes and pull them out of her her apartment. She was not happy with me that. It’s like, you know, I didn’t want her to fall right, and I think that’s some things. Like what you’re talking about is take a look at your parents shoes. What are they wearing? You know, are they wearing a good solid, you know, support just in every day, you know, and but also if they’re going to go walking, make sure they have a good, strong, you know, supportive shoe that is going to be professionally fit. Go to a really good place that knows how to fit those right and they’re good. Today you can walk and they can tell you whether you go in when you walk or out. Prony is in right and you have to make sure that your arch is good and your heel is supportive right. It’s so we have about thirty seconds left. What is that one little piece of advice that you have to give us a regarding exercise? I would say there’s so many classes to take, you know, at the different activity activities centers, senior centers. You can go on their website or get their little flyer. I know. Gosh they have chair yoga now at awesome nor shore senior center in Bothel. They have all kinds of different exercises. Swimming is great? Yes, absolutely. It’s not, you know, easy on your joints and everything. So how do we reach you kid? You can reach me Kim Spencer, at Seengetti care you can reach me by cell at four to five, three hundred and eighty seven, zero seven two five. You can check out our website at SerengetiCare.com, and can you spell that for us? Serengeti Care, Serengeti Care, and you can also email me at KimK@SerengetiCare.com. Thanks so much for being on the program can thank you for having me. This has been a special presentation of Answers for Elders with Serengeti Care. For more information for Serengeti Care, go to SerengetiCare.com. That’s SerengetiCare.com.
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Originally published June 03, 2017