Functional Fitness for Seniors: How Physical Therapy Helps
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When seniors have a tough time with daily tasks, they may be lacking something called functional fitness. This is what helps them to perform everyday tasks more easily and efficiently. For seniors who want to stay as independent as possible, improving functional fitness is a crucial goal. Physical therapy services are just one of the ways that seniors can greatly improve their functional fitness.
What Is Functional Fitness?
Functional fitness exercises mimic the movements of daily life. These are activities like standing up from a seated position, remaining stable while walking, and preventing falls. These activities are an essential part of everyday life, so seniors need to hold onto these skills. Physical therapists work with their patients to determine where they’re lacking in these functional fitness skills so that they can put a personalized plan of action together.
Improving Balance and Stability
Balance and stability are key pieces of activities like walking. Strengthening core muscles and improving coordination helps seniors to reduce fall risk. These exercises can also help seniors to regain some of the mobility that they might have lost over time. Physical therapists start where seniors are and help them to gradually improve as they move more.
Increasing Strength and Endurance
Strength and endurance are part of what helps seniors to go through their daily activities while expending less effort, which can help them to reduce fatigue. Some of those daily tasks could be as simple as getting in and out of the car alone, handling household chores, and simply walking around their home. Physical therapists gradually increase the exercises seniors do to help them build up both strength and endurance.
Enhancing Flexibility and Mobility
Seniors battling arthritis and other issues might not have the same range of motion that they used to have. That makes it difficult to maintain flexibility and as a result, they often start to lose even more mobility. This never-ending cycle can slow down with the help of physical therapists. They assess how flexible seniors are and devise exercise plans to improve mobility.
Boosting Independence and Confidence
Typically as people get older and lose functional fitness, they don’t notice as much because it’s so gradual. As seniors work with physical therapists, they see the improvements quickly. They start to regain their confidence and become more independent as they regain their functional fitness. This is a huge emotional win.
Physical Therapy Five Forks SC – Functional Fitness for Seniors: How Physical Therapy Helps
Personalized Exercise Programs
There’s no such thing as one fitness program that works for everyone. Each senior’s needs are different and the challenges that they face are unique. Physical therapists work closely with each patient and that patient’s medical providers to put together a plan that is going to produce the unique results that seniors need.
Setting Goals and Making Progress
Part of why physical therapy can work so well for seniors is that physical therapists set goals with patients and keep track of progress. Achievable goals help seniors to stay focused on where they’re headed as they improve their functional fitness. It can be tough to see progress, so it helps that physical therapists have ways to make sure that seniors see how well they’re doing.
Functional fitness is a huge part of helping seniors stay independent and live the lives they want to live. With the help of physical therapy, these goals can be much more achievable.
