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Keep squatting for an all-body workout

By Michelle Crouch

Seated? Please stand (don’t use your hands) to give tribute to the one exercise that fitness gurus say stands out among the rest for healthy aging. Now be seated again. Consider that your first rep.

Yes, a great workout challenges all of the major muscle groups in your upper and lower body. But if you have time for only one exercise, you’ll get the most bang for your buck by doing squats — the classic move in which you slowly lower your bottom to seated level, then stand back up. 

“The squat is the most important exercise for seniors,” says Eric Daw, a personal trainer dedicated to older adults and founder of Omni-Fitt in Toronto, Canada. “When you have to go to the washroom, that’s a squat. When you get in the car, that’s a squat. Every time you sit down or stand up, that’s a squat. If you don’t do them well, it affects the way you live.”  

Squats strengthen all of the muscle groups in legs, including calves, quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes, as well as muscles in the lower back and core. Those muscles provide the foundation for most activities of daily living.

Squats are the antidote to soft couch-cushion syndrome — those challenging moments when we struggle to get up from that deep, old sofa. They can also help protect joints, improve balance and prevent falls, says Denise Austin, for 40 years one of America’s best-known fitness experts and authors.

“Squats are one of the best overall exercises,” Austin said. “They strengthen the major muscles of the lower body we need to keep strong and also protect two joints we need help with on a regular basis — our knees and our hips.” 

Here’s how to squat:

1. Get in position.

Choose a spot where you can hold on to a kitchen counter, a table or another steady surface. That makes it easier to focus on your form without worrying about your balance, Austin said. Set your feet about shoulder-width apart or a little wider. (If you have hip issues, put your legs a little farther apart.) Toes should face slightly outward.

2. Lower into a squat.

Keeping your back straight, chest up and heels planted, push your hips back like you are sitting in a chair. Try to keep your weight evenly distributed on both feet, with your weight mostly on your heels, not your toes. Make sure your knees don’t extend forward over your toes, because that can hurt your knees. If you have knee or hip issues, you don’t need to do a deep bend. The coming-up part of the exercise is what really builds strength, Austin said.

3. Repeat.

Aim for two sets of eight to 10, at a tempo of two seconds down, two seconds up. Inhale on the way down and exhale on the way up. As you tire at the end of the set, make sure you’re not hunching over or letting your knees cave in. For the best results, do two or three times a week.

4. Get your arms in play.

As you start to build strength, try doing your squats without holding on to anything. For balance, let your arms rise parallel in front of you on the downward part of the squat, then drop them to your sides when you stand up, Austin suggested. Another option is to cross your arms across your chest. That can help keep you upright if you tend to hunch over, Daw said.

5. For a greater challenge, add resistance.

Once you can do two sets of 15 without feeling any muscle soreness afterward, you’re ready to add some weight. The easiest way is to hold a pair of dumbbells. “That’s how you build strength faster,” Daw said. Start with low weights and build up.

​Source: AARP. Michelle Crouch has covered health and personal finance for Reader’s Digest, the Washington Post and the New York Times.

The Senior Scene by — October 9, 2024 in Health & Fitness

Researchers have found that 54 percent of older American Indians have cognitive impairment, including 10 percent with dementia, highlighting a significant disparity with the rates of cognitive impairment and dementia in the general American population.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study, led in part by the University of Washington’s School of Medicine, also identified vascular injury, which can result from untreated hypertension and diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease as equally responsible contributors to dementia in American Indians, with substantial overlaps between the two. The findings, which NIH reported in May, were published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, the Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Previous studies that relied on medical records estimated that cognitive impairment and dementia levels in American Indians were similar to non-Hispanic whites. However, for this new study, the researchers used survey and screening techniques with individual assessments that did not rely on previous access to the medical care system. They found that 216 American Indian participants aged 72 to 95 had some form of impairment. Of those, 35 percent  had mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 10 percent had dementia, and and 8 percent had a different form of cognitive impairment that was not due to MCI or dementia. There were 181 participants who showed no signs of cognitive impairment.

Based on previous studies, researchers estimated MCI levels at 12 percent to 21 percent of non-Hispanic whites, 22 percent to 25 percent of Black Americans, and 20 percent to 28 percent of Hispanics/Latinos.

NIH is a medical research agency and part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Senior Scene by — September 25, 2024 in Health & Fitness
Keep a toehold on healthy feet

(Pictured: Taking care of feet is important at any age. Photo credit: Natalie Board/Getty Images Plus)

Most people have a foot or ankle problem at one time or another. So how do you know when to seek help?

Many symptoms—even those you can tolerate—require the professional attention of a foot and ankle surgeon to keep the underlying condition from worsening. According to Danielle Butto, a board-certified surgeon and a Fellow Member of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, foot health is an important part of overall health.

Here are five examples of when to make an appointment:

  • When you have diabetes. Living with diabetes means being more prone to conditions that affect the feet, including foot sores and ulcers. At the same time, diabetic nerve damage makes it harder to detect when there’s a problem. Regular visits to a foot and ankle surgeon should be part of a holistic diabetes treatment plan. The doctor can screen for the loss of protective sensations in the feet, as well as diagnose and treat issues leading to ulcers and wounds. Swelling, temperature and color changes in the feet, and calluses are all telltale signs an ulcer may be around the corner and warrant a trip to a foot and ankle surgeon.
  • When children experience pain. Early intervention is key to long-term, successful treatment. Foot and ankle surgeons stress that pain isn’t normal, and if it lasts more than a few days or is severe enough to limit a child’s walking, it should be evaluated. Foot problems commonly experienced by children include flat feet, ingrown toenails, and plantar warts.
  • When you’re at risk for falling. Falls are the leading cause of injury deaths among Americans 65 and older, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Painful foot conditions are a contributing factor, as they affect balance and coordination. Fortunately, many such conditions are treatable.
  • When you can benefit from medical advances. A loss of cartilage once meant a loss of functionality. Today, joint reconstruction with cartilage regeneration offers real hope for long-term functionality, nurturing the body’s own ability to heal itself—with a little boost from technology. Likewise, new surgical techniques for ankle arthritis, including arthroscopic ankle surgery, total ankle joint replacements and bone or cartilage replacement, are helping people stay active. Finally, platelet-rich plasma therapy can promote the healing of bones, cartilage, blood vessels, tendons and tissue for many patients, and is associated with easier recovery than traditional treatments.
  • When pain is sidelining you. It’s important to rest and recover rather than push through foot and ankle pain caused by an overuse injury. If the pain doesn’t improve in three to seven days, seek evaluation and treatment.

More information is at foothealthfacts.org, the patient education website of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons.

Source: StatePoint Media

The Senior Scene by — September 3, 2024 in Health & Fitness

Driven by an older population and a significant increase in risk factors such as high blood pressure and obesity, total costs related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) conditions are likely to triple by 2050, according to the American Heart Association.

Sixty-one percent of U.S. adults–more than 184 million people–are expected to have some type of CVD within the next 30 years, which will have a $1.8 trillion price tag in direct and indirect costs.

Direct costs include the actual cost of healthcare. Indirect costs include premature death and lost economic productivity time taken off work to seek care or the inability to work due to a disability

 “We recognize monumental accomplishments in the fight against cardiovascular disease which includes all types of heart and vascular disease, along with stroke. Drates from heart disease have been cut in half in the past 100 years. Deaths from stroke have been cut by a third since the creation of the American Stroke Association in 1998,” said the volunteer chair of the advisories’ writing groups, Dr. Karen Joynt Maddox, chairowman of two presidential advisories that have studied the subject. “Yet, these are still leading causes of death and disability in the U.S.”

Heart disease has been the leading cause of death in the U.S. since the inception of the American Heart Association in 1924, and stroke is currently the fifth- leading cause of death. Together, they kill more people than all forms of cancers and chronic respiratory illnesses combined, with annual deaths from cardiovascular disease now approaching 1 million nationwide.

American Heart Association’s chief executive officer, Nancy Brown, said “the landscape of cardiovascular health will change over the next three decades because of the coming tsunami of rising healthcare costs, an older population living longer, and increasing numbers of people from under-resourced populations.” She noted predictions of “a dire human and economic toll from heart disease and stroke if changes are not made. However, this does not have to be the reality of our future.”

From 2020 (the most recent data available) to 2050, projected increases of CVD and risk factors contributing to it in the U.S. include:

  • High blood pressure will increase from 51 percent to 61 percent, and since high blood pressure is a type of CVD, that means more than 184 million people will have a clinical diagnosis of CVD by 2050, compared to 128 million in 2020.
  • Cardiovascular disease, including stroke, (but not including high blood pressure) will increase from 11 percent to 15 percent, from 28 million to 45 million adults.
  • Stroke prevalence will nearly double from 10 million to almost 20 million adults.
  • Obesity will increase from 43 percent to 60 percent, impacting more than 180 million people.
  • Diabetes will increase from 16 percent to 26 percent, impacting more than 80 million people.
  • High blood pressure will be most prevalent in people 80 and older, but the number of people with hypertension will be highest – and rising – in younger and middle-age adults (20 to 64 years old).
  • The 20-to-64 group also will have the highest prevalence and highest growth for obesity, with more than 70 million young adults having a poor diet.

But there is good news: More adults are embracing healthy behaviors. The percentage of people with inadequate physical activity will decrease, along with the rates of smokers. Tobacco smoking is one of the deadliest factors of CVD.

Adults are “taking control of their health and making positive change,” said Dr. Joseph Wu, M.D., president of the American Heart Association.

The outlook isn’t as optimistic for children, though. Obesity among kids 2 to 19 and poor physical activity and diet are predicted to either rise or remain high between now and 2050.

Source: American Hearth Assocciation (heart.org, 800-AHA-USA1).   

The Senior Scene by — September 3, 2024 in Health & Fitness