It can be hard to decide if you or someone you care about needs to move into an assisted living community. Just as important, it can be hard to stick with your decision once you've made it. Understanding the benefits of assisted living is the best way to feel confident that you and your family have made the right decision. The goal of this post is to explain how the senior activities available in an assisted living setting help the people who live there in many different ways.
Why doing things is important for older people
People of all ages do much better in life when they are physically, socially, and mentally active. This is just common sense. This is especially true as we get older and our bodies and minds start to lose the fitness and ability to heal that they had when we were younger. If a senior doesn't make a concerted effort to stay active in meaningful ways, bad things can happen.
As harsh as it may sound, the bottom line about seniors not being active is that it can lead to cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, depression, high blood pressure, and an early death. On the other hand, there is a clear link between seniors being active enough and being in the best health possible. In other words, a senior's health will improve the more they move around.
Not only do active seniors avoid the above problems more often than those who don't, but they also enjoy a number of other benefits. These benefits cover a wide range of aspects of a senior's health and happiness. They include better physical health, more energy, better mood, better focus, and the ability to keep learning. Even though this link between activity and happiness holds true for younger people as well, both the good and bad effects are stronger for seniors.
In general, there are three types of activities that are good for the health and happiness of seniors: physical, social, and mental. We will talk about each of these groups in turn and give examples of each.
Activities for older people to stay fit
All other ways of staying healthy for seniors are built on top of physical activities. Seniors who don't move around much are more likely to get hurt, become overweight, have heart problems, and get sick with a number of other serious diseases. On the other hand, people who stay active into their later years are less likely to get these bad conditions. Also, seniors who exercise less are less likely to have a stroke, cancer, type 2 diabetes, depression, or dementia. It also stops the overall health from getting worse and lets seniors stay independent longer.
Activities like dancing, walking, hiking, and swimming are very good for people over 65, depending on what they like and how well they can do them.
Here are some rules to follow when it comes to physical activities for seniors:
- Seniors should do moderate aerobic activity for about 150 minutes per week, with each session lasting about 10 minutes.
- The total amount of moderate aerobic activity can be upped to 300 minutes per week to get even more benefits.
- Seniors who have trouble moving around should work out at least three times a week to improve their balance and avoid falling.
At least twice a week, seniors should do exercises that make their muscles stronger.
Activities for the elderly with a social focus
Social activities for seniors are also important for their overall health, especially if they want to keep living a meaningful and satisfying life. Without consistent social interaction, seniors can suffer from a number of painful conditions, such as crippling loneliness, depression, and a higher risk of getting dementia. On the other hand, when seniors regularly take part in social activities, their physical, mental, and emotional health improves in a big way. A lot of this improvement comes from being able to keep healthy relationships and keep feeling like a part of society.
In this way, volunteer opportunities are especially helpful, because helping others gives seniors a sense of purpose and gives them much-needed stimulation. The benefits of lunch clubs, dances, and social centers are also huge in these areas. The key is to keep taking part. This means continuing to be an active part of the lives of other people, both one-on-one and in groups. A healthy social life for seniors also means letting other people into their lives in a meaningful way. Only with this level of giving and taking can older people continue to feel emotionally healthy.
Activities for the mind for seniors
The third and final group is made up of mental activities. People need to keep their minds active their whole lives if they want to live a full and healthy life. There is a natural decline in mental abilities that comes with getting older, but it has been shown that actively engaging your mind can slow this decline by a lot.
All parts of life are better when you keep your mind busy. Mental activity improves reasoning, memory, and the ability to keep learning because it has a number of good effects on the brain's physical state. Activities that use the mind are also great for seniors' overall health, especially for preventing Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia or slowing their progress.
There are so many helpful things to do that there is something for everyone. For example, you can do puzzles, dance, play board games, read, or practice a musical instrument. Seniors will also feel better about their emotional health if they do these kinds of mental activities, especially when they do them along with physical and social activities.
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