Aberdeen Village Community Matters May 2017

Community Matters Aberdeen Village

May 2017

The 5 exercises you should do every day

By Rashelle Brown for Next Avenue

Balance and mobility training can benefit us at any age, but it becomes more important as you reach and pass the age of 50.

Maintaining joint range of motion allows you to move naturally and helps to combat the postural problems that cause neck, back, shoulder and hip pain.

Far from only preventing stumbles and falls, balance training is extremely important for everyone because it makes us better at every physical thing we do. Having a keen sense of proprioception (the sense of where your body is in space) makes all movement more efficient.When

Aberdeen Village residents participating in dancersize class.

Dance your way to wellness Did you know May is National Senior Fitness Month? At Aberdeen Village, we celebrate fitness all year long!

Assisted living dancersize class not only is a great exercise activity but it’s a fun time! Rachel Esau is our life enrichment lead assistant and has been holding dancersize classes for four years. It started out small but has grown and usually sees a group of 10 or more residents.

Dancersize is a combination of movements involving the whole body to the favorites from long ago. The residents use a variety of props from ribbons to plastic eggs to small poles.

One of our residents, Becky Bright, has attended the class since it started four years ago. She admits that she loves the music. It takes her back to some wonderful memories, but she also sees the advantages of the exercises. Best of all, she enjoys Rachel and how lively she is and

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A proud member of Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America

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her interaction with everyone who attends.

Wellness is important to our residents. We recently had a wellness clinic where our very own therapy team, Aegis Therapy, did cognitive testing, grip strength and agility/ coordination testing.

Many of our residents have understood the importance of wellness and continue to be involved in our different wellness activities such as water fitness, morning exercises, our walking trails and our fitness center.

Above and right, a wellness clinic offered by Aegis Therapy.

Community Matters is published monthly for residents and friends of Aberdeen Village by Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more at: PresbyterianManors.org.

Tim Allin, executive director Chrissie Ammann, director of sales and marketing To submit or suggest articles for this publication, contact Chrissie Ammann, director of sales and marketing, cammann@pmma.org.

Telephone: 913-599-6100 Fax: 913-599-3810 Address: 17500 W. 119th St., Olathe, KS 66061-9524 Our mission: We provide quality senior services guided by Christian values.

Residents participating in an exercise class.

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combined with fluid joints that allow for a full range of motion, this puts you at your functional best.

Here’s a short sequence of five exercises you can do every day to improve and maintain your balance and mobility. Done in a slow, controlled fashion, you can finish the whole workout in under 10 minutes: Balance stands With balance training, the goal is not only to improve proprioception, but also to improve your body’s reaction mechanics so you can quickly move to re-establish center of mass and recover to a normal body posture.

As I tell my clients, balance training is most effective when you are almost falling, so it’s important to challenge yourself every time you do this exercise.

At its most basic level, the balance stand simply requires you to stand on one foot for 30 seconds. For some, this will be easy the first time, while others may need to stand close to a wall or in a door jamb to put out their hand to re-establish balance every few seconds.

Once you can balance on each foot on a stable surface for 30 seconds, it’s time to make it harder.Try looking up at the ceiling while you balance. Once you’ve mastered that, move to a less stable surface, such as a thick rug, a bath towel folded in quarters, a foam balance pad, an inflatable balance pod or a rigid wobble board.

Windmills This exercise works wonders for the hips and spine.The movement should be slow and small at first, progressing Like us on Facebook

to a slightly deeper twist and bend with each successive repetition. Start by standing with your feet in a widelegged stance and extend your arms straight out to the sides, in a rendition of da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. Take in a deep breath and engage your core muscles. Exhale as you slowly hinge forward at the hips and slightly twist, bringing your right hand down and across your body toward your left knee. Rather than moving at the shoulder joint, aim to make all of the motion happen in your hips and trunk.

Also, be sure you are bending forward at the hips and not from the lower back.You may not come anywhere close to touching your knee, and that’s fine. Listen to your body and stop when you feel any tension in the backs of your legs, your hips or your back.

Return to the starting position and repeat on the left side. Do a total of 20 slow repetitions, 10 on each side, alternating as you go.

Jumping jack arms This exercise loosens up the shoulders, stretches the spine and works out all those kinks we get from sitting with less than optimal posture. Stand with your feet in a wide-legged stance, arms down by your sides. Engage your core, making your spine long, and slowly raise your arms out to the sides and as far overhead as you can, in what is essentially the arms-only movement of a jumping jack.

Don’t let your arms travel out in front of your body — imagine your body stuck between two large panes of glass, not allowing your arms to move outside of that space. If you can’t reach all the way up overhead by staying inside the imaginary panes, just stop

where your lateral motion ends and return to the start position. Do 30 repetitions.

Pendulum swings This exercise loosens up the entire hip socket and stretches nearly all of the leg muscles. Stand in an open doorway with about five feet of clear space on either side of the door. Hold the door jamb with your right hand and face forward, as though you are walking through the door. Lean onto your left foot, engage your core and slowly start swinging your right foot forward and behind you several inches.

As you begin to loosen up, make the swinging more exaggerated, but still keep the movement relatively slow and controlled. Do 20 to 30 swings with the right leg, then switch sides.

After finishing the forward/backward swings with both legs, turn sideways so you are facing the door jamb. Hold the jamb with both hands for stability and step back so you’re holding the jamb with fairly straight arms. Lean onto your left foot and slowly swing your right leg from side to side in front of the left leg, mimicking the motion of the pendulum in a clock.

Be sure to start with very small movements and increase the range only when the motion feels free and easy.

Try not to swivel at the hips by rotating your spine, but keep the movement isolated within each hip socket. Do 20 to 30 swings with the right leg, then repeat on the left side.

Lunge walk to high-knees This complex exercise combines balance with mobility, giving your legs and core a real workout!You’ll need a EXERCISES continued on page 4 Aberdeen Village

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clear walkway, such as a long hallway or open space outside.

Starting with your hands on your hips, take a long, lunging step forward with your right foot. Keep your left knee straight, so you feel a mild stretch at the front of your left hip as you stride forward.Transfer your body weight onto your right foot and prepare for a balance challenge as you bring your left foot forward and drive your knee up high into the air, as though you are stepping up and over a small obstacle.

Easter Egg Hunt The Easter egg hunt at Aberdeen Village was well attended by many young egg hunters. Residents’ and employees’ children were invited to come and enjoy an evening hunting Easter eggs. Everyone had a great time in the beautiful weather watching the young ones have such a fun time in finding all of the 364 eggs that were spread out on the green grass at Aberdeen Village.

Continue the motion of your left leg forward and go right into a lunge, this time keeping your right leg straight behind you.Transfer your body weight onto your left leg and bring the right leg forward and up into a high-knee step.

Continue in this fashion until you have done a total of 30 or 40 steps — about 15 to 20 with each leg, alternating as you go. If your balance isn’t up to the challenge of this exercise yet, try doing it in a hallway with one hand on the wall to steady yourself as you go.

Hurry Mom. Mmmm chocolate!!

Vacation memories We will be featuring summertime, Independence Day, and vacation memories in an upcoming issue of Community Matters.

If you have a story to tell about any of these topics, or if you just want to tell the world what you love about living in your senior living community, we want to share your story.

If you’ve got a story to share, contact Director of Sales and Marketing Chrissie Ammann, and your story could be featured in an upcoming edition of Community Matters.

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