Motivation is something that almost everyone struggles with when it comes to exercise. For your senior, motivation might have been the one thing she felt like she has been consistently lacking. This might help.
Encourage Her to Find Exercise She Loves
If your senior is doing exercises that she loves to do, it’s not going to be a hardship to find motivation. She’ll be motivated by the fact that she enjoys the activity. This is why it’s a good idea for your senior to experiment a bit and to look for a variety of different activities to try at first. When she finds something she really loves, that’s fantastic.
Fit Exercise into Every Day
Moving a little bit every day is the key to consistent good health. Part of that involves loving what she’s doing, but another part involves being consistent. When exercising and moving more is convenient for your aging family member and built into her daily schedule, that means it almost takes more effort for her to not exercise at all.
Help Her to Find an Exercise Buddy
Social exercising can be powerfully motivating, too. If your elderly family member has a friend she can exercise with, that’s a great way to keep her moving. Sometimes friends and family members aren’t available for exercising, though, which might be where home care providers come in. They can help to make sure your elderly family member is moving safely when she exercises.
Keep Track of Her Progress
Setting goals is important, but sometimes it’s tough to see the progress. Find ways to help your elderly family member to see progress. That might mean using a fitness tracker to literally see the numbers increase. Or it might mean taking before and after pictures, especially if your elderly family member wants to lose weight or become more fit. She might see differences in the picture that she can’t always see in the mirror.
Breaks Happen
Something else to remember is that breaks in even the best routines happen sometimes. It’s more important that your senior doesn’t give up entirely. All she needs to do is to start back up again slowly and give herself a chance to get back up to speed with being active again.
Regular exercise has such huge benefits for your elderly family member. Make sure that her doctor clears her to exercise before she gets started for best results.
If you or an aging loved one is considering hiring home care in Los Altos, CA, please contact the caring staff at Home Helpers today (408) 317-4969.