By Gabe Sanders PhD, NSCA-CSCS
Maintaining your independence or functional mobility as you age is of utmost importance. The main goal as you age is to be able to engage in everyday activities and live life without pain for as long as possible. Maintaining your functional mobility as you age will require you to engage in some form of physical activity and exercise. While you may be thinking that physical activity and exercise would require you to go to the gym and spend a minimum of an hour each day to lift weights and ride a bike or run, that thought process is simply not true and may also not be ideal for many people.
Assess Functional Fitness with the Senior Fitness Test
You can think of functional fitness as exercise/physical activity that will help complete daily tasks such as standing up out of a chair, walking to the mailbox, cleaning, or going to the grocery store. A very common way to assess functional fitness as you age is to use the Senior Fitness Test. This test is used in many fitness and senior centers to measure an individual’s functional mobility.
There are seven different assessments that can easily and effectively measure one’s physical ability to complete simple daily tasks. These assessments range from standing up out of a chair as many times as possible in 30 seconds to testing your lower body flexibility by reaching as far forward as possible to try and touch your toes while sitting in a chair.
While these assessments are a great way to assess your functional fitness and to compare your fitness to others your age; more importance should be placed on how you can improve your muscle strength and flexibility to maintain your functional fitness without spending tons of time and money on exercise equipment.
The following are four basic exercises to help improve your functional fitness keeping you healthy and independent.
Chair stands. Find a sturdy chair in your home. Stand up then sit down up to 15 times without rest to help strengthen your legs. This exercise will also help improve your balance. As you feel stronger, complete up to 3 sets of 15 chair sit and stands.
Step in place. This is a great way to improve your cardiovascular health and can be completed in your living room. For two minutes, step in place. Focus on raising your knee a little higher than if you were walking. This should feel like you are marching in place. If you need assistance with balance, use the back of a chair or a wall in your house to hold on to. Your goal is not to use a chair for balance. Step in place for two minutes, rest and then complete again or increase your time to three minutes.
Upper body flexibility. Pretend to scratch you back. Take your right arm up over your shoulder as if you had to scratch your upper back. Then, take your other arm to safely and easily press down on your right elbow to increase your stretch and hold for 15 seconds. Complete this stretch 3 times with your right arm and then switch to your left arm.
Wall push-ups. Stand facing a wall with your arms extended and hands placed on the wall. Bend your elbows bringing your body close to the wall. Once your elbows are slightly bent, push your body away from the wall. This will help safely strengthen your upper body. Complete 15 reps and if possible add up to two more sets for a total of 3 sets.
*For more examples of other variations/exercises look under Multimedia-VDF Exercise Tips
**Consult with a physician and/or medical healthcare provider before starting any exercise regimen
Article’s Resources
R.E. Rikli & C.J. Jones, 2001, Senior Fitness Test Manual (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics).