Exercise Snacking
Published on 21 February 2020 12:37 PM
Physical activity is essential for improving health, especially for older people . Caroline Abrahams of Age UK commented on the importance of exercise, saying: “Even small amounts of physical activity can make a difference to a person's health, lowering the risk of developing serious conditions such as heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers”.
According to the NHS, around 1 in 3 adults aged over 65 who live at home will have at least one fall a year, and about half of these will have more frequent falls. From 2011 to 2017, there was a 19% increase in emergency readmissions within 30 days of an elderly patient leaving hospital. This evidently shows the need for preventative activities amongst older people.
In partnership with Sport Works, our EveryDay Care service provides ‘exercise snacking’ twice daily across our three Wellbeing Centres. These sessions include short periods of exercise and aim to improve and maintain the mobility and balance of our customers. This allows participants to maintain and improve mobility to prevent accidents at home as well as improve their general health.
Examples of exercise at our wellbeing centres include:
- Chair based exercises
- Walking
- Dancing
- Bowls
- Swimming
- Gardening
John Newton, Project Co-ordinator at Sport Works, said says :“It is important to remain mobile in order to live independently. Having regular mobility and exercise sessions will reduce the risk of falling and increase agility, balance and coordination. It will give you more confidence in trying new activities and make you feel better about yourself!”.
John continued: “The partnership between Sport Works and EveryDay Care services has been a great success. It has given many of their our customers the opportunity to become more active and involved in chair based exercise classes on a weekly basis. We will continue to develop our relationship and work with more clients in 2020”.
Age UK North Tyneside continues to support and co-ordinate 14 different health groups attended by over 550 older people to help them remain active and healthy. Details of all local activities are available from our Active Age Co-ordinator Laurie Zebik Tel:0191 2877027 .
These include ‘walk in water’, walking football, Tai Chi, Strength and Balance and so much more. E mail laurie.zebik@ageuknorthtyneside.org.uk for further details of activities to suit every ability or follow the links below: