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It's hot. It's REALLY hot. Have I mentioned just HOW HOT IT IS! I was commiserating with an online friend about the heat today and commenting how grateful I am for air conditioning for myself and my senior mom! I even looked up a post I remembered writing on watching out for signs of dehydration in the elderly as well as our sweet young grand children. I wrote that in MAY! Because it was already HOT then! Now it's even more important to watch out for our senior parents and our grandchildren because it's even HOTTER. It's so hot, it's BIG NEWS for all ages! I read a news update today – hottest month on record for globe as of 2016 EVER!
Besides the concern over dehydration, another frustration during this type of prolonged extreme weather is that it's hard for our senior parents to get the exercise they need. I can still handle galloping around playing tag with my grandkids under shade trees (for VERY short periods of time). My senior mom, not so much, other than her gardening. She definitely hasn't felt up to walking as much for a variety of reasons including this heat. We do walk at stores and malls, the same as during our snow days. BUT, she has also managed to keep up with her daily senior citizen fitness and bodybuilding exercises, thanks to two new pieces of senior fitness equipment in our home.
The first is her great new exercise dvd, Stronger Seniors® Chair Exercise Program
This two DVD set has stretching and strength exercises specifically for senior citizens.They work together "to improve our senior parents ability to be stable and balanced, to stay mobile, to go up and down stairs, to squat and pick something up, and to play with your grandchildren" (or in my senior mom's case, great-grandchildren).
The instructor, Anne Pringle Burnell, is a Certified instructor and on the faculty with the American Council on Exercise, the Aerobics & Fitness Association of America, and Stott Pilates. She's been working with seniors and fitness for over ten years and developed the work out program on the DVDs.
More importantly to me, my senior mom LOVES it. When we were in Virginia, she used to watch a city-produced senior fitness video and worked out with it regularly. She had really missed that here so I went looking for a good replacement and we tried this. It is practically perfect for her on her good days. She commented tonight that the city program was only half an hour and this was a WHOLE hour. She didn't look excited about the longer amount of time, so I pointed out she didn't have to do it all at once. Then I asked if she wanted me to try again to track down the city DVD. "Oh, no!" she emphatically stated. "This is much better." Now that's music to this Baby Boomers ear! 🙂
I asked her to tell me the goods and the bads. She said:
- It's easy for her to do, even with her limited range of motion
- It's good for an all around work out
- She has to be careful on the stretch because of her arthritis. She can do the stretching exercises but just has to be gentle.
- She had to cut back a bit on the strength exercises for the same reason. She tried it with her 2 pound weights but they are too heavy, so she has been doing the exercises with no weights and will eventually add weights in, starting with some 1/2 pound children's weights
we discovered. The nice thing is, those will also be great for fitness for kids activities for grandparents and their grandchildren! 🙂
- Other than that, she said she loves it and doesn't want to change anything about it!
A very good senior recommendation, I must say. But, that being said, it's not necessarily just for seniors! If you are one of the exercise-to-stave-off-aging baby boomers generation who doesn't want to play dinosaur tag, or just wants some easier exercises in between, you should find this quite helpful. I read several of the reviews at Amazon, and found others saying the same thing, which was one of the reasons I bought it.
It is even useful as a natural osteoporosis prevention and treatment exercise program with great exercises for older women and men. As a baby boomer, I love good news about products that work for both myself and my beloved seniors! Which leads me to the second piece of senior (and boomer) fitness equipment. But for that, you'll have to check back on Saturday and read all about our handy dandy mini stationary exercise pedal bike we bought last month. 🙂
A Senior Mom's Favorite Senior Citizen Fitness and Bodybuilding Exercise DVD! via SandwichINK.com http://tinyurl.com/39q3rsa
A Senior Mom's Favorite Senior Citizen Fitness and Bodybuilding …: A Senior Citizen fitness and bodybuilding exe… http://bit.ly/cTgWgo
I got the Seniors Easy Light Weights Fitness DVD with Sunshine from Amazon. Its a great DVD , it works out all the muscle groups.
It is a simple basic workout DVD with weights, yet its is very EFFECTIVE. I am Very Happy with this DVD.
Sounds interesting, Marcella. Thanks for letting us know about it 🙂
So glad your Mom is enjoying the Stronger Seniors Stretch & Strength Program. She sounds like an intelligent exerciser. SHe knows her limits and that’s great.
Stay strong,
Anne Pringle Burnell
Stronger Seniors
Thanks Anne! I’ll pass on the compliment. She’ll enjoy it thoroughly! 🙂
Thank you, Kaye. Grateful to be touching so many lives.
Anne
Hi Anne 🙂 Very welcome.