Did you notice your parents have lost strength this thanksgiving?

I hope that you had a wonderful thanksgiving this past weekend full of both nourishing food and connections with friends and family.  It is often at holiday times when the children of aging parents notice their parents' strength, stamina and memory declining.

When you start to notice that your parents struggle with carrying platters of food to the table, can’t remember everyone's names or when a family event exhausts them is the time to take action.

Action Plan for You:

1.Make sure you understand the current situation: Take some time outside of the big family event to talk to your parents about if they are noticing any changes in their strength, stamina and balance doing everyday activities such as climbing stairs and doing household chores.

2. Talk to your parents about what is most important to them: No-one really wants to talk about how they need to exercise more BUT they do want to talk about all of the activities that they dream of doing if only their fitness level was improved.

3. Get some clear metrics: It can be hard to notice improvements in your parents’ health unless you have some metrics on where they are starting from.
Some key indicators that you can use are:

1. Blood Pressure
2. Resting and Recovery Heart Rate
3. Number of times they can sit down and stand up out of a chair in 30 seconds
4. How long it takes and how safely they can climb a set of stairs
5. How long they can balance on one foot
6. How easily they walk on an uneven surface such as cobblestones or up a curb
7. How fast they can walk around a city block

4. Get some support: We have a trial program you can purchase for your parents called roadmap to health.  We will do a full assessment for you, create an extensive exercise plan for your parents and take them through it step by step to make sure they are doing it correctly.

Visit our

Roadmap to Health

Erin

Vintage Fitness

Vintage Fitness is a personal training company in Toronto, Canada. We specialize in energizing the lives of people over 50 with exercise.