Table of Contents
- First Steps to Active Health: Balance and Flexibility Exercises for Older Adults
- Why should older adults perform balance training?
- What type of exercises should be performed?
- When Should Balance Training be Performed?
- Where can the older adult start?
- How is an older adult to progress?
- What is the goal for older adults?
- What are some examples of exercises that can be performed to improve balance?
- Why should older adults perform flexibility training?
- What type of exercises should be performed?
- When should stretching exercises be performed?
- Where can the older adult start?
- How is an older adult to progress?
- What is the goal for older adults?
- What are some examples of flexibility exercises that can be performed to improve balance?
- How can a well-rounded physical activity program be developed?
- How can an older adult make and track progress?
- How can motivation be maintained?
- What safety reminders should be provided?
- What additional suggestions are there?
- Summary
- About the Author
- Appendix A
- Video Review: Fitness 1-2-3™ Video on Balance/Core Training
- Strength Training Video for People with Intellectual Disabilities: Warm-Up Stretching
- Intense tai chi exercise training and fall occurrences in older, transitionally frail adults: A randomized, controlled trial
- Parkinson's Disease
- A community-based fitness and mobility exercise program for older adults with chronic stroke: A randomized controlled trial
- Aquatic Exercise for Children with Cerebral Palsy
- Spinal Cord Injury and Exercise
- Functional and Neuromotor Performance in Older Adults
- Exercise Guidelines for People with Disabilities
- The Right to Fitness
- Seated Stretching
- Aquatic Therapy
- Balance Exercises
- Fall Injury Prevention
- Exercise Program for Individuals with Spinal Cord Injuries: Paraplegia - Video & Quick Series Booklet
- Exercise for People with Multiple Sclerosis - Series II
- Fitness in Parkinson's Disease
- Stepping in the Right Direction: The Development of a Functional Walking Program
- Maintaining or Improving Fitness in Childhood Disorders
- Physical Activity and Bone Health: Strategies for Exercise Prescription and Osteoporosis
First Steps to Active Health: Balance and Flexibility Exercises for Older Adults
First Steps to Active Health: Balance and Flexibility Exercises for Older Adults
Michael E. Rogers, Ph.D., CSCS
Health-care providers need evidence-based and easy-to-use programs to educate their patients on increasing physical activity. The purpose of this paper is to describe specific interventions to improve balance and flexibility as a means of improving health and functional ability, as well as to prevent chronic disease and disability, in older adults. The paper provides specific balance and flexibility exercises that are part of First Steps to Active Health, a standardized, inexpensive, turnkey program for healthcare professionals to promote physical activity among older adults.
National Center on Health, Physical Activity, and Disability
