Functional Fitness: Helping Older Adults Keep Up with the Grandkids

By Jaynie Bjornaraa PhD, MPH, PT, SCS, LAT, ATC, CSCS, CSPS

VP, Rehab Services & Digital Fitness Solutions, American Specialty Health Fitness

One of the greatest joys – and potentially biggest challenges – for many grandparents is time spent with the grandkids. Whether they’re toddlers or teens, keeping them entertained requires a level of fitness that might include everything from lifting a child to chasing after them at the playground, or competing in a round of golf. For seniors seeking an enriching and active experience with their grandkids, it’s important to engage in everyday fitness routines that help:

• Maintain muscle mass
• Preserve cardiovascular health
• Fortify flexibility
• Bolster balance.

Functional fitness training can help with these goals. Functional fitness uses multiple muscle groups and movements to help train muscles, joints, limbs, and nerves to all work better together for everyday tasks, like lifting groceries from the car, or outmaneuvering the grandkids.

Examples of functional fitness exercises include lunges, squats, and planks. Lunges help improve balance and make the legs stronger. Squats help strengthen the muscles used in sitting, standing, or lifting heavy objects safely. Core training, like planks, helps strengthen the lower back, hip, and abdominal muscles. A strong core provides a stable base when lifting, standing, or doing many of the chores of everyday life.

Members of the Silver&Fit® Healthy Aging and Exercise Program can work on their functional fitness with easy-to-access gym classes or online fitness video classes including Pilates, yoga, strength-training, dance, cardio, and others that teach proper form and technique. Classes often use exercise bands, dumbbells, and fitness balls to further enhance training.

Nearly five million members use the Silver&Fit program to help them stay fit. The Silver&Fit program is one of the nation’s premier healthy aging and exercise programs provided nationwide through Medicare Advantage plans. The program is popular with Medicare beneficiaries because it provides no-cost or subsidized low-cost access to thousands of standard and premium fitness centers, including national name brand chains, YMCAs, and boutique fitness studios. For members who prefer to work out at home, the program provides a wide range of on-demand exercise videos, including cycling, dance, Pilates, cardio, strength, yoga, tai chi, and meditation.

How popular is the Silver&Fit program? According to our latest member survey, members give the program high marks, with a 98% satisfaction rating. And nearly 250 health plans nationwide trust our program to help them enhance overall member health, decrease hospitalizations and costly injuries, and improve health outcomes.

Information about the Silver&Fit program can be found at www.silverandfit.com.