Active Ageing in NK Active.
What do we mean when we talk about “Active Ageing“? Or how staying active as you get older can be a really good thing for you and your body?
NK Active Podiatrist Charlie, shared this blog in our latest clinic newsletter and it highlights some important factors around ageing and staying active as you get older.
Ageing and your muscle tissue.
Ageing is a set of changes that occur over time and can be a potential factor in increasing our susceptibility to disease.
Ageing has been associated with a loss of muscle tissue (mass); this is sometimes called sarcopenia. The decrease of muscle tissue begins around 50 years of age and reduced muscle tissue related to age can directly affect how muscles function and the way that you move.
Consequently, this can lead to reduced strength and power thus making activities like standing up from a chair or going up and down stairs more difficult to do.
Reduced muscle tissue can also affect your balance and your walking speed and for some individuals this can put them at risk of falling. People who have long-term conditions such as diabetes, dementia, cardiovascular or respiratory diseases are more likely to have some reduced mobility.
Muscle tissue and lockdown.
It is also possible that reduced muscle tissue has occurred because of deconditioning as during lockdown, many of us had to change our routines and activity levels. For some of us this might have meant we ended up reducing our activity, for example, having shopping delivered instead of walking round the shops, shielding instead of taking a daily walk with friends.
Staying active.
One way to manage sarcopenia is through exercise, using resistance bands and weights, to improve muscle strength and stamina. In addition to activities to improve your balance and confidence.
At NK Active, we have developed an Active Ageing service to support individuals to rebuild their strength (muscle tissue) as well as confidence to undertake resistance exercise (using weight) to improve their walking and get the back to the activities they enjoyed doing.
Active Ageing Service in NK Active.
Our Active Ageing service invites you to come meet the team and at this appointment we want to get to know you, learn about your medical history and your goals.
We will assess your strength and mobility through a series of tests too and we will explain our findings and work with you to develop a plan to support you.
For some individuals, an exercise programme will be needed and this involves 4 x 45-minute appointments over 12 weeks to teach and guide you through the exercises.
The final appointment will be 60 minutes, where we will reassess your strength and mobility as this is great way to show you the improvements you have made!
If you wish to find out further details about this service, please contact the NK Active team on 01794 840155.