Nothing destroys as much as long physical inactivity –Aristotle
Photo by Ulrich Derboven on Unsplash
I walked into the senior living center to teach my mobility class and one of my participants, who is in her 90s, was calling me over to her. She told me she fell in her room the night before. She didn’t hurt anything but she wanted to play it safe and not do any exercise.
This is something I hear many times with older adults who feel it’s safer not to move than to move. It’s a fallacy. Rarely is it better to be sedentary than it is to be moving. Movements may need to be limited in the case of an injury or post-surgery but that should be temporary and if there are other body parts that can be moved pain-free then those should be moving.
Avoiding movement for fear of getting injured is actually more dangerous to our health. Aging presents a decline in the function and efficiency of the heart, lungs, and musculoskeletal system and when that is coupled with inactivity it accelerates the aging process. If an older adult is looking for an excuse to be inactive they are putting their health at risk.
There will always be risks with exercise but the cost of inactivity is far greater than the risk of movement. Movement can be scary coming back from a fall, an injury, or post-surgery but it is our responsibility to learn how we can move our bodies in a way that is safe. This is what it means to own our health.
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