Corporate Fitness and Active Aging

As we age, physicians and specialty doctors will talk to you about exercise and eating a well-balanced diet. We sometimes forget that brain health is just as important. Concentration on moving or getting 30 minutes of exercise per day, and strength training 2-3x a week, but is there any emphasis on brain exercises? If so, what does it look like? Are your residents participating in an craft or art? Are they doing word or cross word puzzles, easy math, or reading aloud? Are they resting their mind, or meditating?    

We all fear losing some of our memory and cognitive function.  As we age, it is normal to feel a sense of insecurity when we misplace our phone or keys, or even forgetting a step in a craft that you’ve done for many years. There are a lot of brain health exercises that the residents can participate in, it is just finding the ones they love to do where it is easy, slightly complex, but enjoyable.  

There are many simple activities that we can do to engage our brain. Here are a few easy ways to engage the brain, and possibly decrease risk of memory loss.  An easy way to help brain health is engaging with your neighbor, a friend, or a family member and discussing current life events, attending a church service, or maybe a music/ theater event.  Another simple exercise is handwriting notes or sending handwritten cards. Handwriting engages the brain more than sending a text or an emoji.  

And of course, there are “brain” games that we can play on our phones or iPads.  Look at your phone and check out the word games, or the simple math problems.  Simple math problems can engage the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Doing simple math is an easy way to exercise your mind. Keep in mind, when it becomes too stressful, you need to decrease the complexity of math problems.  Stress is not beneficial for your mind and body.  

Another awesome thing you can do for your brain health is to learn a new craft or perfecting your current craft.  Is there another advance step you can put into your current craft or skill to make it more challenging, such as learning a new stitch or a new painting style? These ideas can give you a sense of control and purpose. Lastly, meditate and rest your mind, if you love sleep, SLEEP, it is good for your body and mind.  

So how are you engaging with the residents in brain health or brain classes? What sorts of activities or classes are you hosting to entice the residents?  

In the realm of healthy aging, one of the critical aspects often overlooked is the neuromotor connection in older adults. As individuals age, the intricate connections between the nervous system and motor functions become increasingly vital for maintaining overall well-being. Understanding and nurturing this connection can contribute significantly to preserving mobility, preventing injuries, and enhancing the quality of life in the later years.

The neuromotor connection refers to the intricate interplay between the nervous system and motor functions, encompassing a complex network of signals that regulate movement, coordination, and balance. In older adults, this connection undergoes natural changes, influenced by factors such as age-related neuronal alterations, decreased muscle mass, and changes in proprioception. The neuromotor systems can effect the human body in many different subsets of health.

The Impact of Aging on Neuromotor Function:

• Neuronal Changes: As individuals age, there is a gradual decline in the number of neurons and synapses, affecting the speed of nerve impulses. This can result in slower reaction times and diminished coordination.
• Muscle Atrophy: Sarcopenia, or age-related muscle loss, is a common phenomenon in older adults. Weakening muscles can lead to decreased strength, making everyday activities more challenging and increasing the risk of falls.
• Proprioceptive Changes: Proprioception, the body's ability to sense its position in space, tends to decline with age. This can impact balance and coordination, making older adults more susceptible to accidents.

Strategies to Enhance the Neuromotor Connection:

• Regular Exercise: Engaging in a well-rounded exercise routine that includes aerobic, strength, flexibility, and balance exercises can help maintain and improve neuromotor function. Activities like walking, resistance training, and yoga have shown benefits.
• Cognitive Training: Incorporating cognitive exercises into a daily routine can stimulate the brain and enhance the connection between the nervous system and motor functions. Activities such as puzzles, memory games, and learning new skills contribute to overall brain health.
• Proper Nutrition: A balanced diet rich in essential nutrients is crucial for maintaining muscle mass and supporting neurological health. Adequate protein intake is particularly important for muscle preservation.
• Regular Health Check-ups: Periodic check-ups with healthcare professionals can help identify and address potential issues early on. This includes assessing factors like vision and hearing and assessing side effects of medication that may impact neuromotor function.

The Role of Technology in Enhancing Neuromotor Function:

Innovations in technology, such as virtual reality and exergaming, offer exciting opportunities to enhance neuromotor connections in older adults. These technologies provide interactive and engaging platforms for physical and cognitive exercises, promoting both mental and physical well-being.

As the global population continues to age, understanding and addressing the nuances of the neuromotor connection in older adults becomes paramount. By adopting a holistic approach that combines physical activity, cognitive stimulation, and proper nutrition, we can unlock the secrets to healthy aging, enabling older individuals to maintain their independence, mobility, and overall quality of life. Embracing these strategies empowers individuals to age gracefully, with vitality and resilience.

THE BRAIN: the most important organ in our body, is often the most forgotten when we think of training. Why does the brain always seem to slip through the cracks? We can’t stop talking about BMI, body fat percentage, heart rate reserve, and all these other buzz words in the fitness industry. Now you’re probably thinking “but isn’t exercise good for the brain?” and you’d be right but there is more to it than that. We aren’t specifically targeting our brain, we’re focused on our muscles, our heart and the brain is just getting a splash of the love it deserves. That’s something I’d like to change! And we can do that in the gym and at home.

Brain health according to the CDC is the ability to perform all mental processes of cognition, including the ability to learn and judge, use language, and remember. How do we go about preventing cognitive loss?

There are several different factors that go into our brain health such as blood flow, age, learning/engagement, inflammation, and sleep.

• Blood flow is how well our blood moves throughout our body, suppling the different muscles and organ with the necessary nutrients and oxygen, as well as clearing away waste. So, if blood flow is restricted to any area (not just our brain) its bad news for us. Several things restrict blood flow in our body, things like caffeine, nicotine, heart disease, obesity, and hypertension to name a few. Regular exercise (30 minutes a day, 3 times a week) will help knock down a number of these risk factors right off the bat. But there’s still more we can do. We can limit our caffeine and nicotine intake; we can change our diet to include more heart healthy foods. Remember it take diet AND exercise to reach our health goals.
• Our brain diminishes as we age, it grows old just like the rest of our body. We all know things don’t work as well when we get older, but that doesn’t mean we just have to accept it. One simple way to combat cognitive impairment as we age is to take a multi-vitamin. A study over a 3-year period, and including 2000 people, found that a daily multi-vitamin showed measurable improvement in cognitive function compared to those who took the placebo.
• When you stop learning, your brain starts dying. Your brain functions on the same principles of atrophy that any other muscle in your body does “If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.” You wouldn’t expect your bench to get better if you never work your chest, would you? Well, your brain works the same way, it just needs slightly different exercises. Activities like reading, doing a jigsaw puzzle, playing chess, learning a new language and knitting/crocheting are all examples of hobbies you can do to stimulate your brain and keep it fresh.
• Inflammation anywhere on our body is a pain, it can cause soreness, swelling and a whole host of other problems. But inflammation in our brain can lead to brain shrinkage, and when it comes to our brain, size matters. This inflammation can also lead to brain fog, memory loss, and mental fatigue because it shuts down energy production in our brain cells. One way to prevent inflammation from becoming a problem in the first place is fish oil (or omega-3 fatty acids). Fish oil is proven to help reduce inflammation in the body as well as the brain along with its heart benefits. Foods and spices like turmeric, garlic, ginger, and leafy green vegetables are also known to help reduce inflammation.
• Lastly the one no one gets enough of, sleep. Like any good exercise program, you can’t ignore the recovery. Its important that after a long stimulating day of work, school or just hanging out we give out brains time to rest and recuperate. If we don’t get enough sleep it can lead to declines in our memory and critical thinking skills. It can also put us at a higher risk of mental illnesses, like depression. We need to make sure we get 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night.

Exercise is very beneficial to both our body and our brain. But it is important to remember that it isn’t the end all, be all of brain health. There’s always more we can do by looking at our diet or just trying to read 30 minutes a day instead of watching tv. So, crack open a book or bust out a puzzle and count that as you work out for the day.

As we age there are many different changes that start to happen to our brain such as shrinkage, vasculature and cognition. With age, the brain shrinks and changes occur at all levels, from chemicals to morphology. Stroke, lesions, and dementia are all more common as people get older, as is memory impairment. Fortunately there are quite a few things we can do to help prevent or slow the process of some of those changes from happening. Regular exercise, a good diet, and low to moderate alcohol consumption, all of which minimize cardiovascular risk, appear to help the aging brain, as does increasing cognitive exertion in the form of schooling, games or meaningful activities. Physical and mental health may be the best defense against the effects of aging on the brain.

When you start to engage in personally meaningful activities whether it be volunteering, exercise, games or hobbies they are known to make you feel healthier and happier. As we age it can be easy to give into that mindset and feeling that we may not be able to do all the same things we used to and leave you feeling discouraged and hopeless. It’s important to remember that really this the perfect time to find new activities and hobbies to try. Learning new skills can improve your thinking ability and memory. Some research on engagement in activities such as music, theater, dance and creative writing has shown promise for improving quality of life and well-being, from better memory and self-esteem to reduced stress and increase social interaction.

Another way to get involved in new activities is to reach out to a friend or neighbor for ideas and for company. Social interactions and social activities are great ways to keep your brain active and engaged with the community around you. Participating in personally meaningful and useful activities with others will leave you happier, and feeling more purposeful. These activities appear to assist and maintain your well-being and may even improve cognitive performance.

Take the time to reach out and spend time with family and friends or donate your time to a local charity or maybe to join a group dedicated to a pastime you enjoy. Join a walking group for senior citizens. Check out what local community organizations have to offer and give them a try. There are more and more groups that meet online, providing a means to interact with others who share your interests or obtain support from the comfort of your own home. Trivia quizzes, sudoku, arts and crafts, word puzzles, learning a new language, starting book club, trying a new workout class are all great ways to keep your mind engaged and busy. Go out of your comfort zone and try something new and take a friend with you.

Other ideas to keep you on your toes:

1. Use your non-dominant hand for everyday tasks ( brushing teeth or eating).
2. Test your memory by creating a list, it could be grocery list or 10 movies you want to watch and then memorize them. See how may you can recall by the end of the day.
3. Jigsaw puzzles are a great brain workout using strategy and problem solving skills.
4. Exercise is a great way to combine physical and mental workouts. They don’t have to get you sweaty you can go walking, take a tai chi or yoga class.
5. Reading is a fantastic brain exercise that stimulates your brain and can slow cognitive decline. Pick up a book from your local library, a magazine at the salon or even read the posters on the walls around you.
   
   

Many seniors fear cognitive decline more than any other disease associated with aging. The good news is that engaging in activities that support brain health and brain function can reduce seniors’ risk for cognitive decline and dementia. In fact, training your brain is kind of like training your body with regular exercise, and it can really complement your fitness programs with proper planning. Not sure where to start? Here are five steps to create a focus on brain training in your senior living  community.

• Do your homework – Learn as much as you can about cognitive health, dementia, and brain training. The Alzheimers Association website is a great resource, and a quick search on the AARP website yields lots of great information on brain health for seniors. There are also many wonderful books on these topics, such as Spark! by John Ratey. This book really does a good job of connecting the dots between exercise, physical health, and cognitive health.
• Involve the residents – Share the things that you’re learning with residents as you learn them. This can be as simple as teaching a quick fact about the brain at the beginning of exercise classes. Use this opportunity to let the residents know that you’re starting to look into bolstering your cognitive health programming in your community. Ask for their input early to help with your program design. Ask what they already do to train their brains, what kinds of mentally engaging things they enjoy doing, and what topics they would like to learn more about or take a class on.
• Evaluate your programs and make a plan – Take a look at the current activities that you offer in your community. Do you have many mentally challenging, educational, and social opportunities on your calendar? Are there ways you can enhance your current offerings to make them more engaging? Do you have opportunities for individual brain training (i.e. using the Dakim) as well as brain training in a group setting (i.e. brain fitness class)? Determine activities you can enhance or add to your calendar, and make a plan for these changes utilizing resident input from Step two. Also, brainstorm ways that you can include brain training in your group exercise classes. For example, during cardiovascular exercise, you could assign numbers to five different exercises, and cue the exercises using their assigned numbers instead of the exercise names. Then mix it up!
• Provide education – Hold lectures to educate residents on how the brain works and what they can do to strengthen their brains and reduce their risk for cognitive decline. Be sure to point out all the ways they can participate in brain training activities at your community and let them know what new activities and enhancements are coming their way. You might also want to hold a lecture on memory strategies (or just teach one strategy at a time at the end of your exercise classes). Don’t forget to promote your fitness programs as one of the easiest ways to get started with brain training!
• Launch your program – Launch your program soon after you hold the educational lectures – consider using a brain health fair or other fun activity to get started. Begin holding your newly planned activities and enhancements on a regular basis and make sure they stand out on your calendar. Then, use a fun challenge that includes incentives for participating in mentally engaging activities and exercise to tie it all together. Once the challenge ends, celebrate residents’ success and communicate with the residents that the new opportunities for brain training will continue even though the challenge has ended.

Editor's note:  Rachel did a fantastic job launching a "Mental Muscle" initiative for the residents in her community.  Download the impact report from the program to get a snapshot of how well the residents received the offering and how wellness program participation was affected.

Get in touch with us to find out more about how NIFS can support brain training and other programming for your residents.