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Your Loved Ones Are Using These Tricks To Keep Themselves Sharp

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Keep Your Brain Sharp With These 15 Exercises

As people age, their mental faculties begin to diminish. Assisting Hands Care Services Houston recommends keeping your mind body active to stave off the effects of Alzheimer’s and other dementia disorders. Here is a list of 15 fun activities that they recommend for you to do to keep your mind sharp. You can also visit our short guide on how to keep the body

1. Create A Daily Memory List

Every day make up a list of several things to memorize, and then commit them to memory before the close of the day. Include such things as films you’ve seen, foods you love, and people you’d like to visit.

2. Complete Small Puzzles

Assisting Hands Houston | In Home Elder CareAny brain exercising activity would do, but puzzles, Sudoku, and crosswords are very good for stimulating your thoughts. They help you to develop better mental dexterity and problem-solving skills.

3. Brush Up On A Foreign Language

Learning a new language improves your vocabulary and enhances your problem-solving skills. In many foreign languages, putting a sentence together incorrectly can completely change the meaning of the sentence.

4. Use Your Opposite Hand To Perform Common Tasks

Rather than using your dominant hand to write a letter, for example, do it with your other hand. You’ll have to focus your thoughts more intently on the task at hand. In time you’ll develop the ability to do more routine tasks with your non-dominant hand.

5. Learn To Play An Instrument

Your memory, fine motor skills, and mental dexterity will all benefit from learning to play an instrument.

6. Dig Out Those Coins

Rather than paying with dollar bills, or whipping out your credit card, pay using exact change for your purchase. This forces you to do on-the-spot arithmetic, thereby sharpening your mental dexterity.

7. Have Fun With “5 Things”

This quirky improve game is not only fun, it’s a great way to improve your ability to think on your feet and to become more creative. The object is to create an arbitrary list without taking the time to think about your answer.

8. Memorize A New Recipe

Cooking a new dish from memory is not only impressive, it’s also very satisfying. Memorizing new recipes enhances your problem-solving skills and improves overall brain function.

9. Strike Up A Conversation With A Stranger Every Day

Though it may not be evident at first glance, holding your own in a conversation requires a bit of mental acuity and strategy. It’ll also help you to develop new relationships and expand your social life.

10. Turn The GPS Off

Most of us never want to return to the days before GPS, but turning yours off every so often will help you improve your memorization skills. Study a map, or even plot your route on Google Maps, then mentally navigate to your destination. It’s a great exercise for cognitive health.

11. Find A Mind Training App

The variety of amazing apps designed to exercise the mind is incredible. Search the app store for your device for one, and have fun while improving your cognitive abilities.

12. Solve A Riddle

It takes a huge amount of out-of-the-box thinking to solve most riddles, which promotes mental creativity in a fun way.

13. Examine Magic Eye Paintings

Magic eye paintings force you to focus your attention in order to find hidden abstract objects in the art.

14. Memorize And Share A Joke

Assisting Hands Houston | In Home Elderly CareSharing a new joke with someone you’ve just met is a great way to break the ice. Memorizing a new joke helps to increase your ability to retain information and to recall that same information while under pressure.

15. Physical Exercise

The two may not seem connected, but physical exercise is brain exercise too. Exercise increases your blood flow, providing more of the nutrients and oxygen that your brain needs to function at its best. People experience increased cognitive function and mental acuity following a good workout.

Try out these suggestions for a few weeks, and see how much of a difference it’ll make for your mental health. You don’t have to accept a decline in your mental faculties, you can choose to do something about it.

To learn more about how Assisting Hands Houston can help you and your loved ones, please call us today at 281-540-7400 or you may contact us here!

A Healthy Mind and Body, Is A Healthy Loved One

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The Best Exercise Tips for Seniors Suffering from Limited Mobility and Other Chronic Ailments

A healthy lifestyle begins with a healthy diet and regular exercise. These foundations are important to those who are young as well as those who are older. If you are a senior and use a wheelchair or have chronic medical conditions like osteoporosis or arthritis, you may not realize the importance of a fitness routine or feel like exercising.

Immobility can occur because you have become weaker, deconditioned or less flexible. According to Kyle Larsen, clinic manager and physical therapist of Dallas, Texas’s 3D Physical Therapy, exercise is the antidote to these issues. Their outpatient clinic evaluates, treats and helps patients of all ages who suffer from movement disorders or musculoskeletal problems rehabilitate.

Exercise offers many physical and mental benefits. Doctors and trainers around the world are always using advertisements to explain the numerous benefits that exercise offers. Assisting Hands Houston challenges their residents by offering exercise classes that focus on wellness, balance and walking on a regular basis.

Kyle Larsen helped compile a list of tips and exercises that can help you lead a healthier, happier life.

Put On Your Exercise Clothing

Although this seems silly, take a moment to think. When you stop to decide whether you want to work out or not, you are probably wearing street clothes. If you put on a running shirt and lace up your tennis shoes, your mindset will typically change. Putting on exercise clothing can help inspire you to get up and get moving. Additionally, it has been shown that wearing exercise clothing helps improve the effectiveness of your workout because you will work harder when prepared for exercise.

Warm Ups

No matter your age, it is essential that you stretch before your workout. Warm ups help to improve flexibility and increase blood flow to the muscles which warm them up and prepare them for movement. Additionally, warming up makes it easier to perform routine movements like bending down and retrieving a dropped item off the floor.

Larsen states that as a physical therapist he focuses on flexibility exercises, especially for seniors who use a wheelchair. Stretching throughout the day helps your hips become stronger which can help you to stand upright. When you are stretching, do it slowly and gently. For best results breath throughout the stretch and hold it for 15 to 30 seconds.

Listen to Your Body

Assisting Hands Houston | ExerciseWhen it comes to exercising, it is important to listen to your body. This is especially important for seniors with limited mobility as they can experience a number of mental barriers. One of the biggest concerns elderly patients have is falling. However, as the patients become stronger, more flexible and their balance improves, the risk of a fall decreases.

When a senior begins a fitness routine, they should do so gradually and limit themselves to exercising for 5 to 10 minutes. Stiffness and achiness can occur in the beginning; however, if you experience any pain in the body, stop exercising immediately.

Working Around Problematic Areas

This is similar to the previous fitness tip; however, you can still exercise and avoid the troublesome area. Any exercise that causes a patient to experience pain can be modified. the pain often occurs when tissues are not ready for a particular movement or because the patient’s body mechanics are not right.

Seniors suffering from upper body arthritis can focus on leg exercises if they are experiencing upper body pain or vice versa. If you experience discomfort while exercising your arms, cool down and take some deep breaths.

Exercises for Seniors

Air Punches

This exercise is great for both those who are in a wheelchair and those who are not in a wheelchair. To perform this exercise, clinch your fists and move your arms back and forth like you are punching something. Do 15 punches with one arm and then rest for 30 seconds before doing the air punches using the other arm. You can also maximize the effectiveness of the exercise by using light weights.

Chair Squats

Seniors whose legs have a full range of motion can do chair squats. Squats improve your total body strength in one motion. To help keep you stable, stand behind a dining chair and hold on to it. Make sure your chin is up and your back is straight. Then bend your knees as you squat down as far as possible. Then return to the starting position. Do two sets of 12 repetitions. Inhales as you bend down and exhale as you rise.

Pillow Squeezes

This exercise can be done by anyone. Grab a thick pillow and sit down in a chair. Place the pillow against your chest and wrap your arms around the pillow like you are hugging it. Relax your arms and then repeat. For those who have full leg mobility, place the pillow between the thighs and squeeze your legs together. Do three sets of 15 repetitions.

Front and Lateral Raises

This exercise works the arm and shoulder area. Lightweight hand weights, soup cans or resistance bands can be used. Sit down in an armless and allow your arms to hang at your sides. Lift your arms to your side and form a T. Then, bring your arms to the front of your body before lowering them to the starting position. Do three sets of 10 repetitions.

Chair Yoga

Yoga is a great way to improve cardiovascular health, flexibility and muscle strength. Because yoga uses breathing exercises and meditation, it also offers many mental benefits. A ten-minute session of chair yoga can improve your physical health and your mental well-being.

Before you start any exercise routine, consult your physician to determine if you are healthy enough for exercise.

Assisting Hands Houston provides you and your loved one with the best senior in home care in Houston. It is important for us and for your loved one to maintain a healthy mind and body, and to do so it is imperative they are doing the necessary exercises mentioned above, if advised by their doctor/s. Let us help you determine if your loved one is ready for in home elder care, or any of the listed services that we provide. Currently we are located throughout the city of Houston and have served our city proud for nearly a decade!