7 Practical Tips to Stay Mobile & Active at Any Age

The last article covered why it’s important to maintain and improve mobility as we age. Today we are building on that article by covering 7 practical tips to help us stay mobile and active as seen in the video 7 Practical Tips to Stay Mobile & Active at Any Age.

Mobility is essential to maintaining our independence with everyday tasks and activities as we age, however it’s not always simple to know how to maintain or improve our mobility as we age. Having an awareness and understanding of what it takes to maintain or improve mobility can help us to take action sooner rather than later.

A reminder that this content is for general educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual physiotherapy assessment, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified health professional for advice specific to your situation.

Tip 1: Identify key modifiable risk factors that are applicable to you and how they may be impacting your mobility. Some of the key risk factors include:

-       Pain

-       Fatigue or tiredness

-       Low physical activity

-       Not walking every day

-       Falls

For example, neck pain may impact turning to check the blind spot while driving; a recent fall may mean less time spent tending to the garden; and fatigue or tiredness may mean less time spent visiting family and friends.

Identifying what might be impacting our mobility is the first step in being able to address these risk factors and improve mobility.

Tip 2: Start your exercise session with rehabilitation or pain management exercises. When putting together an exercise program to address mobility, rehabilitation or pain management type exercises are a simple and effective place to start.

For example, if knee osteoarthritis is impacting the ability to walk each day, quadricep activation exercises can to help strengthen the muscles supporting the knee, which in turn can help to reduce pain when walking.  

To keep it simple, pick out just one or two of these types of exercises. It might be digging up the exercise list from your past Physio visit, or alternatively there are many videos on the channel showing different types of exercises for different conditions.

Tip 3: Include range of motion exercises

Conditions like osteoarthritis, joint replacement, or chronic pain may impact our joint range of motion. Incorporating range of motion exercise into our weekly or fortnightly exercise routine can be beneficial to maintain or improve range of motion. Even if we may never have full range of motion, maintaining the range we do have will help with long term management and means we can move in the most efficient way possible.

This is important because range of motion or joint mobility is needed for good biomechanics or movement efficiency. We can notice the impact when range of motion is limited. For example, if experiencing limited left knee extension then we may compensate during walking with exaggerated hip or ankle movements. This increased strain on these joints from these compensatory movements over time may result in muscle tightness, pain, or fatigue.

When thinking about range of motion exercise, some examples might include,

-       Yoga

-       Pilates

-       Simple mobility exercises for the neck, shoulders, hips, and ankles like we did in the New Year Mobility Reset video.

When completing range of motion exercise, the aim is gentle and controlled movement, not forcing stretches or pushing into pain.

Tip 4: Build Strength

Loss of muscle mass and strength is a key predictor of frailty and loss of mobility as we age. Building strength is one of the most efficient ways to reverse or prevent key risk factors for mobility decline.

Some simple ways to incorporate strength exercise into our routine include:

-       Bodyweight exercises like squats, wall push ups, or lunges

-       Weightlifting like squats, deadlifts, or chest press.

-       Dumbbell or band exercises like we did in the video’s Seated Resistance Band Routine and Simple Dumbell Routine

Strength training can be daunting to start, however I would encourage you to start with a few simple exercises and only progress and build out your program once you have a good routine in place. It is more about the long term impact over years and decades rather than getting it perfect right away.

Tip 5: Train balance

Balance can be tricky because loss of balance more often than not sneaks up on us as opposed to being a sudden noticeable change. This means it can be difficult to identify loss of balance until an event like a near miss fall occurs or we notice changes when getting back to an activity we haven’t done in a while like walking on uneven terrain on a nature walk.

It can also be difficult because if we have noticed a loss of balance it can be scary and impact our confidence. We might feel more cautious or even nervous when doing activities like gardening, walking on uneven surfaces, or dual tasking like carrying a cup of tea while walking.

Incorporating balance exercise into our routine regularly can help prevent balance loss or improve our balance regardless of age. Some examples of exercises that work on balance include:

-       Yoga

-       Dance

-       Specific exercises like tandem or single leg stance 

Tip 6: Pay Attention to Early Warning Signs

As we have touched on mobility changes don’t usually happen overnight. They often show up more quietly. Some early warning signs include:

•          Avoiding stairs

•          Hesitating on uneven ground

•          Feeling less confident getting up from the floor

It is important to remember that these are signals rather than failures. Paying attention to these early and adjusting your exercise routine can help prevent bigger limitations down the track.

Tip 7: Progress gradually over time

Maintaining or improving our mobility as we age is not about having the perfect exercise routine. It is about having a program that can be realistically incorporated into our lives over the long term. It is about building a lifestyle rather than a “have to do” task that sits in the back of our minds.

It is helpful to remember that a successful exercise program follows three key principles:

•          Individualisation, or tailoring a program to suit you and your personal situation. For example, the program should address any pain or condition you have, be achievable within the time you have during this season of life, and suit your fitness level.

•          Progression, or gradually increasing the challenge. This might include increasing the weight on strength exercises over time, increasing walking pace or distance, or progressing to more difficult balance exercises over time.

•          Periodisation, allowing variation and recovery. For example, a “deload” week every 4-6 weeks where the intensity of workouts decreases to allow for recovery and help to prevent injury.

If you are just starting with exercise, I would encourage you to set just one exercise goal to achieve over the next 12 weeks. If you would like further encouragement, in the video New Year Mobility Reset we talked about exactly how to set and achieve your exercise goals this year.     

In summary, this article covered 7 practical tips to stay mobile and active as we age. I hope this information has been helpful. To hear me talk on these tips, the accompanying video can be found on the Age Fit with Tess Youtube channel.

Additionally, if you would like to check if you are on the right track with your exercise plan including physical activity recommendations, the Age Fit with Tess Self-Assessment can be found on the website.

Tess Halbauer

Physiotherapist