Why Is Physical Therapy at Home So Important for Your Senior?
If your elderly family member has injured herself or is recovering from an illness of some type, you might have discovered that she’s not as strong as either of you thought she was. This can lead to a much longer recovery time, and it can seriously impact your senior’s view of her current situation. She may isolate herself and even become depressed because recovery is more difficult. Having access to physical therapy through home health care at home can help her to overcome all of that.
Home Health Care in Northfield IL: Physical Therapy at Home
Strength Training Is Crucial for Seniors
Strength training is important for people of any age because it helps to build and to maintain muscles. Seniors who don’t have the muscle strength to walk or to perform regular daily activities can find themselves frustrated. But the bigger problem is that injury becomes far more likely, including from a fall. If your elderly family member is already injured, reduced muscle tone can mean that she has a much harder time recovering.
Why Do Seniors Avoid Strength Training?
But why would your elderly family member allow her muscles to get weaker? It’s not always a conscious choice but reducing activity levels in general often comes from fear. Your elderly family member may worry that exercising is too difficult for her or that it won’t do any good. She could also experience pain and not know how to move her body in a way that helps her to maintain muscle strength without making the pain worse.
Muscle Loss Can Be Slowed
The easiest way to slow muscle loss is to move them regularly, which is also called working out. For your senior, that doesn’t have to mean deadlifting hundreds of pounds. It can be as simple as using small weights or even just resistance bands to work her muscles. Walking more can also help to slow muscle loss.
How Physical Therapy at Home Helps
Physical therapy at home can make all of this so much safer and easier for your elderly family member. Physical therapists help your senior to start where she is and to move in ways that are easy for her at first. As she becomes stronger, the movements and the exercises can become more complicated. That helps her to continue building strength over time.
Home Health Care Prevents Future Injuries
Physical therapy is something that home health care can line up for your senior after an injury or illness. Working with home health care to cover all of the bases for your senior’s recovery can help her to avoid future injuries. That’s key because the more injuries she sustains, the more difficult it may be for your senior to recover from them afterward. Improving functionality is a key goal for home health services.
Improving your senior’s physical strength can have big benefits for her besides the physical ones. She can feel more confident in her abilities and in performing the daily activities involved in going through each day. All of this helps your senior to improve her mental and emotional well-being.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Home Health Care in Northfield, IL, call the caring staff at LifeCare Home Health & In-Home Services. Call (888) 606-4199 LifeCare serves all of the Chicago Metro Area.
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