Physical activity – it’s never too late!
At Drymmau Hall, we believe that it’s never too late to start anything, and whatever age our residents might be, we try to encourage and maintain personal growth. And that includes physical growth and regeneration, too!
As we age (even from our thirties) we lose muscle mass and body strength which lead to weakness and frailty and often problems with balance and mobility. This exposes us to the risk of falls and a whole lot of other challenges including: joint and back pain, Type 2 Diabetes, Cardiovascular disease, cancers of the colon and breast and of course, depression.
At Drymmau we aim for our residents to be the best versions of themselves possible and stress the importance of physical activity of those older adults in our care. All the research evidence proves that physical activity can have all-round positives including:
Health benefits
Sleep improvement
Healthy weight maintenance
Stress and depression management
Improvement in quality of life
Critically, in older adults it reduces the chance of frailty and falls and improves balance. At Drymmau Hall we’re not in training for the Olympics but know that some exercise is good and more is better, and that every minute counts. Therefore, it’s a staple in our daily menu of activities run by our in-house activities’ coordinator, Leila.
Leila often works on a one-to-one basis in our communal space with an individual resident, on a personalised plan of exercises, which include chair exercises. It was while she was engaged in such a session with ‘K’, one of our people, that another of our newer residents, ‘M’, wanted to join in. This is ‘M’s’ story:
‘M’ has been with us at Drymmau Hall for a couple of months for respite following a period of acute illness in hospital. ‘M’ is eighty-eight and as well as being physically debilitated, he was suffering from depression after the loss of his wife. Once a Supervisor in the Ambulance Service with an outgoing personality and authority, ‘M’ readily admits that he was ‘in limbo’ and unable to make a decision as to whether he should make Drymmau Hall his permanent Home to cater for his needs going forward. Even having respite with us was such a huge transition in his life and ‘M’ would spend long periods in his room, finding it hard to accept the challenges he now faced in life and felt very discouraged.
And that’s when he saw ‘K’ (who was facing similar challenges to ‘M’) working on chair exercises with Leila.
He joined in setting about doing things in a gentle and gradual way as appropriate to his needs e.g. leg lifts, arm circles, knee extensions and marching in place. Of course, the physical movement was the first for a long while, but it set something off in ‘M’ – especially as he was doing it with other people and chatting as he did it.
Today, there is a massive improvement in ‘M’ and he is feeling far more settled and focused on his decision-making as to whether to stay with us long term. He is far more relaxed and comes out of his room, for the exercise and for the conversation. He is stronger both in body and in mind and positivity. He’s such a lovely man to have with us here at Drymmau Hall!
He will readily admit to being able to “use his legs” and the communal exercise done to music is making him “feel better and sleep better.”
‘M’ is just one of many of our residents for whom physical exercise is making a huge difference. Moreover, ‘M’ is proof that it’s never too late to make a start.
We’d like to thank Leila for the invaluable work she does on our residents’ individual physical activity plans and for the physical and mental wellbeing benefits she is helping to bring about.
“I feel so good after exercising – they really benefit me. I wish I could do them every day.“
‘M’, Resident, Drymmau Hall Care Home