Have you ever wondered how residents in senior living communities remain active? All too often people correlate aging with reclining in a chair, playing Bingo, and knitting. While these activities all have their time and place, the residents at Arbor Terrace Citrus Park have a desire to remain active, fit, and healthy!
It’s our goal to meet these needs through tailored programs designed with seniors in mind. Through our partnership with fitness training company, AAAI/ISMA Fitness, our team received the training needed to lead classes that focus on seniors’ overall health and wellness.Through this focus on active aging, we’re seeing incredible results both physically and mentally, and we can’t wait to share more about how health and fitness at Arbor Terrace Citrus Park is changing the game in aging.
What Is Active Aging?
Promoting active aging means saying goodbye to the old stereotypes of aging and saying hello to a new way of thinking—and moving! Many times we associate fitness programs with cardio, but through this specially designed program at our senior living community, we incorporate a comprehensive engagement schedule that covers everything from cardio to the importance of hydration. With this, we promote the seven dimensions of wellness, which include: physical, social, spiritual, intellectual, emotional, vocational, and environmental wellness.
Assisted Living and Independent Living Fitness Classes
Through our active-aging fitness program, we offer many ways to brighten our residents’ days through a variety of group and personalized fitness activities. Overall, the goal is to get them moving their feet and having fun. Activities such as Tai chi, yoga, deep breathing, balance, dancing, wellness talks, and education on staying hydrated and eating a healthy diet make up our programming. And the response? It has been amazing! Residents express such joy and appreciation for opportunities to stay fit. They share smiles across the room, strike up conversations with other residents in class, and find more meaning and purpose throughout their day.
We also offer classes over Zoom, which allows us to add in even more variety. For instance, a virtual meditation class brings solace and mental health to the forefront and lets residents participate together with an instructor from a different Abor community.
Benefits of Active Aging
Classes and activities such as flexibility, strength training, balance, and more bring great benefits. Not only are we receiving positive reviews from residents taking the classes, but we’re seeing the physical and mental benefits as well. These tailor-made classes have shown improvement in the confidence and happiness of our assisted living and independent living residents. When they see how far they’ve come in their health journeys, they can’t help but be proud of their accomplishments.
Specifically, residents show improvement in activities like the “sit and reach” which works on flexibility, and we’ve seen active aging help to lower blood pressure, weight loss, and the improved mobility to walk up stairs. All of this helps to lower the risk of falls and bring more stability to our residents.
Aging has a new look at Arbor Terrace Citrus Park—one of happiness, movement, and progress. We couldn’t be happier with this senior-friendly fitness programming and all the benefits it brings to our residents. To learn more about our vibrant community, schedule a tour today!
