Jamie Miner – Strength Training and Exercise Prescription for Older Adults: Successfully Manage Orthopedic & Chronic Diseases

Jamie Miner – Strength Training and Exercise Prescription for Older Adults: Successfully Manage Orthopedic & Chronic Diseases

• Customized strength training exercises – with modifications
• Age-related assessments for your tool kit
• Key safety considerations for older adult exercise programming
• Effective muscle strengthening to improve function and endurance
• Tips to motivate patients – and keep them active!

For many of the older adults you see in your practice, growing older seems to involve an inevitable loss of strength, energy, and vitality. You feel helpless and frustrated as you watch your older patients suffer from a loss of muscle mass and subsequent weakness, knowing these things predispose them to increased risk for injury. You want to see your patients increase their functional capacity, maintain their independence, and decrease their co-morbidities. But what can you do in therapy to help your patients help themselves live a better, more independent life? Get them on a strength training routine! Strength training for this population has been proven to improve muscle strength and coordination, helping to maintain functional capacity and independence. By including the appropriate strength training programs in your therapy plan, you can reverse and prevent decreases in strength and energy your patients are experiencing.

Jamie Miner, PT, DPT, GCS, has implemented strength training for older adults into her practice, and wants to share her strategies and outcomes with you. Through case studies and hands-on activities, you will learn strategies to easily design safe and effective strength programs for every adult, even those with orthopedic and metabolic diseases. Get the information you need to help the most challenging patients – those patients with co-morbidities – successfully reach new levels of strength and vitality. Reduce the symptoms of metabolic diseases and arthritis in your patients through strength training, and keep your patients in their homes!

OUTLINE

The Latest Trends in Strength Training in Older Adults

• Changes that occur with aging
• Strength training’s impact on function improvement
• Techniques to measure deconditioning level and muscle weakness
• Evidence-based supportive research for strength training

The Musculoskeletal System: Incorporate Physiology into a Balanced Exercise Plan

• How to develop strength
• How to develop power
• How to develop aerobic/anaerobic metabolism

Establish a Starting Point through Age-Related Assessments

• Posture
• Balance
• Strength
• Cardiovascular
• Range of motion
• Functional assessment

Customized Strength Training Exercises & Modifications Based on Diagnosis

• Frailty
• Elevated fall risk
• Chair-bound adults
• Orthopedic conditions: Arthritis, joint replacements, low back pain and spine care
• Cardiovascular disease, obesity & diabetes

Safety Considerations for Exercise Programing in an Older Adult

• Considerations for co-morbidities & chronic conditions
• Modify activities to overcome limitations such as:
  • Inability to tolerate hot and cold environments
  • Overreaction to external stimuli
  • Balance
• Impaired neuromuscular control & gait
• Considerations for an increased injury risk
• Recovery time considerations
• Impact of medication on exercise

Unique Considerations when Prescribing Exercise in Adults

• Volume
• Intensity
• Duration
• Frequency
• Sequencing exercise

Tips to Motivate Patients – and Keep them Active

• Overcoming mental & emotional barriers to exercise
• Implementing exercise into daily life
• Low-cost exercise solutions
• Nutritional considerations

OBJECTIVES

1. Evaluate when weakness, deconditioning, poor posture, faulty movement habits, and poor core stability may be a problem.
2. Design effective interventions for functional strength and balance within the current limitations of each injury or chronic disease.
3. Adapt traditional exercises for those with orthopedic limitations due to injury or disease.
4. Apply strength training principles to enhance patient outcomes.
5. Construct effective programs for the most common injuries we see combined with the most common “lifestyle” conditions that accompany them.
6. Compare the risks vs. benefits of specific exercises to guide decision-making for patients.