Episode S5E8: Physical Therapists Discuss Staying Active as We Age

Two physical therapists talk about staying active as we age.  Vicki Habecker interviews Judy Hendry about ideas to keep our bodies in the best physical shape that our limitations will allow.  Listen and learn some practical advice from two PT's.

Judy emphasizes maintaining daily activities, social engagement, and exercise to prevent decline. She advises against over-assistance from family, suggesting older adults continue their usual routines. For those with orthopedic issues, she recommends range-of-motion exercises and walking with aids if necessary. For non-ambulatory individuals, she suggests upper body and core exercises. Judy also highlights the benefits of having a buddy for accountability and the positive impact of music on dementia patients. She advocates for morning exercise routines for better consistency.

Transcript

Unknown: 0:02

ANNOUNCER today on the finishing well. Podcast, keep moving. Do as many things as you can for yourself, as long as you can do them. And if you have a loved one or somebody that's having these type of issues, have them do as much for themselves as they can. Welcome to the finishing well podcast where we encourage believers of every age to find meaningful ways to impact their world for the kingdom of God. Our mission is to prepare and encourage every person to live well and to finish well. We pray this podcast will be a source of strength and encouragement as we seek to glorify Christ as we engage him in our aging years. Now here's your host for finishing well. Hal habecker,

Hal Habecker: 0:46

welcome finishing well. Podcast listeners, this is Hal and glad to welcome you, but I want to introduce you to my wife, who you've heard many times before. Vicki, welcome. And why don't you introduce your friend and have a fun time in this interview.

Vicki Habecker: 1:03

Thank you, babe. I am so excited to have my good friend Judy Hendry, here with me today. She and I are both physical therapists. I'm retired. She's still working like crazy, but she and I want to talk to our listeners about staying active as we age. What are the things we need to do? Avoid how we listen to our bodies. We're going to get into all kinds of stuff. So gotten your seat belts. Here we go. First of all, Judy, why did you want to become a physical therapist?

Unknown: 1:37

Well, it was really a second career for me. I grew up in a family where I was the second generation of kids, and our family was mostly geriatric, and I grew up around that, so that was normal to me. I had a funny family. Can do family, active family, and had a grandfather that had Lou Gehrig's disease, an aunt that we took care of with cancer, and my dad had multiple strokes when I was very young. Well, so yeah, that's at 30. I said, What have I always wanted to do? Yes, physical therapy,

Vicki Habecker: 2:13

because that's what you were doing, right and not getting paid for it back then, right? Well, I have a, not a similar story, but I knew that I wanted to do something in medicine when I was in high school and our next door neighbors growing up, they had a severely handicapped son, and I watched the physical therapist come to their house two and three times a week and got That young man walking and living a completely value, valued life. And I thought I want to do that. So now you have mainly worked with older adults in your career. I mean, I did, I did a little bit everything. I didn't enjoy working with kids, but I enjoyed working with athletes, sports medicine and then geriatrics too. So that your career has primarily focused on older adults, right?

Unknown: 3:05

Older adults, geriatrics, and also, in the last five or 10 years, a special needs adults. I

Vicki Habecker: 3:14

didn't know that. That's awesome. Well, here's what I want to do, what I would like to what's the phrase everybody says, I'd like to unpack this. How can older adults stay physically active? We know from Scripture that our outer bodies are decaying, but we're being renewed in our spirits day by day because of our faith in Christ. But let me ask you, okay, I'm going to divide this into four sections, if that's okay. Sure, if an older adult has no health issues, what do you recommend that they do to stay active and to keep their body moving?

Unknown: 3:57

Number one, when older people get up there, their families kind of step in and try to take over their activities of daily living for them, like taking out the garbage and sending people in to help them, or somebody else mowing the lawn for them, if they're willing and able. I believe that the longer you keep someone doing what they've always done in their same environment, that's how you keep them active. Sometimes families want them to move to a smaller place, or to an independent living facility or an assisted living but as long as you can keep them in their own house that they know and know what to expect and know what to do, that would be my recommendation. You

Vicki Habecker: 4:47

know our daughter, one of our daughters, is an emergency room nurse at downtown Baylor. She said their biggest injury with older adults is these older people decide to take up pickleball. Okay? I think, Well, I used to play tennis, and this isn't as stressful. But she said, You wouldn't believe what we see coming through the ER. And we just asked, Why did you start that? And they said, Well, I wanted to stay active and try something new. And my daughter's like, go home and go to bed. I say, go for it. Yeah. Okay. So if you don't have any health issues that keep you from doing your normal activities of daily living, you say, go for it, walking,

Unknown: 5:30

walking, shopping, mowing the lawn, going out to dinner with friends, the more you hang out with other people, go to church, be in a life group, be in a small group, be in a Bible study. The more you hang out with other people, the longer you seem to live. I have a patient right now who's 106 years old. Well, she lives in an independent living facility here in Dallas, and she actually walks with her walker in her home, and she walks in therapy outside of her home. But when I'm not there, she gets in her power chair and uses that to maneuver around the facility. But every day, she goes to eat with somebody, and she'll invite somebody different in that facility to eat with her. That's awesome. Yes, awesome. Yeah, it's great. She plays poker, she plays bingo, she goes to all the book reviews, and

Vicki Habecker: 6:34

so she's keeping her mind active as well as her

Unknown: 6:38

body. Yes, she also does crossword puzzles every morning.

Vicki Habecker: 6:45

I do that because my mother had dementia, and I thought I'm gonna get up before I read my Bible, I do the Sudoku. Or is that what it's called? Okay? Now, for a patient, or for an older adult who maybe has some orthopedic issues, they've had a total knee, they've had a total hip, they arthritis, they just hurt. How do you encourage someone like that to stay physically active

Unknown: 7:13

with somebody who has arthritis? The main problem is that they slow down and stop moving, and the best thing that you can do is keep moving, lots of range of motion exercises, lots of walking. If it hurts too much to walk without a cane or a walker, then add that to it. Take some of the pressure off of your off of your knees. But I say don't sit. Don't sit and wait, you know, for it to get better, because it's not going to get better. Just keep trying to do what you've always done is for as long as you can. So

Vicki Habecker: 7:47

if they have lower extremity issues, how do you encourage them to at least keep their upper body and their arms go and do they do exercises in a chair? What would you recommend?

Unknown: 8:00

Well, a lot of the living facilities that they move to, they have exercise classes that are chair exercises. They also have standing ones. They have to be able to stand in order to live by themselves. They have to be able to at least stand and get themselves to the bathroom, onto the toilet, to live there alone. So keep doing that. You can do standing balance exercises. You can do upper extremity activity with little dumbbells in standing and that works just not only your heart, but your upper extremity strength to be able to push yourself up when you have knee issues or hip issues, and then also your balance for when you're, say, managing your clothing, when you're pulling them down or up, or trying to do cooking or washing dishes, that kind of thing, you need your balance. From

Vicki Habecker: 8:50

my years as a PT, I thought balance is the key to everything. I wanted all my patients to just stand on one foot to brush their teeth. There's lots of little bitty things that we could do to maintain those proprioceptive

Unknown: 9:06

the most important muscles to keep strong. Number one is your is your trunk. So anything you can do sitting in a chair like sit on the edge of the chair and do a little sit up with your hands crossed, you know, across your body. So we call those sitting crunches. The other thing you can do is sitting at the edge of the chair. You can lift both knees to your chest. That keeps your trunk strong. So you the trunk is the number one problem with balance, like, if somebody shoves you in a in a store by accident, your trunk is the first muscle that's going to kick in. Number two is going to be the front and back of your hips. So you can combat that problem by doing those bilateral knee raises to your chest.

Vicki Habecker: 9:55

Now what about like I've had foot surgery on my right foot. I don't have. Of unequal I feel like balance wise, if I'm standing on my unoperated side, I'm good, but I don't quite have what I used to have on my operated foot. Is that normal?

Unknown: 10:14

Yes, probably you're weaker. I would say number three is your ankles. So if you're just even sitting there watching TV or sitting in a chair, you just want to keep tapping your toes up and down the whole time pumps. And then when you're standing, you can grab a table or your your kitchen counter or your bathroom counter and just go up on your toes, up on your

Vicki Habecker: 10:38

toes. So there's nothing new under the sun. It's what we know to do. It's whether we do it or not. How do we listen to our own bodies? Is what I'm wondering if, if I need to slow down on a certain thing, like with walking, I don't walk. I used to run. Don't do that anymore. But even with walking, I've noticed that I'm getting slower because I'm a little cautious. Is that typical that we're afraid we're going to fall and so we I don't know.

Unknown: 11:11

Yeah, typically, if your your balance is compromised and you're weaker, you'll try to take shorter steps to compensate, or you'll walk slower. But when you take shorter steps, your center of gravity, which is you know, somewhere up in your upper trunk, is going to if you if you lose your balance, you're going to fall forward. So taking smaller steps actually makes it worse. If you slow down your gait, if you slow down you're walking. You're on one leg longer than the other leg, which is going to make your balance worse also. So if you remember when your kids were little, or you see babies or toddlers walking, they walk fast. They almost run because they don't want to be on one leg longer than the other. So the things that you do to compensate because you're weak and your balance is a problem actually makes it worse. So doing those exercises, those strengthening exercises I'm talking about, will definitely help. And then try and keep practicing walking with bigger steps faster.

Vicki Habecker: 12:22

My son and I try to walk in the mornings, two, maybe three miles. And about three weeks ago or so, I noticed that I thought, of course, uneven, you know, ground, sidewalk. So I caught myself looking down at which made me stoop forward a little bit, and I caught a toe on something, and Jonathan said, whoop, she's going down. She goes. Mom tried to land in the grass instead of the sidewalk. But no, of course, I face planted on the sidewalk, but it was because I was fearful, and I thought I was being careful about looking down, but it was actually sitting my upper body forward. Was just that was the beginning of it.

Unknown: 13:05

That's another area where people compensate. So it's real hard to change that if you're not doing your strengthening exercises that you that you really need to be doing, and if you're slowing down not walking a lot

Vicki Habecker: 13:17

now, listeners are y'all under conviction, like I am. Listen to Judy. How do you listen to your body? I mean, we could all say, Oh, I just don't I don't feel like it today, or, Oh, my knee hurts a little bit that didn't hurt yesterday. Maybe I should back off. How do we listen to our body, and how do we know what's legitimate to address or pop to Advil?

Unknown: 13:46

That's a good question, because I'm pushing 60 now. Oh, I pushed that way away, but I still do camp Gladiator, and I still go to the gym twice a week with a patient. So, you know, I have a lot of I have hip issues. I have, I have issues, believe me. So, you know, some of the things that I used to be able to do, no problem. I know it throws my back out, or that's a big problem for me. So I modify my exercises. So if it's something like where I'm supposed to jump down on the floor, I might use the side of the chair and do it just from, you know, the side of the chair, or I don't jump as high or use lighter weights, or, you know, I know what's going to throw my back out. So

Vicki Habecker: 14:32

you and your husband ride bicycles, don't you? We do, we do.

Unknown: 14:36

But you know, that doesn't hurt as much as doing weights and acting like a nut, doing Gladiator. Yeah, so you just, I mean, if it's if it's a problem where you can't sleep, I get, you know, where I'm having pain when I turn over or when I'm asleep, I know I have to slow down. And a couple weeks ago, I just cold turkey, stopped for a whole week because I was hurting so bad. But I. I would say, if you just don't feel like it, that's not really a good excuse, because that that becomes a habit. What

Vicki Habecker: 15:06

was it Monday of this week that it was so cold in the morning, and say, I walk outside with my son and I thought, Oh, I'm not going out when it's 39 degrees. And that can get to be a habit.

Unknown: 15:17

Yeah, I love it cold, but I hate it hot, so I'm cranking down the AC or opening the windows in the winter in order to be able to get through a workout.

Vicki Habecker: 15:27

Tell me about Silver Sneakers. What is that? And do all workout facilities offer that? Or what are your thoughts on that? I'm just thinking about some of our older adults that maybe can't afford a gym membership, or can't afford to go to CrossFit or something like that. What is Silver Sneakers?

Unknown: 15:48

I came across that about 15 or so years ago, maybe even 20, at Richland College, and there was a program there, and I believe it was offered for free. I think some of the insurance companies. I think it's free, if you go through your insurance company. But there was a lady there that was 100 years old working out two or three times a week named happy heart. Yeah, that was her name, and she was just awesome. So I think, you know, I haven't, I haven't seen a lot of it lately, because I see a lot of people in the home. But I believe that is something that I know the Richton college, so probably other colleges.

Vicki Habecker: 16:29

And I think some of the I don't know 24 hour fitness or planet fit. I don't know if some of those used to offer it. I don't know if they still do. I didn't know if you knew

Unknown: 16:37

or go to retrofit. And I believe that one of my patients, that's something that that gets him into the gym free. So yeah,

Vicki Habecker: 16:45

what about pool therapy? Getting in the swimming pool?

Unknown: 16:50

Well, it's one of the best exercises you can do that's non weight bearing and with the resistance of the water. So a lot of these facilities, independent living facilities and assisted living facilities have pools. Some are indoors, some are out, and I believe that there are some hospital associated pools that have programs also. But yeah, it's wonderful.

Vicki Habecker: 17:12

Or if people are looking to join a gym, that'd be something to look and say, do they offer that? Yes, yes. Okay, so we talked about if how to stay active if you don't have any medical issues and you're just kind of getting older, might be slowing down a little bit, and then how to if you do have some significant, say, orthopedic issues, what about the person who's non ambulatory, who's not walking anymore, mainly core and upper body, things to work with,

Unknown: 17:41

yes, upper body that keeps your heart strong, core strengthening, you know, the sit ups in. You know, sit to stand, sit to stand, sit to stand, sit to stand without your hands. Those are the three exercises that, if I say you don't do anything else, do those things, but if you're confined to a wheelchair. Guess what? There's a lot of people that are paraplegics, quadriplegics, that have some motion in their upper body, but there's a chair exercises you can do push ups in your wheelchair. You can wheel yourself with your legs or even with your arms. That's a good cardio. You know, wheel you're wheeling yourself. And if you can get on carpet or something, it's even better. But you can just use your legs to wheel yourself around, for that strengthening that you need, for standing, to get you know, from one place to another.

Vicki Habecker: 18:32

What about older adults who are now using a walker? I see so many that are on these, what they call them rollators, rollators. And then some that are on just a regular Walker with a tennis ball in the front. And do you have any thoughts on, what if someone is at the point where they need to use a walker? Do you have any suggestions?

Unknown: 18:56

That's a tricky question, because if your balance is not very, very good, but you don't have any orthopedic issues. I wouldn't recommend that you get on a walker, because the more you use a walker, the weaker your trunk becomes. And typically, when people get using a walker, they're leaning on it too much, and then they have back issues

Vicki Habecker: 19:17

and leaning forward, which once again, gets that momentum going right.

Unknown: 19:21

So if you don't have any orthopedic issues in your in your legs, I would say, don't get on. When I say, work out, get a therapist. You know, a lot of insurance companies will allow you to have home health for free. It's paid for by Medicare Part A 100% but if you are having knee or hip issues, and you need a walker. You really don't want to be leaning on it, but just know that when you get on that Walker, you're going to get weaker, yeah.

Vicki Habecker: 19:51

Okay, the last category, or group of older adults, what about those that have dementia? Yeah, and they might not understand how to keep up an exercise program, or the family needs to help them. Do you treat many dementia

Unknown: 20:11

patients? Yes, I do. And what do you do with them? Well, the most important thing you can do with them is keep them walking. Okay, keep them walking independently without an assistive device, because if you try to put them on a walker, they're not, first of all, they're not going to remember to use it. So if you put them on a walker and you're not there, they're probably not going to use it. They're going to fall because they're getting weaker. So I say do those exercises. When my mom was having issues, I would take her out on as many outings as I could take her. Now, if they have Alzheimer's, and you take them out of their environment, they get more combative and disoriented, but if you can take them outside, into the yard, move them around, and make them do as many things as they can for themselves. Don't automatically take over what they need to be doing for themselves during the day,

Vicki Habecker: 21:10

which is what our tendency is to help those my mother had dementia, and my tendency was to, I've got to do this for her.

Unknown: 21:19

I remember your mom, I remember your dad, yeah, and we walked her a lot. I remember, but yeah, I think families think that they're doing their their loved one a favor, and caring for them well, when they do things for them, but it's actually the opposite. The more they can continue to do for themselves, the more independent they'll be for longer.

Vicki Habecker: 21:39

What about having a buddy or a friend that you walk with or that you exercise with? I think there's something to be said about having somebody else to hold you accountable to to make it a social event as well as an exercise event. Do you see that a lot with the older people that they have a buddy or a pal, just just encourage them.

Unknown: 22:03

I'm gonna give you accolades for bringing that up, because you didn't know this. But in my undergraduate degree is in psychology. So I took a behavioral psychology class, and I had to do an independent study with myself and my my study and my paper was on how to increase exercise frequency and consistency using behavioral therapy techniques. And the three things that worked that motivated people to do it was, number one, have a buddy. Yes, just like you said, an accountability partner, so that when you say, I don't feel like it's a day, your buddy goes, come on. You can do it, you can do it. And the number two was to do it at the same time every day, or make an appointment, treat it as an appointment. I like that. And then the other thing was to make sure you have those clothes ready in the car. So, so yes, having an accountability partner is is awesome. And in some of the facilities that I go to, they do, they work out together, and they walk together, especially if one has a little bit more balance issues or physical issues, usually they have a friend there that will go with them or walk with them or hang with them. So

Vicki Habecker: 23:20

and you know, God intended for us to be in community with other believers. It's true. Well, I think that. Well, finish this up. Tell us what we should do as we get older. Since you're just a young buck, yeah, keep moving.

Unknown: 23:35

Keep moving. Do as many things as you can for yourself, as long as you can do them, and if you have a loved one or somebody that's having these type of issues, have them do as much for themselves as they can be with other people. I mean, that's the way to to shine your light for other people. Because some people, they get into these facilities and they get sad, you know, they've lost their home, they've lost their husband, they've lost all their belongings. They had to cram all of their five bedroom house into, you know, a small apartment. So they move into these facilities, and they're sad. So be the person who invites that person to eat with you. You know, always look for ways that you can be a friend to somebody, because that's how people spur one another on. Well, that's

Vicki Habecker: 24:29

what God wants us to do. That's right. As my mother was getting worse with her dementia, I would walk with her, but we also had music on all the time. She loved the old hymns, and she just kind of brightened up. So do any of your patients that you treat? Are they music lovers? Do you see a difference when music is involved?

Unknown: 24:53

Some do, some don't, but a lot of my special needs patients like and so they do so much better when I put me. Music on, and I'll put on whatever they want to hear. You know, we have YouTube. We can pull up any song they you know, I have a guy who wants to hear when the saints go marching in over and over and over again during this therapy session. And that's what we do. I had a patient one time who was had advanced dementia. I mean, he would just stare at a wall, but he walked in one day, we sat him at the piano, and we didn't even know he was a piano player, and he played like Mozart, wow. And this man could not do anything, but when he got in front of that piano, all that muscle memory came back, yes, yeah. It was amazing.

Vicki Habecker: 25:39

Well, God has a design for our bodies. Even scripture says, Even though our outer body is I just don't like that word decaying, but we know what that means our inner body. So staying active, keeping our mind active. But what I wanted to stress today is our keeping our bodies active, because we are the temple of God, so his spirit is living inside, and I don't want my temple to be crumbling. Does that make sense?

Unknown: 26:10

Yeah. And when that, when your body goes bad, your mind gets sad. So, you know, just keep on. Keeping on. Amen.

Vicki Habecker: 26:18

Amen. Let me close this in prayer. Thank you so much, Judy, and I hope for you listeners that you gleaned a little bit of humor and suggestions and advice. Oh, one more question, though, do you recommend doing exercises in the morning, afternoon, evening? Should we start slowing down at night to get our bodies ready for rest? Is there a time preference?

Unknown: 26:42

I'm a big proponent of working out the first thing in the morning, because then you can take your shower and you've already got it done for the day. So yeah, I mean, when you wait till the afternoon, you've already eaten, your body's trying to process that food, and you get more tired and more tired, and with the weather getting colder and getting darker. It's getting darker like that. I say morning, get it done. Get her done.

Vicki Habecker: 27:07

Get her done. Okay, let me talk to Jesus Father. Thank you so much for my friend. Thank you for her wisdom. Thank you for her heart, for you and her patience and the people that she sees and encourages. Lord, may we do the same thing, especially the encouragement part. As we all get older, things are changing, but it's not it's not change that just happened. You designed it, and So may we embrace that. Hal always says, help us to lean into the pain, the pain of losing a loved one, or maybe having to go into one of these facilities, or just living life by yourself at home. Lord, help us to know that you love us beyond all things, and you got a plan for this season of our lives and what what our bodies are going through. So, Lord, we love you. We ask you to bless all who are listening and thank you. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

Unknown: 28:06

Amen. You've been listening to the finishing well podcast. Let's keep pursuing Jesus together and encourage each other to follow him in our aging years. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, or you can find us at finishing well ministries.org/podcast, our vision is to change the way we think about our aging Season of Life, equipping you to actively pursue God's calling in your life. May the Lord bless and encourage you and we'll see you next time on the finishing well. Podcast, you you.