Guest Blog: Four Portable Exercise Tools to Take on Your Next Trip
Are you always on the go?
Whether you’re visiting grandchildren or traveling for work, it can be difficult to fit workouts in while traveling, especially if you’re staying in hotels that have limited or no exercise equipment available.
That being said, there’s no excuse not to exercise while traveling.
These four portable exercise tools are lightweight and easy to pack. Take them with you and squeeze in a workout no matter where you’re staying.
1. Resistance Bands
Resistance bands are great for fitting in strength training workouts. Use them in your hotel room or take them outside.
The best way to use resistance bands is to set up a full-body circuit to keep your heart rate elevated as you work a variety of muscle groups. Focus on compound movements like squats, rows, and overhead presses to get the most bang for your buck.
2. Yoga Mat
Sitting on a plane or in a car really takes a toll on your muscles and joints.
To counteract the stiffness that often comes with traveling, bring a yoga mat with you and do some stretches every day.
Want to stretch but don’t know where to start? Try focusing on your legs or lower back first. They typically take a beating during long trips.
If you’re really lost, you can always find yoga or stretching tutorials online, too.
3. Ab Wheel
An ab wheel obviously works your core, but it also can tone your arms, chest, and shoulders at the same time.
Ab wheels take up very little space in a suitcase, and they’re easy to use even in the smallest of hotel rooms. Give one a try during your next trip!
4. Hand Exercise Tool
If you want a truly balanced physique, don’t neglect your hands and forearms! Training these small muscles also improves your overall strength, and they can also help relieve pain stiffness caused by arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome.
Tools like exercise putty and grip trainers are small and lightweight, and they can help you sneak in your workouts anytime, anywhere. You can even use them while you’re on a plane or in a taxi!
Frequent travel isn’t an excuse to slack on your workouts. Just get creative. Pick up one (or more) of these exercise tools today to easily fit in a sweat session no matter where you are.
5 tips for making an elderly relative’s home more accessible
Within the next ten years, the number of people and families with elderly relatives to care for is likely to exponentially increase, with the old in some Western populations actually likely to outnumber the young by the early 2020s. This means that more and more families will have to make long-term plans to care for a relative into old age. The added pressure of a rising elderly population will manifest itself in more money needed for public and social care provision.
In order to both save money and (more importantly) provide a more comfortable and enjoyable experience for our elderly loved ones who are in need of social care, it’s going to be necessary to make more provisions for our older friends and relatives to be cared for in their home.
There are a number of different types of accessibility alterations which may be required if your elderly loved one suddenly has difficulty getting around the house. These include:
• Help accessing a home (e.g. ramps or hand rails when approaching the front door).
• Help getting around a home (e.g. ramps, stair lifts, more grab rails and handles for getting up and down stairs/ in and out of rooms.)
• Help with mobility in the kitchen and bathroom.
• Help with visibility/poor vision in the home
• Alarm/warning systems in the event of an accident or fall.
These are the main types of obstacles which an elderly relative may face as they deal with the difficult challenges and lifestyle alterations caused by decreased mobility in old age. Below are 5 of the most useful tips which could make all the difference, and hopefully ensure that your elderly friend or family member lives a much happier and fulfilled life.
1. Move the essentials downstairs
Moving all the essential facilities in your house to the ground floor can be the simplest way to improve overall access and ease any potential mobility issues which an elderly loved one may face. If there’s a way of suitably renovating the house so that there’s access to a bedroom, dining area and living quarters on the ground floor, then this will minimize the risk of any trips, falls, emergencies or accidents.
The decision to move all the major facilities/core rooms in a home to one floor may form part of a wider conversation about whether an elderly relative may wish to downsize to a bungalow, or a house with easier accessibility built in to the design.
2. Make bathrooms easier to use
Bathing and washing are the most private and essential of daily rituals, and a person’s ability to bathe and wash safely and easily is arguably central to their sense of dignity and self-esteem. This means that accessibility improvements to a bathroom are arguably some of the most urgent alterations you can/should be making to a home.
Helpful structural changes to a bathroom include:
• Level access/walk in showers, ensuring that an elderly person doesn’t have any immediate trip hazards, and minimising the risk of falls as they get in or out of the bath/shower.
• Handrails mounted to the walls, should an elderly relative require help getting up off the toilet.
• Removing any other extraneous trip hazards, such as bath mats or even ripping up tiled surfaces which may inadvertently mean a person could slip or trip when the surface becomes wet.
3. Stair/wheel chair lifts
These can be an essential addition to any household and are once again an invaluable tool for minimising trips and falls. If your elderly friend or loved one is adamant that they don’t want to make too many major changes to their day-to-day lifestyle and want to keep their room layout broadly the same, then a chair lift can be a great way to maintain both continuity and guarantee safety. Installation and maintenance are increasingly simple.
4. Replacing household accessories
By this, we mean replace everyday household accessories which control the day-to-day operation of the house. These include light switches and door handles. Switching your existing light switches to touch lights or dimmer switches can give an elderly relative an opportunity to take advantage of more subtle lighting states, which is especially useful if they are partially sighted/having difficulty seeing in darker rooms. Likewise, replacing any door knobs with lever handles is an easy way to ensure that your elderly relative can enjoy easier mobility when moving between rooms.
Likewise, re-arranging kitchen drawers and storage to make it more easily accessible is another straightforward way of improving accessibility and minimizing risk.
5. Installing a personal alarm system
This may be a source of understandable reluctance for someone who may be having to confront problems with mobility. After all, conceding that you need some of kind of emergency back-up system can, in turn, feel like an admission of vulnerability, and preparing for a worst-case scenario that none of us want to think about as we get older.
Nevertheless, installing a personal alarm system in the event of any serious accident or fall is a vital last line of defense in ensuring that your elderly relative or loved one is safe and secure in their own home.
A number of telecare systems allow a homeowner to alert a carer or member of the emergency services should they find themselves falling victim to a trip, fall or major accident.
Encore Care Homes offer care homes across the south of England. Their private homes offer palliative care, short-term respite care, long-term residential, and nursing care.
4 Home Improvements Caregivers Should Make
Paige A. Mitchell
If you’re caring for a family member at home, you’ll want to ensure your house is a safe, healthy environment for everyone involved. You’ll likely have some adjustments to make in order to make your home more comfortable for an ill or impaired loved one. Consider the four home improvements below.
1. Declutter and re-decorate
Keep floors clear of toys and shoes. Strategically rearrange the furniture, so that your loved one is able to remain stimulated and engaged while they sit. For example, they may enjoy some natural sunlight and the view of nature from a comfortable chair near a window. Personal touches and familiar objects can make Alzheimer’s patients more comfortable.
2. Enhanced access
It’s important to review each room in the house to determine how accessible it is to someone who is ill or impaired. The American Association of Retired Persons’ checklist includes zero-threshold and wide entrances for wheelchairs and walkers, low light switches and door knobs that are reachable to someone in a wheelchair, and non-slip flooring and grab bars in at least one bathroom.
3. Maintain your home
Whether you’re caring for someone who is ill or not, it’s important to conduct regular home maintenance to ensure it’s a truly healthy environment. For example, replacing batteries in smoke detectors is especially important if your loved one is forgetful and susceptible to forgetting that something is on the stove. Take full advantage of your home repair insurance to save time, energy, and money on repairs.
4. Ask for help
Fifty percent of caregivers report feeling depressed. If you’re suffering from fatigue, isolation, irritable, and/or ill, it’s important to take a step back to take care of yourself. Don’t forget to ask for help when you need it. Seek an expert opinion for objective advice on whether you should consider placing your loved one in assisted care.