FITNESS TIPS FOR

Fitness Tips for Seniors © mitarat - stock.adobe.com

While Staying at Home

We are all experiencing a radical disruption of scheduled activities while we shelter in place, and one of the most drastic changes is in our movement routines. Many seniors have a trainer, Pilates teacher, gym membership or exercise classes at a senior center, but with facilities closed, they are challenged with finding ways to keep moving. We talked with several local fitness experts that offer creative ways for seniors to stay active and holistically maintain their physical, emotional and mental health.

Take Movement Breaks Throughout The Day

We are doing more sitting, whether talking to friends and family on Zoom or the phone, watching a lot of TV or taking webinars. After a long conversation, get up and take a walk or get on the floor or bed and do some stretching. Search for articles or YouTube videos for gentle core exercises, stretching or yoga for seniors. Many local teachers are doing Zoom classes to help keep people moving right now. It is important to remember that movement does not have to mean an hour of exercise. It can be as simple as a few minutes a couple times a day to keep our muscles going, our circulation moving and our minds alert. Diane Roth is the founder of Roth Structural Integration, in Highland Park. (Rothsi.com)

Walk to Maintain Muscle Strength

Seniors that may have enjoyed walking outside can now turn on a walking video to walk to in their house. One favorite is the Tuesday FAST Walking in 30 minutes video series on YouTube. Muscle-building is extremely important for senior health. They can do simple body weight exercises such as leg lifts, bicep curls, crunches and squats, or use light weights along with high repetitions to target the gluteal, quadriceps and abdominals. In addition to exercise, it is also important to get enough sleep, eat healthy and use tools like meditation to reduce the amount of stress in our lives. Dr. Meena Malhorta is the founder of Heal n Cure Medical Wellness & Antiaging, in Northbrook. (HealnCure.com) by Carrie Jackson

Yoga as Part of a Regular Routine

Create a disciplined schedule by going to bed and waking up at the same time. Drink 32 ounces of water with fresh-squeezed lemon to clean out the liver and strengthen the immune system. Meditate, journal, walk outdoors for 20 to 30 minutes and practice yoga for grounding, centering, clearing, clarity and focus. These essential yoga poses for people over 50 target hip health, bone strength, brain health and help balance the nervous system: butterfly, standing or seated forward fold, child’s pose, downward dog, triangle, warrior one and two, tree pose and bridge pose. Stay in each pose for five long, deep breaths, followed by lying down for five to 25 minutes of deep relaxation and an Epsom salt bath.

Lisa Faremouth-Weber is the founder of Heaven Meets Earth Yoga Studio, in Evanston. Email LisaYoga@comcast.net or text 312-933-3936 for a free yoga Zoom class during June. (HeavenMeetsEarthYoga.com)

Connect with Nature and Dance

Seniors should keep a regular routine, get enough sleep, nourish their body with fresh fruits and vegetables, and find movement every day. It’s important to safely spend some time in nature, feel the sun on our skin and see the green in the trees. Seniors can boost their cardiovascular system by doing walking intervals outside and complement that with dance or stretching classes that help with balance, flexibility and strength, and reduce the risk of falls. They can ask their grandchildren to help them with Zoom and YouTube and find classes they can do using a chair or the kitchen sink as a barre for stability. Finis Jhung (FinisJhung.com), an 82-year-old ballet instructor, teaches online from his apartment. They can also use Zoom to reduce isolation and stay connected with friends and family, or try a painting class to keep their brains engaged.

Lynne Belsky, M.D., is the cofounder of CBG Institute for Dance and Health, which is offering beginning ballet and tap classes for seniors online starting June 9. (CBG-Institute.org)

Keep Food Journals and Vary Workouts

To stay healthy during this time, I encourage people to get walking outside, stretch frequently to maintain mobility, and if weight loss is a goal, to keep a food diary so that they can track what’s going in their body. Seniors especially can benefit from functional fitness, a classification of training that prepares the body for real-life movements and activities. Functional training includes air squats, like getting up from a chair; deadlifts, or picking up items from below the waist; and overhead presses, like putting things away on a top shelf in the kitchen or closet. Performing these movements with just body weight is a great way to start improving strength and help maintain bone density. Over time, you can increase the in tensity by incorporating moderate weights; even use household items such as a bottle of detergent or a can of soup.

Rowena Dziubla is the owner of GetFitEGV, in Elk Grove Village. (GetFitEGV.com)

Carrie Jackson is an Evanston-based writer and frequent contributor to Natural Awakenings magazine. Connect at CarrieJacksonWrites.com.

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Her garden attracts birds because she provides what they need. “It goes to the basics—food shelter and water,” explains Karlson, whose bird-friendly garden is featured in Douglas W. Tallamy’s new book, Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard. Karlson’s garden is mentioned in a section called “The Power of Urban Lots.”

Karlson has documented more than 100 species of birds in her 50-foot-wideby-100-foot-long space filled with more than 200 species of plants. A watercolor painter and graphic designer, she has given presentations to the Chicago Botanic Garden, Wild Ones and at various conferences on creating a bird oasis in the backyard. She’s also a Chicago Botanic Garden certified garden designer, and says anyone can create a bird-friendly garden with some research and trial and error.

34 Chicago NAChicago.com P am Karlson lives in Chicago, about a half block north of the Kennedy Expressway with an O’Hare runway approach so close that planes fly directly over her house. Despite what may sound like an unfriendly place for birds, Karlson looks forward every June to seeing American robins feed serviceberry fruits to their young and ruby-throated hummingbirds sip nectar from penstemon blooms. In June, she also sees gray catbirds taking a dip in a small pond and house wren males enticing females to choose one of the nests he’s started to build.

Karlson planted what she calls her first bird tree in 1995—a hawthorn. “Our yard is small, but there are tall trees around us,” she says, acknowledging that fact also helps bring in the birds. “I wanted a medium-sized tree that would help birds. Once I put that in, my gardening focus started changing from just planting for beauty to planting what’s beautiful that also helps birds and pollinators. I did this all on my own. I’m learning all the time.”

Karlson shares, “I converted the backyard slowly over the years. I probably got really focused on birds when I started doing bird rescue 16 years ago.” She volunteers with Chicago Collision Monitors and Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation, both of which gather birds that have hit windows in Chicago and bring them to rehabilitation centers.

In her garden, Karlson uses native plants which attract insects and produce berries and seeds that birds eat. “You need to use different plants that bloom at different times of the year and at different heights. Bird diets are so diverse,” she says. “Do not use any pesticides, because insects are a part of birds’ diets. Insects are our friends. If you have a balanced ecosystem, you won’t be inundated by insects, since Bird-Friendly Gardens

A Little Planning Can Lead to a

Yard Full of Birds in Summer by Sheryl DeVore Photo by Pam Karlson. A gray catbird uses a water feature in Pam Karlson’s Chicago garden. Photo by Pam Karlson.

Photo by Pam Karlson.

A house wren delivers food to young at a nest box in Pam Karlson’s Chicago yard.

A ruby-throated hummingbird sips nectar from a penstemon in Pam Karlson’s Chicago yard. Photo by Pam Karlson.

An American robin sits on a nest in a downspout in Pam Karlson’s next-door neighbor’s yard Photo by Pam Karlson.

many become food for birds and other insects.”

George Adams, author of Gardening for the Birds: How to Create a Bird-Friendly Backyard, agrees. He writes that bird-friendly gardens also attract important native organisms that can barely be seen, as well as butterflies, moths and dragonflies. “Even if you only have a small place for planting, choosing plants that are beneficial to birds will add to the overall availability of habitat for our local bird populations,” he writes.

Karlson mostly grows perennials—plants that come up each spring. But she also plants some annuals such as black and blue salvia, native to tropical regions. “I put them in pots to provide extra nectar for the hummingbirds,” she says. Another Illinois native plant that birds favor is serviceberry, with fruits that ripen in June. “Robins love them,” she says. “So do cedar waxwings.”

The waxwings also visit a stream she installed with a small pond about 15 years ago. The water features add to the diversity of birds she sees in June, including yellow warblers, which love water, as well as gray catbirds. Both species nest in the region. “Water is a big component,” Karlson says, especially running water. Gardeners can also purchase items to create that sound; for example, a bubbler can be placed in a bird bath.

“In summer, there’s so much bird activity. Most of the nesting is going on in the yards around us, and I think the birds use our yard for food,” Karlson says. A pair of robins found a neighbor’s down spout a perfect place to build a nest and raise young. “It’s been going on and off for about 10 years now,” she notes. “It’s really cool when they build the nest. They grab their nesting material from our yard. I’ve watched them grab mud from the side of the pond and stream.”

Karlson also puts up house wren boxes. Male house wrens start building a nest in all of them and show them off to the female, which selects her favorite to start a family. “When June rolls around, the house wrens are paired up,” Karlson says. “Last year, I was able to see the babies hanging out in the garden being fed by the parents for at least a week.” She’s also had young chickadees and northern cardinals in her yard.

Karlson also feeds birds sunflower, safflower, thistle and suet year-round using different types of feeders. In May, she puts grape jelly and oranges out for Baltimore orioles. By mid- to late June, the orioles don’t come to the feeders, but she knows they’re nesting in the area and have switched to an insect diet while raising young. Karlson hopes others will join in her crusade to create bird-friendly yards. “I’m a one-woman show. A regular person can do this with their own sweat,” she says. “It’s a joy to watch the birds in your yard in summer.” Especially during the stay-at-home order during the COVID-19 pandemic, she says watching birds in her yard helps relieve stress. “I’m so grateful for putting in all that effort into creating a habitat for birds, and the payoff during this isolation has been phenomenal.” Sheryl DeVore has written six books on science, health and nature. She also writes nature, health and environment stories for national and regional publications. In June, recently fledged robins, with a speckled rather than a plain breast like their parents, can be seen in bird-friendly yards. Photo by Pam Karlson.

Bird-Friendly Garden Resources:

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has a free book, Landscaping for Wildlife, online at Tinyurl.com/LandscapingForWildlife. Gardening for the Birds, by George Adams. Birdscaping in the Midwest: A Guide to Gardening with Native Plants to Attract Birds, by Mariette Nowak. Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants, by Doug Tallamy. Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard, by Doug Tallamy.