Improving Senior Health with Fitness Trackers

By Jamie Shapiro | February 17, 2016 | Comments Off on Improving Senior Health with Fitness Trackers

Senior Care in Skokie IL

If you are like many people your entire life is essentially in your mobile device. That is where you keep your calendar, keep up with your friends and family, send messages to work, do research, look up directions, shop, play games, and even make the occasional phone call or two. You may even use your mobile device to pay for things, unlock your car or home, and monitor security cameras at your house. With as much as technology makes an impact on the rest of your life, it only makes sense that you could use it to enhance and support your senior care efforts with your elderly loved one.

Health and fitness are two of the most important priorities in your care approach for your senior, but it can sometimes be challenging to motivate your parent to keep up with physical activity or monitor how he is doing with his care goals. Integrating the simple and accessible technology of a fitness tracker into your routine with him can not only make it easier for you to keep up with your parent’s health and ensure that he is on the right track, but it can also be instrumental in encouraging him to work harder and achieve even better fitness.

More than 20 million fitness trackers were purchased last year, and with good reason. These little pieces of approachable and relatively affordable technology are making it easier and more rewarding than ever for people of all ages to commit themselves to fitness journeys that will help them to live the healthiest, happiest, and most active lives that they can.

Some of the ways that your parent can increase his fitness and pursue his goals more effectively through the use of a fitness tracker include:
• Accurate information. Most people wildly overestimate the number of calories that they have burned during any given activity, meaning that your parent might think that he is dedicating himself to the calorie burn that his doctor wants him to achieve or the heartrate level that he should reach with each exercise, but in actuality he is not. The fitness tracker gives accurate information so that your parent knows how hard he needs to work and for how long to achieve his actual goals.

• Accountability. Accountability is a tremendous motivator, which is why people who have workout partners or who participate in support groups that require weekly weigh-ins or journaling are much more likely to stick to goals and work hard to make sure that they show progress. Being accountable does not necessarily have to mean having another person, however. A fitness tracker can act as an accountability partner by recording personal bests, workout times, and calories burned, and showing progress so that your parent knows when he is doing what he needs to and when he needs to step it up a bit.

• Competition. For many people their strongest competition is themselves. If your parent is one of these people, having a fitness tracker can give him that extra boost of motivation they need by showing them how well they are doing, which lets him set his sights on doing just a little bit better. Even when he is just working on getting more steps into his day, if the tracker shows that he has already done 2000 just like the day before, he might put the extra effort into getting another 100 or so in by the end of the day, pushing him toward higher and higher degrees of health and fitness.

If you or an aging loved one are considering hiring professional senior care services in Skokie, IL, contact the caring staff at Companion Services of America today at (847) 943-3786. Our home care service area includes Northbrook, Highland Park, Deerfield, Glenview, Buffalo Grove, Evanston, Des Plaines, Skokie, Lake Forest, Wilmette and the surrounding areas.

Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-02-trackers-fitter.html

Jamie Shapiro
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