Helping your class participants keep their joints supple and their muscles flexible will help them move better, feel better and live better. Pool Mobilize and Stretch combines joint mobility and muscular flexibility for all the major joints and muscle groups. Perfect for cool downs, this content can be inserted in any of your healthy aging classes.
There is more to fitness than HIIT, cardio and muscle conditioning. Yes, that is likely what your students want, however optimal fitness and wellness also require healthy joints and pliable muscles. Without joint mobility and muscular flexibility, your class members will experience stiffness, pain, and their bodies will be more prone to injury.
Joint health issues are an equal opportunity provider, regardless of whether a person is sedentary or physically active. The natural aging process takes a toll on the body. Thanks to a lack of movement, a sedentary lifestyle leads to cartilage dehydration, causing joints to lose their elasticity and range of motion (ROM). Once a joint stiffens, pain and injury can occur when trying to move beyond the joint’s decreased ROM. On the other hand, a lifetime dedicated of physical activity can lead to its own set of joint health issues related to wear and tear and osteoarthritis. Active people who have spent their life enjoying sports and fitness tend to suffer more musculoskeletal injuries, which makes them more prone to arthritis.
How can you keep joints healthy? The best thing you can do is move. Movement is medicine to stiff joints and muscles. Movement keeps joints hydrated and muscles pliable. To help your class members be the best version of themselves, be sure to make joint ROM exercises and stretching a regular part of your fitness classes. The content in this video is perfect for including in your cool downs. If you are not currently including joint mobility/arthritis exercises in your cool downs, I hope this video inspires you to do so. Below, I talk more about the importance of mobilizing joints and stretching muscles. Then read on for a short summary of the content.
POOL MOBILIZE AND STRETCH SUMMARY
Pool Mobilize and Stretch does not include a warm-up or cool down because it is gentle mobility and stretching segment that can be used in your cool downs or on its own in your older adult classes. There are 10 sequences of gentle movement that alternate mobility and stretching for all the joints and all the major muscle groups. The mobility movements were taken from AEA’s Arthritis Foundation Aquatic Program (AFAP) and are specifically designed to move your joints through their full range of motion, including cervical spine, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, lumbar spine, hips, knees and ankles. The AFAP manual is a great $45 investment to help you include the joint mobility exercises in your classes. Including these exercises classes provides a total body joint tune-up for your class members, along with a total body stretch.
Treat your class members to 20 minutes of movement medicine. They will enjoy feeling as though every part of their body has been revitalized. Stay tuned! a 20-minute in-home/land fitness version of Mobilize & Stretch is posting next week.
