today I’ve got a question not about myself, but about my grandma, who is 85 years old.
She has been healthy and active (playing golf) all her life, but since Corona started, she spends most of her time sitting at home watching TV or reading. Apart from a casual walk every now and then and swinging the golf clubs on her terrace, her daily activity levels are close to zero. She can still do a full 18 holes round of golf, but does so only very infrequently. She used to play every week or so in the past, but now it has come down to once per month at best; maybe less. Main reasons being that she abandoned her driver’s license because she doesn’t feel fit to drive anymore, but also because many of her golfing friends have passed away, and last but not least due to Covid restrictions. (She’d still easily smoke my scores though.)
She also can’t eat much, so I can see how she is losing more and more muscle. She always used to be extremely small and thin, but she must have lost about 5kg since Corona started, and since she didn’t have any body fat to begin with, it must have all been muscle and bone mass.
I’d like to get her moving, maybe even weight training, to preserve or even rebuild some muscle mass. She doesn’t have any heart conditions or serious diseases otherwise, but I’d like to see her stay fit and independent as long as possible.
How do I best approach this, and how to get her started? She’s very fragile (pretty sure she pick up an empty barbell), and I don’t want her to get hurt through training, but she needs to do something.
Having seen what happened to a number of elderly relatives, the ability to stand up out a chair independently, without using arms (and all that entails), really is massive. Not having this ability can mean needing a wheelchair, unable to transfer (a key Activity of Daily Living), and likely requiring institutional care or a high level of home care. Even a short hospital stay can lead to a tremendous loss of strength and mobility in the elderly and unless they’ve built up their strength in advance they may never get it back. Everyone should make sure they can do at least a simple sit to stand and encourage those close to them to do the same.