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Hey, guys, Angie Miller here with AFAA.
I'm so glad you joined me here today
for more education, motivation, and tips
to take our teaching to the next level.
As a global group fitness community,
we just keep getting stronger through connection.
So I want to talk to you today about teaching older adults
in group fitness classes.
And if you do already huge older adults in group fitness,
I hope that this provides you some education and insight.
If you don't, I really hope it inspires
you to go out there and start leading older adults,
because I know that there's a community of older
adults out there who are or who would
benefit from your passion, your expertise, and your experience.
So I don't want to talk to you about program design today.
Because that would take way longer than the two
to three minutes that we have.
But I do want to talk to you about neuro motor
training, what it is, what are the benefits,
and what are some safety considerations?
I think we would all agree that, as we get older,
exercise becomes less and less about looking good and more
and more about feeling good.
And exercise plays a pivotal role
to help older adults feel good and to maintain
their personal autonomy, their ability
to maintain their independence as long as possible.
So when we lose our personal autonomy,
we become dependent on others for those things
that we currently take for granted,
like our ability to complete activities of daily living
and our ability to care for ourselves.
So when I took care of my mom and lost her to dementia,
I know that the thing that she fought the hardest to preserve
was her personal autonomy, her independence.
Because that was what she valued so much.
That was her pride.
And we all work really hard to maintain our ability
to care for ourselves.
So what is neuro motor training?
And how can it help us maintain our independence?
How can it help older adults?
Well, let's first talk about what it is.
Neuro motor training is functional
training, kind of synonymous with functional training.
It is training that improves balance, agility, gait.
Its proprioceptively-based exercises
that help older adults improve their physical function
and also help reduce the risk of falling.
So what are the benefits?
Well, number one, first and foremost, it's a safety issue.
It helps reduce the risk for injury.
Number two, it improves their balance and their coordination,
their proprioception.
Number three, it improves their posture and their alignment.
And number four, one of the best benefits
is that it improves their ability
to complete activities of daily living.
So the training that we do in the gym
transfers to real-life challenges and real-life living
situations for older adults.
It's not about getting big guns and tight buns.
For older adults, it's about functional living.
It's about being able to get down on the floor
and play with our grandkids, get up and out of bed
in the morning pain free in a functional way
where they don't feel like they are compromised in any way.
So those are the benefits of neuro motor training.
And let's talk about the safety considerations.
So first and foremost, progression is key.
So we set out to do a good thing.
We set out to teach neuro motor training.
We want to improve balance and proprioception.
Because we want to improve their activities of daily living.
But sometimes, we have to be careful not to do too much too
soon.
So safety is key any time we're doing neuro motor training.
So progressions are key.
Slow and steady wins the race.
So think about things like slow movements
before faster movements, less complex movements
to more complex movements, two legs to single leg,
stable to unstable.
Always body weight before external resistance--
and of course, seated and supine before standing.
Those are just some of the progressions.
Number two, another safety consideration in neuro motor
training is make sure that they have something safe and steady
nearby.
So make sure that they are proximately
close to either a chair, or a wall, or something stable.
And also, proximity is key for us.
So make sure, if their balance seems compromised
or if it seems like they are not as agile today
as they were yesterday, just make sure you're nearby.
Without calling them out, or embarrassing them,
or making it a big deal, just be proximately close so
that you can respond when necessary.
And number three-- last but not least--
a huge safety consideration in neuro motor training
is to teach floor to standing transfer.
And that's something that I'm going to share
with you in a future video.
But when I teach kettlebell training,
I teach people how to miss a lift for safety purposes.
When I teach older adults, I teach them
floor to standing transfer.
So that is all about neuro motor training,
some of the benefits, some of the reasons
why we want to teach it, and, of course,
some safety considerations.
I hope that, if you're not teaching older adults,
this inspires you to go out there and do it.
Because I think that group fitness
is the perfect place for older adults.
It builds community.
It's socialization.
It's physical activity.
And of course, that builds positive emotion.
So it just doesn't get better than that.
So my name is Angie Miller.
I'm so glad you joined me.
You can connect with me on social media.
On Instagram, I'm Angie Miller Fitness.
And on Facebook and Twitter, I'm Angie Miller Fit.
And my website's angiemillerfitness.com
Keep doing what you love and loving what you do.
And I will see you next week.
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