The population of England and Wales has continued to age since 2011, according to Census 2021 results. Alison Beadle looks at how you can cater to an ageing population with ViPR for older generations, focusing on brain health and mental health.

The number of people aged 65 years and over increased from 9.2 million in 2011 to over 11 million in 2021 and the proportion of people aged 65 years and over rose from 16.4% to 18.6%. Period life expectancy beyond the age of 90 years in the UK averaged at 3.8 years for males and 4.5 years for females in 2020 to 2022.

With an increased ageing population, there is an increased demand for exercise designed to help active ageing and promote good health physically and mentally. While the ViPR blog has already published an excellent piece on using ViPR for active ageing from a physical perspective, I thought it would be interesting to take a deeper dive into using ViPR as a tool from a brain health and mental health perspective. The key areas I’d like to focus on are:

  • blood flow to brain, Alzheimer’s and dementia prevention
  • empowerment: feeling able to do everyday tasks like DIY and gardening
  • neuromuscular function
  • co-ordination and motor skills
  • memory
  • alleviating depression and helping those with neurodiversity.

Physical impact on the brain

In order for our brains to function well, we need a good source of nutrients, oxygen and hydration. These are delivered by our blood flow. Moving promotes good circulation, so it makes sense that exercise is going to help maintain good brain health. Numerous studies show that resistance training has been proven to reverse mild cognitive impairment and improve brain function in those with Alzheimer’s and dementia.

In at least 40% of cases, the onset of dementia could be delayed or avoided altogether with changes to lifestyle and environment, across 14 risk factors. 3

Some of the risk factors are:

  • high blood pressure
  • obesity
  • lack of exercise
  • diabetes
  • cognitive reserve
  • depression.

In particular, strength training was shown to be very effective in improving cognitive function: “After 12 weeks, the elderly group showed significant increases in the average upper-body strength (58%), lower-body strength (68%), and cognitive capacity (19%). The present study demonstrated that regular resistance exercises could provide significant gains on the upper- and lower-body strength concomitant to positive improvements on cognitive capacities of elderly women, bringing enhanced life quality.”

So, using ViPR as a tool to build functional strength and stimulate the mind via loaded movement training is ideal. You’ll get the blood flowing in a fun, engaging way that doesn’t feel like exercise. The brain gets what it needs and, as a result, functions better. In particular, it’s the use of the bigger muscles and particularly the legs which are most beneficial, so a loaded lunge is a great way to achieve this. The progressions are:

  • lunge using vertical ViPR to stabilise
  • lunge with suitcase hold for balance
  • lunge with ViPR for balance and extra core recruitment
  • lunge with ViPR overhead to add shoulder and wrist strength
  • lunge to overhead press to add a greater challenge to balance and co-ordination.

Empowerment

To quote one of my clients, “Using ViPR gives me confidence and helps me feel able to do everyday tasks such as DIY and gardening.”

As we age, often the idea that we can’t manage, we can’t do much or we are getting on is projected on to us, creating self-doubt and a potential mindset that you can’t do X. But actually you can, if you keep moving and believe you can and, most importantly, try. Using ViPR in poses or moves that are known as ‘power postures’ will enhance a feeling of confidence, self-belief and positivity. Statistics have shown that holding a power pose for two minutes will actually create this response.

So imagine, by repeating a powerful move, what a difference you can make. That person may have initially come to see you as a PT to get stronger, more mobile, lose body fat or just to improve their ability to do everyday things such managing their garden or even getting out of the bath, but they will leave their session feeling confident, empowered and able. That in itself will help to facilitate their other goals.

Memory

We’ve all heard of the saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” That doesn’t just apply to our muscles. To maintain healthy brain function, you need to keep using it and not just remembering but teaching it new things, such as movement patterns. Once your client has mastered one move, linking into a flow helps them work on memory and co-ordination. This also links back into empowerment, as completing a flow creates a sense of achievement. Plus, you may take the movement pattern from one of simple strength and co-ordination to potentially a cardiovascular workout. If your flow is replicating everyday movements, then you are also helping them to move better in life and prevent injury.

Practical recommendations for brain plasticity

  • Physical active lifestyle across lifespan
  • Combination of endurance, resistance and motor-co-ordinative exercise
  • Reduction of risk factors (e.g., obesity, systolic blood pressure, smoking)
  • Lifelong learning of new movements (e.g., juggling, dancing)
  • Social and cognitive active lifestyle (e.g., travelling, learning new languages)
  • Situation- and target-group-specific flexible adaptation of exercise intervention(e.g., development of app-based training)

Neuromuscular function

As we age, our sense of proprioception deteriorates, affecting balance and neuromuscular function, so it’s important to keep working on it to maintain good balance and movement. To get better feedback from feet to brain and strengthen neuromuscular pathways and good posture, I recommend my clients wear barefoot shoes or work barefoot.

Nascimento et al (2012) reported that proprioceptive exercises improved balance in the elderly. Also supporting the benefits of proprioceptive exercises in older people are the results of Zheng et al (2013), evidencing an improvement in balance and proprioception. Thomas et al (2019) support the idea that balance is a multifactorial quality and should be stimulated by different types of physical activities.

When you do a new move or task, your brain creates a new connection between the dendrites, which will get stronger the more you do the movement. So, repeating a loaded movement pattern based on real-life tasks is setting them up for maintaining their functional mobility, strength, agility and co-ordination. You will be helping them to strengthen connections in their brain.

It also helps to reinforce and wake up existing ones. While filming for this article, my client gave me a wonderful example. When lunging, initially he was incredibly wobbly to the extent of almost falling over. After 10 balance tips on each leg, using ViPR for stability and building up range gradually, we went back to lunges and he performed them like a pro!

If you use movement patterns such as picking up ViPR from various positions and using different holds and getting the brain to move different body parts in different rhythms and ways, you can enhance co-ordination, motor skills and grip strength.

Let’s not forget mentality, agility and reaction times. If you watch the clip where I play catch with my client and the levels, we move from anticipating a move to not having time to think and simply reacting. Training their reaction skills could make the difference between dropping something or falling, or stopping that fall. We’re moving from conscious to subconscious reactions. It’s also great fun!

Mental health

With 13.9% of the global population suffering from mental health issues 8 , which range from depression to conditions such as ADHD, exercise for mental health is just as, if not more, important than exercise for physical health.

We all know exercise can boost feel-good endorphins which, in turn, boost our mood. But are you aware that exercise promotes a sense of calm and control for those who feel they don’t have control in areas of their life? For the period that they are training they have control, they are moving their bodies, challenging their limits and hopefully fully in the moment, so able to simply enjoy the moment stress free. “Many studies have examined the efficacy of exercise to reduce symptoms of depression, and the overwhelming majority of these studies have described a positive benefit associated with exercise involvement.”

For mental health outcomes, evidence shows that a variety of types of physical activity, including aerobic activity, walking, muscle-strengthening activity and yoga, can provide beneficial effects for reducing symptoms of depression and development of anxiety.

In the case of ADHD, it’s a great way to create a focus, which then aids to ground and calm those whose heads are bombarded with thoughts. Using ViPR is particularly good for this, as moving in multiple directions with different grips and movement patterns demands full attention.

As with all workouts, before undertaking any form of exercise it is essential to ensure the participant has been cleared to exercise by a medical professional. Some of the exercises demonstrated in this blog are advanced, as I have been working with this client for seven years so we have built up to this gradually. Please use the material as inspiration, as this client is simply a member of the general population who’s had his fair share of injuries and really wants to convey the message, “YES YOU CAN!”

Alison Beadle has been working as an Instructor and Personal Trainer since 2002. An avid fan of ViPR, and the willPower method (TM) barefoot training, which is reflected in her training methods and the classes she teaches. She also specialises in womens health covering pre natal to post menopause, and is the creator of the Moving Through Menopause App. She trained in ViPR Loaded Movement Training with the original MT team and continues to teach ViPR online and it is her go to tool when training people.

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