intervention that improves many functions for clients and also prevents declining cognitive abilities (Ho et al., 2018). Instrumental music with exercise can help increase motivation and participation in an exercise program by older adults with Alzheimer’s disease, and dancing is more function based than are movements in resistance exercises, which may be difficult to learn given the cognitive deficits associated with dementia. While it may require some additional creativity and patience, exercise is critical for older adults with dementia and should be encouraged. group (Kumar et al., 2022). As they relate to optimizing cognitive function, the FITT principle of cognitive function exercise prescription for aerobic and resistance exercises are shown in Table 17.
the client is in their passive state, rather than an agitated one (Cohen-Mansfield et al., 2010). Even short bouts of activity are beneficial to health and with some creative planning may be more easily implemented than longer durations. For example, older adults residing in nursing homes or centers for dementia care may benefit from the implementation of a routine walking program. Getting residents to walk several minutes to and from meals or activities every day can result in an accumulation of time spent exercising, leading to numerous health benefits. Dance and movement therapy (DMT) is a multifaceted FITT for improving cognitive function in older adults In a study comparing the effectiveness of aerobic and resistance exercises on optimizing cognitive function in patients, Kumar et al. found that both protocols showed improvements in cognitive function, but there were more improvements in the aerobic
Table 17: Aerobic Exercise Recommendations for Improving Cognitive Function FITT Recommendations F requency • 3 days a week on alternate days. • 8 weeks. I ntensity • Moderate (60% to 70% HRmax, calculated as 226 – age). T ime • 40 minutes a day. • 120 minutes a week. T ype • 5 minutes of flexibility exercises (active limb movement and stretching). Note: From Kumar et al. (2022) Examples how to incorporate resistance exercise to improve cognition can be found in Table 18. Table 18: Resistance Exercise Recommendations for Improving Cognitive Function FITT Recommendations F requency • 3 days a week on alternate days. • 8 weeks. I ntensity • For weight resistance, do one weight repetition maximum test. • 60% to 80% of repetition maximum.
• Aerobic exercises performed: Gradually increase from 23–30 minutes of cycling on a stationary ergometer. • 5-minute aerobic cooldown of moderate intensity (jogging).
• If participant can complete repetitions without difficulty, they are progressed to next theraband color in order of next level of intensity (red, green, blue, black).
T ime
• 40 minutes a day. • 120 minutes a week.
T ype
• 5 minutes of warm-up aerobic exercise (active movements). • 30 minutes of resistance exercise with dumbbells and therabands: ○ Alternating biceps and shoulder lateral raises with dumbbells. ○ Knee flexor and extensor exercises performed with therabands. • 5 minutes of cool-down flexibility exercise (stretching).
Note: From Kumar et al. (2022)
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