Eventide Homes new gym equipment provides strength training for residents

Thanks to grants from the Victorian government, Eventide Homes has purchased two pneumatic exercise machines, which use the power of air pressure to provide a precise and gradual amount of resistance.

Guide Healthcare physiotherapist Simon Kerrigan said the hi-tech machines were better suited for residents than old fashion gym equipment which uses iron plates.

"The great thing is that we can increase the resistance by 500-gram intervals, even as low as 100," he said.

"With normal gym equipment, you have 10-kilogram plates, and they are not particularly suitable because of an inability to move 10 kilos, or progress because 10 kilos is potentially all they are able to do.

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"With the pneumatic equipment, we can set programs up on digitalised cards for every resident.

"So we will do an assessment, set up a standardised amount of weight for each piece of equipment, and then we can progressively overload over a period of time."

Mr Kerrigan said resistance exercise had many benefits for residents, beyond the social fun exercise offered.

"There is a societal view of older people being fragile, weak, and we associate that with the aging process.

"However, we know that with strength training, people can get stronger, either with this equipment or bodyweight-related exercise.

"We talk a lot about things like falls and fragility, if we have people that are stronger, they are more robust and less likely to be injured via a fall, which is great.

"There are a lot of psychosocial and mental benefits to exercise we all know about, and certainly, our residents can benefit from that as well."

Feedback on the equipment has been good despite some early apprehension from residents.

The gym even has a motto, 'It is heavy, but it is good', which was said by resident Margaret while working out an upright cable row machine.

Mr Kerrigan said Eventide Homes was talking a forward step in how aged care engages its residents.

"It has been really positive. Gym equipment, and even exercise can be quite scary for a lot of older people," he said.

The generation is not one that has grown up around gyms. However, most people who are here have worked hard their whole lives, just not in a gym-based setting.

"They were mostly very active, lots of residents grew up on farms and did a lot of manual labour.

"Aged care is working towards a more proactive approach to healthy aging. We are starting to break down the stigmas around strength training for old people, and the fact that people should be able to come in here and improve, be healthier and happier. This is the first step forward."

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