Exercise

Exercise Summary.

At the Centre for STRONG Medicine, Pymble, we offer specialised, tailored, high quality and evidence based exercise interventions prescribed by our geriatrician and Centre Director, integrated with ongoing comprehensive geriatric care, and fully supervised and conducted by accredited, university-trained exercise physiologists and an exercise scientist.

Each exercise intervention is crafted directly in line with your goals, needs and medical conditions to promote ageing with resilience, live independently as possible and optimise health, function, wellbeing and fundamentally, quality of life.

Exercise Detailed Explanation.

Following an initial consultation with Professor Maria A. Fiatarone Singh AM, MD, FGSA, FRACP, baseline assessments compromised of a resting electrocardiogram, body composition assessment, blood pressure, questionnaires, performance-based (balance, walking and sit to stands) and one repetition maximum strength tests are completed over a few hourly sessions by accredited exercise physiologists and an exercise scientist. This captures a thorough assessment of all your needs to identify areas to target via exercise and/or medical interventions and track your progress.

Once all assessments are completed, a regular exercise program is crafted directly in line with your goals, needs and medical conditions to promote ageing with resilience, live independently as possible and optimise health, function, wellbeing and fundamentally, quality of life. We strongly believe exercise is medicine that must be integrated into mainstream treatment for every single individual across the lifespan. Therefore, it is prescribed at the correct dosage (same as any other medication) that is required for your medical history, prevention and management of chronic conditions and to counteract side effects of medication/s and address any nutritional issues. The exercise is progressive in nature to maximise all long-term outcomes and attenuate any declines in your function and health.

We offer all major exercise modalities, including:

A type of exercise where you use your muscles to lift a weight and then lower it slowly, or you tense your muscles or push against an immovable object. It counteracts the decline in muscle mass, strength and function that occurs with normal ageing therefore, improving your ability to complete daily living activities. It is a form of treatment to offset medication side effects and prevent or improve chronic conditions such as heart disease, hypertension, peripheral vascular disease, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, gait and balance disorders, chronic lung disease, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, kidney disease, cognitive decline,  and depression among many other conditions. It is the single, critical form of treatment for sarcopenia which is an age-related syndrome characterised by progressive and generalised loss of muscle mass and strength and frailty, defined as a complex geriatric syndrome compromised of weight or muscle loss, slowness, weakness, low physical activity and fatigue increasing vulnerability to stressors across all organs. This particular type of exercise also improves body composition to  attain a healthier ratio of muscle to fat in your body (increasing muscle mass and decreasing body fat), strengthen ligaments and bones to stabilise joints and reduce the risk of injury, improves cognitive and metabolic function and balance, thereby reducing the risk of falls.
High velocity power training is a form of resistance training or weight-lifting where the external load is lifted as rapidly as possible and then lowered slowly back to the starting position. Muscle power is the ability to produce force quickly which declines more quickly and earlier on in age (third to fourth decade at a rate of 3-4% or more per year) compared to muscle strength (1-2% decline per year). Power training has been shown to effectively improve your muscle power and balance including fast balance responses allowing your body to rapidly overcome forces and contract the muscles necessary to respond to perturbation thereby, reducing your risk of falls and preventing falls. It also improves your bone mineral density, quality of life and functional performance including stair climbing, getting up from a chair and walking speed allowing for safe ambulation within the community such as crossing the road.
Balance training refers to a type of exercise that focuses on improving your ability to maintain, achieve or restore balance and stability during any posture or activity, prevent you from falling and increasing your confidence to complete daily activities without the fear of falling. It is particularly indicated in the presence of recurrent falls, osteoporotic fracture risk, peripheral neuropathy of any cause, and chronic degenerative neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease, multiple sclerosis, and post-chemotherapy changes in central or peripheral nervous system function. The combination of robust resistance and balance training is the most effective falls prevention strategy there is.
Also known as endurance or cardiovascular exercise which includes any exercise during which you contract large muscle groups repetitively against little or no resistance besides gravity (for example, walking on the treadmill, using a bike, arm ergometer or swimming). This type of exercise improves  your fitness and cardiovascular function, resulting in the ability for you to perform more similar work for longer periods of time without getting tired or short of breath. It is also both preventive and therapeutic for coronary artery disease, hypertension, obesity, heart failure, diabetes, asthma and chronic pulmonary disease, cognitive decline, depression, insomnia, and many other conditions.

A type of training that replicates activities of daily living including stair climbing, sit to stands, transfers, reaching objects at different heights and getting up from a fall. This improves your capacity to perform activities of daily living and allows for safe ambulation within the community.

The details about the most appropriate of the above exercise elements to undertake, and the correct doses and combinations most relevant to your needs is discussed with you and a plan agreed upon at the end of the assessment process.

At the Centre for STRONG Medicine, Pymble, we offer hourly sessions Monday to Friday from 8am-12pm and 1pm-4pm supervised and conducted by accredited, university trained exercise physiologists and an exercise scientist, all overseen by Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh.

Regular assessments are also undertaken to track your progress, identify any areas that require improvement, review goals and fine-tune your exercise program to maximise all outcomes, meet changing needs, achieve your goals and be in line with the latest research for high quality care and continuity. These are coordinated with periodic geriatrician reviews and an annual comprehensive geriatric assessment.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us via telephone +61 8004 7655 or email info@strong-medicine.com.au.

Psychological Issues Explanation.

We also address psychological issues in addition to exercise with:

We provide referrals to cognitive behavioural therapy via This Way Up online courses researched and constructed by clinicians and researchers at St Vincent’s Hospital that are evidence-based and have shown to be clinically effective and beneficial. It is a self-help treatment program to deal with certain psychological conditions such as insomnia, depression and anxiety and reduce symptom severity under the supervision of an exercise physiologist to support and assist you along the way. It assists in the development of teaching you specific skills that effectively work to reduce and manage anxiety, low mood, stress and sleep.

Mindfulness involves paying attention to the present moment, without judgement to assist in taking control of your thoughts and directing your focus on the present moment. Mindful weight lifting involves mindfulness to assist in increasing muscle activation of the target muscle groups being used during the particular exercise as well as scanning the body from head to toe to notice how the body feels during the rest period. Mindfulness and mindful weight lifting assists in the management of stress and anxiety and has been shown to effectively improve your skill of being present in the moment, sleep, pain and wellbeing.

Box breathing is a process of breathing in for four seconds, holding it for four seconds followed by breathing out for four seconds then holding it for four seconds. It is an important self-managing and relaxation tool to improve your control, attention, concentration, wellbeing, sleep and mood including increasing positive feelings and decreasing negative feelings. It has also been shown to relieve your stress and anxiety and improve physiological arousal (autonomic nervous system is heightened increasing the fight or flight response) thereby, decreases your breathing and heart rate and slows your rate of breathing down.
We strongly encourage socialisation amongst other patients and staff during and after each exercise session. This is critical to improve your physical and mental function to promote positive socialisation, support, health, wellbeing and quality of life. It fosters an improvement in your social skills increasing the engagement of social activities, critical to counteract cognitive decline. It proficiently improves your self-esteem and life satisfaction, decreases feelings of loneliness, isolation and stress, creates a sense of belonging, regulates mood, reduces psychological symptoms and assists in the management of mental health conditions.
At the Centre for STRONG Medicine, we emphasise on person centred care at the forefront of our treatment. This includes, with your consent, incorporating family members and primary caretakers involved in your care in meetings with Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh. This fosters an open, effective, collaborative and supportive relationship for all parties to create a tailored intervention for your specific needs which has been shown to maximise all outcomes, adherence, communication, health, wellbeing, quality of life and independence.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us via telephone +61 8004 7655 or email info@strong-medicine.com.au.

Integrating EXERCISE Into Mainstream MEDICAL CARE

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WE BELIEVE EXERCISE TO BE AT THE CORE OF THE TREATMENT OF CHRONIC DISEASE
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