As the mix of sun and showers has arrived many of us hoped for the early summer weather we were treated to last year and thought about our gardens.
In Brighton and Hove the Allotment Association even advertised the availability of raised beds for those who couldn’t manage to garden an ordinary allotment.
Image:Flickr-Dan Malec
This method allows people access who wouldn’t normally be mobile enough to garden so low on the ground. We know that gardening and being out in the fresh air is revitalising for us all and is particularly helpful for the less able whatever their age.
In this gardening video BevVan Phillips suggests that if gardening or any other hobby is part of what makes us, we should find a way to keep it going. Even if this means finding tools that suit our condition. Watch it below.
Bionics for the muscles
Meanwhile over in the States came a report about the Bioness L-300 Device. This helps people with limited mobility by sending electric impulses to the parts of the body that need to move. The case study told of a woman with multiple sclerosis who suffered from drop foot due to her condition. Drop foot means you can’t lift your toe. This meant that she couldn’t walk. The device sends an impulse to her muscle at just the right time and has allowed her to regain her mobility.
What is the device? It’s a lightweight cuff that goes around your calf, in this instance with a ‘reader’ attached to it. In your shoe you wear a slim plastic strip which is the sensor.
Learn more about it via the video (see link above) or on their website, where you’ll see they have similar devices for weak thighs and paralysed hands. And the good news is they are available in the UK.
The report also says the device has good results for stroke sufferers and others with conditions that effect mobility.
Think young and achieve more
While we’re on the subject of good news, fitness guru and blogger Donna Martini says you’re only as old as you believe you are. Her theory is that our bodies are easily influenced by how we think. She backs this up with a book she quotes called Counter Clockwise by Ellen Langor, who says that studying how the elderly’s view of their age dictates how they think.
Donna says she needed no convincing and in her work with older people she asks them to defy age. She says she hears all the age-related excuses from ‘I have arthritis so I can’t play tennis’ to ‘I can’t do 50 push-ups now that I’m 50’. She tells her clients to lie to their bodies. She reckons that if you’ve been telling yourself that you can’t do this or achieve that for years, then imagine the reaction when you tell your body what it can do!
Her advice, “All you need to do to slow the aging process is to speed up the mental process. YOU get to decide how you feel everyday. Make a decision to be the best you can be, then move more, eat better and think differently. You are never too old to start thinking young!” We have been told.
To re-enforce Donna’s point of view, watch this video below which shows that ’60 is the new 30’.
What do you think of this? Are you still enjoying the garden low down or have you taken to raised beds or lots of hanging baskets? Do you still exercise or have you felt that you are too old for it now? Maybe it’s time to get some help in the form of a useful gadget like a stairlift, rising chair or adjustable electric bed which are all products found in our Mobility Products Showroom.