Crawling — best exercise for the old

NST: KOTA BARU: While exercise is important for everyone, what about the elderly who are weak and frail?
What type of exercises are suitable for them?
Take up crawling, advises Dr Azidah Abdul Kadir from Universiti Sains Malaysia’s family health department.
She said crawling was the simplest exercise for the elderly who were frail, have weak muscles and are unable to do other exercises.
"They cannot jog and even if they walk, they do it very slowly," she said after giving a talk on "Physical and Sexual Health Problems at the Golden Age" at USM’s health campus here yesterday.
"However, they need to continue exercising to strengthen their muscles and retain stability of the body.
"Crawling is good for them as it involves both hands and legs. It also has other advantages as it can be done indoors and in the privacy of their rooms."
The Living Through The Golden Age seminar was organised by the Malaysian Menopause Association and the Women’s Development Unit of the School of Medical Sciences, USM. It was attended by more than 100 people.
Dr Azidah said crawling was also good as it could be done in several directions either straight, sideways or backwards.
She said to get the most benefit, it should be done a minimum of 10 times in the three directions.
Dr Azidah said the exercises were good to help them control diseases like diabetes, heart diseases and hypertension.