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Rowley’s Story
I began the Otago Exercise Programme a
year ago and soon began to feel the benefits
of joining.
Initially I was exercising on alternate days but as I like keeping my weekends free of routine I changed to Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and the first thing I became aware of was that I look forward to my exercise days because I enjoy the exercises. Some are easy and some more challenging (balancing on one leg!) but all make me breathe deeply and concentrate on what I am doing and what I am trying to achieve.
I very much appreciated the well-spaced follow-up visits, and the occasional telephone calls were also helpful in keeping up my enthusiasm as I knew I wasn’t working in a vacuum.
Another benefit of the programme is that my posture has deteriorated with age, and the exercises and walks remind me to stand tall and, when walking, to swing my arms and walk purposefully.
Filling in the calendar every day (almost) gives me a great feeling of “Well done me!” which is so good for morale and consequently the greatest benefit of all is that I feel good not only about my level of fitness but also about myself.
I have had no falls since beginning the programme and this is also attributable to the sound advice in the booklet “Standing Up To Falls” which made me aware of potential hazards and to this day, a year later, I find that I notice eg the flex from a heater or a hosepipe on the lawn or anything else that could trip me.
However when out walking recently, (keeping my head up and swinging my arms!) I failed to notice some leaves from a flax plant that had been blown out onto the footpath by a recent gale, and tripped quite dramatically but had no difficulty in regaining my balance….
The Otago Programme in action!
Rowley, aged 87
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