Older people should go from sitting to standing ‘as much as possible’ during the day to maintain strength and guard against back problems, according to an expert. Meri-Tuuli Laaksonen is a physiotherapist with a masters degree in health and sports sciences. She is also the co-founder of Gubbe, an elderly care service which launched in London last month offering preventive and rehabilitative care to help seniors stay independent and active.
Meri-Tuuli recommends people over the age of 65 get on their feet regularly throughout the day, and spend as much time as they can outdoors. She said: “It’s really important that people of all ages stay active and go outside. When people reach retirement it’s often the case that daily movement goes down quite a lot.
“They might have previously walked to work, for example, or had an active job. If people don’t exercise regularly then physical functional ability can decrease really fast.”
