Stay Strong for Your Grandkids: Simple Daily Movement Tips to Prevent Falls

In this episode of It’s a Grand Life, host Craig Nash sits down with physical therapist Dr. Dawn Thomas to discuss how grandparents raising grandchildren can stay healthy, mobile, and independent. 
They break down simple, realistic ways to incorporate movement into daily routines—without needing a gym or intense workouts. From improving balance to preventing falls, even just a few minutes of movement multiple times a day can make a meaningful difference. 
This conversation is all about helping caregivers not just get by—but truly enjoy life with their grandkids.

https://www.dawnthomaspt.com/

#ItsAGrandLife #Grandfamilies #KinshipCare #HealthyAging #FallPrevention #SeniorHealth #MobilityMatters #ActiveAging #GrandparentsRaisingGrandchildren #CaregiverSupport #WellnessTips #PhysicalTherapy #StayActive #AgingStrong

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Welcome to It's a Grand Life, where our mission is to be a voice for grandfamilies and kinship caregivers everywhere. Did you know that in the United States alone, there are 2.3 million grandparents raising their grandchildren? 2.3 million. It's a Grand Life is committed to making a difference for those kids. That's why we have the podcast, a Facebook group, and the grand fund. The Grand Fund, which is a 501c3 which was launched in June of 2024, provides financial assistance to grand families, including shelter, food, clothing, and household needs. Grand families are in every neighborhood, in every city, every tribe, and territory nationwide. If this is you or someone you love, we're here for you. And we welcome you to join us on this mission. Our goal is to offer hope and resources to help you. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us wherever you get your podcast and leave a review. You can also join our Facebook group, just search for it under It's a Grand Life. And your reviews, comments, and sharing of our podcasts help us reach others that need assistance. Welcome to another episode of It's a Grand Life. Hello, my name is Craig Nash. I want to introduce you to a wonderful guest that I met last week. Someone new to It's a Grand Life, Dr. Dawn Thomas, and she is a physical therapist from Dawn Thomas PT, right here in Michigan. And I know, regardless of what part of the country you are located in, if you are a grandparent who is raising their grandkids, Dr. Dawn has some advice for you because movement, mobility, balance, and vestibular issues become the real world as we age. And Dr. Dawn, thank you so much for joining us here on It's a Grand Life.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Thanks, Craig. I love talking to people about preventing falls and preventing issues so that they can enjoy their life. This is what I love talking about. So I'm happy to talk with you about it.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Well, uh ironically enough, that's exactly what we need to hear about preventing falls. Because uh, when you are uh folks my age and older, when you are uh as active as we are raising our grandkids, uh we have to be doubly concerned about maintaining our balance and movement and other things. And and Dr. Dawn, what would be like the first thing you would tell a grandparent who's raising their grandkids about how to just have better overall health?

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Well, movement. Uh that's always my go-to answer to those types of questions because uh movement really becomes medicine for us, and the more that we can maintain a regular movement schedule, and it doesn't have to be special or it doesn't have to be a certain genre of exercise. And I use the word movement because sometimes exercise sounds a little bit intimidating to people, or um, because very simple movement routines can do make a big effect on your system. So regular movement, and by regular I mean multiple times a day, not just a couple times a week, multiple times a day.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

So um if if I am a stay-at-home grandparent raising my grandchild, if I'm just sitting home every morning watching the view, that's not something you would recommend just being just staying in one place, just being sitting down for the entire day. You want multiple opportunities to do that.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Yes, yes, and we do that by creating um building new habits, really, and and really it's the it's the the commitment to understand um where the opportunities to create those habits. So if you like to watch the view every morning and that is a habit for you and you enjoy that, stack something on top of that, or in conjunction with that, that you do some sit-to-stand squats from the couch every commercial, or every time one of the presenters speaks, you do a sit-to-stand series five times. And some simple things like that can um help you build it into your day that you already have structured.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Now you mentioned sit-to-stand. That's that's pretty ironic. I just read something that that is a test as far as how healthy you are if you have the ability to go from a sitting to a standing position without hanging on to things, right? Is that uh that's that's pretty critical to do.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Yeah, there's actually two standardized tests that we use to measure your mobility or your longevity with sit to stand. One of them is how long does it take you to sit to stand five times from a chair using no hands? And we time that, and there's there's um you know a scale that tells you what we call normative data, and you can tell by your age group whether or not you fall within that normative data. And the second one is um how many times can you get up and down out of a chair in 30 seconds, which is a little bit more of a strength endurance measurement um than the first one. But um, when I when I do that with people, they get pretty, they get pretty excited that they they beat their age group, you know? So it gives them a little bit of a target um to to to feel like, oh, I'm younger than my peers based on this test.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

And I say, well, we don't want to be in the norm for our age, we want to be younger than our age, right? So it gives you a target, gives you something to work towards. But a way for you to do that at home is just simply a normal standard chair, your kitchen chair is fine, and you set a timer. And how many times can I get up and down out of this chair in in five seconds? And then and then that's something that you can work on, then that becomes the exercise and beat your time.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

That's absolutely terrific. And and um uh because it it's so critical to maintain appropriate balance and health and everything else. But um, if if I was a patient of yours who was severely deconditioned, is there hope for me?

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Yeah, so the the earlier you start, the better, of course. And and this is where um and this is where my experience comes into play because I've spent so long I've been working as a physical therapist for 30-ish years, and I have seen so many people after the catastrophe, right? So I'm going from here, from our conversation, I'm going to a gentleman's home who did sustain a fall, fractured his hip, and is, you know, two months post that, and because of his age and pre-exit pre-existing conditions, he's having a really hard time recovering. And um, so this is why because I see that so much, and your your odds of recovering after a fall after a certain age are not very good. So we want to be more proactive in preventing these things. But your original question about being super deconditioned, it's you still have opportunity. You it just because you're deconditioned doesn't mean that you can't make improvements. You just have to know where to start, and that's where you know I have the luxury of working with people one-on-one and helping them sort out where to actually start, meeting them where they are in their in their health journey. And sometimes people are starting at a very low level and they can make significant progress. It doesn't matter the age, it matters what what kind of stimulus you put on the body at the time that you start doing it.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

But so there is some good news, right, Dr. Don. I mean, you can build muscle, I heard, into your 90s. Is that true?

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Yes, that is true. That is true. With the appropriate stimulus, the appropriate load on the muscle, progressive load, and good nutrition and good recovery, you can make strength changes and muscle bulk changes at any age, for sure. Um, and then the other thing to feel hopeful for, like, I like to try to tell people, you know, people sometimes some people respond to fear, right? Like the statistics about fractures after 80, you're likely gonna die within a year. I mean, that's a scary statistic, right? Right, very sober. Yeah, and some people respond to more hope things, which is more like you know, the evidence of there's so much literature now, and evidence showing us that very small bouts of exercise make a huge difference in your ability to recover from falls, to prevent falls. I mean, simple, like an example would be um strengthening your ankles, which are movements that you can do sitting in a chair, like like that. We can teach people very safely. You can do it sitting in a chair with a simple little rubber band, and just that simple exercise of pulling your ankle up against resistance makes you less likely to fall, like with real literature and hard data. So that's very helpful to me. That's that's more like that's something manageable for someone to wrap their mind around that is not necessarily gonna completely change their lifestyle and and work out every day, so to speak. So those are little things that we know from the research that does make a substantial difference.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

And it's very important as you age to to have uh some of these exercises in your back pocket that you can do without having to go to a full gym. And but but movement is absolutely critical. Well, I just love the fact that you are you know just making this so accessible for our audience, and folks can even go online at dawnthomaspt.com and find all sorts of resources on this, and and that that makes absolutely so much sense. But the the the main thing, uh Dr. Dawn, is you gotta get busy, you gotta get moving. You know, you can't just sit still and and and expect to run a marathon. You're not asking them to run a marathon, you're saying just do some basic 30-second chair exercises. I mean, just and and and it can make a tremendous difference because falling is not the answer.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

That's right, that's right. And and again, it's just it's these little things that actually, and it it's so I love when I find these new articles that come out. Um, there was one recently about um ankle pumps. So just pumping your ankles after a meal completely changes your body's ability to process the sugar because your muscles, your muscles are the are the things that process the sugar. So it's just and it is such a small thing. It doesn't take that much of a commitment to do it. It's just understanding it and making a commitment to to spend a few minutes several times a day incorporating movement into things you already do.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

When you say um uh several minutes several times a day, how many minutes are we talking about that can make a life-changing difference for our audience?

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Well, that's a tough question. But I mean, I would say if you spent five minutes three times a day, if you're like uh I'm picturing your your audience, um seniors that have active kids around them regularly, and they're probably on the move taking care of business a lot of the day, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:30

100%. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Yeah. So trying to learn how to incorporate uh five minutes of more targeted exercise or targeted movements that are gonna strengthen the balance reaction time, strengthen the ankles, strengthen the hips, um, strengthen the visual and the vestibular response to movement that could be incorporated into their day. So I would say five minutes three times a day while you're doing something else, though. It doesn't have to be I'm changing my clothes into workout here and you know, you know, driving somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

No, it's five minutes wearing your normal clothes in your normal environment.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

So, Dr. Don, you're saying five minutes three times a day. You're not talking about five hours. We're not talking about five half-hour workouts. You're talking five, you're talking about 15 minutes a day to make a dramatic difference in your balance. And and before I let you go, I mean you you mentioned a term that you know, like the back of your hand, because you were a professor at Oakland University in PT, not just a physical therapist, but um this whole vestibular idea. Can you explain to our audience who are not physical therapists, what what is vestibular?

SPEAKER_00 13:50

These issues and so the vestibular system is a combination of how your inner ear sends messages and communicates with your brain, where your brain processes that information. So you picture our bodies are big receptors, right? So we are our inner ear happens to be have these things called the semicircular canals that are in your inner ear that that give your brain information about your position in space, particularly where your head position is, and your vision affects it as well. And then that information is sent to your brain to process that information and then helps your body react to change in position. And so it's a very common vestibular um disturbances, I would say, are very common and very under-diagnosed or undertreated. And and people will just say things like, oh, I just get a little dizzy, it goes away. Oh, I just get a little dizzy when I, you know, get out of bed real quick, and it just goes away. It's not a problem. And they don't understand that that's that could be a little bit of a vestibular issue, that there are simple ways to address that. There's little eye exercises that people can do. There's we call them habituation exercises where you intentionally change the position of your head and body to get your vestibular system to adapt to it better. So that would be an example. But our our the rest of our all our other systems are contributing to our ability to balance as well, like our muscles. And we have a different system called the proprioceptors that um also give our brain information about where our body is in space. And so if we know that and we know how we can train those receptors, then we can make our body more skilled at maintaining balance.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

It makes so much sense, and it's it's absolutely so critical to maintain that balance. And and um yeah, what our audience doesn't know is you know, I used to be in physical therapy for 20 years, not as a therapist, but I own several clinics. And how you tell a great therapist they are so passionate about education and about helping others. It's not necessarily about billing, it's about how can I make this person's life better. And Dr. Dawn, that's what you're all about. And just uh helping folks go to their house, they can come see you or what have you. And uh, but before I let you go, can you again we're we're meeting on you're offering this outstanding event. You've got several of your colleagues there. This is a fantastic time to get your questions answered. It's March 12th from 3 to 4:30, and it's in West Bloomfield, and you're gonna talk about balance and all the vestibular information you could ever want at this event, correct? Do they have to pre-register to come?

SPEAKER_00 17:01

You do have to register to come. Yep, we want to make sure we can accommodate everybody and we have enough enough equipment and enough space for everybody. So we do want you to register to come. You can go to the website donthomaspt.com and send me a message. You can text me at 248-467-4793 and message me that way, and and we can I can get you registered.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

And at the bottom of our screen is is uh uh Dr. Dawn's uh website, and her phone number is there, so please write that down and register. And for folks across the country, Dr. Dawn mentioned you can go to her website and get a ton of information on how to live a healthier uh life with five minutes a day times three times a day. This is really uh uh you're not going to the gym and getting all dressed up and sweating like crazy. We just want you to be healthy because you have several folks that are counting on you. So, Dr. Dawn, thank you so much for being our guest here on Instagram Life. I hope you'll come back anytime you have an event or anything you want to share with our audience. Uh, we would love to have you come on and uh we'll take you even between appointments. I would love it. Absolutely great, and I look forward to seeing you again at the next chamber meeting, and that's where we met last week at the Birmingham Bluefield Chamber. Yeah. I just wish you all the best in your upcoming event, and hopefully we're gonna send as many folks your way as possible. But thanks again for joining us today, and it's a great life.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Thanks, Craig. I want to just say one thing. When you're talking about your audience, I think the most important thing for me when I'm working with people is I'm trying to, the goals are always to make their movement meaningful for their lives. So for your audience, it's really about, you know, I don't want to help people survive. I want them to be able to enjoy what they're doing.

unknown 18:57

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

You want to go beyond survival, right? You want to you want your you want to be able to enjoy those grandkids and not just survive raising them, right? So move better and not hurt as much and and not feel so achy, then why not be able to enjoy it more?

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Why not? And that that is the great message. Why not enjoy your the these grand years that and these grandkids? And you you can do that by having better balance, better movement, better functionality. And any questions go to uh Dr. Is it Dr. Dawn? Uh no, excuse me. It's it's um your website is DawnThomasPT.com. You got it. And that that's where you'll get all the information you could ever want. But Dr. Dawn, thanks so much for joining us, and we hope to see you again real soon. And best of luck with your upcoming event.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Okay, thank you so much, Craig. We'll talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Thank you for joining us today for It's a Grand Life. It's a Grand Life provides vital content, regulatory updates, and subject matter experts that are committed to supporting the 2.4 million kids and their caregivers from every neighborhood, every city, every tribe and territory nationwide. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcast and leave a review. Every new subscriber and review helps us reach others that need assistance. As caregivers, we are united in purpose. We are driven by hope while providing strength for today and hope for tomorrow. We are truly making a difference in while living the grand life. If you have a suggestion for a future episode, please reach out to us. But we'll see you next time for another It's a Grand Life. Thank you for joining us.