We have all been there before.

Either we have injured ourselves or have more physical limitations than we used to. As we age, medical issues can pile up that result in new exercise and physical activity limitations. Maybe there is vertigo, reduced vision, or a need to be supported when standing. Many of us start having troubles with our knees, hips or shoulders. 

Precautions:

First, it is always wise to check with your health care provider before starting any new regime and probably doubly so if you’re one of us whose body parts are no longer working as they used to. 

I’ll add that we should drop the “no pain, no gain” mantra that we grew up with. If the activity hurts or seems to aggravate an injury, then we need either to stop entirely or lessen the intensity to a point where we don’t develop pain or further injure ourselves.

There is an interesting blog post by Amy Roesch titled, “Exercises for People with Limited Mobility and Physical Disability.” 1 She covers a lot of options and points out that the key to exercising with limited mobility is to intentionally focus on what we can do, rather than on what we can't. 

But her post was written from a neurotypical's point of view   🐙

What is the key to getting us ADHDers to exercise, even with physical limitations?

We need to engage our interest-based ADHD brains by choosing activities that are interesting, challenging, or novel. (See my previous post 2 for examples of what that means)

Using Wheels (Adding Interest or Novelty)

For bicycling, consider recumbent bikes and e-bikes. I once owned a recumbent bicycle, rode it everywhere, and loved it. It had a wide, low seat and worked well on smooth roads and paths.

Now that I live in an area with some serious hills, I’ve come to really love an e-bike. It’s a “hill eraser” (as my 87 year old father says), and yet it only supplies energy when I’m pedaling. Studies show that e-bikers get just as much (or more) exercise as regular bikers, partly because they like doing it so much and do it more regularly. (Our e-bike was expensive, but my husband and I consider it our “second car.”) 

Consider riding an adult-sized push scooter just for fun!  Several years ago when my (regular) bike was stolen, I bought a scooter to replace it. It was good exercise and easy on my knees. It was lots of fun, and cheaper than replacing my bike.

I like using wheels for exercise because I can use them for errands, enabling me to get what I call “incidental exercise.” It is so much easier for me to do that than it is to do a “workout!”

In The Water (Adding Interest or Novelty or a Challenge)

We can get great low-impact exercise in the water, where buoyancy is our muscular-skeletal system’s best friend. Once you’ve got the basic skills there is no upper age limit for getting the benefits of swimming. There are countless success stories of people who switched to water sports because their joints could no longer handle the stress of exercising on pavement. Pool choices include swimming, water jogging, water walking, water polo, aqua exercise classes and synchronized swimming. 

Open water choices include all that plus paddle boarding and kayaking and more. Currently I swim several times a week in open water with a group of friends that love being in nature as much as I do.

Seated Activity (Adding Interest or Novelty)

Check out the skit in a 1959 television special in which Fred Astaire and Donald O’Connor do a medley of their old dance routines while sitting in chairs.3 It is possible to dance while seated in a chair, or while standing with a walker. 

There are some very fun options for seated dance exercise with music, such as those offered by Paul Eugene and Alexis Perkins on YouTube. Eugene has over 150 free chair-dance videos 4 in a variety of music and dance styles. Perkins also has chair dance videos 5 with great music (Dancing Queen!), also for free on her YouTube channel.

After poking around the blogs and videos, I have come to realize that someone has probably already developed a workaround for almost every activity, enabling people with limited mobility to do something for their exercise. 

Physical therapists and hospital medical wellness programs offer tons of interesting options that are designed for specific medical needs and limitations.

References:

1. Exercises for People with Limited Mobility and Physical Disability by Amy Roesch https://blog.ultrahuman.com/exercises-for-people-limited-mobility-physical-disability/

2. Previous blog: "ADHD and Exercise Part 2: Do What You Like"
3. Search on YouTube for “gene kelly and donald oconnor chairs”
4. Search @PaulEugene on YouTube
5. Search @iamkingalexis on YouTube