Geriatric Physiotherapy
Home > Geriatric Physiotherapy

What is a Geriatric Physiotherapy?
Geriatric physiotherapy is a form of physical therapy designed for older adults and their unique health issues and challenges. It considers that older adults tend to become less active over time, experience decreased muscle strength, coordination, and reaction timing, and have a lower tolerance for physical activity.
Geriatric physiotherapy differs from other forms of physical therapy because the activities and treatment methods are formulated considering their health conditions, physiological status, energy levels, and sensitivity to physical activities.
It focuses more on building strength and endurance in older adults to help them:
- Keeping active.
- Preventing deconditioning, i.e. the loss of physical strength due to illness, injury, or inactivity.
- Preventing muscle atrophy (the loss of muscle mass due to inactivity).
- Decreasing the risk of falls.
- Maintaining independence in performing daily activities.
What does Geriatric Physiotherapy include?
Physiotherapists experienced in geriatric physiotherapy can design programs for seniors based on detailed information about their health conditions, lifestyle, and expectations of physiotherapy outcomes.
Geriatric physical therapy generally consists of exercises that improve strength, flexibility, endurance, and balance to aid daily activities and movements and prevent overall deconditioning.
Exercises of Geriatric Physiotherapy
- Lower body stretches, especially for the lower back, hamstrings, and his, to promote mobility and joint alignment and to prevent tight muscles or stiff joints from interfering with their movements.
- Endurance training to keep the heart and lungs healthy and improve circulation using equipment like treadmills and stationary bikes.
- Lower body strengthening exercises target the glutes and quads (muscles in the thighs and buttocks) to maintain strength, such as sit-to-stands, squats, step-ups, leg lifts, and bridges.
- Balance exercises to help you maintain your stability when standing, walking, and changing directions, including static balance exercises on flat and uneven surfaces, weight-shifting exercises, marching, and tandem walking heel to toe.
In addition to guided exercises, geriatric physiotherapy includes many other treatment methods. Some of the standard therapies include
- Manual therapy, which includes gentle soft tissue and joint mobilization and stretching by a skilled physical therapist to control pain and improve motion.
- Neuromuscular Reeducation (NMR): A hands-on approach to treating and managing soft tissue injuries and retraining impacted muscles to improve coordinated movement.
- Other modalities, such as ultrasound or electrical stimulation, ice, cold, laser and other interventions, may be suggested by physiotherapists to decrease pain and inflammation of joints.
Benefits of Geriatric Physiotherapy
Lowers dependence on medication
Most older adults take medications for age-related conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, digestion problems, and chronic pain. Physiotherapy reduces the impact of these conditions by engaging the body and mind through activities and exercises.
Improves quality of Life
Physiotherapy helps restore joint mobility and body balance by focusing on pain relief, often compromised with age. This restoration significantly reduces the risk of falls—a primary concern for older adults. Moreover, it enables seniors to move more freely and with less discomfort. These improvements help regain independence in daily activities, a critical factor in older adults’ mental and emotional well-being.