For Seniors: Effective Recreation for Preventing Care Needs—Have Fun While Staying Healthy
For the physical and mental well-being of older adults, rehabilitation that involves moving the arms and legs is ideal.
However, simply following a set rehabilitation routine doesn’t always lead to motivation.
In this article, we introduce enjoyable recreational activities that contribute to arm and leg rehabilitation for older adults.
From group activities that everyone can get excited about to options you can focus on individually, you’ll surely find fun ways to work on functional improvement.
Choose according to each person’s physical and mental condition.
We hope you find this helpful.
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- [For Seniors] Fun Recreational Activities Without Equipment
- [For Seniors] Core Training: Recommended Simple Rehabilitation
- [For Seniors] Easy and fun seated activities you can do in your room
- [For Seniors] Introducing Recreational Activities Anyone Can Enjoy at Geriatric Health Facilities!
- [For Seniors] Leg and lower-back training: Fall prevention
- For seniors: Leg-strengthening exercises you can do without overexertion.
- Recreation Activities Effective for Long-Term Care Prevention for Seniors
[For Seniors] Effective for Preventing Care Needs! Fun Recreational Activities (181–190)
Rock, paper, scissors
Movements of the hands and fingers are closely connected to the brain’s nerves, so they have a deep relationship.
It’s said that moving the hands and fingers can help prevent dementia and reduce the risk of falls.
Many senior care facilities likely incorporate activities that move the fingers, such as the rock–paper–scissors exercise.
So, let’s add a little twist to your usual finger exercises.
Try doing rock–paper–scissors gradually faster, or go in reverse—paper, scissors, rock—while speeding up.
It’s also great to add handclaps in between, or make a fox shape with your hand.
It’s okay to make mistakes with this exercise, and not doing it perfectly will probably bring some laughs.
It’s a finger workout you can enjoy while having fun.
[For Seniors] Effective for Preventing the Need for Care! Fun Recreational Activities (191–200)
Korokoro Pon Game
Here’s a tabletop game that uses balls.
Prepare balls of different sizes, such as ping-pong balls or rubber balls about the size of a fist.
An older adult rolls a ball from one end of the table.
On the opposite side of the table from where the older adult is rolling, hang a basket.
The game is to roll the ball and get it into this basket.
It can be played while seated, so it seems suitable for older adults who use wheelchairs as well.
Moments like “It almost went in but didn’t!” are likely to make it exciting for the participants.
Roll-roll! Plastic Bottle Rec(creation)
This is a game where you roll a plastic bottle with your foot and aim to deliver it into higher-scoring areas.
You’ll need power to get it across the line into a high-score zone, but if you build up too much momentum, your score can actually drop—so it really tests your control.
Pay close attention to how you move your foot and how that affects the bottle’s speed, and aim for precise control.
If you place obstacles or other bottles on the field, you can enjoy the added strategy of using or avoiding them, which makes it even more fun and is highly recommended.
Gum-Gum Kick Bowling
It’s a game where a newspaper ball is connected to your foot with a rubber band, and you try to kick it to knock down milk-carton pins in front of you.
It tests fine control of your foot—like whether you can bring the ball into a good kicking position and transfer your kicking power effectively.
You can also see individual styles: will you focus on a single, concentrated kick to topple as many pins as possible, or prioritize speed by kicking repeatedly? You can adjust the difficulty by changing the length of the rubber band or the size of the ball, so let’s have people try it in various configurations.
Golf game
Here’s an introduction to a simple and fun paper-cup “golf” game.
Lay paper cups labeled with point values on their sides on the floor, and roll ping-pong balls to try to get them into the cups.
The winner is decided by how many ping-pong balls land in the cups.
Calculating the points for the ping-pong balls also provides a brain workout.
Since this golf game can be played while seated, it’s suitable for older adults who have difficulty standing.
Adjusting the force to roll the balls also helps with arm rehabilitation.
Some older adults may have enjoyed golf in the past, and this paper-cup golf can evoke those memories, too.
Get it with dice
Here’s a dice game you can enjoy using items from a 100-yen shop.
All you need are a die, some balls, and three baskets.
Put the balls into one of the baskets, then place one basket for yourself and one for your opponent—now you’re ready! Take turns rolling the die and move the number of balls shown into your own basket.
Continue until there are no balls left.
The player with the most balls at the end wins.
Because luck plays a big role, differences in ability are minimized, so anyone can enjoy it.
Rolling the die and picking up the balls also serve as upper-limb functional training, and counting the numbers can provide cognitive training benefits.
Give it a try!
scrunchie
Scrunchies for tying up hair are one of the easiest projects to make! One of their charms is that there are many ways to create them—such as crochet patterns or sewing a long, tube-shaped piece of fabric and threading elastic through it.
Making them with crochet, knitting, or hand sewing also stimulates your fingertips, making them perfect for hand rehabilitation.
They’re great as gifts for family, too.
And scrunchies aren’t just hair accessories; they can also be used as bag decorations or bands for planners, so you can make as many as you like with no problem! Give it a try.
