Let's extend our healthy lifespan! Care exercises to stay active and energetic forever
As we get older, it can become harder to move our bodies, and we may feel our stamina declining.
Some of you might be thinking, “I want to take preventive steps before my body becomes less mobile.”
In this article, we introduce exercise routines for elderly adults to help maintain a healthy body!
We’ll cover a wide range of exercises—from simple routines you can do while seated to slightly more challenging ones.
Use these ideas as fun ways to extend healthy life expectancy, perfect for day services or recreational activities in care facilities!
- [Seated] Fun Health Exercises for Older Adults and Seniors
- [For Seniors] Recommended Easy Strength Training
- [For Seniors] Hand and finger play roundup: Finger exercises that lead to brain training
- [For Seniors] Easy and Fun Core Training
- [For Seniors] Let's try customizing the usual Pa-Ta-Ka-Ra exercises!
- Summary of exercises for seniors: introducing preventative care movements by body part.
- Recommended simple exercises for recreational activities for the elderly
- For Seniors: Fun and Lively Exercise Recreation
- [For Seniors] Stretching Exercises: Easy and Safe to Do
- [Today's Recommendation] Gentle Health Exercises for Seniors
- [For Seniors] Fun Exercises You Can Do While Seated
- For seniors: Enjoyable exercises done while seated, accessible for wheelchair users.
- For Seniors: Effective Recreation for Preventing Care Needs—Have Fun While Staying Healthy
Let's extend our healthy life expectancy! Care exercises (11–20) to stay active forever
Great for recreation, too! Newspaper-pulling exercise
This is a fun, chair-seated exercise using newspaper.
First, place a long strip of connected newspaper at your feet.
At the start signal, pull it backward.
Through the motion of moving the newspaper, you train the strength to press through your feet and the muscles that move the legs forward and backward.
Focusing on using your toes to grasp the newspaper is another key tip—and a great training opportunity.
If you do it as a race and focus on speed, it should also help improve explosive power.
Foot and brain training with numbers
Walking is said to be good exercise for your legs and to help activate the brain.
Here’s an excellent way to get both benefits.
It’s an exercise that uses a 60-centimeter square cardboard board called a “step board.” To make the board, simply divide the cardboard surface into eight sections and write the numbers 1 through 8.
Place the board on the floor, put your feet on it, and try stepping with one foot at a time in order from number 1.
It’s even more effective if you increase the difficulty by trying patterns like “odd to even, even to odd” or “random numbers.”
Brain Training Ball Exercises
This exercise focuses on how you move the ball, training not only the body but also stimulating the brain.
You start by alternately repeating the motion of grasping the ball from above and from below, then add movements of the hand without the ball and the feet.
Changing the position where you grasp the ball requires quickness and grip strength, so if that part is difficult, it may be better to switch to a different motion, such as simply squeezing the ball.
What’s most important is performing different movements with both hands and both feet, so proceed in a way that doesn’t place strain on the body.
Kiyoshi’s Zundoko Song
One of Japan’s leading enka singers, Kiyoshi Hikawa.
Many of you are probably fans of his, right? With that in mind, we’d like to introduce a fall-prevention exercise routine that uses his song “Kiyoshi no Zundoko-bushi.” In this routine, you sway both hands to the rhythm and touch various parts of your body.
The movements are simple, and you can do them either standing or seated.
Try it out to the music and have fun! Shouting a lively call at the end is another entertaining touch.
Donpan Exercises
It’s an exercise where you move your body in time with the lyrics of the traditional Akita folk song “Donpan Bushi.” You move your hands to the sounds “don” and “pan,” aiming for light, agile body movement through rhythm-based actions.
The song is characterized by a progression in which more and more words are packed in, so it naturally draws your attention to bigger and quicker movements—another key point.
By changing the movement patterns or adjusting the tempo of the song, you can add variations that require thinking, which may also provide brain-training benefits.
Spring has come.
Doesn’t it sound refreshing to move your body to a bright, lively melody? That’s why I’d like to introduce a sing-and-exercise routine using “Haru ga Kita” (“Spring Has Come”).
A key feature is that you can do it while seated, focusing on simple movements like marching your feet and opening and closing your hands.
If you sing along as you do it, it’ll lift your spirits even more.
Once you get used to it, I also recommend trying a slightly faster tempo.
Give it a go together with friends and have fun!
Extend your healthy life expectancy! Care exercises to stay active forever (21–30)
Care prevention exercises to the tune of Kiyoshi’s Zundoko-bushi
These days, Kiyoshi Hikawa has been showcasing new sides of his charm to the public.
I imagine there are fans of Kiyoshi Hikawa among older adults as well.
And when it comes to his hit songs, “Kiyoshi no Zundoko-bushi” comes to mind, doesn’t it? It’s a tune known across many generations.
Let’s move our bodies to “Kiyoshi no Zundoko-bushi.” The key to exercise is consistency.
If the workout uses a song familiar to older adults, it might be easier to keep it up while having fun.
By all means, try singing along as you do the exercises.
