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!
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Extend your healthy lifespan! Care exercises to stay active forever (41–50)
Goo Choki Paa-ty (Rock-Paper-Scissors Party)
Shall we all try dancing the “Goo-Choki-Paa” exercise together—just watching it might lift your spirits! This routine is done standing, but it can also be done seated, so it can be adapted to the physical and mental condition of older adults.
Various animals and creatures appear throughout, and their movements are expressed with the hands and feet.
For example, a fist (goo) can represent a gorilla, and scissors (choki) can represent a crab—there are so many ways to communicate using just your hands.
Don’t forget to take a deep breath at the end to refresh your body and mind.
Let’s extend our healthy life expectancy! Care exercises to stay active forever (51–60)
Twisting exercise
In addition to weakening of the legs and hips, stiffness in the upper body—such as the sides of the torso and the spine—can also cause older adults to fall.
Normally, when turning to look behind, the body twists in order: head, upper body, hips, then legs.
However, if the upper body is stiff, the lower body twists first.
As a result, the head and upper body can’t keep up with the twist, which may lead to a fall.
This video explains the importance of keeping the upper body flexible and practicing twisting movements to prevent falls.
The exercises are performed while seated, so they can be done safely.
ankle weight
It’s about adding resistance to everyday, ordinary movements and turning daily life itself into training.
Since the idea is to use a level of resistance that doesn’t interfere with your routine, the key is being able to do it casually without focusing too hard.
It’s not a training method that applies force in bursts; rather, it involves continuously adding small amounts of resistance, which can make it harder to feel immediate results—that’s the tricky part.
Because it’s done over time, advance planning is important: deciding how long to apply the resistance and how much resistance to use are both crucial.
Guu-Choki-Paa Exercise
The “Goo-Choki-Paa Exercise” is a workout where you do body exercises while making rock–scissors–paper hand shapes.
Because it moves your whole body, not just your fingers, it’s likely to have positive effects on both physical and mental health.
It can be done seated, which makes it appealing because it can be adjusted to the physical and mental condition of older adults.
First, move your upper body while doing rock–scissors–paper with your hands.
Tilting your head upward also engages the neck, making it a good exercise.
Next, do rock–scissors–paper with your feet.
This helps loosen the muscles in your legs and hip joints, so it should be a very beneficial workout.
step exercise
By stepping in time with the music, this routine makes it enjoyable to train the action of lifting your feet.
In addition to marching in place, adding steps in various directions helps you become more aware of hip and knee movements.
Another important point is to set a wide step platform in front of you; by incorporating movements that go up onto it, you can effectively strengthen your pushing-off power.
As you practice while thinking through more complex step patterns and let your body get used to them, this training can also lead to smoother walking.
Urinary leakage exercises using a towel
Let’s strengthen the pelvic floor muscles to improve urinary leakage.
When the pelvic floor muscles weaken, the ability to tighten the urethra decreases.
Lifting something heavy or sneezing and coughing can increase abdominal pressure and lead to leakage.
Here is a pelvic floor exercise you can do while seated.
Sit in a chair, place a towel between your thighs, and squeeze.
As you exhale, squeeze the towel and focus on tightening your anal muscles as well.
Inhale and relax, and repeat 10 to 20 times.
Because it can be done while sitting, it’s an easy exercise for older adults too.
Ball training in pairs
This is a partner exercise where you work together to give the ball various movements.
If the way you apply force or move differs, you might drop the ball, so it’s important to stay aware of your partner’s movements and adjust your strength.
Let’s loosen up our bodies cooperatively while keeping a strong sense of consideration for our partner.
In the motion of passing and receiving the ball, it’s important to watch the ball and your partner’s movements, which also trains concentration and dynamic visual acuity.
Enjoying the activity while recalling days spent playing with a ball may lead to more efficient movement.