Summary of exercises for seniors: introducing preventative care movements by body part.
To stay healthy in both body and mind for as long as possible, preventive care is essential.
Whole-body training is effective for preventive care.
In this article, we introduce exercises for older adults, organized by body part.
Since there are exercises that work the entire body from the neck to the toes, we recommend doing different body parts on different days.
Be careful not to try doing everything at once, as it may tire you out.
Use this article to help maintain the health of older adults.
- [For Seniors] Easy and Fun Core Training
- [For Seniors] Fun Exercises You Can Do While Seated
- [For Seniors] Recommended Easy Strength Training
- For seniors: Enjoyable exercises done while seated, accessible for wheelchair users.
- For Seniors: Fun and Lively Exercise Recreation
- Energetic and Lively! Sing-and-Exercise Program for Seniors
- [Seated] Fun Health Exercises for Older Adults and Seniors
- [Recommended for seniors] Rejuvenating Rock-Paper-Scissors Exercise
- Let's extend our healthy lifespan! Care exercises to stay active and energetic forever
- [Today's Recommendation] Gentle Health Exercises for Seniors
- [For Seniors] Hand and finger play roundup: Finger exercises that lead to brain training
- [For Seniors] Recreational activities and games that let you have fun while strengthening your legs
- [For Seniors] Have Fun and Relieve Stress! Introducing Dances Everyone Can Enjoy Together
Summary of exercises for older adults: introducing preventive care workouts by body part (1–10)
lower back exercises
These are exercises performed while seated, moving your legs and body to loosen the muscles around your lower back.
They help prevent and improve lower back pain, and by moving the pelvis thoroughly, they also contribute to more stable walking.
You’ll do movements like lifting your legs and leaning your body forward while keeping awareness on your lower back.
To loosen up effectively, maintaining proper posture and not holding your breath are also key points.
If you have significant lower back pain, do the exercises only within a comfortable range, and gently loosen the muscles according to your fitness level.
Toe rock-paper-scissors
Let’s strengthen the often-overlooked muscles of your toes by playing rock-paper-scissors with your feet.
Being able to move your toes smoothly can help prevent falls, increase walking speed, and promote circulation.
Since forming the shapes using only your feet right away can be demanding, start by thoroughly loosening your feet with your hands before trying toe movements.
It’s important to stretch and loosen each toe carefully and to use your hands to assist as you learn the correct way to move them.
Begin by forming the shapes slowly, and gradually increase the speed at which you make them.
Neck exercises
In recent years, as smartphones have become widespread, not only shoulder stiffness but also neck stiffness has reportedly increased.
If you’re an older adult using a smartphone, do you feel stiffness in your neck? When there is stiffness around the neck, the autonomic nervous system—which regulates internal organ activity—can become sluggish, making you more prone to fatigue.
So let’s loosen up the neck area with simple neck exercises that even older adults can easily do.
These exercises include easy movements you can perform while seated.
They help balance the autonomic nervous system and provide a refreshing break, so try to continue every day within a comfortable range.
Summary of Exercises for Older Adults: Area-by-Area Introduction to Preventive Care Movements (11–20)
Goo-Paa Exercise
This is an exercise designed to stimulate the brain by performing different movements with both hands and feet.
By paying attention to the muscles while shaping the hands and moving the feet, you can also expect benefits such as smoother body movement and improved circulation.
You start with a simple motion—extending both arms forward—and gradually make it more complex by adding elements like hand shapes, the direction you extend your arms, and stepping.
The goal is to reproduce the specified movements as accurately as possible, but even if it doesn’t go perfectly, the process of thinking about the next movement serves as brain training, so keep challenging yourself without giving up.
Maintaining correct posture and moving each body part thoroughly are also important points.
oral exercises
“I want to keep enjoying delicious meals no matter how old I get.” To make that wish come true, we highly recommend oral exercises! Oral exercises involve training the tongue and the muscles around the mouth.
As we age, a decline in oral function can lead to reduced appetite and a higher risk of aspiration.
Oral exercises are very effective in preventing this.
They’re simple activities like speaking slowly and clearly, combining hand movements with vocalization, or moving the tongue inside the mouth.
Doing them while vocalizing might even help relieve stress!
Thigh exercises
Everyone wants to keep walking on their own feet forever, right? As we get older, we tend to fall more easily, and many people may find their walking unsteady and troubling.
For those people, exercises that strengthen the quadriceps are highly recommended.
The quadriceps are the muscles on the front of the thighs, and they work when you stand up from a chair or sit down slowly.
By training your thigh muscles, you can lift your feet more smoothly and swing them forward when walking.
You can do these exercises while sitting in a chair or even lying down, so try them in a way that suits your condition.
Finger exercises
There are many capillaries running through the hands and fingertips, and using your hands is said to help increase blood flow to the brain.
When cerebral blood flow increases, more stimulation reaches the brain, which can be effective for preventing dementia in older adults.
Here’s a fingertip exercise you can do while seated to a rhythm.
It fully engages the fingertips—such as finger circles, thumb exercises, and bending and stretching the fingers—but there are no difficult movements, so even seniors should be able to do it without strain.
Once you get used to the routine, you can level up by doing it at a faster tempo!