For seniors: Enjoyable exercises done while seated, accessible for wheelchair users.
In many senior care facilities, exercise is often incorporated as a form of physical recreation.
However, doing the same activity every day can become monotonous.
In this guide, we introduce exercises that older adults can enjoy and continue without getting bored.
We’ve also gathered safe, seated exercises for peace of mind.
These can be enjoyed by people who use wheelchairs or those who feel unsteady when standing.
From easy-to-start movements to exercises that offer a thorough workout, choose and practice according to the individual’s condition and specific concerns.
- [For Seniors] Enjoyable and Healthy Chair Stretches!
- [Seated] Fun Health Exercises for Older Adults and Seniors
- [For Seniors] Easy and Fun Core Training
- [For Seniors] Fun Exercises You Can Do While Seated
- [For Seniors] Recreational activities and games that let you have fun while strengthening your legs
- [For Seniors] Enjoy the Cold Winter! Seated Activities You Can Do
- [For Seniors] Easy and fun seated activities you can do in your room
- [For Seniors] Recommended Rhythm Play and Exercises
- [Recommended for seniors] Rejuvenating Rock-Paper-Scissors Exercise
- [For Seniors] Simple Recreational Activities You Can Enjoy While Seated
- [For Seniors] Enjoyable Indoor Activities! Recreations and Games That Engage the Mind and Body
- Cognicise you can do while seated. Simple dementia prevention.
- [For Seniors] Leg and lower-back training: Fall prevention
[For Seniors] Enjoyable Exercises for Wheelchair Users Too: Fun Chair-Seated Workouts (131–140)
Training to move the limbs on both the left and right sides
This is an exercise performed while sitting in a chair, moving your arms and legs firmly as you consider different combinations of left and right.
First, start with a simple movement: open the arm and leg on the same side alternately to the side, and check how each part moves.
From there, gradually add elements such as changing the arm–leg combinations and moving not only sideways but also forward.
When focusing on more complex movements, your range of motion can sometimes become smaller, so it’s important to add movements gradually and let your body get used to them, ensuring you can keep your attention on making clear, deliberate movements.
Patakara Dance You Can Do While Seated
This song celebrates the expected benefits of the “Patakara Exercises,” sung to a festive ondo rhythm.
With hand movements that get the whole body engaged, aim for smooth mouth movements by clearly pronouncing the “pa-ta-ka-ra” lyrics.
The moves are very simple and focus on the upper body, so they can be done while seated in a chair.
Because the drumbeat makes the rhythm easy to feel, try to catch the beat while also focusing on clear pronunciation.
Seated Balance Exercises
Some older adults may feel that training their balance is too challenging.
For those people, we recommend this seated balance exercise.
Because it’s done while sitting, it’s reassuring even for those who aren’t good at exercise.
Although it’s a seated workout, the key is to pay attention to your posture and how you sit.
Tilt your pelvis upright and stretch your back firmly as you perform the movements.
In addition to improving balance, it also promotes blood circulation, providing a refreshing effect for both body and mind.
Be mindful of your mental well-being as you incorporate it, too.
Exercises for the limbs and shoulder blades
Let’s try an exercise that moves everything from your hands to your shoulder blades, and all the way down to your feet.
For the hand exercises, we’ll use motions like neatly folding and unfolding a towel, and tying and untying a towel.
When moving the shoulder blades, bring the towel behind your back and move your shoulder blades forward and backward.
For the leg-involved towel exercise, hold the towel with both hands and rotate it all the way around your body.
When passing the towel under your feet, you’ll need to lift your feet a little, so be careful not to fall if you’re doing this standing.
If you’re seated, lift your hips slightly, pass the towel under your hips, and bring it around to your back.
Let’s look up and walk with finger exercises
The song ‘Ue o Muite Arukou’ is a famous classic by Kyu Sakamoto.
It remains a beloved piece even today.
The familiar melody is wonderful, and the uplifting lyrics are lovely too.
This time, let’s do the Goo-Choki-Pa exercise while singing this song.
It’s an exercise where you have fun making rock-paper-scissors shapes with your left and right hands.
Doing it to such a soothing tune feels calming, doesn’t it? The tempo is relaxed, so it should be easy for older adults to keep the rhythm.
Finger-Tip Rec: Ball Exercises to Build Grip Strength
This is a recreational activity focused on gripping a ball to build grip strength.
In pairs, you will perform two movements: trying to pull out a fixed ball and passing the ball to each other.
While consciously gripping the ball firmly with one hand, add the pulling and passing movements to train other areas as well.
By carefully observing your partner’s movements, this exercise also helps you become more aware of dynamic vision, concentration, and force control.
Lift one leg using numbers and kana!
It’s an exercise where you sit in a chair and make large marching movements, while adding elements like thinking about numbers or speaking.
First, march in place while counting 30 steps, and on multiples of 3, lift your feet and pause.
Once you’ve got that movement down, you can add variations, such as switching from counting numbers to pronouncing the Japanese syllabary.
By combining not only body and mouth movements but also elements like numbers and vocalization, let’s effectively enhance the brain-training benefits.