[For Seniors] Fun Exercises You Can Do While Seated
When it comes to recreation essential for the physical and mental health of older adults, exercise is at the top of the list.
Not only does it help prevent declines in stamina and muscle strength, but it’s also effective for preventing falls.
However, some seniors may find vigorous exercise difficult.
For those individuals, we recommend chair exercises that can be done while seated.
Moving rhythmically to music makes it enjoyable and easy to stick with.
What’s more, by stimulating the muscles and brain, these exercises can improve circulation and may help prevent conditions such as dementia.
Even those who aren’t confident about physical activity can enjoy these simple exercises, so please use them as a helpful reference.
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- [Recommended for seniors] Rejuvenating Rock-Paper-Scissors Exercise
- For seniors: Leg-strengthening exercises you can do without overexertion.
- Cognicise you can do while seated. Simple dementia prevention.
- [Today's Recommendation] Gentle Health Exercises for Seniors
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- [Seated] Fun Health Exercises for Older Adults and Seniors
- Hand games that liven things up for seniors—also great brain training
[For Seniors] Fun Chair Exercises (141–150)
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.
Clap Hands Rock-Paper-Scissors Exercise
Exercises that incorporate clapping are easy to keep in rhythm and are recommended for older adults.
One such exercise involves randomly making rock–paper–scissors shapes with both hands while layering in claps.
It provides positive stimulation to the brain and supports the physical and mental health of seniors.
Because it uses all the fingers, it seems likely to train each individual nerve.
It’s wonderful that, with a bit of creativity, rock–paper–scissors can lead to so many different finger exercises.
Moving with the clapping rhythm may help energize both body and mind.
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 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!
