[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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- [For Seniors] Enjoyable and Healthy Chair Stretches!
- [For Seniors] Easy and Fun Core Training
- [For Seniors] Simple Recreational Activities You Can Enjoy While Seated
- For Seniors: Fun and Lively Exercise Recreation
- [For Seniors] Guaranteed to Liven Things Up! A Collection of Brain Training Activities That Will Spark Laughter
- [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
- Energetic and Lively! Sing-and-Exercise Program for Seniors
- [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)
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.
Number Game! Odd and Even
This is an exercise performed while seated, moving the hands and feet in two patterns in response to cues.
In the odd-number pattern, you raise your left hand and right leg; in the even-number pattern, you raise your right hand and left leg.
Participants switch based on the cue.
Start with simple cues of “odd” and “even,” then progress to having participants determine whether a spoken number is odd or even.
Moving opposite hand and foot, and quickly identifying numbers to form the correct body shape, helps activate the brain.
It’s also recommended to add variety with simple arithmetic like addition and subtraction to increase the thinking component.
[For Seniors] Fun Chair Exercises You Can Do While Seated (151–160)
Strengthen your core with chair Pilates
Pilates combines strength training and stretching with deep breathing.
It’s considered effective for core training and is popular especially among young women, but by doing it while seated in a chair, even older adults can safely strengthen their core.
Tilt the pelvis back and return it, move it side to side, and hinge forward from the hips while keeping your back long—above all, move slowly and only within a range that feels comfortable.
Keep encouraging deep breathing at all times, and enjoy gentle, unhurried movements as you exercise.
Sing and pass it around! Ball relay
Here’s an idea for a rhythm-based ball-passing game.
First, participants sit in a circle.
One person starts with the ball and passes it to the next person in time with the music; that person then passes it to the next, and so on.
When the music stops, the person holding the ball gets to drop out of the game.
You can also adjust the game by adding more balls depending on the number of participants.
Singing along while playing provides brain training benefits, and listening to favorite songs can boost motivation, which adds to the appeal.
Daily exercises for both hands and feet that you can do every day
When it comes to exercise for health, nothing is more important than keeping it up.
If a workout requires preparation, it can feel like a hassle and be hard to stick with.
In such cases, seated health exercises are recommended.
The key point is that they’re easy to do—you can fit them into spare moments in your day.
The movements are simple, like extending both feet forward or lifting your heels, but if you focus on engaging your muscles, you can really feel the effects.
Pay attention to how your muscles work by creating a contrast: start from a relaxed seated state and then intentionally apply strength.
Get hyped—suri-suri ton-ton!
While seated in a chair, this activity has you perform different movements with each hand on your knees.
In time with the rhythm, one open hand rubs the knee, while the other hand is closed in a fist and taps the knee.
Doing forward-and-back and up-and-down movements on opposite sides helps activate the brain and can also provide a massaging effect for the legs.
It’s also recommended to swap hand shapes and actions within the rhythm to boost quick reactions and concentration.
Once you’re comfortable with the basic movements, gradually add rules to further enhance the brain-training effect.