[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.
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- Hand games that liven things up for seniors—also great brain training
[For Seniors] Fun Chair Exercises You Can Do While Seated (161–170)
Exercises to prevent a hunched back
To strengthen your back muscles, it’s important to move your shoulders.
If you can move them properly, it will help support correct posture and also improve rounded shoulders.
This is a training routine you can do while seated, slowly moving the muscles around your shoulder blades.
Follow a sequence that supports shoulder movement with coordinated arm and torso actions, and take your time to rotate your shoulders slowly.
It’s also important to proceed while exhaling slowly—relaxing will help increase your shoulder’s range of motion.
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.
[For Seniors] Fun Chair Exercises (171–180)
Get excited! Daily movements and upper-body exercises
While seated, use a towel to actively move your upper body! Even simple actions—like folding a towel or hooking it onto something—can effectively engage your upper body.
If you turn these movements into friendly competitions with peers at a day service, it can spark communication and reduce feelings of loneliness.
You can race to see who folds towels faster, or compete to see who can grab a towel placed on the lap more quickly at the signal “Ready, go!” Another fun option is a team game where two people hold a towel together, balance a beanbag on it, and try to carry and drop it into a box.
Consider incorporating these as part of your recreation activities.
Get hyped! High-speed patakara
This is an exercise that encourages you to pay close attention to the speed of articulation and aim for smooth mouth movements.
Focusing on each of the syllables in the familiar “pa-ta-ka-ra,” it’s a simple activity where you repeatedly say the specified syllable in succession.
It’s easiest to follow the person standing in front, using their pronunciation as a reference and aiming for the same mouth movements and the same speed.
The comical effort of trying hard to pronounce the same word is also an important point—let’s make it fun while training the mouth’s movements.
Simple finger exercises
This is a brain-training exercise where you count numbers using your fingers held out in front of your body, gradually adding more elements to how you move them.
When you focus on your hands in front of you, it’s easy to slip into a relaxed posture, so it’s important to be mindful about sitting up straight with your back extended.
Start by making the same shape with both hands; once you get used to that, move on to making different shapes, gradually increasing the complexity of how you switch between them.
If you add not only hand shapes but also forward/back and side-to-side movements of the arms, it will further enhance the brain-training effect and help you stay aware of your arm muscles as well.
Ear, Nose Game
Pinch your nose with one hand, and with the other hand crossed over, pinch the ear on the opposite side.
At the cue, switch that configuration, aiming to swap hands smoothly.
The key points are that each hand is pinching a different spot and that one hand is crossed over.
Thinking carefully while moving your hands helps activate the brain.
Even just the hand-switching action is challenging, but adding a clap before switching, for example, makes it even harder and further enhances awareness of movement and concentration.
Hip joint movement
Smoothing the movement of the hip joints leads to the lifting motion of the legs, which is essential for walking.
These are exercises that strengthen the hips to support healthy everyday walking.
The key is that they can be done easily while seated in a chair, making them simple to incorporate into daily life.
The movements are straightforward—such as extending the legs and bending the body forward—while maintaining clear awareness of engaging the hip joints.
It’s also important to focus on using the chair for support and moving in ways that prevent injury.