[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] 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 (31–40)
Ball exercises to the rhythm
We’d like to introduce “ball exercises to the rhythm,” which help you move your body with a steady beat, expand your shoulder and arm range of motion, and gently raise your heart rate.
Start with a simple move: hold the ball with both hands and extend it straight out in front of you.
As you shift it rhythmically from side to side and add elbow bends and extensions, your body will gradually loosen up.
Finally, increase the variety of movements and move your whole body in time with the rhythm, which can also help stimulate brain activity.
You can start easily with a ball from a 100-yen shop, making this a fun, refreshing exercise routine.
Core and hip exercises
Here’s an exercise for the core and hip joints using a ball that can be done while seated.
Older adults can roll an easy-to-handle ball using both hands.
Have the older adult sit in a chair and, using both hands, roll the ball from around the belly area down to the toes.
While slowly rolling the ball forward, gently bend the body forward.
Because it’s a slow-paced activity, it should be easy for older adults to try.
It may also help spark communication with those around them through doing the exercise together.
Full-body cold prevention exercises
When blood circulation worsens, your body tends to get cold more easily.
So this time, we’ll introduce a “whole-body cold-prevention exercise” using a ball that you can do while sitting in a chair.
First, keep marching your feet to a rhythm and add the motion of lifting a ball held with both hands up and diagonally up.
Next, while marching, extend one foot forward and simultaneously thrust the ball forward.
By coordinating the ball-thrusting with your leg movements, you promote hand–foot coordination, which helps activate the brain.
It’s a simple exercise you can do without strain that not only improves whole-body chilliness but also helps prevent dementia and maintain muscle strength.
Highly recommended.
Posture-correcting ball exercises
Here’s a recommended idea for those concerned about a hunched back or body sway: “Posture-Aligning Ball Exercises.” First, place a ball between your knees and slowly tilt your pelvis forward and backward.
Engaging your inner thighs and abdominal muscles helps stabilize the pelvis, naturally lengthening your spine and improving posture.
Next, sit shallowly on a chair with your feet flat on the floor, and move the ball up and down with your feet; this stimulates the core and muscles around the hips, enhancing balance.
Furthermore, if you keep the ball between your legs and alternately lift your legs, it helps strengthen the abdominal and thigh muscles.
All movements are slow and low-impact, and with consistency, you can expect improvements in posture.
Fun brain-activating exercises to the rhythm of stepping
If you want to enjoy brain-activating exercises with a marching rhythm, ball exercises are recommended.
First, repeatedly extend the ball forward with one hand while lifting the opposite leg, alternating sides.
Once you get used to it, change the direction from forward to upward, coordinating your hands and feet in the same way.
Finally, match the rhythm by extending the hand opposite the lifted leg forward, forward, up, up—two times each.
This exercise requires changes in tempo and hand-foot coordination, providing strong stimulation to the brain and helping maintain concentration and reflexes.
It can be done while seated, making it easy for older adults to adopt, and it’s convenient to start with just a single ball from a 100-yen shop.
[For Seniors] Fun Chair Exercises You Can Do While Seated (41–50)
Leg exercises you can do while sitting in a chair
We’d like to introduce chair exercises that make walking much easier.
Start by rubbing your legs with your hands to loosen the muscles.
There are various movements, such as lifting each knee without letting your foot touch the floor, and opening your knees to the side and bringing them back together.
When you try hard, it’s easy to lean forward, but it’s important to sit deep in the chair and keep both feet flat on the floor as you exercise.
By doing these movements, you can expect benefits such as preventing knee pain, improving leg strength, achieving a more stable gait, and reducing the risk of falls.
Until you get used to them, do the exercises within a pain-free range and don’t push yourself.
A stick made of newspaper
This is a lower-body workout that uses a rod made by tightly rolling newspaper into a long, slender tube.
Even simple exercises like marching in place can become more focused when you use the rod alongside them, helping you pay attention to which muscles you should be engaging.
When doing exercises that involve lifting your legs, you can use the rod to clearly indicate how high to raise your leg, and aim for that target.
It’s also fun to get creative with how you use the rod—such as using it like a goal to reach, or as a tool that provides resistance against your leg movements.
Because it’s a homemade piece of equipment, the training feels approachable and can help you build strength with a sense of familiarity.
