[For Seniors] Leg and lower-back training: Fall prevention

toe exercises

Senior Exercise Part 1: Simple Toe Exercises

It’s said that strengthening the gripping power of your feet can also help prevent falls.

There are even experimental results showing that older adults who had fallen had about 20% weaker grip strength than those who hadn’t.

With that in mind, here are some exercises to train your toes.

By strengthening your toes to grip the floor, you can improve stability when standing and walking.

While seated, try opening and closing your toes like making a fist, or place a towel on the floor in front of you and scrunch it toward you with your feet.

Since these exercises can be done while sitting, they’re easy to fit into small pockets of free time.

Give them a try!

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Nakajima Junko

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Leg swing workout

[Rejuvenating More Than Walking] A 5-minute leg-swing strength workout that improves hip muscle strength and range of motion more than walking for over an hour, enhancing gait function.

We’d like to introduce a leg-swing exercise that can improve hip strength and range of motion in just five minutes a day.

It’s very simple to do! While holding onto the back of a chair, perform five movements—swinging your leg forward and backward, side to side, and moving your leg in a circular motion—each for 20 seconds, and repeat the set twice.

Just this alone helps develop the strength to support your lower back, the ability to steady yourself when you wobble, and your overall balance.

You can do it at home anytime without worrying about the weather or temperature, so it’s highly recommended.

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kojifumi

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Leg-swing exercises to strengthen the lower body and hips

If you feel your legs and lower back are weakening, seniors should try swinging their leg backward 10 times rather than walking 10,000 steps!

Some older adults may feel their legs and lower back are getting weaker.

Many might think that walking is good for this and may already be going for walks.

However, simply walking without paying attention doesn’t provide much training effect for the legs.

So here are exercises that can specifically strengthen the legs and hips.

Hold onto a chair and extend one leg back, or place one foot on the seat of the chair and press your chest toward it.

These moves help strengthen the glutes and the front of the thighs.

As walking becomes easier, your range of activities can expand and you’ll likely be able to do more.

For older adults, this can also increase enjoyment and contribute to better health both mentally and physically.

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Ankle flexibility exercises

Ankle flexibility exercises to smoothly improve a short stride and shuffling steps

If your stride is short and you take quick, tiny steps when you walk, your ankles might be stiff.

So this time, we’ll introduce stretches to loosen up the ankle area.

First, use a desk or the back of a chair to stretch your calves.

Do it slowly on both sides, without overexerting yourself.

Next, focus on the ankles.

While holding onto the back of a chair as before, lift your toes as if stretching your calves, then tilt your foot to the side.

You should feel the muscles around your ankle stretching.

You can get a similar effect by placing your foot on a chair and pressing down as if you were stepping on a car’s accelerator.

To get your ankles working, it’s also important to support your body by moving it forward and backward while actively moving your toes and heels.

These exercises are simple, but you can expect results if you keep at them.

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kojifumi

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Shoe-wearing motion training

[Senior Recreation] A race with the motion of putting on shoes! ADL training

Even the casual act of slipping your foot into a shoe involves surprisingly complex movements—like unconsciously adding angles as you move.

This game focuses on those motions when you insert your foot, training your feet through a scooping action.

You attach a cardboard part with an open space in the center to your foot and use it to pick up balls placed at your feet.

Instead of just moving straight in, you collect the balls with a scooping motion, so by concentrating on the balls, you naturally get your ankles moving well as you play.

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