[For Seniors] Recommended Easy Strength Training
We all want to live a healthy, independent life for as long as possible.
Strength training is an important habit for maintaining health.
By maintaining muscle strength, you can reduce the risk of falls and move more smoothly in daily activities.
In this article, we’ll introduce simple strength training routines that are easy to try.
This is likely a topic of interest for older adults.
Because these exercises can be started easily at home, even those who aren’t confident with exercise can feel at ease.
Take a step forward today and start building a healthier body!
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[For Seniors] Recommended Easy Strength Training (1–10)
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.
Hip joint training
The hip joint plays an essential role in walking.
This time, we’ll introduce hip-focused training to strengthen the hips and help you keep walking for life.
In addition to classic exercises like high knee lifts and swinging the leg forward and backward, we include movements you don’t usually do in daily life, such as lifting the leg inward as if sitting cross-legged and flicking the leg outward.
These may feel difficult at first, but they are important for loosening the hips, and you can expect benefits if you keep at them.
Leg swing workout
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.
[For Seniors] Recommended Easy Muscle Training (11–20)
Multifidus training
The multifidus refers to the small muscles attached around the spine.
When the multifidus weakens, your back can become rounded or overextended, which can lead to lower back pain.
That’s why training the multifidus is effective for preventing back pain.
Here’s how: get on all fours with your knees on the floor, extend your right hand forward and your left leg backward, then extend your left hand forward and your right leg backward.
Repeat this movement alternately.
If you’re not used to it, you might wobble and have trouble balancing, so having someone assist you can be reassuring.
It’s important not to arch your lower back while doing the exercise to make the training effective.
Inner muscle training for the hip joint
The six deep hip external rotator muscles, which connect the hip joint and the pelvis, play a role in stabilizing your posture when standing on one leg.
By strengthening them, you can improve your sense of balance and build a body that is less prone to falls.
There are various ways to train these hip external rotators, but the method with the least load is to step one foot forward, place the heel down, and rotate the entire leg side to side as if turning the knee outward and inward.
Using this movement as a basic exercise, you can perform a range of trainings with different levels of load.
Choose an appropriate intensity according to your physical condition and give it a try.
Pelvic floor exercises with stretching and strength training to prevent urinary incontinence
Here are some exercises you can do while sitting in a chair to help prevent urinary incontinence.
First, do thorough stretches to improve blood flow and enhance bladder function.
Next, imagine holding in urine or gas and tighten your urethra and anus.
This movement strengthens the muscles around the urethra and helps return your internal organs to their proper positions.
Then, make fists with your hands and press them from both sides with your knees.
This movement increases the strength to tighten the urethra.
Let’s also work on the abdominal muscles.
Rounding your back while exhaling targets the upper abs, and sitting toward the front edge of the chair while lifting your legs engages the lower abs, which may also help relieve constipation.
Don’t push yourself too hard at the beginning—start gradually and go at your own pace.
Urinary leakage exercises using a towel
Let’s strengthen the pelvic floor muscles to improve urinary leakage.
When the pelvic floor muscles weaken, the ability to tighten the urethra decreases.
Lifting something heavy or sneezing and coughing can increase abdominal pressure and lead to leakage.
Here is a pelvic floor exercise you can do while seated.
Sit in a chair, place a towel between your thighs, and squeeze.
As you exhale, squeeze the towel and focus on tightening your anal muscles as well.
Inhale and relax, and repeat 10 to 20 times.
Because it can be done while sitting, it’s an easy exercise for older adults too.
