[For Seniors] Easy and fun seated activities you can do in your room
Introducing fun seated recreational activities for older adults!
Even when you want to do exercises in nursing homes or day service centers, activities that are too intense or put strain on the legs and back can increase the risk of falls.
The activities we’re introducing this time are recommended because everyone can enjoy them while staying seated.
From exercises that move only the hands to games that engage the entire upper body, choose whatever looks fun from the many options available.
They’re even more exciting if you make them team competitions!
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- [For Seniors] Enjoyable Indoor Activities! Recreations and Games That Engage the Mind and Body
- [For Seniors] Recreational Activities Enjoyable in Large Groups
- [Elderly Day Service] Let’s all have fun! Games and recreational activities
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- [For Seniors] Enjoy the Cold Winter! Seated Activities You Can Do
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- [For Seniors] Exciting Team-Based Recreational Activities
[For Seniors] Easy and Fun Seated Activities You Can Do in Your Room (211–220)
Kick Bowling
When we think of bowling, we usually imagine knocking down pins by rolling a ball held in the hand.
However, for older adults who have difficulty using their hands or standing up to throw the ball, kick bowling is highly recommended! Make pins that are significantly larger than usual using cardboard or thick paper, and prepare a large, colorful ball that’s easy to kick.
To make it easy to knock down the pins even without a strong kick, try to keep the kicking spot and the pins fairly close together.
Consider incorporating this into recreational activities at care facilities.
Old Maid
I’d like to introduce “Baba Mekuri,” a simple yet exciting game.
You shuffle and lay out the cards at random, then flip them over in turn; the player who flips a Joker first loses.
Using oversized playing cards instead of a standard deck can make the game run more smoothly.
You can also play with three or more players using the same rules, or even try a team format for extra fun.
By the way, you can buy oversized playing cards at 100-yen shops.
Big Kendama
It’s a game where you skillfully use a thick stick with a paper cup attached to the tip, aiming to catch a ball connected by a string in the cup.
Compared to a regular kendama, the key difference is that the stick is thicker and longer, so you use your whole body to control it well.
It’s a game that engages focused attention on the cup and the ball, full-body strength, and quick reflexes in a balanced way.
The difficulty changes depending on the size of the paper cup, so for those who find it hard, it might be good to switch to a cup that’s larger than the standard one.
[For Seniors] Enjoyable, Easy In-Room Activities ♪ Fun Seated Recreations (221–230)
Prevent falls with rehabilitation!
A simple item that’s just a large cardboard sheet with numbers on it; you move your feet based on those numbers.
While counting the numbers from 1 to 8 written on the cardboard, move your feet to each numbered position.
By doing this step, you’ll become more aware of how you open your stance and step forward and back, which can help promote smoother walking in daily life and prevent falls.
First, get used to the step positions while seated, and once you feel it’s safe, it’s recommended to do it standing.
Great for recreation, too! Newspaper-pulling exercise
This is a fun, chair-seated exercise using newspaper.
First, place a long strip of connected newspaper at your feet.
At the start signal, pull it backward.
Through the motion of moving the newspaper, you train the strength to press through your feet and the muscles that move the legs forward and backward.
Focusing on using your toes to grasp the newspaper is another key tip—and a great training opportunity.
If you do it as a race and focus on speed, it should also help improve explosive power.
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.
Newspaper Pull-Out Game
It’s a game where you quickly pull out a long, rolled-up strip of newspaper at a signal and compete on speed.
Making it a head-to-head match boosts the urge to move faster than your opponent, effectively training explosive power and large arm movements.
A key rule is that tearing the paper counts as a fail, which encourages players to focus not only on speed but also on delicate fingertip control.
It can also be fun to try repeatedly and think about arm movements and postures that make pulling smoother.