For Seniors: Make Standing Up Easier! Training from a Chair and from the Floor
Standing up is an essential movement in many aspects of daily life.
Whether it’s standing from a chair, getting up from the floor, using the toilet, or getting ready to go out, each of these ordinary actions involves standing up.
That’s why it’s so important to maintain lower-body strength with training you can continue without strain.
In this article, we introduce standing-up exercises that older adults can do at their own pace.
There are routines you can do while seated and ones you can do while holding on for support, so try incorporating them into your daily habits.
[For Seniors] Make Standing Up Easier! Training from a Chair and from the Floor (1–10)
Rehabilitation Functional Training Exercises: Standing Up Movement Improvement EditionNEW!
Let’s do a rehabilitation exercise routine that helps improve the motion of standing up.
Start with marching in place, gradually increasing the speed.
Next, put a TheraBand just above the knee joint and march in place.
From there, change the position of the TheraBand and continue with hip abductions and knee extensions.
Then add toe raises and heel raises.
Finish with deep breathing.
You can strengthen your legs and hips while sitting in a chair, so try it within a comfortable range.
Sit-to-stand training using parallel barsNEW!
This is a standing-up exercise using parallel bars for rehabilitation.
Hold the bars firmly with both hands and stand up on the count of three.
Then try to maintain a standing position for about 10 seconds.
If you can hold it, slowly sit back down.
Since you won’t always have support when standing up, practice repeatedly standing and sitting like this.
Doing so will strengthen your legs and lower back and help you learn a way of standing up that doesn’t put unnecessary strain on your body.
Parallel bars can also be purchased from online shops.
Glute training for standing up smoothly from the floorNEW!
The gluteal muscles are the muscles that make up your buttocks.
By strengthening them, you’ll be able to stand up smoothly from the floor.
First, step one foot forward and the other back, and bend your knees slightly.
Place your hands on your knees for support, and repeatedly hinge your upper body forward and then return upright.
Next, in the same stance, move your hips up and down to do knee bends.
As you do this, focus on shifting your weight onto the front leg.
If you feel unsteady, it’s a good idea to hold onto a chair or a wall for support.
Strength training important for standing up from a chairNEW!
Let’s build your body so you can stand up more easily with four strength exercises and stretches that target the iliopsoas, quadriceps, gluteus maximus, and erector spinae.
You’ll do both the exercises and stretches while seated in a chair.
The first move is lifting your knee, the second is extending the lower leg forward, the third is pulling the leg that was extended back in, and the fourth is drawing your outstretched arms in and then reaching them down toward the floor.
For the stretches, gently rub your legs and open your legs to loosen the muscles around the hip joints.
Rehabilitation for standing up from the floor using a chairNEW!
This rehabilitation uses a chair and progresses through three stages.
In Stage 1, you sit in the chair and then stand up.
In Stage 2, you use the chair seat as a platform to stand up.
In Stage 3, you stand up from the floor.
Be sure to follow the key points for each movement: include a kneeling position, dorsiflex your toes, and firmly support your body with your hands placed on the floor or your knees.
Since Stage 3 builds on Stages 1 and 2, take your time and complete each step one by one without rushing.
Sit-to-stand exercise using a chairNEW!
This is a training exercise using chairs that strengthens your legs and glutes.
It directly helps you perform the standing motion with less strain, so give it a try.
First, sit on a chair.
Place another chair facing the same direction in front of you, at a distance where you can touch its backrest with your arms extended.
Grab the front chair with your hands and lean your upper body firmly forward.
Then slowly lift your hips and stand up.
If you stand up with your torso upright, it puts strain on your legs and lower back, so be sure to lean forward well.
Hemiparesis: standing up from the floorNEW!
Here is a way for someone with paralysis on one side of the body to stand up from the floor.
We’ll start from a seated position with your hips on the floor.
I’ll explain assuming the right side is paralyzed.
First, bring your right leg forward with the knee slightly bent, and bend your left leg as if sitting cross-legged.
Place your left hand on the floor and lift your hips.
Then move your left leg back and come up into a kneeling position.
From there, lift your left knee, plant your foot as if taking a step, and stand up.