Exercising can improve your balance and your strength to help you stand tall and feel more confident when walking. Along with building core stability, exercising often can also help significantly cut down the risk of heart disease. However, keeping active is more than just a precaution for physical deterioration. It also has mental and emotional benefits. Working out your muscles releases brain chemicals like endorphins, dopamine, adrenaline, and endocannabinoid which help you feel more happy, confident, and capable while also reducing stress, anxiety, and even physical pain.
Here are a few simple exercises for older adults to practice every day!
- Single limb stance: Start with the basics for stability and balance. Standing on one foot is a great way to train your ankle muscles to keep you upright.
- Walking: Taking a stroll around the neighborhood can be a great way to get outside and get moving.
- Marching in place: If you’re not quite ready to hit the streets, marching in place can be great practice to develop essential walking muscles.
- Walking heel to toe: While this may feel awkward, this exercise makes your legs stronger, which enables you to walk with less risk of falling.
- Toe lifts: Raising yourself onto your tippy toes while standing can be a great way to build calf muscles to prevent falls. Grab onto a chair or counter for stability.
- Wall pushups: To do wall pushups, stand an arm’s length in front of an empty wall. Lean forward slightly and put your palms flat on the wall at the height and width of your shoulders. Keep your feet planted as you slowly bring your body towards the wall. Gently push yourself back so that your arms are straight.
- Sit-to-Stand: Repeatedly sit down and stand up from a chair without using your hands. This can help build your leg muscles to move around independently.
- Shoulder Rolls: Rotate your shoulders gently up to the ceiling, then back and down. Next, do the same thing, but roll them forwards and then down.
- Yoga: Yoga holistically builds muscle strength, aerobic fitness, core stability, and total-body mobility.
- Pilates: Similar to yoga, Pilates are known for being a low-impact exercise while focusing on core stability making it ideal for older adults.
- Aerobics: Aerobics is great for building muscle and cardiovascular strength. Forms of this exercise can even be done while sitting down in a chair.
- Swimming: Moving around in a pool is great to get active with low impact on joints and no risk of falling. Swimming or water aerobics can be a great way to practice moving to build muscle and heart health.
- Cycling: For more active and mobile seniors, cycling is another great low-impact sport to build leg muscles and cardiovascular health outside.
Preventing falls, fighting depression, and decreasing your risk of heart disease are a few of the many benefits of exercise. If you or an aging loved is experiencing trouble staying active or moving independently, it may be time to start looking for senior living communities or home care services. WellPath Partners has a variety of resources for specialized communities for seniors with specific needs. Residential board and care homes, assisted living communities, and some nursing homes are different options for senior living communities and they are designed to offer more personalized care for aging loved ones.
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By Prithvi Chauhan
