Exercise assumes a vital role in maintaining the health, fitness and mental well-being of elders. Particularly, older adults need to remain active as they age, to carry on their daily activities easily and remain healthy. It must be part of their routine as workouts and physical activities improve muscular strength and flexibility and enhance ease of movement. However, we find that many seniors face mobility constraints or limited dexterity due to prevailing health issues which deter them from maintaining regular exercise regimes. A promising solution to overcome this problem is chair exercises which offer a good alternative to heavy workouts.
Chair exercises are particularly useful for seniors who are frail, face increased risks of trips and falls, have bone and joint problems or are confined to the wheelchair for moving around. These simple exercises essentially improve the functional fitness and the overall health of the elders and can be done using a sturdy chair at the comfort of their own homes or at their senior care facilities.
Benefits of Chair Exercises
- Helps in overcoming disabilities due to aging or physical impairment by boosting the mind to remain active and alert by elevating the mood and the mindset.
- Improves self-esteem, relieves stress and anxiety and decreases depression which can result in social isolation.
- Ensures adequate functioning of all the vital organs of the body in order to remain healthy.
- Helps the elders to be as independent as possible in doing their routine chores on their own by preserving functional capabilities.
- Prevents muscle atrophy, bone degeneration, structural and functional deterioration of the body.
- Increases life expectancy.
- Reduces the risk of chronic diseases.
- Combats the effects of aging.
- Builds body strength and immunity, increases mobility and balance, prevents cardiovascular diseases.
Simple Chair Exercises
By sitting in an erect position in a strong chair, the following exercises may be done-
1. Rolling the ankles and wrists
Poor circulation in the legs and arms can cause difficulties in balancing and mobility. To overcome this, elders can flex their fingers and foot in open and close or curling movements. Rotating wrists and ankles independently in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions ten times each is recommended.
2. Doing calf raises
Beginning with the right foot, the heel must be lifted as high as possible from the ground while remaining on the toes. Hence the calf muscles are exercised and strengthened. Next, the heel must be lowered back to the floor and this exercise may be repeated ten times. You may subsequently do the same with your left leg. It would be ideal to do these raises in three sets of ten counts each for both the legs. After sufficient practice, the heels may be held over the floor simultaneously for 20 seconds each for better results.
3. Alternating sitting and standing positions
Doing alternate sitting and standing can help seniors to squat better and also gain enhanced mobility, functional control, sense of balance and strength in the legs. All it requires is to sit first firmly in a chair with the feet placed firmly on the floor about hip-distance apart. Then, by exerting all the weigh on the knees, you must stand up extending both the knees and hips fully. Subsequently, you may reverse these movements by pressing your hips back and bending your knees to carefully lower yourself to the seated position.
4. Seated row exercises
This may be used to strengthen the back and the chest muscles. For achieving this, the seniors must sit on the edge of the chair and hold their arms out to the front bending their elbows so that the thumbs point towards the ceiling. Next, the elbows must be withdrawn back so as to squeeze both the shoulder blades together and then the original position can be resumed. This sequence may be repeated eight to ten times.
5. Trying tummy twists
These exercises are aimed to rejuvenate the core muscles. Elders must sit erect and hold a ball firmly using both the hands with their elbows bent. Next, you must slowly rotate the torso (upper part of the body) as far as possible to one side while retaining the remaining body parts still. After that, you can rotate back to the middle position and then to the opposite direction in the same manner. Since two twists (in opposite direction) constitute one set, these sets may be tried for about eight times.
6. Squeezing inner thighs
For activating and strengthening the thigh muscles, seniors may assume a straight sitting posture in a chair and place a ball in between with their knees bent. The ball must be squeezed by exerting pressure from both the knees for about two seconds. After this, the knee pressure may be released slowly to a large extent without allowing the ball to fall. This sequence may be tried for about ten to twelve times for best results.
Though mobility constraints can pose several challenges to seniors, most of them may be overcome by doing simple chair exercises that rehabilitate the various muscles of the body for hassle-free aging.
