In 2019, senior adults aged 65 years and over were the 4th largest group of gym-goers and during the post-pandemic social media boom, quite a few older adults took to TikTok and Instagram as senior fitness influencers to encourage their peers to move more for better health.
Most of us tend to think that the only purpose of exercise and working out is to lose weight. Bringing your weight down to healthy ranges is immensely important for good health, but physical exercise also helps to improve strength, balance, and mobility.
Why focus on strength, balance, and mobility
The importance of good muscle strength, balance, and mobility grows with age. Many older people are not physically active. Experts suggest that sitting for more than 4 hours a day can age you rapidly and poorly as your muscles atrophy, or waste away, from lack of movement.
Here are some simple exercises you can do at any time, anywhere, to improve your balance, muscle strength, and mobility. Knock out a few bicep curls while cleaning your teeth, get in a couple of torso twists while your lunch heats up, and rock the boat while watching television.
3 exercises for better balance
Close your eyes and think about where your hands and feet are. Can you tell that your left hand is in front of you and your right hand is behind your head?
This is kinesthetic awareness, or proprioception. It lets you know where all your various body parts are in space, and how to coordinate them in order to move. This sense often declines with age, putting you at risk of falling and injuring yourself.
Balance exercises help with kinesthetic awareness, sharpening muscle memory for automatic coordination of your hands and feet, legs and arms. Balance exercises also regulate and stabilize posture and movement, strengthen core muscles, and help your limbs respond and adapt to changes in position.
- Single-leg balance
One of the simplest workouts for better balance is to stand on one leg for as long as possible.
With your feet planted firmly on the floor, raise one knee as high as you can. Or, bend your knee so that your raised foot sticks out at the back. Adjust your balance so that your body is aligned with the foot on the floor. Hold for as long as you can, then switch to the other leg. Repeat as often as possible.
For an added challenge, close your eyes when lifting your foot and try to mentally map out the exact position of your arms, legs, hands, and feet.
- Tandem stance
This should take you right back to childhood, if you ever walked along the edge of the sidewalk curb, pretending it was a tightrope.
Stand straight and put one foot directly in front of the other. The heel of your front foot should touch the toes of your back foot. Hold the position for 10 seconds, then switch feet.
You might want to stretch your arms out to right yourself if you feel like you’re going to topple over. Alternatively, stand next to a chair or counter that you can grab if you’re worried about tumbling down.
As you get better at the tandem stance, gradually increase the time you hold the position.
- Rock the boat
Stand with your feet hip width apart. Either place your hands on your hips, or keep a chair in front to hold on to for support. Keep your legs and back as straight as possible.
Lift your right leg up from the hip and out to the side, as if making a snow angel while standing up. Hold for as long as comfortable. Bring your right leg down and now lift your left leg up and out to the side. Repeat the movements 10-20 times.
An added benefit of rocking the boat is that the side-to-side movement of the legs offsets the front-to-back movement of walking, and gives your muscles something new to do.
3 exercises for better mobility
Mobility exercises are movements that improve the range of motion in your joints. Joints are connections where two or more bones meet and allow for movement, such as in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles.
Bones in the joints are surrounded by cartilage, ligaments, and tendons. These are lubricated by synovial fluid, a thick liquid that reduces friction and stiffness. Moving the joints stimulates the production of synovial fluid, so the more you move, the better your joints will feel.
Keeping joints in good shape helps in day-to-day activities such as getting out of bed without your back creaking, climbing stairs without your knees hurting, and reaching up to grab things off high shelves.
- Sit-to-stand
Did you ever imagine a day would come when, instead of rising gracefully from your seat, you would have to grab the armrests of your chair and launch yourself off with “a one and a two and a heave-ho!”, then creakily unfold your knees and back to stand up straight?
Sit-to-stand is simply sitting down and standing up again, as many times as you can manage. Begin by sitting on the front edge of your chair, then rise to a standing position.
In the beginning, you may need to use your hands to propel yourself forward and up. The ultimate goal is to stand up and straighten the knees and back with little to no help from your hands and arms.
This exercise is especially important for senior adults who want to maintain their bathroom independence for as long as possible.
- March in place
This is a great exercise if you use a walking frame, since you can hold on to the frame for support and there’s plenty of space for your knees.
If you don’t use a walking frame, grasp the edge of a table or countertop and straighten your spine as much as possible. Keeping your hips level, raise one knee at a time as if you were marching in place.
The more you march, the higher you will be able to eventually lift your knees.
- Torso twists
Rest hands on your hips and plant your feet firmly on the floor, about hip-width apart. Start turning your torso slowly, from the waist up. First turn to the right, bringing your upper body at 90 degrees to your lower body. Feel the muscles stretch as you turn.
You can pivot the foot on the side opposite to where you’re turning (kind of like dancing the Twist) if it helps you turn more easily. But make sure it’s a slow, deliberate movement that stretches muscles, instead of a quick spin working on momentum.
Hold the turn for 5 seconds, return to the original position, then turn to the left. Aim for 10 reps each side.
3 exercises for better muscle strength
Strength training means to make your muscles stronger by pushing them repeatedly against a regularly increasing force, weight, or resistance. Strength training also helps build bone density by encouraging osteoblasts, the cells that make up bone tissue, to be more active.
You don’t need any fancy equipment to begin strength training. Start by using your own body weight in the case of wall push-ups, and bottles of water for bicep curls.
- Wall push-ups
Stand facing a wall, and stretch your arms out at chest height so that your palms are pressed flat and comfortably against the wall. Keep your feet about shoulder-width apart.
Slowly bend your elbows and lean forward, keeping as much of your feet on the ground, until your head almost touches the wall. Keep your body as straight as possible, then push back until you are standing upright again.
Repeat 5 times per session. Increase reps as you get stronger.
- Bicep curls
Considered by many people to be the quintessential upper-body strength training exercise, bicep curls are a great exercise for when you’re just sitting around watching television. If you don’t have small dumbbells, use a water bottle, a can of beans, or even a book.
Sit or stand with your back straight and hold the weight comfortably in one hand, resting on your thigh. Slowly bring your hand up to your shoulder. Hold for 2 seconds, then slowly take your hand back down.
At the beginning, you may find it easier to hold the weight with your hand facing inwards. As you develop strength, you can curl with your hand facing out.
- Squats
Beginners, or people taking up exercise again after a long break, should start with chair or air squats.
Chair squats are very similar to the sit-to-stand mobility exercise. The squatting movement strengthens thigh and back muscles, while the chair provides a layer of security to prevent you from falling to the floor. It also gives you a place to rest if you over-exert yourself!
Stand with the backs of your legs touching the chair seat behind you. Hold your arms straight out in front. Bend your knees slowly, lower your bottom until it just touches the seat, then slowly rise back up.
Start with 5 reps and build up as your legs and back muscles grow stronger.
Starting an exercise routine
Although most of these exercises are of the ‘do wherever, whenever’ kind, it can be useful to build a regular routine. This will ensure you do not forget your daily workout.
Also, speak to your doctor before you start performing any kind of regular physical exercise. They may be able to guide you on additional workouts, and may want to recommend helpful programs and beneficial resources.