What are the Best Exercises for Seniors to Stay Healthy and Active?

Exercise is essential for older folks, but it can be challenging to know where to start. The best exercises for seniors are the ones that are not intimidating because reentering the active environment might be terrifying if you haven’t worked out in a long time. There’s also a potential that the workouts you used to do aren’t appropriate for older people.

Before beginning an exercise program, consult your doctor to confirm you’re healthy enough to avoid physical therapy and exercise and determine which activities are appropriate for your current fitness level.

This article will discuss the 7 best types of exercises for seniors and older adults to do so that they can stay physically healthy and active.

7 Best Exercises for Seniors to Stay Healthy and Active

Water aerobics

Recent years have seen an increase in the popularity of water aerobics among people of all ages, particularly seniors. Water exercise is good for people with arthritis, and other kinds of joint discomfort since the buoyancy of the water reduces stress on your joints. Furthermore, water provides natural resistance, eliminating the need for weights in strength training. Water aerobics activities increase your power, flexibility, and balance while putting the least strain on your body.

Consider these top senior water aerobics activities:

• Arm curls
• Leg lifts
• Aqua jogging
• Flutter kicking
• Standing water push-ups

Chair yoga

Chair yoga is a low-impact chair exercise that develops muscular strength, agility, balance, and flexibility, all of which are significant health factors for elders. Moreover, chair yoga is one of the less stressful styles of yoga that is more accessible for most people.

As an extra benefit, chair yoga has been demonstrated to promote mental wellness in older persons. Regular chair yoga practitioners report improved quality sleep, fewer occurrences of depression, and an overall sense of well-being.

The best chair yoga postures for seniors include:

• Seated mountain pose
• Seated cat stretch
• Overhead stretch
• Seated cow stretch
• Seated twist

Resistance band workouts

These resistance bands are flexible rubber strips that increase resistance to workouts while putting less strain on your body. Resistance band workouts are simple to use and suitable for beginners. However, resistance band exercises are becoming increasingly popular among seniors due to the low initial cost of supplies, making them ideal for at-home training. Furthermore, these workouts are excellent for core strengthening, which improves posture, mobility, and balance.

Senior resistance band routines include:

• Triceps press
• Band pull apart
• Lateral raise
• Leg press
• Bicep curl

Pilates

Pilates is a low-effective workout that was invented over a century ago. Breathing, alignment, attention, strength, and flexibility are all focused on in Pilates workouts, which generally use mats, Pilates balls, and other inflatable accessories to assist build strength even without the stress of higher-impact activities. Pilates has been demonstrated to enhance balance, core strength, and flexibility in older adults.

Some excellent Pilates exercises for seniors include:

• Side circles
• Step-ups
• Food slides
• Mermaid movement
• Leg circle

Walking

Walking is among the least painful and most accessible kinds of exercise. However, walking is more difficult for some seniors than others. Thus distance and step targets vary from one individual to another. For the general public, 10,000 steps per day are recommended for a healthy lifestyle, but people with trouble walking or joint discomfort may set a lower goal. A PLOS One study discovered that walking 10,000 steps reduced the ten-year death risk by 46%. Walking helps you live healthier by strengthening your muscles and decreasing your chances of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and colon cancer.

Walking workouts for the elderly include:

• Locate a moderate trail in a park.
• Find a walkable race to train for.
• Walk around the outside of a recognizable structure.
• Find an audiobook or a playlist to listen to while walking.

Body weight workouts

Muscle loss may be heartbreaking and debilitating for older adults. A third of seniors have substantial muscle loss, which can cause hormone abnormalities, a decline in the capacity to digest protein, and other issues. Body weight training is one of the most effective approaches to combat the consequences of muscular atrophy in older persons. One of the primary advantages of body weight exercises is their low cost. Body weight activities require little equipment; for example, most require workout clothing and a mat to minimize contact with the floor.

Some excellent body weight routines for seniors include:

• Bird dog
• Side-lying circles
• Step
• Lying hip bridges
• Squats to chair

Dumbbell strength training

Strength training has been demonstrated to help you maintain your weight while also alleviating the signs of diabetes, osteoporosis, back pain, and depression. Strength training also promotes a faster metabolism and better glycemic management. If done correctly, dumbbell workouts are among the most significant ways for seniors to strengthen themselves. Seniors can isolate muscle regions to develop while increasing balance and flexibility with dumbbells.

The following are some excellent dumbbell exercises for seniors:

• Tricep extension
• Bent-over row
• Front raise
• Overhead press
• Bicep curl

The Takeaway

Over one-third of older adults do not meet the recommendation of moderate exercise and strength training every week, according to experts. For seniors who wish to prevent health problems and remain independent, we recommend aerobic activity and muscle-strengthening exercises, which are among the best exercises for seniors.

Health and Care Professional Network helps you With our services; you may avoid the hassles of traveling to a center, traffic, and getting into a cab or your automobile. You could schedule all of the sessions over the phone or through our website. On the first appointment, our therapist will assess your problem and advise you of the severity, the number of sessions necessary, the length of the program, and how to work to get well quickly. The rehabilitation objective will be established, and the therapist will do all possible to help you accomplish it.