They say that when it comes love, age doesn’t matter. The same goes when it comes to health and fitness.
It may sound difficult and absurd right? After all, exercise becomes a lesser priority as you get older. And by older, I mean having those aching joints and ligaments. Admit it or not, these are some hindrances why we rarely see seniors sweating it off at our favorite health clubs — for example, CrossFit.
While staying fit even though you’re on your 60’s seems to be a hard-to-achieve utopic state, there are actually some awesome and easy exercises that the elderly can still do.
Walk Fast Uphill
This activity creates a natural resistance that will help your grandparents gain strength in a rather safe way. While walking itself is already a good exercise, adding an inclination would demand exerting greater effort, that if done regularly would yield positive results.
Whistle while Walking Down
A lot of older people do not want to walk uphill, for the simple reason that there is a certain difficulty encountered when they are already going back and walking down (talk about the fear of overloading their joints). If your granny is one of these individuals, let him or her try to whistle.
This simple activity, which also involves breathing control, will incredibly help your elderly feel light. With this, finishing the uphill-downhill exercise will become more bearable!
Lift Legs
Just in case your grandparents further want to somehow strengthen their mid and lower bodies, you might want to recommend this simple exercise.
Have them lie on their back with arms at their side. Remind them to tighten their abdominals before lifting both their legs. They can try lifting their lower extremities to as high as 90 degrees. Gently lower the legs afterwards.
Raise Hips
A related activity is raising the hips. To do this exercise, have your elderly lie on the back once more, but this time, they should bend their knees while keeping their feet flat on the floor. After tightening their stomach area, have them try raising their hips and hold the position for at most three seconds. Gently lower the hips, then repeat the exercise for five more times.
Do Side Bends
This one is pretty simple. Instruct your grannies to stand and place their feet at shoulder width. Take a deep breathe before bending sidewards as far as they can. Tell your elderlies to exhale only as they go back to the zero-position.
Single Limb Stance
As people grow older, they also tend to lose their sense of balance. Prevent your beloved elderlies from falling with this exercise.
For this, your granny would have to hold on to a chair (or any other support he or she is comfortable with) and balance on one leg. Hold the position for a few seconds before doing the same using the other leg.
These simple exercises do not only help the seniors stay physically active while at the sedentary stage of their life. These will also aid in improving their mood — at the very least, they are doing something that will assuage their feeling of boredom and even that sense of becoming a burden for others.
You might also want to join your grannies while doing these easy yet effective exercises — you can be fit while sharing more bonding moments with them!