As we all know, when people age, the chances of developing physical health problems and personality changes increase drastically. Also, existing health conditions are likely to worsen if adequate care is unavailable. One of the best ways to mitigate these problems is to get some daily exercise.
However, exercises can also cause physical injury, especially during old age. Proper care and attention must be given to the elderly when they’re exercising. It’s best to hire a family caregiver to ensure that the elderly stay safe while attempting new workout techniques.
In this post, we will describe five easy chair exercises that cater to an older person’s upper body. These exercises will energize them and help them with common old-age health issues like back pain and posture issues. Let’s dive in.
#1 Arm Circles
For the first exercise, we have arm circles. To perform this exercise correctly, you have to sit tall and upright on a chair with arms wide open and rotate them backwards. We recommend that you do this particular workout for at least 30 seconds and a maximum of 60 seconds. Arm circles are great for warming up your system before doing the rest of the exercises. Always remember to breathe, and once done, you should rest for 15 seconds before moving on to the next exercise.
#2 Back Fly
To perform black flies, you need to put your hands on your neck and squeeze your shoulder blades together. Again this exercise is great for posture maintenance. You could do this exercise for the same duration as mentioned above. Be sure to keep your back and neck perfectly straight, and never forget to breathe.
#3 Hip External Rotations
You must work your arms and legs simultaneously to do this exercise. The exercise is split into two motions. First, you open your arms wide and swing them alternatively downward. The second motion involves your legs, where you must raise your foot on the opposite side of the swinging arm. At that point, you must try and touch your raised ankle, which generates a rotational motion at your hips and core. This range of motion will moderately twist your hip and give it some activation.
#4 Double Rows
For 30 seconds, you must lift your arms and squeeze the shoulder blades together. For ease, you can lean forward just slightly so that you don’t put too much pressure on your back. Again, this is an exercise that helps with your back problems. These exercises are extremely important for maintaining a problem-free back.
#5 Overhead Triceps
This exercise works the triceps, the muscle group at the backside of your arm. These are one of the strongest and largest muscles essential for building upper body strength and helping with movement in your shoulders and elbows. To do this exercise, you need to find weights or water bottles that are not too easy nor too difficult to lift. You need to hold those weights and lift your arms straight up. Now, all you have to do is bend your elbows 90 degrees from that position and come back straight up. Do this for 30-60s.
Conclusion
These five simple upper body chair exercises can keep an older person feeling happy and energized for the day. Of course, there are several more muscle groups that you can target, which we will list in the upcoming posts.
Remember, as people age, muscles tend to loosen and sag, along with several other health problems. The best way to mitigate these problems is by consuming a balanced diet and getting regular exercise.