Chair exercises for the elderly are also known as chair aerobics. These exercises can increase your heart rate and circulation and help you get in shape while improving metabolism, energy levels and mental alertness. Your sense of balance will improve along with your joint flexibility, and the exercises will help you maintain, improve or strengthen your overall muscle tone. Perform the maneuvers slowly for best results.
Warm Up and Stretching
To avoid chances of injury, the National Institute on Aging suggests that you should warm up properly for about five minutes before doing any chair exercises. Stretching your fingers, arms, legs and torso is essential. This could include lifting your arms over your head, rolling your shoulders, leaning slightly backward or gently pulling back on your fingers. Sitandbefit.org recommends doing a foot bounce, which involves sitting with your feet firmly on the floor, then lifting your heels from the floor and gently placing them back down. Repeat five times with each foot. Foot bounces strengthen your shins and will help prevent tripping.
Seated Exercises
A seated jumping jack can give you an all-body workout, according to Diabetesincontrol.com. This exercise involves sitting up straight and placing your flat feet on the ground. Lift your feet and arms straight in front of you and then cross them (cross your arms at the wrists and your legs at your ankles). Lower your legs to the ground crossed. Raise your legs again and uncross them; lower them back down to the ground. Repeat this exercise 20 times to strengthen your shoulders, abdominals, quadriceps (thigh) and hamstrings. This exercise also strengthens your back muscles. To work only your upper body or lower body, just do the exercise with either your arms or legs.
Sitandbefit.org also suggests working your leg muscles by doing ankle rolls. Sit up straight, straighten your leg and gently roll your foot in circles. Do this four times, then lower your foot to the floor and repeat with your opposite leg. This exercise helps keep your ankle joint lubricated.
Strengthen your quadriceps by straightening your leg, then tightening your knee cap and releasing. Do this four times with each leg. This exercise stabilizes the knee joint and helps strengthen the muscles that help you get up from and sit in a chair or get on or off the toilet, Sitandbefit.org says.
Work your upper body by pretending you are boxing or punching something, or pretend you are picking apples off a tree by lifting your arms over your head. These exercises will help increase your range of motion.
Standing Exercises
Use your chair as a balancing tool to perform a variety of exercises. Stand and hold on to the back of your chair. While holding the chair, gently bend your knees while lowering your body down into a squatting position. Slowly return to original position. Repeat this exercise five times. This is called a leg squat, which can strengthen your thigh muscles, buttocks and hamstrings.
The National Institute on Aging suggests doing overhead arm raises to strengthen your arms and shoulders. This exercise will make it easier to lift things over your head. Hold on to a two-pound weight and slowly breathe out as you raise both arms over your head. Hold for one second. Breathe in as you slowly lower your arms. Repeat this exercise 10 times. This exercise can be done either standing or sitting.
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