Troy Hurst holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Carroll University. He is a physical therapist specializing in both athletic and vestibular rehabilitation with an emphasis on performance running.
When compared to younger people, many older adults live rather sedentary lifestyles. While this is understandable as their bodies may not be as strong as they once were, it is encouraged that they should remain active in some way.
In a study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports in 2020, researchers found that seniors who lived physically active lives experienced healthier aging trajectories, better quality of life, and improved cognitive functioning.
They also found out that these seniors had a lower risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, breast and prostate cancer, fractures, recurrent falls, ADL disability with functional limitation and cognitive decline, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and depression (7).
Chair exercises for seniors is one such way to ensure that older adults engage in physical activity. Read on to learn more about seated exercises for seniors, equipment needed to do them, recommended duration for a session, and much more.
Chair exercises for seniors benefits can be summarized in two main points. Engaging in such workouts helps older adults:
In a practice guideline published in 2009 in the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise journal, experts from the American College of Sports Medicine recommended that older adults should engage in regular exercise.
The experts stated that while exercise cannot stop the physical process of aging, it has the ability to minimize the physiological effects of a sedentary lifestyle and increase active life expectancy by limiting the development and progression of chronic disease and disabling conditions (1).
However, this is not the only publication to have stated this. Over the years, more articles have come out in support of more physical exercise in older adults.
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When the mobility of older adults is impaired, they lose their independence, which cuts them off from their social lives and forces them to stay at home, reducing their quality of life, which increases their likelihood of falling ill, being hospitalized, disability, and even death (12).
Therefore, exercise, regardless of type, is essential in older adults. From aerobics and resistance training to flexibility and balance training, seniors should be encouraged to do it all – just be sure to tailor each exercise to the person’s abilities and goals (2, 3).
It is also important to note that seated chair exercises for seniors are also considered low-impact exercises. Research on such workouts has shown that low-impact exercises are good for older adults and kinder and safer for the joints, which could reduce the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (8, 11).
Older adults should do chair exercises for seniors at least twice a week. When it comes to engaging in physical activity as a whole, experts and researchers suggest that it is best if older adults engage in some kind of physical activity at least 3 times a week – with 5 times a week being the best option.
They also state that older adults should dedicate at least two days a week to strength-building workouts (9, 10, 13). It should be noted that while a 30-minute chair exercises for seniors routine can be modified to include cardio/aerobic moves, such exercises are largely anaerobic, muscle-strengthening activities.
With this in mind, we would advise you to be conscious of incorporating both aerobic (cardio) and anaerobic (strengthening) activities throughout your workout week, and not neglecting either type.
BetterMe has incredible wheelchair fitness workouts – cardio, core, upper body, and more – that can be done by seniors with mobility issues.
The best thing about seated exercises is that they can be done in virtually any space. However, as with other traditional workouts, having the right equipment will help you achieve your goals faster and could also help reduce the risk of injury.
So which is the best chair to use when doing chair exercises for seniors?
The National Health Service advises that when doing sitting exercises, you should opt for a solid, stable chair without wheels. If you have adequate sitting stability, you should also avoid any chairs that come with armrests as they can hinder your movements when you perform certain moves.
It’s also important to make sure that when you sit on said chair, your feet are comfortably flat on the floor and your knees are bent at about 90 degrees (14). If not, the chair may be too tall or too short for you, so you should then switch it out for something more comfortable that meets the given specifications.
There is no one seated exercise that beats all the rest. A good chair exercise routine is one that mixes a number of exercises that target different areas of the body. This will allow for a fantastic full-body workout.
Here are 6 simple beginner seated exercises that you can use in a 10-minute chair routine for seniors.
If you wish to increase this routine from 10 minutes to 30 minutes, or even an hour, simply do more sets of each exercise and/or increase the number of reps done per exercise for each set.
This is a great example of a seated cardio exercise. As with the standing version, this exercise targets the lower body and can be used as a warm-up.
Boxing is a great upper-body workout. High-intensity boxing workouts have been shown to improve fitness and help with fat loss, improve cardiovascular health, and boost weight loss (15). This type of exercise can even do wonders for your mental health, helping reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and schizophrenia (4).
While older adults may opt to not do seated punches at high intensity, it’s still a good upper-body exercise that can help improve hand-eye coordination.
In addition to benefiting hamstring flexibility and active range of motion of the knee joint, this exercise also may improve quadricep strength for deconditioned individuals. The quadriceps play a vital role in many daily living activities, including walking, ascending and descending stairs, standing up, and sitting down.
Read more: 4 Easy Chair Workouts for Abs You Can Do At Your Desk
This is a great exercise that helps strengthen your shoulders.
If you want to strengthen your calves, this is the exercise for you. Seated calf raises help strengthen the muscles that are involved in the push-off portion of walking, which improves gait sequencing and reduces the risk of falls.
Another good upper-body exercise that targets the back muscles is the seated row.
What many people don’t know is that your body burns calories throughout the day whether you’re moving, sitting, or sleeping. The energy expenditure needed for your body to perform its basic functions is known as your basal metabolic rate (BMR). The number of calories you burn as a result of your BMR is dictated by many factors including your height, weight, age, gender, lean body mass percentage, genetics, and underlying conditions.
Whether or not the calories you burn as a result of your basal metabolic rate can keep you at a healthy body weight is dependent on the calories you take in. For most of us, we consume more calories than we expend via our BMR. In addition, a healthy weight doesn’t necessarily mean a healthy lifestyle.
You can be severely deconditioned even though you fall within a normal body weight for your height and gender. For this reason and many others, it’s important to incorporate exercise into your daily routine, whether through structured workouts or through active daily activities.
Yes, it is.
Chair yoga is another example of seated workouts that can work well for seniors who want to improve their fitness, health, mobility, flexibility, and balance. If you’re looking for a good chair yoga guide, BetterMe has gentle chair yoga beginners and seniors routines on its app.
The exercises last anywhere between 8 to 30 minutes and can help improve posture, mobility, core strength, and ab growth.
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Yes, you can. They do this by burning calories during the workout and increasing your muscle mass, which increases your basal metabolic rate. This allows you to keep burning calories long after the workout is done. Ultimately, weight loss is dependent on caloric deficit and genetic factors. Any form of exercise will improve caloric expenditure, but a well-rounded, healthy diet and lifestyle is essential for weight loss.
Remember that while weight loss due to such exercises is good, their benefits go beyond this. Because the exercises contribute to improvements in muscular strength, balance, and gait speed, researchers believe that such routines can help boost the physical and mental health of older, pre-frail adults (6).
This is a seated workout routine that is done for just 7 minutes. Such routines can be for the upper body, core, lower body, or full body sessions.
As previously stated, there isn’t one sitting exercise that will lead to more fat burning than all others. If you want to effectively burn fat via a workout routine, the routine must include a variety of exercises that target different muscles. This helps with calorie burning, which may lead to more fat loss.
The best exercise for seniors to strengthen their legs is highly dependent on the goals of the individual and their current fitness level. For someone who is very deconditioned, the best lower-body exercise may be a basic seated exercise that they can perform without supervision or risk of falling. For someone with a high fitness level, the best lower-body exercise is likely not going to be a seated one. Squat variations are highly functional, incorporate numerous muscle groups, and can be progressed and regressed for nearly any fitness level.
Encouraging participation in chair exercises for seniors is a good and low-impact way to get older adults to live less sedentary lives. This can help increase their social circles – if the workouts are done in group settings – and boost their health, functional fitness, flexibility, general quality of life, and much more.
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