6 Amazing Exercises for Seniors That Improve Balance, Strength, and Flexibility

Featured Image Caption: Yoga Pose on Mat

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It doesn’t matter how old or young someone is, exercising and maintaining an exercise schedule is so important for health and wellbeing, both physically and mentally. In many ways, this is even more important as you age, since your body can slow down and settle so quickly.

As a personal trainer, it’s your job to help encourage people of all ages, especially seniors, to live a happy, healthy, and active life, which means helping them to exercise to build up all areas of their physique, including their strength, flexibility and to improve your balance.

Of course, senior people can’t exercise or move like they used too, which is why I’m going to share with you these six amazing exercises you can try to bring so many of these benefits into their life.

1. Back Leg Raises

Perhaps the most important of all exercises that provide both strength and helps to improve posture, all you need to do is ask your client to place their hands on a wall or chair and shift all their weight into right foot.

Now lift your left leg as high as you can and hold for five seconds before returning to the ground and rebalancing yourself. Do these ten times on one side, and then switch everything over to lift your right side with your left foot planted firmly on the ground.

2. Go for a Walk

The simplest exercise you can do that will bring strength to your entire body, as well as coordinating your balance and giving you a lot of fresh air that can improve blood circulation and your overall flexibility. Go for as long or as short as you want. Even ten minutes can bring benefits into your life.

When it comes to your clients, getting them for go for a simple walk around their home, around the gym, or around the block, can be a great way to bring so many physical and mental health benefits into their lives.

3. Rock the Boat

This is a simple exercise where you stand up, place your hands on your hips, and keep your feet a hip-distance apart. Simply lift your left foot off the floor and then bend your knee in until your heel touches your other leg. Stretch your leg out and back like this for 30 seconds, and then switch legs.

This is a great exercise for improving the strength in your legs, and dramatically improving your balance.

4. Tight-Rope Walking

Another simple exercise, but don’t worry; you don’t actually need to get your client up on a tightrope. Just find a straight line a few meters long or lay down a piece of rope or string you can walk alongside.

All you need to do is walk down the line with your arms lifted out to either side, try to keep them as straight and as parallel as possible. This strengthens the muscles in your arm, and if you’re able to walk while fixing your focus on a point in front, then it will do wonders for your balance.

Aim to take between 20 and 30 steps in this manner for the best results.

5. The Clock Reach

Get a chair and ask your client to imagine they’re standing in the centre of a clock. 12 is ahead of them, and six is behind. Hold the chair in front with their left hand and point their right leg and right arm towards 12. Then move around to 3, then 5, then back to three, and back to 12.

Now repeat these three or four times and repeat on the other side, replacing the three with nine.

6. Tree Pose

A yoga pose that’s ideal for developing core strength, enhancing balance, and keeping your client focused and in their body, the tree pose is a standard yoga pose that you’d probably practice every session (PS, if you can get your senior clients to a yoga class, it’s highly recommended because it can do them so much good!)

All you do is ask your client to stand up straight with their feet together, place their hands together as though they’re praying in front of your heart and lift their foot up and balance it above or below the knee on their other leg. Make sure they’re not pushing against their knee because you don’t want them to strain anything!

Hold this pose in this way for around a minute before swapping sides and doing the other leg.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are plenty of exercises to get involved in, and it really depends on what you want to achieve and what part of your body you want to work on. The best approach is to try out lots of different exercises, see what you like, and then create a morning or evening schedule you can do every day.

Then you’ll really start to see the benefits in no time!