It’s important to remind yourself that you are never too old to start taking care of your health. You need to keep exercising and working out to remain in shape and live a healthy and disease-free life. Your age never matters when it comes to exercising and staying healthy, and you can always find exercises that are highly suitable for your age level and perform at home safely.
Some of the most effective exercises for seniors are resistance band exercises. These exercises can be added conveniently to the regular weekly workout schedule. Seniors can easily start to improve their mobility, start to build strength, and try to combat different pains, painful aches, and even diseases like arthritis by going through simple resistance band exercises.
In this article, we will talk about the best resistance band exercises that seniors can go through comfortably and add them to their weekly workout routine conveniently.
Best Resistance Band Exercises for Seniors
Some of the best resistance band exercises for seniors are-
Chest Pull
In order to strengthen your arms and your chest, you can go for chest pulls. They can be performed while being seated or standing up. Focus on your technique while going through this exercise, and make sure to breathe in and out with every repetition in time.
Steps
- Keep your back supported against the chair firmly as you sit down.
- Use both your hands to hold the resistance band at either end.
- Raise your arms frontally in a way that they stay parallel to your shoulders.
- Keep your elbows slightly bent.
- Pull the resistance band by extending your arms, and pull it toward your chest.
- Let your arms return to their bent posture if the tension becomes too much for you.
Duration
This exercise should be performed as many times as you find comfortable.
Suitable For
- Both males and females
Bent Over Row
You can go standing or seated bent over row for strengthening your core muscles, lower back, and shoulders. This exercise will also help you alleviate joint pains and pains you might be experiencing in your hips.
Steps
- Sit in a chair at first so that your back is supported firmly.
- Use both your hands to hold the resistance band at either end.
- Maintain a straight back while bending over until your body is nearly parallel to the ground.
- Use your arms to lift the resistance band and raise them to stay parallel with your shoulders while keeping your elbows upwardly raised.
Duration
Go through the process of lowering your arms as many times as you feel comfortable, and keep doing repetitions conveniently.
Suitable For
- Both males and females
- Elderly people with joint pain
Squats
Seniors can even go for squats if they want. They can try strengthening their back and hip muscles by targeting their glutes with gentle squats and using a resistance band.
Steps
- Stand with your feet firmly planted on the ground and your shoulders shoulder-width apart.
- Bend your knees, lower yourself to the floor, and assume the squat position.
- Hold the resistance band with your hands.
- Before bending your knees back into the squat position, stand tall to absorb the tension.
- Repeat the whole sequence.
Duration
3-5 rounds
Suitable For
- Both males and females
- Elderly people with back and hip issues
Hip Extension
You can incorporate hip extension into your workout routine to build healthy hips. You can do this exercise while seated, or you can do so when you are standing.
Steps
- Loop your resistance band around one of your ankles.
- Take sturdy support and loop the other end of the band around it.
- Try holding onto a chair’s back or a chair’s leg for support.
- Lift your leg straight behind you and take it as far back as possible.
- Then take your leg back to the starting position.
- Repeat the procedure before switching the legs.
Duration
- 8-10 rounds
Suitable For
- Both males and females
Hip Abduction
You can strengthen your hip muscles and work on the rotations of your hip, as well as alleviate the pain you might be feeling in your joints by going through hip abduction exercises regularly.
Steps
- Sit down at first and make sure that your back is well-supported.
- Keep your legs parallel to the ground and your knees at right angles.
- Then wrap the resistance band above your knees.
- Put your hips into work to shift your knees in opposite directions.
- Repeat the exercise by bringing your knees back to the middle.
Duration
- As you see fit
Suitable For
- Elderly people with back and hip issues
- Both males and females
Benefits of Resistance Band Exercises for Seniors
It is really easy for seniors to ignore exercising, as exercising can get really exhausting for them. Exercising can be exhausting for anyone from any age group, but it is more difficult for seniors than younger people. It’s because it becomes more difficult to exercise as our bodies age. Also, chronic pains and injuries can become a reason to stay away from regular exercise.
Not exercising regularly can do a lot of harm to seniors, even though it might seem difficult to carry on with workouts. There is a wide range of resistance band exercises that can easily be incorporated into the daily or weekly workout routine of senior people and can provide a lot of health benefits to them.
It’s important to perform the exercises consistently to enjoy the health benefits provided by these exercises. Make an effort to go through resistance band workouts at least a few times per week, but don’t push yourself too hard, especially if you’ve been away from regular exercise for a while.
The most important benefits of resistance band exercises are-
- Increases your muscle strength
- Reduces pain and aches.
- Helps avoid getting injured while performing usual tasks
- Boosts mobility
- Improves the condition of your joints.
- Helps prevent degenerative conditions like arthritis.
To see your progress, increase the strength of your resistance bands, and try conducting them at your own home.
Final Words
It doesn’t matter how old you are; you shouldn’t stop exercising at any point in life. You can make sure to have a healthy life and stay fit by going through resistance band workouts conveniently in the comfort of your own home. With the help of the simple resistance band exercises for seniors mentioned above, you will be able to prevent common injuries, get rid of aches and pains, and conditions like arthritis, and improve your mobility and health.
