3 Go-To Exercises for Seniors

Everyone is aging. Hopefully, we do with health and vitality, and it's never too late to get started. One important aspect of aging well is maintaining your balance and strength. Check out these three simple exercises you can use whenever you need to squeeze in a little physical activity.

1. Glute bridges and marching

We'll start with glute bridges and the glute marching. We're going to set up on the floor. You can use a carpeted floor or set up a workout mat or yoga mat.

On our backs, knees to the sky. Heel down, head down, protect the neck, and we're going to lift the hips with the glute muscles. Up and down. We sit a lot in 2021. We sleep a lot. The glutes have a tendency to turn off. We need to keep those neural connections alive. Use them so we don't lose them. Lifting the hips with the gluteus maximus primarily. These are glute bridges.

We're now going to do the glute marching. It's more of a stabilization exercise, keeping the hips stationary. Lifting a heel, and then the other one. It's also a good abdominal exercise, but primarily the glutes are doing the work to keep the hips extended.

2. Knee touches

The next exercise will be primarily for balance. We have a chair, a very sturdy, stable chair. We'll do this version first with the assistance of the chair. Lifting the left knee, touching it with the right hand. Or vice versa. We'll do both.

When you cross the midline, supposedly this helps the brain. Let's do two more. And good. Now we'll move to the other side. And now with the right knee, left arm, we'll do about five. Good.

Now, without the chair, if you can handle this. Cross marching, side to side.

3. Dumbbell curls

Now we'll do dumbbell exercises. We want to develop the biceps muscle. Standing nice and tall, elbows by your side. Lift, control the negative. Lifting is the positive. Negative is the going down.

Control the negative. Lift, steady. It is very easy to do the negative quickly, but that takes a lot of the effort out of the equation.

Now, when it comes to making muscle, effort is incredibly important. There's a saying that your body doesn't know what weight is. Pounds are kind of immaterial. It's all about the tension. It's all about the effort.