- (exhaling forcefully) How you doing, Mike?
- I'm alive.
- (chuckles) All right.
Now Mike and I, and Bob have spent decades, literally,
doing low-impact exercises with seniors
to improve their strength, their heart health,
and osteoporosis, and it just works out well.
Now we're gonna talk about this during this video,
and things are gonna be explained very well.
Mike, do you have something to say?
- We are gonna show you five exercises that you can do.
You can follow along, or watch and do 'em later,
and they're gonna help you stay active,
make you a little stronger,
and help reduce any pain or stiffness.
- That's right.
They're our five most favorite, I would say.
- I guess. - There you go.
Of course.
(bright upbeat music)
All right, a little introduction to these exercises,
a mindset of what I would like you to think about
before you get into 'em.
I want you to do all five of the exercises,
but if any of them create any joint pain,
any pain at all, that exercise should be eliminated.
Overall, you're gonna go through five of 'em,
pick out two or three of 'em that you like the best,
seems like they're best for you,
and those are the ones you're going to want to do.
And you can alternate 'em day to day,
or one week do one, the other week do another.
- In the exercises,
there's going to be two different arm exercises,
so make sure to pick one of those for sure.
And we're also gonna show a variation,
so a simpler or harder version,
depending upon how well you can move.
- That's right, we wanna fit everybody in,
so that there's options for everyone involved.
- Let's get to it.
(Brad laughs)
- All right, the first one,
very traditional exercise, is marching in place.
Now you're gonna swing your arms and your knees.
The higher you bring your knees, the more tired,
or more aggressive it is.
Same with your arms.
If you wanna start out small, fine.
If you wanna start out big, that's even better.
It's up to you.
Mike, can you talk about how long we're gonna do this?
- We're gonna try to do this for a minute.
You can work up to two minutes.
This is more time-based exercise.
I am doing the seated version, which is easier.
You don't have the balance component.
If you feel unsteady,
Brad's is gonna be a little more challenging.
- Yes. Boy, this is nice.
I'm liking this exercise.
Actually think about your breathing and being relaxed
while you exercise, makes a tremendous difference
on how you enjoy the exercise, and the efficiency of things.
- I can't swing my arms as much. I feel goofy.
- Well, be careful with the armrests,
or you'll bump your elbow.
Alright, the second exercise is sidestepping left and right.
This is an important exercise,
because it works the lateral muscles,
which are incredibly, incredibly important
for your stability and balance.
You may need a stick or a cane,
just to make sure you're safe.
That's strictly up to you.
And you go back and forth, oh, 5 or 10 times.
Mike, do you wanna elaborate more on this exercise?
- First thing to notice,
is you do not have to do them in red pants.
The second thing (Brad laughing)
is to go one to two minutes for time duration.
You can hold on the support like Brad was doing.
You can also do these at a countertop or a firm railing.
- And I also want to mention,
if you are not comfortable standing and doing these,
there's an option in the chair
for those people who need that level,
we'll get into that right now.
- The third exercises is some type of squat variation.
I'm gonna be showing the easier version first.
So you're gonna start in a chair,
and you're gonna stand up, and then slowly sit down.
If you need to use your armrest for support, go ahead.
If you feel strong enough,
you can cross your arms on your shoulders like this.
Just make sure you have good control
as you're going up and sitting back.
Brad, do you wanna talk about the variation?
- Yes.
If you would like to have it a little more aggressive
and work your balance more, be careful with this.
Actually go up behind a chair and hold that,
and we're gonna do squats.
Now I'm gonna back up away from the chair.
Use something to hold onto,
chair, cupboard, whatever, cane, or stick,
and then we're gonna start out with shallow squats.
Okay, we're gonna go down, and whatever's comfortable,
If you feel like you get down so far and you get knee pain,
or you feel wobbly, stop, go to the chair.
We must stay safe with this.
Actually, hand on a countertop, a chair, and the stick
can be a really good way to work these.
Again, go down as far as you feel comfortable.
We talked about time.
You can do these for time if you'd like.
If you wanna just do 10 repetitions to start out with
and build up, that is also a great technique.
This is one of those strengthening techniques
that's really gonna help you out with your balance,
getting out of chairs, into chairs,
and negotiating up and down steps,
so it's an important one.
- Yes, it's very functional exercise.
- Absolutely.
- The next exercise is gonna be
a wall pushup for beginners,
and Brad will show the more advanced version next.
This is gonna be an upper body arm strengthening exercise.
So you're gonna bring your upper body towards the wall,
and then push back out.
The further your feet are away from the wall,
the more challenging it will be.
Since you're not fighting against gravity,
this is a little bit easier exercise to do.
And again, we're gonna do repetitions with this.
Start with however many you can do, and progress from there.
- That's right.
Now, if you have a history of doing pushups,
and you want to go right to the floor
and do the typical GI pushups, go ahead, do that.
We're talking about people who aren't at that level
and want a good option.
Come on over this way.
If you have handrails and a stairway,
this is a really nice way you can progress,
and it's a little bit more challenging than the wall.
Good, solid rails, of course.
Bring your feet out as far as you feel comfortable.
The farther out, the more difficult it will be.
So start out safe, and work those.
If your handrails are too far apart,
it's not an option, because it's gonna stress your shoulders
and give you shoulder pain.
So make sure you feel very comfortable with this.
Again, same repetition.
When I do pushups, I like to do a goal of 10.
10 is a nice number to work towards.
Go to a countertop is a really good situation.
A good, solid countertop.
This is not solid, so Mike is sitting on this,
and this is a little bit lower than most counter tops,
so it'll be higher.
And just bring your feet over.
And again, we just do the pushups here.
Unfortunately, the wall is too close,
I really am not demonstrating
the way I would normally do it, plus Sam's in the way,
but you get the idea how we're going to do it.
Same repetitions.
Mike, anything to finish up on this one?
- When you start going into the variations Brad was showing,
it's gonna engage your core a little more,
and there's more gravity,
so it's gonna be more challenging.
- That's right. It's a win-win.
Okay, the next one, another arm and shoulder exercise.
Very important, the first thing you must do,
we can do it seated or standing, but good posture.
So get the shoulders back, the head up,
everything in line, as we want with good posture,
and then we're gonna bring our arms out in front.
We can go palms down, palms together,
that's not real important.
Out to the side, nice and wide.
Squeeze the shoulder blades together in front,
and then overhead.
You can do this with both hands together or open.
If you happen to have one shoulder
or one arm that is weaker than the other arm, grab it.
Let the strong arm assist the weak one,
can be a good stretch.
And then we're just gonna repeat these.
Again, we can go for time on this.
If you wanna count, you can count.
Mike, what do you have to say about if this is too easy?
- If this is too easy,
you can try grabbing a resistance band of sorts.
It doesn't matter which type you have at home,
or you can even use dumbbells.
But with the resistance bands,
you're gonna grab somewhere in the middle,
start with the easier band,
typically lighter colors are easier.
Do the same motion, pull apart,
the band will touch your chest,
and then you're gonna lift overhead.
You don't have to have it tight when you're overhead.
So just apart and then overhead.
This is gonna really work your shoulders.
- Yeah, this is a great range of motion
as well as strengthening exercise.
Now you can see I have a tube band,
so it's a little different than Mike's loop band,
but they both work equally well.
Now Mike did mention you can use dumbbells,
and that's a different,
it's gonna work different muscle groups,
'cause the resistance is vertical, down with gravity.
Out this way.
And you're gonna find these become much more difficult.
Yeah, okay, Mike, should we tell 'em about
the advanced method for getting both directions?
- Sure. - Sure.
You simply, most people will not do this,
but there will be a few of the overachievers.
Band and a dumbbell, (Mike laughing)
so we get resistance going out,
and we get resistance going up.
Again, do not try this unless you can do 'em very easily
with just the bands, or without, just another option.
What do you say Mike?
- We have one more exercise for you to show,
it's a bonus tip.
- My shoulders are feeling really good after that.
I like it.
- Good, you need the work. (Brad laughing)
So the bonus tip is just simply walking.
It is an important exercise to do, it is low impact,
it has a lot of different health benefits,
and it's important to start on a nice, flat road.
maybe sidewalk to begin.
If you've already been walking a bunch, you know,
you could try different terrains, unevenness,
make it a little more challenging,
but walking is very beneficial.
- Right.
- I think one of the big benefits of walking,
besides the exercise, is simply you're gonna do it outside,
particularly with nice weather,
and it's such a relaxing activity,
it lets your mind free,
and it's just one of those additional things
that makes life much better.
So, walk away.
Oh, I know.
I wanted to mention, I've had people that walk
out too far, and then they can't come back.
Say they walk a mile out, and they get halfway back,
and they realize, I should have limited my walk to one mile,
and now I've got a half mile of drudgery and knee pain
because they overdid it.
It's just an example.
So if you have blocks, walk around the block,
so you can do 10 laps versus 20,
and you get tired at 11 laps,
then you're right there by your house, you can sit down.
Or a park where there's plenty of benches to rest at.
- Or a treadmill.
- (laughing) There you go. But that's not outside.
- No.
- We don't get the, you could take your treadmill
out into the yard, and get a long extension cord.
- Is that what you do? - Maybe a 200 footer,
and then the neighbors will talk,
and life will be exciting throughout the neighborhood.
So yeah, that's a good option.
- Okay. (Brad laughing)
- Alright, that concludes the exercises.
Look at all of them, pick out the ones you want.
And remember, feel strong, be balanced, and keep moving.
- And let us know in the comments section
what low-impact exercises you prefer to do,
because maybe we'll make a video about those.
- Yeah, that's right.
Always something new out there.
There's people out there
with much better ideas than we have.
(bright upbeat music)