Resistance Band Workouts

Exercising is crucial to maintaining a healthy body and contributes to being able to live an independent lifestyle well into your senior years. Exercise can ease the symptoms of arthritis, osteoporosis, pulmonary diseases, and Type 2 diabetes. By building strength, you will see improvements in balance, stability, flexibility and overall quality of life. Studies have proven that, by building bone and muscle through strength training, seniors have stronger immune systems, more efficient lungs, better blood pressure, and have counteracted the weakness that comes with age.

The American Heart Association recommends that individuals over age 65 should incorporate resistance training exercises at least two days per week. Strength training with resistance bands is a great option for seniors who wish to work out in their homes, or do not have access to a gym. Resistance bands are also lightweight, easy to carry, are fairly affordable, and sold at a variety of retailers.

Resistance bands are strong, elastic bands that you can use to exercise all parts of the body. They come in different ranges of resistances depending on your level of fitness; we recommend starting with a light resistance if you are unfamiliar with strength training, and work your way up to more moderate resistance.

This article on senior fitness showcases a variety of resistance training exercises, including photos, and is a great resource as you start a resistance band routine.

Visit Livestrong for a variety of upper body and chest exercises as well as lower body exercises as they have published a great piece with step by step instructions.

Before introducing any new workout routine, always check with your doctor to be sure they are safe for you, especially if you currently live with arthritis or osteoporosis.