The Single Best Exercise for Seniors

No gym required.

I must start by saying that I am not a doctor, personal trainer or certified coach. I’m just a guy who has been around a while and paid attention. I read a lot. I listen to others. And sometimes I get what I think is a decent idea. Like this one.

What is one of the biggest health fears for us senior citizens? The dreaded broken hip! We all know someone, or have heard of someone, who fell and broke a hip, which then started the quick slide into physical decline and ultimately death.

So many just shrug their shoulders and accept it as part of the aging process. But we don’t have to. Some years ago, I saw an older doctor on a news program talking about the danger of falls in the senior population. No, I don’t remember his name or even the program. It’s been a few years and a lot of beers since then. But I do remember his advice.

This doctor said that seniors need to strengthen the lower body to protect from falls, and the single best thing we can do to build that strength is to get in the habit of standing from a sitting position without the aid of our arms. On the other side of the coin, he also recommended sitting down without the add of our arms. In other words, control your descent, don’t just flop down into a sitting position.

Very simply, if we get in that habit we will find ourselves doing bodyweight squats all throughout the day. Why is that important?

Squats strengthen an enormous amount of muscles in our core and lower body. They build strong buttocks, quads, hamstrings and calves. This article from WebMD is just one of many that extol the benefits of squats. It makes sense that the stronger our lower body is, the better we can deal with balance issues that lead to falls.

As we get older many of us will develop balance issues. They can stem from high blood pressure, inner ear issues and reactions to medication. The HeathinAging website estimates that falls resulting from loss of balance are the leading cause of injuries in people over the age of 65 and especially over 80. This includes fatal injuries.

So how does doing squats and standing up without using your arms tie in with balance issues? Consider this, we geezers have no monopoly on balance loss. Young people lose their balance, too. Everyone, no matter their age, can lose concentration and trip over area rugs, uneven pavement, roots, rocks or those dumbbells my wife leaves in the living room floor after her workout.

The big difference though, is that young people have more strength to catch themselves when they stumble and lose their balance. Older people tend to lose that strength over the years and therefore, fall and injure themselves.

In a perfect world everyone, no matter their age, would go to the gym and work out a couple times a week. If not, they would have dumbbells at home like my wife and work out in the living room, garage, basement or even the back yard. If nothing else, we would all pause during the day and knock out sets of body weight squats, 10 -15 at a time, every other hour or so.

But this isn’t a perfect world. Some people have already reached a state where even one body weight squat is too much. Some simply have no desire to exercise and will take their chances. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

If you can sit and stand without using your arms for support then you are on the way to mitigating your risk of falls and that dreaded broken hip. If you can simply get in the habit of folding your arms over your chest and controlling your descent into a chair or sofa, then folding them again as you stand back up, you will do one of the most beneficial things you can do for yourself.

You will be pumping out bodyweight squats.

ALL.

DAY.

LONG.