A 19-Minute Morning Stretches for Seniors Routine

If the words creaky, tight, and sluggish define your mornings, a dose of breath and movement might be just what the doctor ordered. Luckily, the most recent episode of Well+Good’s Trainer of the Month Club offers morning stretches for seniors to assist you to start the time off on the proper foot (and leg, hips, back, shoulders, and neck).

Stretching within the morning is a way your body naturally wakes up, which is why you see babies and dogs intuitively doing those big, yawning, body-opening stretches—officially called “pandiculation”—as they get their day began.

“The idea is that pandiculation is the body’s way of shifting from a resting state into an energetic state by increasing nervous system arousal and focusing attention,” exercise physiologist Sharon Gam, PhD, CSCS, previously told Well+Good concerning the biology of morning stretches. “It’s thought that the brain prompts a cascade of reactions that prepare the body for motion, including redirecting blood flow to the muscles, increasing heart rate and respiration, and shifting attention to the surface world.”

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But in case you’re a senior, stretching may not come as naturally or easily because it does to a wee babe. In reality, the way in which we approach stretching should change as we age.

“What it’s best to deal with are stretches that may assist you to obtain the right range, postures, and positions essential in your desired activities,” Kassandra Reagan, DPT, CSCS, physical therapist on the Hospital for Special Surgery in Recent York, previously told Well+Good concerning the best stretches for seniors. “So, depending on what you would like to give you the chance to do, your stretches may vary. But a nonspecific full-body stretching routine can be very helpful in your general health.” It might even be useful to carry the poses for longer than you may think, since it could take a little bit more time to open up those muscles and joints.

That’s just what Crunch group fitness instructor Liz Fichtner has in store on this latest 19-minute morning stretches for seniors video.

“As a senior myself, being 64 years old, I like to start out my morning with some mobility within the body, and a few good energy running through,” Fichtner says. Throughout the session, Fichtner wants you to carry the poses for the period of time that feels good to you, based in your body’s particular needs that day. “You’ll be able to back off. We’re not in any rush to get anywhere. We’re taking a pleasant slow morning.”

The 19-minute stretch series incorporates a piece of seated floor exercises where you’ll deal with connecting your breath with moves like arm circles, side bends, twists, and folds. You’ll release stress pressure points, like those in your wrist and neck, and begin to activate your muscles with just a few moves done in your hands and knees. You may cap all of it off with a delicate yoga flow and a delicious savasana (resting pose). What a option to start the day!

You’ll be able to do the routine within the video above, or follow together with the instructions below.

A 20-minute morning stretches for seniors routine

Format: Stretching and mobility exercises done seated, standing, on hands and knees, and laying down

Equipment needed: A stretch of floor to put on (like a yoga mat), and something to take a seat on, like a pillow or yoga block

Who is that this floor?: Seniors who wish to bring a little bit of movement to their mornings.

Moves 1-11 are done sitting in a supported cross-legged position

1. Seated respiration exercise

1. Sit on a pillow, yoga block, or other support with legs crossed
2. Breathe and grow tall within the spine, feeling space in between your vertebrae
3. Repeat for 30 seconds

2. Arm circles

1. Lift your arms above your head so your palms meet
2. Bring your joined arms out in front of you and interlace your fingers, flip your palms to push out and round your spine
3. Release your arms to the edges
4. Repeat for 30 seconds

3. Side bends

1. Take one arm up and over your head and lean over to the alternative side
2. Repeat on the opposite side and proceed alternating for 30 seconds

4. Side bend look-ups

1. While at the highest of the side bend pose, look up and open up your shoulder
2. Repeat on the opposite side and proceed alternating for 30 seconds

5. Twists

1. Raise each arms above your head
2. Twist over to the proper side and as you accomplish that, bring your arms all the way down to place your front hand on the alternative knee, with the back hand on the bottom
3. Return to center, then repeat on the opposite side
4. Proceed alternating for 30 seconds

6. Twist and holds

1. At the underside of the twist, together with your front hand on the alternative knee, twist over your back shoulder and briefly hold
2. Repeat on the opposite side

7. Forward fold

1. Along with your hands raised above your head, bend forward over your feet and place your hands on the bottom.
2. Walk your hands to 1 side, hold, then walk them over to the opposite side.

Change the cross of your legs, bringing the alternative foot on top.

8. Neck stretches

1. Lengthen the highest of your spine through your neck
2. Envision creating space between the joints of your neck and shoulder
3. Holding that space open in your mind, tilt your head to the side, so that you get a stretch along the alternative side of your neck
4. On the side that’s getting the stretch, float the arm up, somewhere between your waist and shoulder.
5. Make a fist and rotate your wrist a method, after which the opposite way
6. Gently release the fist, arm, and neck stretch
7. Repeat on the opposite side

9. Neck circles

1. Drop your chin to your chest
2. Rock your head gently back and forth
3. Place your thumbs underneath your chin and use them to lift your head up
4. Make a full circle together with your head, switching directions at the highest of every circle
5. Return to center together with your head in a neutral position
6. Jut your head out, and produce it back, pulling your chin into your neck

10. Shoulder rolls

1. Place your hands in your shoulders, together with your bent elbows out in front of you
2. Open your elbows out to the side, up, back, and back to the front, making a circle

11. Wrist stretches

1. Extend your arms out in front of you
2. Flip your palms face up
3. Extend your fingers down and pull gently with the alternative hand making a wrist stretch.
4. Repeat on the opposite side
5. Along with your palm face down, make a fist
6. Rotate your wrist out to the side

12. Leg lifts in your hands and knees

1. Come onto your hands and knees
2. Slide one leg back in order that your knee is straight and your toes are on the ground
3. Lift the leg as much as parallel together with your hips
4. Lower back down and return to hands and knees position
5. Repeat on the opposite side.
6. Repeat the move but lift the arm of the alternative arm once you lift the leg.
7. Repeat on the opposite side
8. Come out of the hands and knees pose by lifting your hips right into a downward dog with bent knees, after which slowly walking your hands and knees together until you possibly can lift up into standing

13. Standing side bend

1. Standing upright, lift your arms above your head
2. Grab your wrist with the alternative hand, and side bend as you pull your wrist to the alternative side
3. Repeat on the opposite side

14. Sun salutation

1. From standing together with your hands up above your head, bend over and let your hands rest where they fall naturally
2. Place your hands in your shins or your thighs so you can bring your straight back parallel with the ground
3. Bend forward
4. Slowly rise back up into standing
5. Repeat
6. Add a twist: At the highest of the pose, twist over one shoulder, and produce your back arm behind you and your front arm in front of you, so your chest is open to the side
7. Repeat the twist on the opposite side, then undergo the sun salutation again

15. Vinyasa

1. Come right into a modified plank pose, together with your knees on the bottom
2. Bend your elbows straight back behind you as you lower down onto your belly
3. Lift your head, neck, and shoulders right into a baby cobra
4. Lower back down
5. Keep off right into a child’s pose

16. Hip stretch

1. Sit on the ground together with your legs out in front of you
2. Gently bend your knees, feet flat on the ground, and cross one ankle over the alternative knee
3. Hold, then repeat on the opposite side

17. Spinal twists

1. Lay in your back together with your knees bent and feet on the ground
2. Drop your knees together to 1 side
3. Come back to center and repeat on the opposite side

18. Savasana

1. Lay face up flat on the ground together with your arms prolonged to the side and your feet relaxed
2. Breathe for one minute