Our bodies are built to move! Even though we might have different abilities, it’s important that we still find ways to exercise and move our bodies in the ways that we can. Exercising and stretching keeps our muscles strong and flexible, and strong flexible muscles are what help us to do well, most everything! Exercising can even make our mental health feel better too!
Check out this great video that explains all the ways that exercising helps our body and mind!
Exercise doesn’t have to be hard gym workouts (but that’s cool too, if that’s your thing!) – there are LOTS of different kinds of ways to exercise, and it’s best to find something that you enjoy doing so it doesn’t feel like a chore. Below we’ve included some fun videos to move along with and other ideas of how you can get moving and groovin’ to keep your body healthy!
Whether you’re dancing, playing sports, jogging, doing weights, or any other exercise of your choice, it’s important to make your work-out safe! Your body needs to warm up and cool down before and after being active.
Safe work-outs include:
Warm Up
Warm ups are nice easy movements that start to warm your muscles up to get ready for the main work-out. Warm ups should be at least 3-5 minutes (or longer) and can include some stretches once you start to get warm. This will help your body be ready to exercise!
Work Out
Once your body is warm and ready to move, you can speed things up. Your work-out is whatever exercise you chose to do! It will be a little more intensive than your warm up, and gets your blood circulating and your body working hard. You might even work up a sweat!
Cool Down
After your workout cooling down your body nice and slow is important. This involves doing slower movements and stretching the muscles that you used. This is will help your muscles to keep their flexibility and help them from getting too stiff and sore after your workout!!!
Here are great Warm Up and Cool Down videos by WebMD that you can follow or get some ideas from! These are standing videos but you can do them seated if needed.
Warm Up
Cool Down
Activities
There are lots of fun ways that we can stay active! Here are just some of the many kinds of things we can do to keep our bodies moving and fit…Can you think of any more?
Yoga
Walking
Hiking
Biking
Jogging
Swimming
Playing sports
Dancing
Rollerblading
Gym work-outs
Videos
Sometimes, it’s really nice to follow along to someone else’s workout, and there are LOTS of great free videos on YouTube that let us do that! You can find everything from fun dance parties, to calming yoga to hard work-outs. Here are a few that we think you might enjoy:
Yoga – Standing
SilverSneakers – This gentle 8 minute yoga flow is designed for older adults and lower mobility individuals. The Yoga Room – This is a 25 minute gentle yoga routine for bigger bodies and lower mobility. It involves floor yoga as well. Yoga – Seated Yoga with Kassandra – 18 minute gentle seated yoga flow. Yoga with Adrienne – Another 18 minute seated yoga flow. Cardio – Standing Body Project – This is a 30 minute beginner traditional cardio class that will get your heart pumping. PopSugar– This is a 30 minute lower impact cardio dance session that will still get you sweating! Cardio – Seated Strength for Seniors – This is a gentle 9 minute seated cardio/movement session. Paul Eugene – This is a 25 minute higher energy chair/wheelchar cardio workout. Strength Training Standing Fitness Blender– This is a 9 minute upper body straightening video, using body weight for resistance. Seated Bodylastics – This is 25 minute seated strength routine. It requires some household items to use as weights or resistance. Special O: School of Strength The Special Olympics have a whole series of videos for strength training called “The School of Strength”. These videos are offered in 3 different levels and are for people interested in doing more “gym” style workouts at home. Special O has tons of other great info on keeping your bodies healthy and fit. You can explore their Healthy Living guides and activities and even a monthly health challenge calendar here! Click here to share any new ideas you’d love to see on this page!
