Better Balance Using Chairs in Creative Ways

This chair-based balance workout shares loads of exercises you can do besides sit when leading ambulatory older adult classes. Your residents and class participants come to you to MOVE and maintain or increase their function, not to minimize movement. Guide them to improve their balance, posture and coordination, while reducing time parked in their seats.  

Fill your tool box with curriculum that creatively uses chairs in ways that are safe, meaningful, and fun. Perhaps – like me – you have observed far too many older adult “exercise” classes where residents sat slouched in their chairs, barely moving as they performed bicep curls. Such chair-assisted workouts reinforce poor posture, hunched form, and isolated movement. Why not use those chairs to enhance participants’ function, balance, and to open their bodies, rather than closing them off? Discover exercises that use chairs for more than sitting or holding onto.

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

• Design and teach meaningful chair-assisted workouts that improve dynamic balance, enhance coordination, and reduce fall risk
• Lead group classes with older adults of various abilities using safe and fun moves that  maximize safety and minimize sitting
• Offer and cue options and progressions that accommodate the various skill levels inherent in group classes