Balance and Agility for Seniors: Improving it Through Practice

One of the most important concerns for older adults and seniors is staying steady on their feet, helping them to navigate through life without the concern of falling and hurting themselves. This article will show you a few simple ways to increase your balance and agility, help improve your confidence on your feet, and prevent fall injuries. Let’s take a look at some of the best agility drills for seniors to make your balance better than it ever has been. Older adults who practice all of the exercises, may improve there balance so much, you may never fall again.

The Importance of Quickness

You may or may not be aware, but the ability for seniors to move their body quickly goes down tremendously as they age. Because of this, these exercises will not only improve your balance, but also the ability to move quickly as well. By far the most important agility drill to master is the last one. All of the agility drills for seniors will use balance hurdles, which we will link down in the description.

Hurdle Steps Forward

The first exercise will have you placing 4-6 hurdles in front of you, about 1-2 feet apart. You can have them as high as you comfortably would like. After that, you will step over all of the hurdles as quickly as possible, before turning around and doing it the other way. Make sure you alternate which you foot you pick “up” first when doing this to get equal balance work.

Hurdle Steps Sideways

Keep you hurdles in the same position as the first exercise. After that, you will step sideways over the hurdles as quickly as possible, making sure your hips stay pointed forwards, not opening up towards the front. Make sure to repeat on both directions, leading with your left one one time, and right for the other time.

Hurdle Side Step Crossovers

This may sound like the exercise we did earlier, but it’s actually quite different. For the hurdle side step crossovers, start looking sideways on the hurdles. Next, you will step up and over the hurdles, crossing over your leg instead of not crossing like before. Watch closely on the video, if you are confused on how it looks compared to the second balance and agility exercise we did earlier.

Hurdle Step Over and Back

This next balance drill will challenge your mobility and stability quite a bit. For the hurdle step over and back, start with both feet behind the hurdle. Next, you will step up and over the hurdle, tap your heel on the floor, and then bring your heel back to the starting point. Alternate tapping each heel as quickly as you can on both legs.

Backwards Hurdle

This is one the hardest balance and agility exercises for seniors. For the backwards hurdle. Start looking away from the hurdle. Next, you will take steps backwards over the hurdles as quickly as possible. I would recommend lowering the height of the hurdles when doing this exercise. Make sure to repeat on both legs.

If you practice these balance and agility exercises daily, the steadiness on your feet will become better than ever. If you are interested in trying out fall reduction program, feel free to check out the program, below, otherwise you can check out his other article I picked out for you to read as well.

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