Leg Muscle Weakness Exercises For Seniors And The Elderly

Knee Marching

Leg muscle weakness is a critical factor in maintaining balance in the elderly. By performing exercises that are designed to improve strength in the ankles and hips, like knee marching, you can increase your dynamic balance and thereby reduce the risk of falling.

I have made a great balance video that is fun and easy to do for leg muscle weakness. All you need is a chair, comfortable loose fitting clothing,  and a pair of smooth bottom shoes to wear so you won’t catch your feet. Read on then give it a try.

Strong Hips

Strong hips, knees and ankles are required to archive a better state of balance. Lifting your legs up and down works on the ankles, quadriceps muscles and hips.

An overall great leg strengthener and balance workout. By selecting exercises that work on these areas we can improve our performance in many of the daily activities which require reaching forward, to the side or rotating around to the back.

When we raise our hip up in the air, believe it or not we are momentarily standing on one leg.

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Go slow

This is definitely a balance exercise for leg muscle weakness. The slower you go, the harder this exercise becomes. Make sure you hold onto a chair or someone’s hand when performing this exercise if you feel at all uncomfortable with marching.

For a great workout, try marching for 2 minutes. Stop if you become winded, then continue until 2 minutes has passed. Try this knee marching exercise for increased hip and ankle strength.

Purpose of this exercise

This exercise will strengthen your ankles and hips. It will also improve your dynamic or “moving” balance.

Step 1

Stand with arms at sides, feet shoulder width apart.

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Step 2

Raise one knee up as high as comfortable.Lower, then raise the other knee. Repeat 20 times.

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Breathing

Breathe normally, inhale through the nose and exhale out the mouth.

Tips

Use a chair to hold on to while standing. Hold on with your finger, one hand or two hands. Don’t close your eyes or hold your breath. Raise your arms out to the sides if you need more balance.

Take it up a notch

Lift chest and look straight ahead to make standing more challenging.Try adding a one pound ankle weight to one ankle.

How to do Knee Marching

How to do Knee Marching

More Balance Exercises

1. Single limb stance

2. Eye tracking

3. Clock reach

4. Staggered stance

5. Single limb with arm

6. Balancing wand

7. Knee marching

8. Body circles

9. Heel to toe

10. Grapevine

11. Stepping

12. Dynamic walking

Resources Prevent Falls
https://www.cdc.gov/steadi/pdf/STEADI-Brochure-WhatYouCanDo-508.pdf