• FLEXIBILITY
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• BALANCE
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• STRENGTH
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• ENDURANCE

Stretching Legs Exercises For Seniors And The Elderly

Stretching legs exercises for seniors and the elderly, like the inner thigh stretch below, will  improve your lower body flexibility.

As we age, we lose flexibility in our hips and legs by as much as 30 percent. This can greatly reduce our ability to function independently at home and in community.

Stretching our legs daily can add years back to your flexibilty clock.

Maintaining your flexibility in your legs will reduce the risk of pulled muscles and sore joints.

Try two or three of the leg stretches below.  See our flexibility page before begining.

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Inner Thigh Stretch

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Purpose of this exercise

• Improve your hip and thigh range of motion.
• Increase your functional ability in standing, walking and stepping.

How to do it:

Step 1

• Stand with chair support.
• Bring feet apart as far as comfortable.

Step 2 

• Bend knees out to the side and pause.
• Hold for 10 to 20 seconds.
• Then repeat this stretch 2 more times.

Breathing:

• Continue to breathe normally, in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Tips:

• Point your toes out.
• Keep your torso erect while lowering yourself into the stretch.
• The stretch should feel comfortable, stop if you have pain. 

Take it up a notch:

• Try this exercise with one hand or one finger to work on your balance. 
• Or try holding your arms out to the sides for improving balance.

Try these other lower body stretches

Watch These Exercise Videos

1. Seated Lifts

• Improve the range of motion in your hips and legs.
• Help stabilize  your low back and pelvis.
• Learn what is flexibility.

2. Standing Quadricep Stretch

• Will improve your hip and knee range of motion with these exercises to increase flexibility.
• Can improve your standing posture by allowing you to stand up straighter.

3. Back Stretch

• Improves the range of motion in your spine and trunk with lower back stretching.
• Increases your ability to bend and reach low or high.

4. Inner Thigh  Stretch

• Improve your hip and thigh range of motion with stretching legs exercises.
• Increase your functional ability in standing, walking and stepping.

5. Calf Stretch

• Targets the flexibilty of your calf muscle and heel cord. with calf muscle stretches.
• Increases your ability to straighten your knee

6. Hip Side Stretch

• This is a good stretch for the side hip area.
• Improve the range of motion of our hips.
• These stretching techniques also can help with balance.

7.  Hip Rotation Stretch

• Increase the range of motion of your hips with these flexibility stretches.
• Improve the functional use of your legs as in getting out of a car or stepping over the side of your bath tub.

8. Soleus Stretch

• Increases the flexibility of the deep calf muscle with flexibility stretching exercises.
• Generally improves your lower body flexibility and functional use of your legs.

9. Ankle Circles

• Improve the range of motion of the ankle and foot with warming up stretching.
• Can help with ankle swelling.

10. Hamstring Stretch

• Increases your abilty to lean forward and reach your feet with hamstring stretching.
• Improves the flexibilty of your low back and legs.

11. Knee To Chest

• Stretches your knee and hip joints with flexibility importance exercises.
• Improves low back flexibility.

12. Ankle Stretch

• Helps maintain good ankle flexibility which will assist with walking and standing with ankle stretching exercises.
• Also helps with knee and hip stiffness.

Do you like these exercises? Did you know you can download the exercises along with a 4 week exercise program?.