Categories: Start Here, Supine, Exercise
Some of the absolute basic exercises that should be performed if you are bed-bound include ankle pumps, heel slides and rolling from side to side to change position. Doing these exercises regularly several times a day will help from developing blood clots, pressure ulcers or bedsores, and contractures (shortened, tight muscles).
Categories: Start Here, Breathing, Supine, Exercise
Stress and illness can affect how we breathe, impacting our digestion, cardiac and pulmonary function, nervous system and overall health. Luckily, we can control how and where we breathe in our bodies to change this.
Use this exercise to strengthen your back and your bottom so movements like standing up, climbing stairs and walking feel easier.
These exercises improve knee and hip flexibility as well as the circulation in your lower legs and can help prevent blood clots.
This stretch can help loosen up muscles in the hip that get tight from sitting for a long time.
Learn movements and stretches to keep the muscles the neck and upper back flexible, which can help resolve headaches, muscle pain, stiffness, and improve your posture.
Rotation makes our midback more flexible and can decrease stiffness and discomfort in these areas, especially when paired with breathing exercises that further stretch the muscles between the ribcage.
Increasing chest and shoulder mobility improves posture, breathing ability, and can help resolve neck, upper back and shoulder pain.
Categories: Sidelying, Exercise
Strengthening the muscles on the outside of the hips, also known as our hip abductor muscles, keeps us steadier on our feet, and more stable when walking or standing on one leg, like when using stairs.
Categories: Start Here, Standing, Exercise
Improving our balance makes us more stable while walking and using stairs and decreases our risk of falls and injury. It is an important component of recovery after extended illness and hospitalization.
Categories: Start Here, Standing, Exercise
These exercises improves blood flow, strength and stability in the lower legs and make activities like climbing stairs and stepping over objects easier.
Categories: Standing, Exercise
Strengthening the muscles of the side and back of our hip and leg is very important for low back support, hip alignment, posture and stability, as well as keeping us stable when walking or standing on one leg, like when using stairs.
Categories: Standing, Exercise
Lunges work on your balance, strength and stability at the lower legs and hips, and can make it easier to get up from the floor or lift heavier objects off the floor, like a grocery bag.
Categories: Standing, Exercise
This easier alternative to floor push-ups still strengthens the chest, abdominal, arm and shoulder muscles, making it easier to complete everyday tasks. Increase the angle when you are ready to make it more challenging.
Categories: Standing, Exercise
Squats are a very useful exercise to make it easier to get up from a chair, off the toilet and out of bed. If this is difficult, try the sit-to-stand variation first or if too easy, do the supported squat variation instead. It can also be helpful if you have one-sided weakness, like after a stroke.
Strengthening the muscles of the buttocks makes it easier to get out of bed, a chair or off the toilet. It can also make it easier to go up stairs and can help decrease low back pain.
This twisting exercise stretches any areas of tension at the mid and lower back and even the sidebody and muscles between the ribcage. When done more quickly from side-to-side, it can act as an abdominal strengthening exercise.
This exercise strengthens abdominal and hip muscles as well as helping to stabilize your lower back.
Learn movements and stretches to keep the muscles the neck and upper back flexible, which can help resolve headaches, muscle pain, stiffness, and improve your posture.
This twisting stretch improves mobility at your midback, ribcage and upper body, making it easier to breath and decreasing tightness or stiffness from prolonged bedrest or illness.