Gentle Stretches for Ages 60+: Breathing Exercises to Improve Lung Health

Transcript

welcome to this gentle breathing and stretching session I'm April vest next and this is my mom Aiko hi now this session will help you reduce stress help you relax and can even help improve your lung health and they can be done any time of day so you can use them when you walk wake up when you go to sleep or even if you need like a gentle relaxation session during the day sounds good and you can even use them as a warmup or cool down good MH so my mom is going to be doing this one seated I'll be doing a standing to give you some options and if you're standing with me might want to be near a countertop or table just in case you need it for support so how does this all sound mom sounds good we got to keep breathing so let's do it definitely breathing and stretching we can all use some relaxation all right we'll take a pause here and get started so Mom you want to have a seat look at mochi's already stretching thank you these they already stretching all right he baby so let's start with some gentle breathing everybody okay so if you're sitting or standing just relax relax your face relax your shoulders and we're going to start breathing we're going to inhale through our nose for two counts and then we're going to Exhale through our mouth for four through Pur lip so it's like you're blowing out a candle okay so let's try this I'm going to coach you mom so breathe in two and exhale through your mouth for four 2 3 and four okay so inhale one 2 and exhale like you're blowing out a candle one 2 3 and four inhale inhale one 2 through your nose and exhale one 2 3 and four get rid of that stale air inhale and exhale very nice give me three more from here inhale and exhale very nice two more inhale and breathe out very nice and one more inhale for two and exhale very nice okay so our first stretch going to be don't fall asleep on me some gentle shoulder rolls okay so your shoulders are relaxed we're just going to bring our shoulders up towards our ear we're going to bring them back toward the back of the room and down and around okay and you can practice that breathing that we just did to inhale and exhale and down good nice gentle shoulder rolls everybody inhale and exhale very nice inhale and exhale and one more to the back inhale and exhale okay we're going to reverse that okay we're going to go forward now so inhale up shoulders forward and down practice that breathing inhale and exhale just showing here inhale exhale and give me three more inhale and exhale and two more inhale shoulders up and forward down and one more inhale and exhale all right shake it out really nice job okay so remember that first set of breathing now we're going to go into some belly breathing it's so the similar pattern to what we did previously Pur lip breathing but this time I want you to place your hand on your chest and one other hand on your belly and our goal here is to really kind of work our diaphragm which is responsible for breathing so we're going to take that inhale and I want when you inhale I want you to kind of feel your belly expand this time okay so it's a deeper breath so inhale and then exhale and feel that belly go down and I know this is takes some practice to do but you can also do this one lying down in your bed okay so inhale and exhale and feel that belly inhale expand the belly and exhale okay inhale and exhale very nice and you shouldn't feel your chest rise you don't want to engage your chest muscles or your neck muscles it's all about the diaphragm down here okay so inhale and exhale and let's do three more of these okay inhale and exhale inhale and exhale and one more inhale and exhale and relax okay hopefully you're feeling your body relax some tension release and uh you're feeling good how you feeling Mom how you feeling mom falling asleep good well that's a good sign okay you're relaxing all right so our next exercise just work our legs a little bit to stretch our legs so want you to lift your leg up you flex your foot straight leg everybody and Out Hold really feel that leg engage here feel your thigh engage okay hold that and down we're going to alternate now so Flex the foot and bring the leg up and engage that leg stretch yes a nice stretch feel that ankle okay and breathe keep going we're going to do a five on each side okay and breathe and down good that's two and two and up inhale and exhale inhale and exhale and down very nice we're doing three more sets two breaths on each foot inhale and exhale inhale and exhale very nice other side Flex that foot inhale and exhale inhale and exhale really nice okay give me another one yep inhale and sit tall just relax exhale and inhale and exhale good and other side inhale exhale inhale just breathe normally and exhale I'm going to do just one more okay one more set inhale and exhale inhale and exhale and down and one more on the other side here we go nice and gentle inhale and exhale and inhale oh I see you doing little foot moves and exhale and Rel relax okay nice work okay so now I'm going to challenge you with another breathing exercise this time with every breath and exhale I want you to count so we're going to inhale for one exhale for two inhale for one or three exhale for four inhale for five exhale for six inhale for seven exhale for eight inhale for nine and exhale for 10 okay now I want you to just do that on your own for a 10 count okay so you just breathe normally inhale through your nose exhale through your mouth for 10 okay count [Music] [Music] and and very nice okay all right okay so wake up your body a little bit we're going to go into a gentle side stretch so whether you're seated or standing just want you to lift one arm above your head and just feel a nice stretch side of your body opening up that chest and just holding and breathing and if this is problem for your shoulder just bring it down here okay okay that's your call but continue to breathe that inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth okay [Music] hold oh hello oh my inhale to Exhale and hold it for one more count and exhale and bring it down gently really nice okay okay take a breath shake it out we're going to do the other side okay so we're going to bring that arm up okay and feel that side open up inhale and exhale just breathe at your own pace oh hello inhale and exhale oh thank you for stretching with us inhale stretching with us that's good did good inhale and exhale and one more inhale and exhale and come on down gently really nice everybody well hello oh hello sweet boy okay well nice work on these gentle stretches and breathing exercises let's close it out with with some gentle breathing okay just inhale and exhale for three inhale and exhale yes we're inhaling and exhaling inhale and exhale and one more inhale and exhale really nice great job on taking time for yourself and relaxing and again you can do these gentle breathing and stretching exercises any time of day when you need to de-stress and just relax all right so if you like this video please give it a like let us know what you thought in the comments and we love to help you get stronger and relax so look forward to seeing you in a future video and in the meantime keep breathing and stretching see you see you soon