Exercise at home with Dan Hardie
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7 week home exercise program
Daniel Hardie is Summerset’s resident fitness expert & advisor. Over 12 years as a personal trainer has seen Dan train well over 300 clients, deliver multiple lectures on fitness and wellbeing and develop an intricate understanding of muscle strength and its impact on balance, and also the important connections between physical & cognitive health. Dan has created Summerset’s signature fitness programme which is ACC & Ministry for Health accredited falls prevention class (under their Live Stronger for Longer initiative). The class is currently being rolled out in a staged approach across our villages nationwide.
Week one
These exercises are all about joint mobility. These exercises are easily remembered as “joint circles”. Our joints are made to do many things, including rotation. These exercises are designed so you can take your joints through your full range of motion to keep them healthy.
Complete these in a controlled manner and aim for 3-5 reps in each direction. You can use this every morning as a mobility routine or throughout the day to stay supple.
Week two
Balancing is one of the major themes of this week’s exercise routine. The second part of the routine is shoulder strength. The only pieces of equipment you’ll need for this session is one chair, wall space or a door you can lean against and some objects to hold such as canned food (the heavier they are the more difficult it will be).
Week three
Equipment needed for this week is a chair, and a can of something to hold onto (beans, spaghetti etc). We’ll work on shoulder health and mobility and introduce some different lower limb balancing exercises to train the brain and body.
Shoulder lifts, curls and presses and star taps
Week four
Step-by-step a combination of strength, mobility and cardio exercises, aimed at giving you a great full body workout. This longer four-part workout includes a warm-up to ensure that your body is ready for the exercises to follow, and a relaxing Tai Chi inspired cool-down. The only equipment you will need is yourself, a chair and a bit of space – enjoy!
Week five
Using simply a wall and your body, we will be introducing some postural and upper body exercises. This will leave you feeling more upright and stronger in your arms. We also build on week three with some varied squatting directions which you can tailor to your strength level.
Week six
Now it's time to get a little more dynamic with our lower body movements. We will be focussing on strengthening the muscles that support our hips. Using a wall, our focus will be on creating more movements through our shoulders by moving them above our head. Motion is lotion!
Week seven
Combing a few of our different exercises we’ve learned over the previous workouts, you’ll be completing over 100 repetitions in this workout. No rush, it is completely up to you how much or little you do here! All you need is a chair and a wall.