Exercises for Standing

When we go through chronic illness or aging we get weaker, and as you may have noticed it gets harder to stand up. It becomes especially harder to stand from lower heights. These are three exercises you can do to improve your ability to stand up.

Bridges:

1. Begin by laying on your back either in bed or on the floor. Your feet should be on the bed/floor hip width apart, and your knees should be bent upward. Keep your arms at your side.

2. Contract your stomach muscles and pull up your hips up with your thigh and butt muscles.

3. If you are able, hold your hips up a couple of inches for 3-5 seconds.

4. Lower your hips slowly. Repeat this 5-10 times, according to your ability. As you get stronger do up to 3 sets of 12 of these.

Here is a link to an image of the exercise: Bridge Exercise

At first you may not be able to lift your hips up enough to even feel like they are off the bed or floor. However, even just the act of trying to lift your hips strengthens the muscles necessary for standing.

Bridges are the best way to help with standing, but there are two other important leg exercises to strengthen legs. These are good to do especially if you are not able to do bridges yet.

Heel Slide:

While laying on your back bend your knees while slowly sliding your heel towards your hips. Depending on your mobility you may not be able to pull it far, try to pull as close to your hips as possible. Hold for a few seconds and then slide back down. If you can already do this exercise easily, try adding ankle weights in 1/2 pound increments.

Straight Leg Lifts:

While laying on your back extend your legs straight out and flat. One leg at a time, raise your leg up as high as you can, and then return to the neutral position.

If you're already standing fairly well, try doing short squats to increase your ability to stand from lower heights. While standing with your feet hip width apart, squat down halfway and then stand back up. Repeat 10 times for up to 3 sets. Or try doing one-legged bridges.