Yoga Stability Ball Workout // Gentle Seated Toning Exercises for Seniors & Beginners

Hi, and welcome to Senior Shape. This workout is a yoga with a little bit of Pilates toning on a yoga ball or a stability ball. All right, and let's talk about my different looking ball for a second, because I know you guys are gonna ask. This is, thank you to Pro Body Pilates. They sent this to me. There is a regular stability ball inside this. So this is just a little cover. It has a zipper, a great little handle, and some little grippy bottoms as well. So if you're using this on a hard surface. So again, thank you to Pro Body Pilates. Just a different way of using this. I do find that it's a little bit more firm, and it's great for sitting at a desk all day, right? It's not gonna make your bottom all sweaty. So just a different way of using the ball. So I thought I'd let you guys know about that. You can get it through my Amazon site, and the information, the link is in the description of the video below. Let's go ahead and get started. Sitting up nice and tall as always. Rolling those shoulders down and back. Core is engaged, and legs are coming straight out. So knees straight up from the hips. Ankles are directly underneath both knees. Resting our hands on top of our knees. We're gonna round our back. So roll that pelvis forward, round the back, like you're trying to peek at your navel. And then let's come up, lift the chin, and shift your hips back. So this is just a seated cat-cow, warming up our spine. Let's do that again. Roll it back, rounding the back. Tilt the pelvis forward, and the opposite. Lift the chin, shift the hips back. And again, you can always go at your own pace. We're gonna do approximately six of each exercise today. And again, roll the pelvis forward, and up, lift the chin, shoulders down and back. One more time. And let's come back to center, stacking that spine nice and tall. Arms are gonna come up, cactus down, squeezing, using our body's own resistance, the elbows down and back. And then we're gonna squeeze the chest together, hands coming to prayer. We inhale, cactus down, and squeeze together. Again, up, palms facing me, squeeze, and then squeeze back to center. Inhale, exhale down, nice wide elbows. Squeeze the shoulder blades together. Come back to center, and squeeze. Two more times. Last one, inhale, exhale down. Come together, pressing those hands together. Elbows are nice and wide, shoulders down and back. Take a nice little twist, and come back to center. Twist, and come back to center. Belly button is pulled in. Great for our spine and our abdominals. We're gonna stay active the whole time, so again, using our body's own resistance. Keep pressing those hands together. Heel raises, I want you to pop one heel, and lower down. And lift, and lower, squeeze that calf muscle and make sure that you come straight up, not sickling the feet out to the sides. Lift, and lower, lift, and lower. Let's do one more each side. Lift, and lower, and then relax. Hands at the sides, let's go ahead and hold on to our ball here. We're gonna pop the heel on the right foot again. Tighten that core, because we're in a balance, and then push down through that left foot. Extend the knee out to the front. Squeeze that quad, come back down, and then lower the heel. So a three-part move. We lift, lift the leg, back down, lower the heel. Staying nice and tall will help. Lift, and squeeze, straighten the knee, back down. Little pause here, working on that balance. One more, let's hold this one to the front. And if you can balance, let's circle that ankle, and then reverse, and relax it down. Nice job, same thing, other side. Lift the heel, lift the foot, down, and release. Lift, extend, down, and release. And then the body naturally kind of wants to shift over to the side to compensate. Keep lifting that torso up nice and tall, keeping the hips still, that will help. Heel, extend, straighten the knee. Last one, extend, hold it here. Ankle circles, and reverse, and lower down. We're gonna do some pelvic tucks. So I want you to roll that pelvis forward, tucking the hips, and then we're gonna roll it back. So we come forward, so think about a little crunch. We're trying to bring our last rib here to the top of our hip bones. Roll on that ball, tuck, and release. Squeeze the abs, sit up tall. Shift the hips a little bit to the back, squeeze. This should feel nice, and squeeze. A few more, but this time let's add our arms. So we're gonna pull the arms forward, tuck, and then open up, stretch. Forward and tuck, and stretch. Two more, last one. Come back to a neutral position, arms out to the side. Give me some arm circles here. Stretch the fingers nice and long out to the sides. Shoulders are down and back. Just starting to feel a little heat in the shoulders. Give me four, three, two. Let's reverse it to the back. Stretch them long, good. For four, three, two, and one. Release the arms down, hip circles. So like that forward pelvic tuck, we're gonna go forward all the way out to the side, roll it back, and center. This should feel really good on that lower back. And our hips, make them as big as you can. And let's reverse. Other side, all the way back and forward. Three times each direction, then we're gonna repeat that. Let's do that again, other side. Make them nice and big. You can hold onto your ball, or you can try to balance more. Whatever you are comfortable with. And reverse, and release it down. Great job. We're gonna take our feet nice and wide here. Much as you comfortably can. This actually makes us a little bit more stable on the ball. So we'll make sure that we're pushing those knees back, keeping them in line with the ankles. Arms come up, inhale, reach forward. And then tummy in, shifting your hips back, I want you to reach towards me, shift those hips back, keeping a straight spine. And then we're gonna come down to the floor. If your hands don't reach the floor, you can hold onto your ball here. That should feel lovely on the lower back. Let's tuck our chin and roll it up one vertebrae at a time. Nice job. Keeping our feet here, we're gonna butterfly our legs out to the side. So I want you to push those knees back, feeling a stretch in those hips, squeezing behind the hips, and then let them come forward. Think about a little inner thigh squeeze here with the ball. Make sure there's no tension on those knees. So we take it back and forward. Still sitting up nice and tall. Let's use those muscles. Push it back and squeeze forward. Back and forward. How about three more? And two. Last one, keep those knees pushed back. Right leg stays here. Left leg is gonna extend out to the side. Try to straighten the knee if that's comfortable for you into a warrior position. Toes are facing me. And this way, toes are facing the corner in line with your knee. That's a great way to remember it. Arms are out to the side. Nice and tall. Hold this warrior pose. Inhale. And let's exhale. We're gonna drop our elbow to the knee and reach that arm up. So feeling a beautiful stretch in the side, and we can gaze up at the hand if you're comfortable. Release your gaze back towards me. Then I want you to drop that hand behind you, putting the back of your hand, and I want you to press it into the small of your back. And then think about stretching your elbow forward towards me as well. That should feel really nice in your shoulder. Hold here, inhale. Exhale, let's release it back up. If you want to intensify the stretch, you can actually extend this lower hand down here. Maybe gaze up one more time. Inhale. Exhale. And let's come back to center. Relax the arms down. Coming to a beautiful hip flexor stretch, keeping the legs where they are, we are going to twist over to the side, keeping the knee bent, and then extending that back leg, sitting up nice and tall, up onto the ball of the foot. This should feel really nice on your hip flexor right here. So think about tilting your pelvic forward if you're not feeling it enough. Let's make this even better by lifting our arm. Inhale. Exhale, maybe lean over your other shoulder. And then go ahead and put that down. Let's come back to center. Nice job. Same thing, other side. Extending your leg out, toes towards me, straight knee if you can. Toe and knee to the corner on this side. Arms come out. Find your balance here in this warrior pose. And then let's go ahead and lean over to the side, gazing up on that hand if it's comfortable for your neck. And then look back towards me. And let's drop that hand behind us. So again, back of your hand, pressing into the small of your back. Drop the shoulder down and pull that elbow forward. Inhale. And exhale, release it down, lifting up one more time, and then option to drop the bottom hand again. Hold here, inhale. Exhale, coming back up. Release the arms down, and then we torso twist again to the side, keeping that knee bent at a 90 degree angle. Let's try to straighten that back one. And this may be enough here. Again, or maybe a little pelvic tilt, feeling the stretch in the front of that hip flexor. Inhale as the arm comes up. And exhale, lifting up nice and tall, then maybe a little bend towards the back. And release it down. Let's come back to center, keeping those legs wide. Arms, inhale, up. Exhale, we're gonna forward fold again. So shift the hips, roll them back, reaching towards me with a flat back. Inhale. Exhale, all the way down. Hands on the floor or on the ball. You can go ahead and round that lower back to release any tension. Pull the belly button to the spine, and let's roll it up one vertebrae at a time. Toe heel, our feet in, coming back to a parallel position. Working a little bit more on our core and some balance. I'm gonna start holding on the sides of the ball. Tummy in. All I want you to do is lift that leg and see if you can hold and balance. And let's put it down. Same thing, other side. Just lift that leg and down. Option to lift the other hand. We can hold it here and release. Inhale and exhale. Let's do that again. Option to maybe take the arm all the way up and release. Nice job. Here we go. Up. And release. One more time, each side. You pick your arm. All good options. And down. Last time. Lift and balance. And let's go ahead and take it down. Beautiful job, you guys. Our next few moves, we are going to be rolling down on the ball. So make sure that you're not gonna be sliding around anywhere. Okay. Nice and slow and controlled. Holding onto that ball. Tummy in. Let's go ahead and walk it down. And we're gonna walk it all the way out so our head and neck are supported on the ball and our hips stay high. Knees should be bent at a 90 degree angle. Find your balance here. Again, no pressure on the head and neck. Lift your hips towards the ceiling. Lift your arms towards the ceiling as well. So we've got a nice little glute bridge here. I want you to drop the hips and then lift and squeeze. This is using our core and our glute muscles here. We're not here for long. Drop. Lift and squeeze. We've got three. Two. Last one. Lift and squeeze. Hold the hips high. Now bending our knees, maybe walking the feet in a little bit closer. We're gonna roll it down into a little squat and then press back up. Lift the hips down into a little squat. Bend the knees and then straighten back out. And down. Press it up. And down. Press it up. Let's take our hands behind our head and then we're gonna roll slightly back this time so our head and neck and shoulders are off the ball. Tummy's in. Six little crunches here. Pull the belly button into the spine. For three. You guys still with me? Two. We just leveled up here. And one. We're gonna do all that one more time. Nice and slow. We're gonna walk forward again, supporting our head and neck. Reach the arms up. Glute bridge. We drop the hips. Lift the hips. Drop. And lift. Inhale. Exhale. For two. Lift and squeeze. Last one. Let's do our squats. Bend the knees, roll down, and press up. You can make this as big or as little as you are comfortable with. You can also lower your hands if that makes you more comfortable. Lower. And lift. One more. Lift and squeeze. Hands come behind the head. Couple walks back. Supporting that lower back on the ball. Here we go. Elbows nice and wide. Just for six. Five. Four. Exhale on the way up. Two. And one. And let's go ahead and help yourself roll up. Nice and slow and gentle. Nice job. You made it through that difficult part. Couple more final stretches here. Feet are parallel. We're gonna do our roll downs again. Inhale, arms come up. Exhale, flat back. Shift the hips back. Reach towards me. And then round the back all the way down. Belly button to the spine. Round the back, roll it up. Nice and slow. Let's do that again. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, hips back. Reach towards me. And then all the way down this second time, let's just hang out here for a second. So hands on the floor, or maybe hands are on your ball, maybe on your top of your thighs, whatever you're comfortable with. Maybe even roll around a little bit on your ball. Whatever feels good to you. Releasing any pressure in the lower back. Inhale. Exhale, tuck that chin. Roll it up. One vertebrae at a time. Finishing with our shoulders. Press them down and back. Right arm comes up. Reach it nice and high. And then a big side stretch all the way over to the side. That feels good. Again, inhale, arm up. And stretch over. Let's do that again. Right arm up to the side. Then from here, I want you to round the back, round the shoulder. Hand comes onto the opposite knee, and then just gently pull up. I really want you to feel a beautiful stretch in the back here, back of the shoulder. And release, good. Up to the side first. Then round over. Opposite hand to opposite knee. Go ahead and round the back. Gently pull up, feeling the back of the shoulder. Release. And come back. Inhale, arms come up. Exhale, three big arm circles. Still sitting up nice and tall for our final stretches here. And then go ahead and push those arms out to the side, to the corners. Palms facing down. Relax the neck and shoulders here. Roll those shoulders back, and then still sitting up nice and tall. Drop your right ear to your right shoulder. Stretch the fingers long. And then drop your chin. Feel a nice stretch in the opposite side of your neck. And then tucking our chin, let's just gently roll our head side to side. Come back to center. And lift the chin back to center towards me. Other side, left ear towards the left shoulder. Continue reaching the fingers long. Keeping your head to the side, drop your chin. And then a couple half circles here, nice and slow. Come back to center. Lift that chin. Give me some wrist circles here. Get all those cricks and cracks out of our wrists and necks and joints. Hopefully you're feeling great. Reverse it for three, two, and one. And let's finish how we started. Arms are gonna come up. Cactus down into prayer. Two more times. Release it up. Inhale, cactus down. And prayer. Inhale up, cactus down. And prayer. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you feel great. This is a great quick workout just to get some toning in and some stretching. Please like the video. Subscribe if you haven't already. Share with your friends. That really helps grow my channel. Thanks so much for working out with me. And we'll see you next time.