Overcoming Obstacles : A Practical Guide on How to Exercise with Limited Mobility

Limited mobility, disability, and injuries can make you step back from a healthy and fit life. However, following some essential tips and exercises, you can stay fit even with limited mobility.

Read further to know how to exercise with limited mobility.

Our ability to move around freely and easily is known as mobility.⁽¹⁾ It enables our independent access to various things like food, nature, community, and other goods and services. However, limited mobility refers to a physical impairment that impacts an individual’s ability to move around easily, freely, and without pain. In the U.S. 12.1% of adults have a mobility disability with severe issues in walking or climbing stairs.⁽²⁾

Limited ability can also be a disability affecting an individual’s gross motor skills, such as their ability to stand, sit, walk, run, or balance independently. Limited mobility also refers to disabilities impacting a person’s fine motor skills, which involve the muscles of the hands, wrists, fingers, feet, and ankles.

Although mobility plays a crucial role in maintaining health and fitness, even without full mobility one can experience the magnificent health benefits of exercise. People with limited mobility due to injury, disability, obesity, or illnesses, can also reap the benefits of exercise in several ways and enhance their physical and mental wellbeing.

Injuries or disability do not mean your physical, emotional, and mental health should decline. With an expert’s supervision, and assistance from your doctor or physical therapist, you should exercise even with limited mobility. This will not only help you in staying fit but also help you fight against the trauma of your disability. There are plenty of ways to overcome mobility issues and reap the mental, physical, and emotional rewards of exercise.

People with limited mobility can get benefits from any type of exercise. Some of the exercises that you should aim to incorporate into your routines, especially if you have mobility issues are:

Cardiovascular exercises are the best types of exercises that raise your heart rate and increase your endurance. Running, cycling, walking, swimming, dancing, and water aerobics are some forms of cardiovascular exercises. Although people with limited mobility cannot go for all these cardiovascular exercises, certain exercises like walking, swimming, and water aerobics can be performed well and they also help support their bodies and reduce the risk of joint and muscle discomfort.

Strength training exercises are those that involve the use of weights and other resistance to build muscle and bone mass, and prevent falls by improving balance. If you have limited mobility in your lower body or legs, you should focus on upper-body strength training. Similarly, if you have mobility issues in your upper body or shoulders, for example, you can focus on strengthening your legs and core.

Flexibility exercises help enhance your range of motion, reduce pain and stiffness, and prevent injury. Flexibility exercises include yoga and various stretching exercises. Even with limited mobility, you can still benefit from these flexibility exercises.

Starting an exercise routine with limited mobility could feel burdensome for many. However, following some tips, you can attain a perfect exercise routine even with limited mobility.

Below are some tips to start an exercise routine with limited mobility.

• When you start slowly and increase your activity level gradually, it will be manageable.
• Begin with an activity or exercise that you enjoy and follow your pace.
• Keep short goals that can be achievable.
• Additionally, accomplish even the smallest fitness goals and reward yourself for achieving your goals. This will help you remain motivated.
• Make exercise an essential part of your daily routine.
• Exercise every day at the same time and combine a variety of exercises, which will keep you involved in your exercise routine.
• Listen to music while exercising. This keeps you motivated.
• Do not be discouraged if you skip a day or two of exercising. Just get started again and build your old momentum.

Some of the ways to stay safe while exercising with limited mobility include:

• If you experience pain, discomfort, dizziness, nausea, chest pain, shortness of breath, irregular heartbeat, or clammy hands, while exercising, stop exercising immediately. This can help you prevent injury or health-related complications.
• If you experience frequent and consistent pain even while exercising for 15 minutes, limit your workouts to 5 minutes and instead exercise more frequently.
• Do not prefer activities that involve your injured or unfit body part.
• Start exercising slowly and gradually increase the pace and intensity.
• Do not forget to warm up, stretch, and cool down.
• Drink plenty of water because your body performs well when it is hydrated well.
• Wear appropriate clothing and footwear.

If someone has limited mobility or any sort of physical challenge then there could be mental and emotional barriers to exercising. To overcome mental and emotional barriers to exercising, you should focus on the abilities that you have instead of trying the exercises that are no longer fit for you. You should be able to discover new exercises and workout routines.

In addition to this, choose low-risk activities and try to achieve success in those. This will keep you motivated and you can overcome your fear while exercising. You can also ask a close one to exercise with you to keep you engaged and motivated.

At least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity, or 75 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity cardiovascular activity is recommended for adults with disabilities.^{(3, 4)} People with disabilities or limited mobility who are in a wheelchair, can also perform certain chair-bound exercises that can help them enhance their physical and mental fitness.

So, people with lower body disabilities or injuries, obesity or diabetes, or elderly people who are looking to improve their risk of falling and improve fitness can go with chair-bound exercises. These exercises help in improving their posture, reduce back pain, and also help alleviate body sores caused in people with limited mobility.

Below are some points you should keep in mind while opting for chair-bound exercises.

• Try to sit up tall and maintain a good posture while exercising.
• Choose a chair that allows you to keep your knees at 90 degrees while sitting and exercising on it. If you are in your wheelchair, immobilize the chair.
• If you have high blood pressure, check the level of your blood pressure before exercising, and do not perform the chair exercises that involve weights.

This exercise is great for your lower body and core. To perform this exercise you should follow the steps mentioned below.

• Sit toward the front of a sturdy chair with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
• Keep your core tight and arms across the chest.
• Slowly exhale, and keeping your upper body tall, come to a standing position.
• Maintain a tight core, bend your knees, and slowly sit down. Inhale as you sit.

Repeat this for 10 to 15 times. Rest for a minute and then perform another set of 10-15 chair stands.

This works great for your calves. The steps to perform heel raises are:

• Keep your core tight, feet flat, and upper body straight and tall.
• Raise your heels off the floor while squeezing your calves.
• Pause for a few seconds and lower your heels down.

This is another excellent chair-bound exercise for your lower body. Below are the steps to perform leg lifts.

• Sit straight keeping your core tight, and your back leaning on the backrest of the chair.
• Keep both your feet flat on the floor and knees bend at a 90-degree angle.
• Start the exercise by lifting one leg, while maintaining the 90-degree angle.
• Paise for a second and then lower the leg back down.
• Do the same with the other leg.

This is a chair-bound exercise that works great for your shoulder and triceps.

• Keeping your core tight, and upper body tall, place your arms at a 90-degree angle with your palms facing forward.
• Move your arms above your head and join the arms.
• Again separate them and get them back to a 90-degree angle.

Follow the steps mentioned below.

• Keep your arms at your sides with your palms facing forward.
• Keep your core tight, shoulders down, and elbows in.
• Grasp two dumbells with a closed fist.
• Raise your forearms towards your chest and bring them back to the starting position again.

This exercise targets your chest and shoulders. Read below to learn the steps of doing this exercise.

• Rest your arms at your sides with your palms facing forward.
• Keep your core tight, shoulders down, and bend your elbows slightly to move your arms in front of you and palms closer to each other.
• Lower your arms back to the starting position.
• You can add weight to this exercise by holding dumbbells in your hands.

• To perform this exercise keep your core tight, your upper body tall, while hands on your waist.
• Twist the torso to your left, then to center, and then to the right.

Although exercise plays an important role in reducing weight, it can be extremely daunting to start an exercise routine if you are obese or seriously overweight. However, there are plenty of alternatives to begin with.

Take the first step in exercising by getting yourself engaged with gardening. You can also move out of your bed or couch and walk outside or sweep the floor. The main idea should be to get moving.

If you are choosing to join a gym, go for those gyms that offer exercise machines and weight benches that can support larger individuals.

Having limited mobility or facing any sort of physical disability should not be an excuse to keep yourself away from exercising. Although you might struggle with your impaired mobility or disability, you can still try various types of exercises to build your strength and remain physically and mentally fit. However, make sure you are following all safety means while exercising and not exerting yourself. It is always better to consult with your doctor and start exercising under an expert’s supervision.

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