Watch: Senior Living Center Comes Up with Creative Way for Residents to Drum and Exercise

By Amanda Thomason February 5, 2021 at 3:57pm

Movement is important to all living things. It keeps us healthy, fit and flexible — but it’s not always fun.

However, one senior living center has found some pretty entertaining ways for their residents to keep moving and have a great time staying limber.

Gone are stretches for the sake of stretching and exercise dictated merely by timing. These seniors are getting down and developing skills all while listening to catchy music.

“More fun at Drum Exercise class!” the Green Country Village Senior Living Facebook page posted on Jan. 28.

“[W]e don’t own the rights to the song,” the center added. “(But we DO own the rights to a good time! )”

The video showed a room of masked and distanced seniors seated on chairs behind “drums” made out of exercise balls set in small laundry baskets.

Each senior had a set of drumsticks and followed the instructor as Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” played.

They did crossovers, involved leg stretches, raised their hands over their heads and switched up their drumming position every few beats, incorporating most of their body at some point or another.

The video now has over 539,000 shares and 30 million views, placing it firmly in the “viral” category. Many have commented to commend such a great activity that blends exercise and music therapy, and others have said that the instructor should be given a raise.

“WOW! First, a big thank you to everyone who helped share our drums exercise video, it is up to almost 31 million views!” Green Country Village posted in a follow-up on Feb 2. “We are so glad you all enjoyed getting to see our residents have fun while staying fit and healthy.

“As always, we will continue to post things from our community that bring joy to loved ones and friends (and recently, a whole bunch of new friends too. Hi new friends!). We have been completely blown away by the response, having received thousands of messages from around the world.

“However, our most important work is providing a safe, active, and fulfilling life for our residents, and thus ask for your patience in responding to your messages. We will get to them as soon as we can, we promise!”

They have since posted videos of other activities the home provides, such as line dancing. Some who’ve viewed the video have even added it to their own routines, eager to try out the fun.

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