Care home martial arts with armchair karate

ARMCHAIR karate has been getting elderly care home residents testing their punching power – and improving their health and wellbeing.

The activity is helping to maintain the strength and movement of residents at The Oaks Care Home in Blyth Northumberland.

Home manager Ann Mielnik purchased training pads for carers to wear while residents throw their best jabs.

She said: “Armchair karate boosts residents’ mental and physical skills, strength and movement, and gets them laughing and animated, which improves their wellbeing.

“This has to be the single best armchair exercise we have hosted. Residents had enormous grins on their faces and were all really putting effort into it.

“I got the idea from watching a video of a 93-year-old and it was fantastic.

“I thought immediately: “why can’t we do this”? So I purchased the training gloves and we couldn’t wait for them to arrive to get the ball rolling.”

Carer Lynn Mayne said: “All the residents were so enthusiastic about it.”

Senior carer Laura Rennie added: “The residents had so much fun. To see them laughing is fantastic.”

Resident Ann Sturrock said: “This was absolutely fabulous.”

Resident Ann Wallace added: “What a good idea. I would never have thought of doing karate.”