If you’re a senior who wants to stay active, but you’re less mobile than you used to be, the Good Samaritan Society’s Haylee Bruns has five seated chair exercises you can do that are low impact and will help you become stronger.
Haylee is a physical therapy tech at Good Samaritan Society – Bloomfield in Bloomfield, Nebraska.
Remember to consult with your primary care provider before beginning any exercise routine.
Haylee:
I will be taking you through some chair exercises that you can use for general mobility and strength.
Exercise 1 – seated knee extension
Our first exercise is just what we call a long arc quad or seated knee extension. You’re just kicking your legs out straight.
This is working on your quad strength, which is important for doing a lot of things in your daily life, especially getting up from chairs, walking, using stairs, and anything like that.
Make sure you do both legs and breathe through the exercise. It is also good to make sure that your core is stable during the exercise.
Exercise 2 – pillow squeezes
Our next exercise is going to be what we usually call pillow squeezes. If you don’t have a pillow, you can use your fist.
You’ll put your fist in between your knees and squeeze your hand. If you do have a pillow or a small ball at home, you’re welcome to put that in between your knees and squeeze that.
This is working the muscles on the inside of your legs. And when you squeeze, make sure you hold for three to five seconds. That way, the muscles have time to fully fire and build strength.
Exercise 3 – seated march
This next exercise is called a seated march. You’re just going to march your knees up as high as you can.
If you feel like this is too easy, you can also start utilizing your hands, too. So you would alternate. You would use opposite leg and arm moving at the same time. So when my right hand goes up, my left leg goes up.
This gets your full body into the movement. That way you’re not just working your legs. It’s also important that you keep your core stable during this exercise as well. Once again, breathing through the movements. Don’t hold your breath.
Exercise 4 – stepping in and out
The next exercise is just the basic stepping in and out. This kind of simulates you getting in and out of a car. It’s working the same kind of muscles.
You can do alternating legs, or you could do both legs at the same time, which is a little bit harder. It takes a lot more core strength.
Exercise 5 – chair push-up
The last exercise is called a chair push-up. This is working more on your upper extremities versus your lower extremities.
You can kind of sit back in your chair. Make sure you have a chair with arms. You’re just going to push up through the chair. Try not to use your legs for this exercise. You work on just your arms.
You’re just trying to lift your body off the chair. You don’t have to lift your body fully off the chair, but just get some weight down through your arms. You don’t want a chair with arms that are really high because that’s not good for shoulder positioning, so make sure the arms are lower.
Thank you for following along with these exercises. I hope they are beneficial for you.
