The benefits of chair workouts are that they allow you to train without putting too much pressure on your joints or worrying about your balance, which makes them an accessible option for seniors in particular.
These benefits do come with a downside, however, in that it can be hard to strengthen all areas of the body when training while seated.
It’s not impossible, though, as this 10-move chair workout from fitness trainer Lauren of SeniorShape Fitness shows. It’s a seated session that strengthens the whole body, and all you need is a set of light dumbbells and a chair.
Lauren is using 5lb dumbbells for the workout, but pick a weight that suits you, or you can use a couple of cans instead if you don’t have dumbbells to hand.
Whatever weights you end up using, if they feel too heavy during the session, feel free to pop them down and do the exercises without any weight.
Watch SeniorShape Fitness’ 10-move chair workout
In the video, Lauren guides you through a warm-up and cool-down as well as the workout itself, which takes around 15 minutes.
There are 10 exercises in the workout, and you do each for a minute, then rest for 15 seconds. Lauren demonstrates each upcoming move during the rest period as well, giving technique pointers throughout, so make sure you can see and hear your screen.
The session is designed to be accessible for all and is especially good if you’re trying to avoid too much impact on your joints during workouts, since you remain seated the whole time.
It’s also best done at a controlled pace — this isn’t one to rush through. Instead, focus on keeping moving throughout the working sets and engaging the right muscles with each move to challenge the target areas correctly.
To get the most out of short workouts like this, it's important to do them regularly. If you can do two or three short sessions a week, it will help you build and then maintain your strength and fitness.
Once you've spent a few weeks training with a chair, you might be able to move on to standing workouts. These are still low-impact and will help you to keep improving your strength and stability.
You can use your light dumbbell for this 10-minute workout if you are ready to try standing sessions. It's another accessible workout that helps to improve stability and balance, along with strengthening muscles all over the body.
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