Chair Exercises for Seniors Build Strength with this Workout

Welcome and thank you for joining me for this all seated strength training workout. We'll be using working the entire body using a light set of dumbbells. I'm just using a set of three pounders. Always start light. When you are just beginning a set of water bottles or soup cans will work great as well. And then as you gain strength, we're going to increase the size of those weights. Again, everything's in a seated position. We have a timer today, so you're going to go at your own pace. And exercises are also shoulder friendly and osteoporosis friendly, so there's no twisting or rounding of the back. We're going to get started with a warm-up before we grab those weights. Sitting up nice and tall in our chair, roll the shoulders down and back. We're going to reach up overhead. Bend the elbows and squeeze the upper back shoulder blades together as we cactus down. Inhale up. Exhale down. Inhale up. Again, squeeze down. Let's add a little elbow squeeze together and then open up. We come up halfway down. Squeeze together. Open wide. Two more like this. Relax the hands down at your sides or on your lap. From here, let's take some shoulder rolls as big as you can get them all the way to the back. Let's go three, two, and one. Keep those shoulders pressed down and back. Relax your left arm out to the side and then turn to look over your right shoulder. You should feel a nice stretch here. And then from here, circle that rest to the outside and reverse. Circle in. Bring the head back to center and let's switch hands. We're reaching out long, sitting up tall. Press or reach the fingertips down. Look over the left shoulder and circle that wrist to the outside for four times and reverse back. Head returns to center and shake those arms out. Coming to this edge of our chair, feet are parallel. We're going to warm up our hips here. Call these windshield wipers. So we're just going to take our legs side to side. Feeling a nice stretch as we rotate those hips internally and externally. You can use the sides of your chair here to support you. A few more like this. Let's take the legs wide now and keeping our spine straight, plant those feet in the floor. We reach down with a proud chest and then come back up. Feeling a great stretch in those hips and inner thighs. Reach down. Totally fine if you only go a couple inches. And from here, let's add a row. So we reach down, then we pull the elbows back. Reach down and lift. Three more like this. We lift the chest. Let's toe heel back in. Sitting back in your chair, lift the right leg and from here, pull the toes back. Flex, point, and lower other side. Lift, flex, point, and lower. Hold it here. Ankle circles to the outside and reverse. Other leg we lift. Ankle circles and reverse. And that is it for a warm-up. Grab your weights or water bottles. Let's prepare. Four to five seconds on. Like I said, we have a timer. 15 seconds rest and I'll walk you through the next move within that 15 seconds. First move is a wide bicep curl. So our palms are facing up and our shoulders are externally rotated out to the sides here. Keep the elbows close to your body. And again, depending on the size of your weight, if you're really light or not using any weights at all, you might be going a little bit faster than me. If you have heavy weights, maybe you're not doing as many reps and going slower. There's no right or wrong here. Check your posture. We're sitting up tall, long neck, and nice straight spine. And that's it. Next move, we're keeping that rotation and the palms up. We crisscross and out to the side. And we're just going to swap whichever hand is on top. Let's get ready. Shoulders down. Great exercise for that rotator cuff. And naturally here, the arms want to lift up a little bit. Try to keep your forearms parallel to the ground. Crisscross and open. For our next move, we're going to put those two moves together in a combination. And that's how we're going to do this whole workout. Two upper body moves, then combine them. Two lower body moves, then combine them. It's good for our brain. A little cognitive workout as well. It just keeps things interesting instead of doing the same thing set after set. And relax. Shake out. And like I said, we're going to combine those two moves. So we have a starting low, half bicep curl, crisscross, lower down. Let's go. Make sure you're breathing. Don't hold your breath here. Halfway up, crisscross. And we're halfway there. And relax. Next, we're going to the lower body. Put your weights on top of your thighs. We're just going to hold them there for balance. And we're simply doing heel raises. So up on those toes. And they come back down, squeezing that calf muscle. So behind the legs, we lift and lower. And then try not to grip your weights here. We're just holding them so they don't roll away on the top of our legs. And give that calf muscle a little squeeze. And make sure you're lifting directly up and not rolling the ankles onto the sides. Should be getting pretty warm behind those legs now. One more. Well done. Next, we're going to a high knee. Making sure that core is engaged, we sit up nice and tall. You simply lift the knee up and put it down. And then again, you have the option for that added weight on top of the leg, adding the resistance. Let's go. This also works the core, using those ab muscles to help lift up the leg. If you wanted even more resistance, you could push down, adding some more resistance with your own body weight. Really engages the core that way as well. Don't worry, I've got some core moves planned for us as well. Relax. Putting those two moves together, we lift both heels, lift one knee, keep both heels lifted as you lift the knee, back down, and then we lower the heels. Starting with the right leg, let's go. Lift the heels, lift the knee, drop the leg, drop the heels. So if you think of it as a four count movement, one, two, three, four. You're doing great. And at any time during this workout, you need to drop the weights. Please do so. We'll get you stronger. Just keep that body moving. Okay, we're going to put down one weight. Unless you're feeling super strong, you've built up, then you can try it next time with two. Holding it in front, we're going to pass the weight out to the side, pass in front, and out to the side. So we're just about chest height here. Keeping a lot of that pressure off of the shoulders. Think about squeezing the chest as you bring the arms together to pass it. Think about having a long neck here and keeping your shoulders down. Almost there. Ooh, that gets a little spicy. We're going to heat it up even more. Two weights, palms up, and we simply reach out in front of us, again about chest level, and then we pull the elbows back. So it's like a little out to the side, serving motion, and pull back. Working the chest and the front of the shoulders, those deltoids. And any time the weights come in front of our body, we're working that core as well. So be mindful of that great posture and engagement, right? Making the tummy area nice and firm. And if this is too much, simply do one arm at a time like this. Okay, putting those two moves together. Speaking of getting sore, if you want to switch to one weight, please do so because we have an isometric hold in that other arm. So we come back, serve it up to the front, one arm at a time goes out to the side. And it's going to get spicy, right? It's going to get warm really quick here. So either slow down, so you do less reps, take a break, or you can use one weight doing one arm at a time. All great options. We're already halfway there. You got this. Our abs section is coming next. Let's put the weights down. For the core section, we're going to lean back to the back, rest against your chair, and we're trying to straighten our legs as much as possible out to the front. We simply lift the leg and put it down. So straighten first, then lift using the quads and put it down. And again, our core is engaged. So we're working the core and the tops of our legs, those quads. Straighten first, lift, and put it down. Navel is pulled in towards that spine. And it's okay if your leg only comes up an inch or two. Getting warm. Nice work. Next move is knee pull in. Again, I'll show you to the side. We're leaning back into the back of our chair again. We lift the core as we pull the knee in and then come back. So it's like a seated crunch. Pull in, lean back. But again, a little osteoporosis here. We're not rounding the spine. Really working those lower abdominals with this one. Hold onto the chair if you want to. If you wanted to level up, you could hold your arms out to the front. You could even hold a dumbbell if you wanted to. Breathe, inhale, exhale as you bring the chest towards that knee. Oh my gosh, deep breath. Give it a little break here. Let's put those two together. So we're going to lift the leg, lift the chest, bring it together, straighten back out, then lower. So again, a four-part move here. Lift the leg, reach, straighten, and lower. Lift, together, straighten, and lower. Make sure you're breathing. Great core workout if you're not comfortable getting on the floor. Takes all the pressure off your neck as well. Your shoulders should be relaxed right now. Well done. Grab those weights again. Coming into a row. So we're slightly hinge forward with our straight spine and our chair. We're simply bringing the elbows up, the weights up towards the hip area and down. Squeezing the shoulder blades behind us. And again, we have a nice straight spine. Slightly hinge forward. So we're using the upper back muscles and not the shoulders. Exhale as you pull up. Inhale as you reach down. This is a larger muscle group, so you might be able to go heavier here. The next, we have a combination with the tricep, which sometimes we need a lighter weight. Like I said, going into that tricep, we stay in that hinged over position, core engaged, protecting that lower back. And we're simply going to extend and bend, keeping the shoulders down and back. If you want here, you can do one arm at a time. Right, you do you. Your gaze is just a few feet in front of you, keeping your neck in line with your spine. Form is important here. You're keeping your elbows high, but you're pushing your shoulders down. I know it's a lot to remember. And one or two at a time. Breathe. 10 more seconds. Shake that out. Combining those two, we row it back. One tricep extension, you can single or double, and then come back down. Let's do this. Pull it back. Extend. Center, then lower. Elbows back. Remember, you're pulling up back in your hip area. Proud chest here, straight spine. Halfway there. Give that tricep a squeeze, the back of the arm as you hold it up. We get a break after this, we go back to the legs and relax. Sitting at the edge of your chair, go into butterfly position. So your feet are together and we're relaxing our knees out to the side. Again, we sit up tall and we're lifting from that inner thigh, just alternating sides. So again, holding the weights on top of the legs, just for support. Externally rotating from that hip, so we're using the inner thigh to lift the leg. It doesn't matter how high the leg gets. Proper form is always most important. I'd rather have you do six perfect ones than 30 just okay ones. And relax. Keeping this similar position turned out slightly, we're going to try to take one leg at a time, internally rotating and then externally rotating and then putting it back in. So we go knees, ankles, put it down. Knees, ankles, put it down. Internally rotate, externally, put it down. Knee, ankle, and down. This is one of those times where we notice our imbalances. I struggle with my right leg internally rotating, something that I need to work on. Just depends, you know, how we cross our legs, how flexible we are on one side versus the other. So you're going to feel a little pinch in that hip and that's normal. All right, let's put those two together. So we're going to start with the tap, knee, ankle, then we lift up and down. And let's start with that right leg, nice and tall. Here we go. Knee, ankle, lift and lower. Knee, ankle, lift and lower. Remember to keep that leg out to the side as we lift. I know it feels kind of weird. It feels awkward. It should. Making our mobility better here. Odd movements to help balance us out. Well done. Done with that. Shake that out. Sitting nice and tall, take your weights and push them together at your chest. We're simply going to push them out at chest level and then bring them back in. Join me. Out and in. Out and in. And by pushing the weights together, we're simply engaging our chest muscles a little bit more. Time to check in with that posture. Straight spine, tall neck, shoulders down and back. Last one. Well done. Separating the weights. We're simply going to chug back, little pulses with the elbows. So we squeeze back, release, squeeze back, release. I want you to think about you're trying to pinch a pencil between those shoulder blades. Again, great for our posture. A little movement here. Pull back, pull back. And I'll say it again, press those shoulders down. We can go back to the work here. Breathe. After this combination, we just have one more set. Relax. Putting those two together, we push out to the front, squeeze and bring one elbow back, come back to center, and we alternate sides. I'm going to come to the edge of my chair here, so we've got a little more room. Let's go. Out, bring it back. Center and in. Push it out. Other arm, center, bring it in. From the side, try to stay about chest height. We just have a few more. Well done. Okay, weights down. For this one, we are going to actually, sorry, no, keep your weights. We're going to reach down, straight spine, weights on the floor, and lift the chest. We reach down again and grab those weights. If that's difficult for your hips, we can come center and lift up. Grab the weights and return. Now, if you find that you have to round your back, you can't quite reach the floor, then hold on to your weights the whole time. Again, we just want to keep this osteoporosis friendly, so we're not rounding the back. And again, option here in the center, or you're staying here to the side. Belly button pulled in, so we're using the core and not the lower back. Think about pushing yourself up with your feet and not the back. Put them down one more time and then leave them down there. Working on the triceps, coming to the edge of your chair, we have a little lift, lifting yourself up off the chair. It's okay, you're not going to go very far. Option on the side, or again, center, lifting here. You'll be slightly hinged over this way, lifting your glutes off the chair with that arm strength. So a couple different positions, find what works best for you, either side or center. Try a few out, squeeze your butt. So good for our whole body strength here. Okay, let's put those two together. We're going to start with the tricep and then reach down and grab the weights. Remember to push up through your feet off the floor. You're either parallel or you're wide for either one. So here we go. One lift, come down, reach those weights, push up and down and lift. Go at your own pace here. I want to switch wide for the last few. I think I forgot that tricep. Excellent. Well done, my friends. Let's stretch out, do some wiggles, shake everything out. We're going to start with one shoulder here. Right arm is out to the side. Gently pull it open, stretching the front of the shoulder, and then we're going to cross it in front of the chest. You can grab above or below, not right on that elbow joint, and then relax your shoulder down. From here, give me your wrist circle and reverse. Release the arm back out to the side, shoulder rotation here. Flip the palm to the back of the room and then flip up. Again, rotating all the way from that shoulder, giving it a little bit of love, all that work it just did. One more. And then take that same right arm. It's just going to tuck behind the back. Again, check the posture, relax the shoulder. This time you're feeling it in front. And then from here, left ear towards the left shoulder. Nice and gentle. Inhale. Exhale, return the head to center and release the right arm down. Same thing, other side. Left arm comes out to the side. We gently pull it back, stretching the front of the shoulder. And then we hug it nice and close. Again, shoulder down. And let's roll the wrist while we're here. And reverse. We take it back out to the side for the shoulder rotations. Flip the palm back and up. Make these as big as you can here. One more. It comes behind the back, feeling that stretch in the front of the shoulder. Maybe give it a little assistance. And then from here, right ear towards the right shoulder. Lift the head, relax the shoulder. Reach both arms out towards me and really flex at the wrist here. Straighten the elbows as much as possible. We then take it out to the side, keeping the elbows straight. We switch the thumbs down, feeling the stretch in the bicep and release it down. Let's come to the edge of our chair. So we've got one glute on, one glute off. We're going to release one leg down the side here. Adjust so we have a nice hip flexor and quad stretch. From here, I want you to tuck your hips. Turn to the side so you guys can see. Just make sure that you're nice and secure. We sit up tall, tuck the pelvis here to get that stretch into the quad that we worked so hard and that hip flexor. We grow tall and take a deep breath in and out. When you're ready, we're going to switch sides. Head towards the other side of your chair. So our knees should be about a 90-90 here. Again, release the back knee down. Tuck that pelvis. Again, you should feel a beautiful stretch in the front of the leg there. Tight flexors are tight on everybody. Our hip flexors are always tight from a lot of sitting. Even tight hip flexors can cause lower back pain. So this is a great stretch to always come back to. Deep breath here and exhale. Help that leg back to center. And let's finish with my favorite figure four stretch. We're going to open up from the hip crossing at the ankle, or if you're able to, you can assist that leg up over the knee, making sure again that bottom leg is at a 90-degree angle. Knee comes out to the side, flex the foot, stretches the calf muscle, and protects the knee joint. If you want to go a little bit deeper here, we're just going to drop our torso slightly forward. Try not to round your spine, but you're going to get a beautiful stretch right here into your hip and your glute. Nice deep breath here and exhale. We lift the torso and let's do that on the other side, crossing at the ankle or above that knee. Flex the foot and lean forward for a more intense stretch if you choose. Inhale and exhale. Lift the chest and we help that leg down. Let's finish like we started with some shoulder rolls, releasing any last bit of tension. And arms out to the side, we crisscross and open the chest. Let's go four, three, two, and one. Big inhale, arms come up and exhale down. Nice work, my friends. As always, thanks for working out with me and we'll see you next time.