There is this common belief that exercising in a chair is too easy or only for the elderly. This is not the case at all.
Let’s think about this. You're seated in a chair all day due to work and could do with relief that exercise will give at your desk. That becomes chair based exercises.
You have limited room and would like to exercise to improve your range of movement and flexibility. Here comes the chair based exercise.
You have balance or confidence issues, or both, and you need to exercise. Chair based exercise gives you the safety and reassurance you need while exercising.
The session doesn’t need to be seated the whole time either. You can hold onto your chair and follow some simple standing exercise. Doing this regularly will keep the sore backs and necks at bay. You can use some weights, or no weights, depending on what you have to hand or what you can managed.
Some common questions are; ‘So what muscles groups can you work on in the chair? Just the arms right?’ or ‘Is it really going to work me hard and even get me out of breath?’
In answer to those questions, we've have had a large number of people of all ages and fitness levels who have all given the same feedback. ‘Didn’t think it would work that much.’ ‘That is harder than it looks’, and ‘it feels like I have done a full workout’.
Don’t let the fact that it is seated fool you into thinking it is easy. We can hit every muscle group and manage a full body workout. High reps and low weight will make the exercise very effective. It also makes the exercise very accessible while sitting down. I often advise that you can carry out the exercise when watching TV, or if you can't multitask then wait for the ad break. Before you know it you have done a solid 3 minutes of non-stop movement, which is great!
We are here to encourage people to keep moving in a very sedentary society. Any movement is good and it can be adapted to suit your needs. So, do you still feel like chair based class is too easy now?
Want to see some exercises? Then have a look at this video and have a go.
If you found this article useful and would like to know more, please contact Kamal on 07846 597460 or click on Contact Us in the menu.
We are currently running our service fully online for low impact and chair based exercise class and 121 training.