Chair Exercises for Beginners

Hello, everyone. Maximo Pascual here, and before we get started, I just really wanted to thank Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey for their amazing commitment in promoting health education, and also for allowing me this opportunity to help share these valuable fitness tips with you.

Now, today, I wanted to go over some simple exercises that can be done from the comfort of your own home or office, using a chair.

Now, many of us that sit down all day may experience a lot of joint stiffness, poor posture, or even severe lower back pain.

Now, with these exercises, even though they look simple, they will be very effective in increasing the blood flow to your joints, the blood flow to your muscles, and also increasing your metabolism, all while sitting down.

All right, guys. Let’s get started with the first exercise. Let’s start off by sitting down in our chair.

Let’s make sure that we have a very good posture, we’re sitting up tall, chest out, shoulders back.

Try not to use your back rest. If anything, scoot over a little bit near the center of your chair. Feet flat on the floor.

Now, we’re going to start off with some upper body movements. We’re going to do 10 repetitions of each movement.

Let’s start off with our arms in front of us, completely straight, and we’re simply just going to go up and down nice, slow and controlled. No fast movements.

The slower you can do it, the better you’ll feel it in your muscles. So let’s go for it. 10 repetitions. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Right away we’re going to go all the way to our side, and let’s do another 10. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - and you guys might be feeling it now - 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Now, for our next exercise we’re going to go straight up to the side, down, then up the side, to the front and down.

So any time you cross your face with your hands, that’s one repetition. So let’s do it together. Nice and tall, go for it.

1, 2 - remember, don’t lose your posture - nice and tall in the chair - 3 - want to do a slight pause on each movement - 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 - two more - 9.

All right, for number 10 I want you to hold it. Hold in front of you. Hold. Good.

Okay. Now we’re going to do shoulder presses. So let’s put the arms right next to us, and let’s just go straight up.

Imagine like you’re lifting up a bar. So try not to close your arms together - go straight up and all the way down, nice and slow.

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 – I’m definitely feeling the burn - 8, 9 - one more - 10. Perfect.

Okay. Now I want to put my hands on my chair right here by my side, and I’m simply going to lift myself up off the chair.

If you can’t lift yourself up, that’s fine. Just try to push the chair down, and if you can lift yourself up, that’s perfect.

Let’s go for 10. 1 - and back down - 2 - and back down. You should feel it in the back of your arms. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 - one more - 10. Good.

Now, we’re going to lean over. I’m going to lift up both of my arms. My upper arm is going to go against my body.

I’m just simply going to straighten out my form. 1, 2 - it’s a short movement, so you want to hold it when you fully extend your arms - 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Okay, so I know you’re definitely feeling a nice little pump in your upper body. Now let’s take care of the lower body.

Again, we’re going to do 10 repetitions of each exercise, and we’re going to stand up tall in our chair, chest out, shoulders back, feet flat on the floor.

So we’re going to start off with some knee raises. So I want you to lift up your knee as high as possible, and then bring it back down gently on the floor.

Again, nothing fast - the movement is slow and controlled, so that you can really feel it in your legs. Ok so let’s go for it.

We’re going to do 10 repetitions on each leg. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - remember, do not drop down the leg fast - 6, 7 - you should be feeling it - 8, 9.

Number 10 - let’s hold it - and come down slow. Number 10, hold it, and come down slow.

Okay, for our next exercise, we’re going to shift from the straight position and then lift up our leg, all the way to the side, and then bring it back.

That’s one repetition. So let’s do five repetitions on each leg. 1 - and lift it back up and bring it down - lift it up - 1 -pick it up - back to the center.

2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4 - one more - 5, 5. Perfect.

Now, let’s open up our stance here, nice and wide, and now I’m going to touch the floor. Now, I don’t want to touch the floor with a hunched back like this.

Nice tall, chest out, shoulders back. I’m going to touch the floor, looking forward, hands on my hip. 10 times.

1 - go for it - 2, 3, 4 - this is going to help stretch out your lower back and your hip area - 5, 6, 7 - make sure as you’re coming down you’re pressing the floor with your feet - 8, 9 and 10. Good.

Now, let’s put our legs back together, and now we’re going to do knee extensions. So I’m going to lift up my leg, and I’m going to straighten out my knee and bring it back.

1, 2 - you want to do 5 on each leg - 3, 4, 5. Your next leg: 1 - you feel the quad burn there - 2, 3 - don’t forget about the posture: chest out, shoulders back, tall back - 4 and 5.

All right. Now we’re going to do it a little bit more advanced. We’re going to do a combination.

I’m going to put my legs to the side, touch the floor, hands on my hip, and put my legs together. Then one repetition - we’re going for 10. You ready? And go for it.

1, 2 - getting a little bit more advanced now, probably even breaking a little sweat here - 3, 4 - remember the posture, nice, tall, don’t hunch over - 5, 6 - nice and controlled with the legs - 7, 8, 9 - one more - 10. Perfect.

Okay, so we’re getting to the end of the workout. We’re almost there. You’re hanging in. But it’s about to get a little bit more intense.

But don’t worry, I know you got it, so right now we’re going to do squats - getting up off the chair. So we’re simply going to stand up, chest out, shoulders back.

You’re going to stick out your hip, and you’re slowly going to sit back down on the chair. We’re going to go for 10 repetitions.

If that’s too hard for you, you can definitely assist yourself with your arms, so you can help with your arms, push up off the chair, and as you’re coming back down slow, start bracing yourself with your arms. Grab the seat so you can sit back down.

Okay? So let’s go for it, 10 repetitions. 1 - down slow - 2, 3, 4, 5. Remember, you don’t want to crash down to the chair. Nice and slow and controlled.

Everything’s controlled. That’s how we use these muscles. 7, 8, 9 - one more - 10. Okay, good.

Now we’re going to do a combination of the lower body and the upper body. So we’re going to go back into the knee lifts.

You remember lifting up the knee as high as possible, bringing it back down to the floor slow. But now we’re going to raise up our arm and touch our elbow.

So let’s do 5 on each side. That’s 1 - nice and slow - 2, 3 - don’t forget about the posture - nice, tall, chest out, shoulders back - 4, 5. Good.

Now we’re going to do kind of like a criss-cross. So I want to use my left knee to touch my right elbow, my right knee to touch my left elbow.

Let’s do 5 on each side. Ready - and go for it. 1, 2 - feeling your core as well - 3 - working on some abs. If you can’t touch the elbow, that’s - 4 - fine. Go as high as you can. 5. Okay, perfect.

Okay, now we’re going to throw some punches, get some cardio in here. So just let’s throw some straight punches, down the center, just go for 10 punches.

3, 4, 5. You feel nice and loose, you can go a little faster and harder if you want. 8, 9, 10. Good.

Now, earlier we were doing leg extensions, and we brought it straight out and back slow. I want to do kind of like a kick, so we can do it a little faster and bring it back down. 5 kicks on each leg. 2, 3, 4, 5.

All right, you guessed it - the next one is going to be a combination of punches and kicks. So let’s do two punches, and then a kick. 2, 3, 4 and 5.

All right. We just went over each and every exercise of this routine, and I’m pretty sure you’re feeling a lot more confident about doing this routine alone at home.

Now, one big tip I can give you is, remember, you are a beginner, so you might not be able to master each and every exercise on Day 1.

But I promise you, if you’re consistent enough, eventually you will get stronger, more mobile, more agile, more flexible, and you will be able to master each one of these exercises.

All right, guys. Till next time.