Chair Program - Chair Strength

Hello, Get Healthy U TV Squad. My name is Chris Freytag, and with me today is the one and only, Sam Cameranesi. Hello. Hello. We are so excited to work out with you today.

This is our chair strength workout. Now, this workout is geared towards any of you who are beginners, just getting started, feel more comfortable exercising in a chair, and this is all gonna be about muscle. We're gonna get our strength on today. Maybe you're a senior citizen and you like the idea of low impact or having the ability to sit in a chair when needed. Or perhaps you are injured.

Maybe you are super fit, but you're wearing a boot, or you've got a a leg injury, or we've all been there, right? We have. Yep. Sometimes life just gives you the hard knocks. And so the good news is that you pressed play and you are ready to go.

Now, this workout is all about muscle. Muscle is the secret to metabolism. Muscle burns more calories at a resting heart rate every single day, and muscle helps you stay young. So when you're getting older, you really love the idea of muscle. Plus, it keeps you mobile.

It keeps you doing daily activities. Absolutely. So we're gonna hit every muscle group, obviously a little bit less on the legs because we're in a chair, but we're gonna do the best we can. If you are injured, get creative on the leg stuff. Change it up a little bit, all right?

Let's start with the warmup like we always do, to get the joints lubricated and our mind into the right place. I like it. Are you ready? Let's roll those shoulders back. All right, this is gonna feel good today.

Now, make sure you have a sturdy chair. We're sitting in folding chairs, but maybe you have a kitchen chair or a dining room chair that would work. Yep. Anything that you have? Sturdy and not too mushy.

Right there, and now paddle your arms back. Here we go. Right and left. Big range of motion. We're gonna do some good shoulder work today.

This will help us for our upper body. Yeah. And by the way, when you're seated in a chair, you really need to engage your core muscle. Core. Yep.

Because you are taking your legs out of the equation. Go the other direction. Here we go. So we're gonna talk a little bit about making sure that your abdominals are pulling in. And notice that we are sitting tall in our chairs.

We're not slouched or laying back. As nice as that would be. Right? Right here. Last one.

All right. Give yourself a couple of hugs right here. Beautiful. Let's go ahead and work on that back a little bit more. Cat cow seated.

So we're just gonna round and then open. And then round. Inhale and exhale. Take the opportunity to get some big deep breaths right here and release. Good.

And we're just gonna twist in our chair. So just twist to the right and the left, or the left and the right. Whatever works for you. Right there. Good.

Wrap that rib cage. I always feel this when I'm new. Fresh on my workout, right? Feels good to rotate. Last one.

One more. Boom. All right, let's circle from our waist right here. So just come forward and around. Good.

And again. And then we'll go the other direction. Here we go. All the way around. Oh man.

Huh? Motion is lotion. Motion is lotion. You got that right. All right.

Relax those shoulders. And let's just go ahead and take those arms up overhead and back down, and up overhead and back down. Two more. Up and down and up and down. And then we're just gonna do a few hip circles while we're seated so come to the edge of your chair.

Open that right leg. Open that left leg. Might feel a little bit awkward. That's okay. Your hips are a ball and socket joint, just like the shoulders so we've gotta lubricate them a little bit.

One more on each side, right there. Good. And release. Sit back. Just touch your heel.

Out and in. Out and in. Right there. Out and in. Just finishing up our warmup.

Two more. Got it. Got it. Windmills. Windmills for the win.

All right. Heels and toes out right here. Hands up. Reach for the inside of your shoe or the inside of your ankle and back up. And by the way, you can do any of our chair workouts barefoot if you wanted to.

Yep. That would work. You can be wearing whatever you want. Sweatshirt? Yep.

Your pajamas. Exactly. Last one. It's the best part about working at home. Right?

Right. And release. Okay. We are warmed up. We are gonna start with back and chest, the two bigger upper body muscles, before we work our way to the arms and shoulders.

So mid-back rows. Now, Sam and I have five and eight pound weights today. Are those eights? Yeah they are. And when you're seated, sometimes you can't go as heavy as you can when you're standing, but I want you to work where it works for you.

If you need two pound weights or one pound weights or a can of soup, go for it. Do it. Yeah. All right. So let's, you and I are gonna grab our heavier ones for our mid-back rows.

Abs are tight, shoulders up, back, and down. Sit up nice and tall, and then hinge over from your hip flexors and keep a nice long spine, and then row back. Here we go. Row. Pull it back.

Row. Now you're pulling those elbows straight back. Squeeze a pencil between your shoulder blades. Keep going, from the side view. I don't want you to be rounded through your back, but you wanna have a nice long spine.

Row. Row. Good. Keep it coming. Now, breathe each time.

Oxygen is the key. Oxygen and water fuel the muscles. What do you think? Yep, they do. Every single day we gotta use 'em, right?

Yep. Four. Three. Excellent job. Two, my friends.

One. Good. Come up. Good job. Now the opposing muscle group, chest.

We're gonna come to the edge of our seat and we're gonna lean back into our chair. This is like an upside down pushup. Here we go. Press it out. Press.

Now, you might be going slower or faster than we are. That's okay. You tell me what weight size feels good for your body. You tell me how fast. But the key is a full range of motion, right?

Yep. Right there. Aw, man. Keep those abs tight. Let's go.

All right. Four more right here. Four presses. You can do it. Three presses.

Yes you can. And two. One. All right. Woo.

All right. Chest flies. Now you're gonna pretend you have a beach ball on your chest, so again, lean back, come up here. Open around that big beach ball, and then close. Man, right?

Open and close. I almost feel like this is harder on a chair. This is harder on a chair. As a matter of fact, I probably would use 15 pounders on the ground, but these eight pounders are pretty tough. Now, if it gets to be too much, guess what you do?

Keep going, Sam. You go like this, you drop down to lighter weights. If that's too much, you drop the weights all together. Because the hardest part of this workout is pushing play. And you already did it, right?

Yep. And accepting that you're here. And you've said, I wanna work on my strength. Give me three. Close it.

Come on. Two. Yes, you can. And one. Excellent.

Woo, man, huh? All right, let's move into some legs. So we're gonna do leg lifts. Sit up nice and tall. Engage those low abs like you've just tightened your belt, right there.

Lift your right leg out. Here we go. You lift and lower. Lift and lower. So you're keeping it nice and straight.

Feel that quad muscle. Engage. Lift and lower. Feel it in the hip flexor a little bit too? Absolutely.

Yep. Yeah, a little on that lower core too, as you lift it up. You have keep your chest tall. Woo. Right there.

Now, here comes the kicker. No pun intended. Uh oh. And we're going to pump it. Are you ready?

Go. Pulse. Pulse. Lift. Lift.

Now you gotta talk to yourself right here. You do. Keep going. Keep going. Yes, you can.

Yes, you can. Now, if it starts to get to be too much, you bend the knee. So you would bend right there. If you can, keep it long. Let's go.

Eight, seven. No shame on the modifying game, right? 4, 3, 2, and one. Woo. Jinx.

Now, if you've got a boot on your leg and you can't do that, modify, do something with your arms. Are you ready? Here we go. And you lift and lower and lift. And maybe one of your legs is stronger than the other.

Yep. That's often the case. Or normal. Come on, tighten that human girdle. You're sitting up nice and tall, and you breathe each time.

Two more. Here we go. Mm. And you pulse. Let's go.

And pulse. And pulse. Sometimes those smaller movements are a little bit tougher. As our coach Lindsay likes to say, holy bananas. Let's go.

Woo. Keep it coming. Remember, you can bend your knee if it starts to be too much. Count it down for 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, And one. Holy moly, that was pretty intense, so if you modified, no big deal.

Let's move into shoulders. You decide how heavy you're gonna go. Right here. So we're gonna take those weights, bring them up, and make two goalposts. Right here.

Press them up for two. Down. Nice and controlled. Up and down. Now you really need to keep those abdominals tight.

Let me explain. When you're standing, you are engaging through your legs. It takes some of the work off your low back. But when you're seated, you really need to improve that core strength to protect that low back. So, bring it in.

Awesome. Power those arms up overhead. As we call it, raise the roof. Right here. If it's too heavy, go lower.

If it's too easy, you add more weight. Right there. Holy cow, I'm feeling this. Absolutely. Woo.

Are you starting to reach muscle fatigue? Yep. And we both commented that this is lighter than we would normally go. Yep. It's harder in a chair, in some instances.

I feel like I have to focus on other things that I don't normally do when I'm standing up. All right, one more. One more my friends. Let's go. Oh, yeah.

Up and release. All right. Lateral raises. Lat raises. Now, I want you to pretend like you're dumping out two pitchers of water.

And then squeeze an orange under your armpit. So you aren't going like this. Your elbows are up higher. Are you ready? Come to the edge of your chair if it feels better.

Here we go. And you lift and lower. I raised my hands up pretty high on that first one, sorry. And you lift, right there. So progress, not perfection.

If you feel like, oh, I'm not doing this right, that's okay. Take your time. Work on it. You have to build up to it. Yeah.

And by the way, slow is harder. It is. Yep, so we're gonna speed it up for our last six. Are you ready? You got it.

All right. Here we go. Six. Five. Oh, yeah, baby.

Four. Come on. Breathe each time. Two. Yes, you can.

One. Woo! Holy cow. All right, so the shoulder has three heads. The anterior deltoid, the front of the shoulder.

The medial deltoid, which we've just worked. And the rear deltoid, which is the back of the shoulder. We're gonna grab our lighter weights for rear delt flies, because they're harder than you think. You keep those arms nice and long, Hinge over from those hip flexors. Nice long spine.

Drop the arms at the sides and flap your wings. Are you ready? Here we go. Open and close. Open and close.

Squeeze your shoulder blades together. Open and close. Wow! Man, huh? Woo!

I always think about a bird and their wingspan, right? Having a long, long wingspan in this one. Yeah. And notice that we're looking down at the floor. What I don't want you to do is crank your neck up, all right?

Because that's gonna strain the neck muscles. So have your eyes just gazing about 3 feet in front of you. Let's go. Four, three. Yes, you can.

Two. Talk to yourself. You got it! Ah! And one more shoulder exercise, because we are gluttons for punishment.

All right, this is what we call a T. We're gonna draw a T with our wings. Are you ready? So we're gonna come up, out and down for two. It's a lot of control.

Up. Out. Down for two. Now remember, if you wanna slow it down or speed it up, you can. If you wanna do it without weights, if you're a beginner and you're saying, holy cow, I've never picked up anything heavier than a milk jug in the last few years, that's okay.

You can always grab that milk jug for a little bit, and then you gotta hustle that back into the refrigerator. Right? Exactly. Right there. Oh man.

Shoulders are a burning. We're gonna do two more shoulder Ts right here. Inhale. Exhale. Breathe.

One more. You're not tired you're- Inspired! We make a good tag team. We do. All right.

Put 'em down. All right. Whew. Shake it out. We're gonna go into the core.

So, a seated crunch. You're gonna keep your abs nice and tight, your spine lengthened, and we're gonna come forward and back. And you can round through that upper back a little bit. Hands are just lightly touching behind the head. You're not pulling with those elbows.

Your elbows are open, and you seat- Sorry. You come forward- seated, is what I was trying to say. There you go. You're seated right there. Give me four more crunches, right here.

Inhale and exhale. Pull that belly button in. Yep. Who knew that you could sit and get fit? Right?

Give me one more. I love it. Right there. Excellent. Okay, rush and twist.

Seated in our chair. So let's grab, we're gonna go something heavier, but you're gonna come to the edge of that chair. Abs are nice and tight. You can slightly lean back, keep that longer spine, and then you wrap your body to one side, and then wrap it to the other. And wrap it.

Now, if you wanna take one foot off, you can. That's gonna engage a little bit more core. Depending on what type of chair you're sitting in, you might be able to bring up two feet. We don't really have that kind of space. Woo.

So maybe you switch legs halfway. All right. Come on. Wrap that ribcage. You got it.

I love it. And when you feel your muscles working, you feel confident. You feel strong. You feel capable, and that's what matters. Come on.

4, 3, 2, and one. We're gonna go for bicep curls. Now, I'm gonna load up my biceps. I'm gonna double up on my weights. What do you think?

I think we can do it, right? Do what works best for you. Now, if you just wanna do this with no weights, you can. We're gonna curl up for two, and down. Good.

Biceps can handle a little bit more that low, sometimes. Yep. And let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen. But ladies, biceps are beautiful. They are.

I mean, when you got a sleeveless dress on or a sleeveless shirt on, it's like you feel good about it and muscle will shrink your body. People get so worried, like, am I get to get bulky and big? Muscle is actually, it's more dense than body fat. So it will actually, you will shrink inside. You'll feel good about the way your clothes fit.

Right there. Keep on going. You are strong enough. If this is too much, you drop the weights, all right? Breathe.

Slow and controlled. No swinging, all bicep. Holy moly. Taking momentum out of it really changes the game, doesn't it? Woo.

Okay, two more. Yes, we can. Here we go. One, pull it up there. Pull it up there.

Come on. You got it. Two. And bring them down. Woo.

Good. And if you were using no weights, listen, like I said earlier, I'm so proud of you for just being here. All right, a leg press. So let's take our right leg and you just press it out and back in. Maybe you've seen that machine at the gym, where you press it.

And you pull it back in, and you press it, and you pull it back in. Now we're gonna speed this up, if it feels okay. Here we go. And you press, release. Press, release.

Feel that quad muscle. Engage, right there. Come on. Are you breathing? Let's go.

Come on, you guys, stay with it. Talk to yourself right here. Yes, we can. 6, 5, 4, Sometimes it helps to count. It does.

3, 2, Last one! Woo! I felt that. Yes. All right.

Leg press on the other side. Here we go. Lift it up. Slow to begin and controlled. And you press it out and pull it back in.

And press it out. Abs tight, and pull it back in. You can really focus on that quad tightening right there. Oh, man. Sometimes when you use your own body weight, you end up with like a cramp.

Yes. Because you are squeezing so much. Good. One more, slow. Don't underestimate what our bodies can do, right?

Exactly. Double time, press, press, press. Now, if this is too fast for you, you slow it down. You do you. Especially when you're in the comfort of your own home.

Right? Oh my gosh. I'm starting to die on this leg. Yep. I'm gonna shake.

Oh! When are you gonna count down? Right? Here we go. 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, Yes, you can.

2, 1. Okay. I'm not gonna lie, that got hard. Woo! Woo!

All right, triceps. We're moving back up to the back of our arms, ladies. Okay. You can tone your arms at any age. You are never too late.

You are never too old. I'm gonna go with my heaviers, heavier weights. So you guys choose at home, we're gonna take those weights up overhead. Now, you gotta keep your abs tight. Do not overarch your low back.

Elbows are in. Here we go. Bring it all the way down. All the way up. All the way down behind your head.

All the way up. Don't over tuck your chin, and feel those triceps. Wow. Right? Push and press.

If this is new to you, I don't want you to overdo it. Go with your lighter weights, because let me tell you, you're gonna feel this tomorrow. You will. If you are somebody who's super fit and you're just injured, and you're you know, stuck in a chair for a while, then go heavy. Grab those big old weights and push 'em around.

Either way, you're gonna feel so accomplished by the end of it. Yeah. Oh, baby. Right there. I'm starting to talk to myself now.

All right. We're gonna pick up our speed a little bit. Here we go. Down and up. Now you tell me.

All right, let's count. six. You count in your head. Come on. We have it.

Talk to yourself. Oh! I've got one more. I've got one more. Let's do.

Bam! Okay. Still talking triceps. We're gonna hinge over from our hip flexors. You gotta keep that long spine and that nice strong core.

We're gonna kick those tri's, elbows back. Engaging the triceps. Here's the key to a kickback. You gotta get those elbows up and fold them here. So this is what not to do.

Swinging, from the shoulders. We are gonna isolate those triceps. Are you ready? Let's go. Kick it back.

Oh, I feel 'em already. Kick it back. I know. I feel it. Kick it back.

Kick it back. Don't over arch your back. Nice long spine. I was gonna say, just like one of our other moves, when we are slightly leaning forward, you look forward so that you're not arching- Cranking your neck too, yeah. Right there.

Kick it back. Wow. I'm so proud of you today. We are getting a full body strength workout in our chair. No excuses, my friends.

Right? We meet you where you are at, and help you out. All right, let's go. Six. Come on, Sam.

Five. You've got it. 4, 3, Last one. One. Woo!

All right, now to finish off those biceps, we're gonna go with what we call concentration curls. So they're a little bit different. What we're gonna do, is we're gonna anchor that elbow inside your thigh. So now that the elbow joint is anchored, you might be able to go heavier. I am gonna go with two weights.

What do you think? We can do it. Are you gonna try it? Yep. Okay.

You could go with one weight. You could go with just a soup can, or whatever it is you have heavy in your house to hold. Are you ready? Let's go. Curl it up and back down.

Curl it up, and back down. Come on. Here comes three. Come on. We're gonna get at least 10.

4, 5, The isolation just really gets ya. 6, you're forced to breathe to help. 7, 8, come on. Let's get to 10. 9, Come on.

Nice job! All right. Switch hands. You decide how heavy. Anchor that elbow into the inside of your thigh.

Right there. Let's go. One. Did you ever notice that one side might be a little bit easier or harder than the other? Three, For sure.

My right arm is always stronger. Four. Are you right-handed? Yes. Five.

Six. But celebrate what you can do. That's what's important here. Is that seven? Yep.

Eight. Nine. Ten. Perfect! So maybe you're using two pound weights and the next time you graduate up to three pounds weights, that's the success, that's the progress that you're making, that you need to chart for your body.

All right, we're gonna do good mornings, which is like a seated dead lift with upright rows. I'm gonna go a little lighter on these because when you come forward like this, you're gonna feel it in your low back. Make sure your chair is nice and sturdy. Lengthen those legs out, come to the edge of your chair, but don't let your chair fall back, all right? Or tip forward, I mean.

Here we go. Come forward, reach, pull up, and then row. It's like you're zipping up your coat. Reach and row. Full body movement.

Oh yeah. Love when you can get a few muscle groups in at once. Now, make sure you are gripping those abdominals when you stretch forward. Right there. I love it.

Right there. Wow. We are right at the end of our workout. We have just a couple. Stay with us.

Strength exercises left. Couple means two. We have two. Come on. Three of these.

Let's go team, right here. Two. You've made it this far. You've got it. And one.

Woo! All right, so, Our best Katniss. Hunger games. Pull with our bow and arrow right here. You're gonna pull on the right.

Pull on the left. Pull on the right. Pull on the left. Now keep going. What I wanna make sure you're not doing, is this.

So if you're scrunching through your neck, you are hurting yourself for no reason. So lower those shoulders away from your ears. Pull back. If you have no weights, it still is a really good exercise. You pull.

Squeeze that shoulder blade. Pull. Come on. Shaking. All right, here we go.

Last four, Sam. You're doing awesome. Four, three, Stay with it. Two. I love it.

One. Way to go. Woo. Our last exercise. Now, we're throwing some squats in at the end.

We're gonna stand up and sit back down. If you wanna stay seated in your chair, please do. Go back to some leg lifts, okay? If you can't move your legs, then go back to some of your shoulder exercises. Hands are at our sides.

Here we go. Stand up. Sit down, slow, and control through those glutes. Stand up. Sit down.

Now, ff you wanna really weight these squats, you go heavier. You're gonna go heavier, Sam? We'll try it. All right, let's go. Stand up with me, and back down.

If you want to go with no weights, you go with no weights. Yes, you can. Come on. Hey, who knew you could do this? You are strong.

Squeeze those glutes. Keep your chin and chest lifted. Oh, baby, come on. I love how sitting and standing in a chair is a squat, right? It's so functional, because I bet you do this every day.

You have to get up out of the kitchen chair or off the couch or out of your office chair or out of the car, right? One more. And for the grand finale, we're gonna put those weights down. All right? And this is just for fun.

Whoever wants to come along, right here. We're gonna go down, up. Are you ready? It's down, up, down. Tap it up.

Down. Oh my goodness. Who knew. And I feel like this is a good one too. If you're just starting out with squats or like your knees, you know are injured.

All you have to do is tap your butt, right? You don't have to go very far. Right. And you have the chair behind you for safety. Yes, stability.

But we are moving at quite the clip. So if you do not wanna go this fast, you do not have to. Slow it down. All right, we've got our last four for the grand finale. Four.

Here we go, three. Two. And awesome. Ugh. Once again- Way to go.

You have completed a total body strength workout. I am so proud of you, 'cause that, that was as we like to say, no joke. It is no joke. All right, let's just cool down. Now, the cool down is always about holding the stretches.

Just relieve the tension out of your neck and then come forward. And I want you to be at the edge of your seat. Don't let it tip. Inhale and exhale. Just come forward.

Oh, hamstrings, low back feels so good. Wow. Feel all those muscle groups that we did today. We hit every single one. We hit every muscle group.

And the other thing we did, is we did not let excuses get in our way. You know, because I know for some of you, roll it back up. Let's go ahead and do a side stretch so we feel it through our body. Some of you might say, well, I got injured and it's sidetracked me and then I gained weight and I didn't do anything, or whatever it might be. But no, you can do chair workouts.

You can do it. Get that heart rate up. Get some strength going. You can be really proud of yourself. And if you're a beginner and said, you know what?

We get emails all the time that say, I don't know where to start. I don't know what to do. I feel like I let myself go too long. Guess what? You are never too late.

You are never too old. You hear me say this all the time, Sam, but I always say, I don't want just more years. I want good years. Right? I don't wanna just live for 40 more years.

I wanna live 40 really good years. And so self-care is so important. Just go ahead, push that knee away, sit up tall. You'll feel this right here, through that medial glute, through your hip. You'll really feel it.

Breathe into it. And the other side. Now, if you start to really feel your chair workouts in your hip flexor, because when you are seated, you have to pick your leg up using your hip flexor. If that is the case, doing a runner's lunge might be the best thing you could do. Now, it depends on if you can stand up or not, but I would suggest coming here, and I'm just gonna come to one side of my chair.

Sam, you can come with me. And we'll come into a runner's lunge 'cause that's gonna open that hip flexor. You can hold on for balance, but you really want to lengthen that hip out. After all those leg lifts and pulses and squats, this is really important. And if you need to stay seated, you can go ahead and stretch it.

Maybe you take one knee, go ahead to the other leg, Sam, and open it this way. All right. If you're worried about balance, but one of the things about a runner's lunge is it really improves your balance. It does. It helps with that balance.

Awesome, everybody. Okay, let's come back to the chair. One last stretch, depends on what your chair is like, but lets interlace those fingers behind you. Open up for your trusting heart press. Nice big, deep breath, and release.

Let's take one big deep breath up in inhale. Exhale. That was your chair strength workout. I am so proud of you. We hope that you will join us again real soon for another Get Healthy U TV workout.