6 Best Exercises That You Can Do with a Chair

You don't need to leave your home to exercise. Maybe you're suffering from gym burnout, or you just can't be bothered to get a gym membership. Either way, exercise has never been simpler!

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What Are the Best Exercises You Can Do with a Chair?

These 6 exercises are tailored to help you build muscle from the comfort of your own home with just one surprise piece of equipment: a chair!

1. Squat

The squat is an incredibly simple yet effective lower body exercise. While it's great on its own, you can jazz it up using a chair.

Here's how you should do it:

• Stand with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart and toes pointed out.
• Slowly bend at your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
• Pause for 1 second, then return to the starting position.
• Do 10 repetitions of this exercise before taking a break or switching to another variation of squats.
• When parallel to the floor, try making things difficult by jumping up! When you squat back down, try to control your movement so that you don't land abruptly on the chair. This will prove to be a test of your mobility and reflexes.

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2. Triceps Dip

This exercise will primarily work your triceps and pecs. To do a triceps dip, you'll need a chair and good balance.

Here's how you should do it:

• First, sit on the edge of your chair with your legs out in front of you and bent at a 90-degree angle.
• Place your hands on either side of the seat with palms facing down and arms extended so that they are parallel to the floor.
• Then, lower yourself off the edge until there is no more than a 90-degree angle between your upper body and thighs (the same as if you were sitting upright).

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3. Chair Lift

The chair lift is an exercise that works your back and shoulders. It’s a simple movement, but it can be made more challenging by raising your feet or adding weights to your hands.

Here's how you should do it:

• Sit on the edge of a chair with your feet flat on the floor and your knees bent at 90 degrees. Hold dumbbells in each hand at shoulder height with palms facing each other.
• Lift one dumbbell up toward the side of your head while keeping the other down toward your hip area by bending at your waist until both sides are parallel with floor level.
• Then lower back down slowly and repeat on the other side.
• Repeat this exercise 10-15 times per set.

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4. Plank and Leg Lift

Here's how you should do it:

• When you're ready to move onto the plank and leg lift, place your elbows on the chair seat and place your palms on top of one another.
• Make sure that when you're in this position, there is no bend in the elbows.
• Next, raise one leg behind you and hold it there for 5 seconds before switching to the other leg. Now that's not very challenging at all.
• To make this exercise more difficult, raise both legs at once.
• Hold for longer (10 seconds) or faster (every 2 seconds).

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5. Chair Lunge/Split Squats

The main precaution is not to let your front knee go past your toes or touch the floor when you lower yourself down into a lunge; we want to keep both knees behind our toes throughout this exercise. Also, try not to let your back knee touch down either—it should stay off-the-floor throughout each rep of this move.

Here's how you should do it:

• To do the chair lunge, place one leg on a chair and step back with one leg.
• Lower yourself until the knee of that leg touches the floor.
• Then push off with that foot and bring it forward next to your other foot, returning to a standing position.
• Repeat with alternating legs for 30 seconds or more.

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6. Wall Sit

Here's how you should do it:

• Get into a wall sit position against an empty wall and place a chair in front of you. You can either use the chair as support if a wall sit is too difficult or alternately, try and lift your legs and place them on the chair for added resistance.
• Keep your back straight and hands clasped behind you, with shoulders back and chest out. This will help you maintain balance.
• With knees bent at 90 degrees, hold for 30 seconds.

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Conclusion

Having a desk job and no gym membership are not reasons enough to slack. Get in shape even if you are pressed for time, and try squeezing in a couple of these simple exercises. As these take very little time, you'll be amazed at how much better your body feels after just one day on this routine.