Exercise as we know it is changing. People are exercising at home, at work, and on the go. Individuals of all abilities are making movement part of their daily routine. There is a growing need for exercise that is accessible to all people in all places. Chair exercise fits that niche better than nearly any other type of exercise. You can use it if you’re training in-person or online, with clients old and young. Whether you’re helping them build muscle, improve balance, or maintain heart health, chair exercises and low-mobility workouts provide accessible solutions for clients of all ages and fitness levels.
Introducing Clients to Chair Workouts and Low Mobility Exercises
From seated leg extensions to arm raises, chair exercises give individuals with mobility limitations tools to stay active and healthy on their terms. Chair workouts have become a popular type of exercise over the last few years as a low-barrier entry into exercise. It doesn’t require specific skills or expensive equipment, making it ideal for those who enjoy exercising at home or those with limitations that prohibit them from other forms of exercise.
Chair exercise is a simple solution for 3 of the ACSM’s top fitness trends of 2025. The #3 trend for 2025 is fitness programs for older adults. For older adults who experience mobility challenges, balance concerns, or bodily weakness, chair exercise is a perfect fit. Traditional strength training and functional fitness training also ranked in the top 10, and both can be easily accomplished through chair exercise (American College of Sports Medicine, 2024). Let’s look into how you can empower your clients through chair workouts to improve their daily lives and achieve their fitness goals. We’ll break down chair and low-mobility exercises you can include in your upper-body, lower-body, and full-body client sessions.
What Are Chair Workouts?
Chair workouts and low-mobility exercises are designed to help individuals with limited mobility or those preferring low-impact physical activity. These exercises prioritize accessibility and safety, making them an excellent option for clients just beginning to exercise as well as those more experienced. Exercises can focus on a single muscle group or include a combination of movements to create a well-rounded workout. They are effective at engaging major muscle groups, strengthening the core through good posture, and are scalable with minor changes or additions of weights or resistance bands.
The key benefits of Chair and Low-Mobility exercise include:
- Strength and Flexibility: Helps clients improve muscle strength and joint flexibility, improving their overall physical capabilities while reducing the risk of falls.
- Cardiovascular Health: Boosts heart health, aerobic capacity, and endurance, and increases circulation.
- Pain Management: Gently strengthens and stretches stiff joints, aids in recovery from injuries, and alleviates chronic pain. The release of exercise-induced endorphins can also relieve pain and improve mental health.
Take a moment to stop reading right now and think about a client you have who could benefit from what I’ve described so far. It could be a client recovering from a hip injury who isn’t ready for weight-bearing activity. It might be a senior who is having difficulty balancing after a stroke. The chair exercises that follow, along with the vast amount of others out there, can help you guide their fitness journey and transform their lives.
Teach them that chair exercise can be a starting point that leads to other forms of exercise, or it can be the type of movement that they choose to stay with. Clear communication is important when introducing clients to chair workouts. Discover practical tips for effective trainer-client communication here: Effective Communication for Personal Trainers. Whatever they choose, encourage them to move at their own pace and in a way that feels good to them. Now let’s prepare to get your clients moving, starting with a warm-up!
Helping Clients Warm Up for Success
Even though someone may remain in a chair for the entirety of their workout, a warm-up should still incorporate the entire body where feasible. Get clients moving as much of their body as they can to prepare them for their workout.
Why Warm-Ups Are Important for Your Clients
A warm-up is key for a safe workout, especially for seniors and those with mobility challenges. These populations generally require more time to warm up than others. It gives their bodies ample time to get moving and stretch joints that may be stiff or painful. Clients may be tempted to shorten or even skip the warm-up when it comes to chair workouts because the warm-up activities may not seem that much different than the actual exercises themselves. While this may be the case, it is still important to warm up. Educate clients on how warm-ups increase heart rate and improve blood flow, priming muscles and joints for the upcoming exercise session. This step helps reduce injury risk, increases flexibility, and improves performance (Park et al., 2018). It also gives clients time to become mentally present and prepared to exercise (Sople & Wilcox, 2024).
Chair-based Warm-Ups
- Shoulder Rolls: With arms at your sides, gently squeeze the shoulders up toward the ears, then roll them down and back, softly squeezing the shoulder blades together. Bring them forward and back up toward the ears. Repeat several times and then perform going in the opposite direction to loosen shoulder joints and improve mobility.
- Seated Cat-Cow: Bring your hands to your knees or the arms of the chair and inhale as you lengthen your spine. As you exhale, gently round your back, pulling your shoulder blades away from each other and lowering your chin toward your chest (cat position). As you inhale, lift your chest and softly arch the back while keeping the core engaged (cow position). Move through both positions a few times, inhaling in the “cow” position and exhaling in the “cat” position.
- Seated Marching: Begin seated in a position where both feet are flat on the ground. As you inhale, lift your right leg off the ground, and exhale as you set it down. Repeat on the left side, alternating legs as if you were marching. Ensure that your posture is good and that you remain upright throughout the exercise.
Coaching Clients Through Upper Body Chair Exercises
When beginning chair exercises, it can be helpful for clients to have exercises separated into upper and lower body. This allows them to focus on the movement itself, rather than standing or balancing if they have difficulty doing so. It also allows those without the use of their legs to target their upper body to strengthen it to support their needs.
Help clients engage their upper arms, shoulders, chest, and back, enabling them to perform everyday tasks with greater ease and confidence. Strength training, including bodyweight chair exercises, improves bone density and reduces the risk of osteoporosis, particularly in older adults (Shah, 2024). Encourage clients to maintain good posture and form throughout each exercise to engage the correct muscles and prevent strain. Get expert tips on teaching proper form here: How to Teach Proper Form as a Personal Trainer.
Chair-based Upper Body Exercises
- Chest Presses: From a seated position, begin with your arms bent, hands near your chest. Press them forward, gently squeezing the chest muscles, as if you were pushing something away. This movement builds chest and arm strength. For an added challenge, sit facing a wall and press into the wall, ensuring the chair stays firmly on the ground.
- Seated “W” slides: Begin with your arms bent, and hands at shoulder height. Slowly lift them overhead. Once you have reached full extension or the extent of your range of motion, lower them back down, gently squeezing your shoulder blades toward each other.
- Arm Circles: Extend your arms out to the sides at shoulder height. Slowly circle your arms forward several times, then backward. To increase difficulty, hold light dumbbells, soup cans, or water bottles for resistance.
Guiding Clients Through Lower Body Chair Exercises
When many people think of chair exercises, they imagine only seated exercises that focus on the upper body. In reality, there are countless ways to use a chair to strengthen the lower body. Studies have shown that lower body strength training has “significant effects on the strength of lower extremity, balance outcomes and mobility” (Sadaqa et al., 2023).
With chair-based exercises, you can help clients build leg strength, improve hip mobility, and reduce stiffness, which is key for maintaining independence and reducing the risk of falls. They are ideal for individuals who have weak or compromised lower bodies, are recovering from injury or surgery, and those with limited mobility. Seniors, especially tend to enjoy chair activities as a safer, low-impact option to build strength in the lower body without the risk of falling. For more detailed strategies on teaching fitness to seniors, including chair exercise, explore our guide How to Teach Fitness to Seniors.
Chair-based Lower Body Exercises
- Sit-to-Stand and Variations: Sit-to-Stand is an exercise that can be scaled up, down, or modified for varying abilities. Start by performing it using your hands on the chair or your legs to help you up and down. The next step is performing it without hands. After that, add in variations including holding a weight, lifting hands overhead, or using a single leg to stand up and then both to sit down. When getting up and down from a chair isn’t accessible, try exercises that work the same muscles, including seated leg extensions, seated marching, partial stand-ups, or isometric holds.
- Seated Calf Raise: With both feet flat on the ground, slowly lift the heels off the ground, coming onto the ball of the foot. For variations, try putting a weight on your lap, using only one leg, or putting a wedge under the feet for an increased range of motion. Use this exercise to improve balance and flexibility in senior clients.
- Seated and Chair–assisted Hip Exercises: From a seated position, strengthen the hips with two simple exercises. Place a pillow, ball, or other object between your knees and gently squeeze it. This strengthens the hip adductors. To strengthen the hip abductors, start with the knees close together and pull them away from each other. You can wrap a resistance band around your upper legs during this exercise to increase the difficulty. If a client can stand up and balance on one leg, you can do the same exercises standing up to add another element to the exercise.
Guiding Clients in Combining Upper and Lower Body for Full-Body Workouts
Because chair exercises are generally low-intensity and low-impact, full-body workouts are a great choice. It gives clients more rest days than split days, which can be incredibly beneficial for seniors and those with slower recovery times. Full-body chair workouts also give clients more freedom and flexibility in their training. If they aren’t able to make it to the gym or come to a session, chair exercises can be done at home. If they miss a workout, it’s easy to shift their weekly workout schedule by a day and still get in 2 strength training sessions as recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services (2018).
As you plan and execute full-body chair workouts, incorporate exercises that activate multiple major muscle groups simultaneously and individually, providing clients with varying intensities and challenges throughout their workout. Consider their current abilities along with their goals and pursuits, then create steps to help them get there.
Recommended Exercises for Your Clients:
- March and Press: Combine upper and lower body strength and coordination by sitting upright in a seat. Raise the arms overhead as you lift the right knee off the ground. Bring arms and legs back down, then repeat as you lift the left knee. To offer a longer rest for the arms and increase coordination training, lift the right knee and left arm at the same time, then return to the starting position and lift the left knee and right arm. You can add dumbbells or ankle weights to increase the resistance as well. Maintain good posture throughout the exercise to build core strength and promote breathing.
- Seated Bicycles: This exercise focuses on the core while adding upper and lower body elements. From a seated position, lift the right knee and gently twist to the side, bringing the right knee and left elbow together. Lower them back down and repeat using the left knee and right elbow. To increase difficulty, move slightly faster or add dumbbells and/or ankle weights for resistance.
- Seated Jumping Jacks: From a seated position, lift your right foot, extending your leg, while reaching both arms out to the sides and up. Lower your foot and hands down, then repeat while lifting your left foot. Increase the difficulty by adding dumbbells or ankle weights, or by increasing the speed of the exercise.
Use these exercises as a jumping-off point to mix and match your exercises. Get creative and have fun with your clients! Making the exercise enjoyable for them will make your sessions enjoyable for you as well.
Conclusion
Chair workouts and low-mobility exercise solutions provide an accessible way to build muscle, improve heart health, and improve overall well-being. These exercises empower everyone, from older adults to those recovering from injuries, to stay active. Though many of the movements seem simple, simple is often better. It allows clients to get comfortable moving and exercising without added stress or fear of falling. It enables you to train more clients with fewer risks as well. To protect yourself from the inevitable risks that come with all types of exercise, choose Insure Fitness—the trusted choice for comprehensive professional trainer insurance.
References
American College of Sports Medicine. (2024, October 22). ACSM Announces Top Fitness Trends for 2025. ACSM. https://www.acsm.org/news-detail/2024/10/22/acsm-announces-top-fitness-trends-for-2025
Department of Health and Human Services. (2018). Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans 2 Nd Edition. https://odphp.health.gov/sites/default/files/2019-09/Physical_Activity_Guidelines_2nd_edition.pdf
Park, H.-K., Jung, M.-K., Park, E., Lee, C.-Y., Jee, Y.-S., Eun, D., Cha, J.-Y., & Yoo, J. (2018). The Effect of warm-ups with Stretching on the Isokinetic Moments of Collegiate Men. Journal of Exercise Rehabilitation, 14(1), 78–82. https://doi.org/10.12965/jer.1835210.605
Sadaqa, M., Németh, Z., Makai, A., Prémusz, V., & Hock, M. (2023). Effectiveness of exercise interventions on fall prevention in ambulatory community-dwelling older adults: a systematic review with narrative synthesis. Frontiers in Public Health, 11(11), 1209319. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1209319
Shah, D. (2024, October 24). The Role of Strength Training in Preventing Osteoporosis: Functional Exercises and Evidence-Based Benefits. Academy of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy (AOPT). https://www.orthopt.org/blog/the-role-of-strength-training-in-preventing-osteoporosis-functional-exercises-and-evidence-based-benefits
Sople, D., & Wilcox, R. B. (2024). Dynamic Warm-ups Play Pivotal Role in Athletic Performance and Injury Prevention. Arthroscopy, Sports Medicine, and Rehabilitation, 101023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asmr.2024.101023
