Mark M, wants to complement his training to strengthen his legs with some exercises from home. Here I’m going to talk about the best way of doing that without investing in expensive equipment, or taking up a lot of your leisure time.
One of our main focuses throughout the Fit & Active program is on strengthening your lower body, because if you don’t put your body under the resistance it needs to be continually challenged, then your legs will get weaker, as you lose muscle tone.
Getting in and out of a chair over sixty, through to seventy and up to 100 simply isn’t as easy as it was when you were younger.
Sit upright in a chair and make sure that your feet are flat on the floor. Now simply push through your heels and stand up, without the support of your arm rests.
If you find it a struggle at first, then you can make use of your arm rests to make it a little bit easier on yourself, but remember that you’ll be putting your legs under less resistance that way.
The ideal amount of times under gradual tension would be between 10-12 repetitions, repeating the exercise about four times.
Stand up, sit down. Pushing through your heels; not on your toes, to ensure that your weight is evenly distributed.
It may sound a little bit silly, and I can hear you thinking “but I get in and out of my chair twenty times a day”. But getting up out of your chair once and then resting is not the same as doing this basic strength training exercise in a structured way at least every other day.
To really improve strength in your lower body and help you in your everyday life, this simple home exercise will work wonders.