Observations: Sitting in and getting up from a chair
In my recent visit to the doctor’s office, the thing that caught my attention was watching people sit down in those uncomfortable waiting room chairs and even much worse watching them get up.
It is no wonder the reception chairs are so uncomfortable. The way people simply fell into them from at least a foot high before they landed in the seat cannot be good for the cushions or the integrity of the chair. In some cases, it was at least 100 to 300 pounds of dead weight falling onto these chairs.
Furthermore, I noticed when people were getting up, after being called back to the doctor, they were doing all sorts of contortions simply to stand and get going. But then in some cases it is hard to get 100 to 300 pounds of dead weight back up again without the necessary leg strength to do so.
One of the most basic reasons for falling into a chair is lack of muscle strength. And I can guarantee it is not going to get better if you do not work on it. One of the best ways of working on it is to gradually decrease the use of your arms and hands pushing on your legs to get up and increasing your leg strength.
In the not too recent past, there were some futuristic strength coaches who made observations that led to them to develop the progressive strength increase programs based upon a pyramid approach. In the instance of sitting in a chair this approach would be, as mentioned earlier, less of a dependence on using your upper body strength to get up and more on your legs.
One of the ways to progressively increase your strength would be to put several thick pillows on a solid kitchen chair and practice controlling sitting down and getting up from that chair. Fundamentally, what you are doing is increasing your muscle strength range of motion by starting out high, controlling your sitting, and getting back up by doing 3 to 4 sets of 10 to 12 repetitions onto that chair with a stack of pillows. Make certain the pillows are not easily moved because you do not want to accidentally fall off the chair because of pillows moved on you.
Once you are able to actually set on the pillows, rest a moment and then get back up without using your arms for the numbered amount of sets and repetitions then it’s time to remove one of the pillows. Practice doing this exercise until you are sitting on the bare chair.
If you have stair steps in your house, you can do the same thing on the stairs. In my case, I practice going down to two stairs, setting down and then getting back up without using any other assistance to do so.
I also practice doing one leg squats to the couch arms, the fireplace hearth, and to a chair that is securely backed up against the wall, so it does not move.
I think it should also be noted that if you’re watching any of the YouTube videos with the spandex clad pseudo-fitness experts, when they do their squats they’re not even going deep enough to set on the toilet seat so what good does it do you? The short answer is effectively nothing for increasing your abilities to do your daily living activities.
Remember, building strength to your full range of motion to your best ability will help you in innumerable ways live your life.
ActivelyFitSeniors 