5 Best Seated Leg Strengthening Exercises for Seniors & Beginners

This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in April 2025. For the original video, watch 5 Best Seated Leg Strengthening for Seniors & Beginners.

Brad: Whoa, leg strength is actually a real big key to keep you moving, walking, and balanced, so you're safe.

Mike: So this routine we're going to show is perfect for beginners that they can do at home, for those of you that have very weak legs and all you need is a chair.

Brad: That's right, and this is also good, especially if you use a cane or a walker already; it's going to help you with any transfers and mobility with that, so you're all included. We're going to start with five different ways of exercise. Again, this is for beginners or people with really weak legs, which may be older people in general, or recovering from an injury, so we're going to work all sit-to-stands, and there are three things that'll make this safe and easy for you. If you have a chair and a table, and the chair has no armrests, I recommend doing this in front of a tabletop because we want to have something there as you get up, if you lose your balance or need a little assistance. Because your legs are that weak, we'll use that for assistance. If you have armrests, you can use those. But if you're unsteady once you get up and you're a little wobbly, then have the table in front of you, or if you are already using a walker, put that in front of you so you have something to help steady yourself.

Mike: So these five exercises are a progression; we're going to go from easiest to most advanced. You can try them all out if you're able to do them and just stick to what level you're at. So for level one, what Brad is going to do is he's going to work on simply standing up and using his arms for assistance. Again, whether that's with your armrests on the chair or the tabletop, if you do not have armrests, you can use those, and we're going to aim for 10 repetitions total.

Brad: Right, and the first thing you'll want to do for good mechanics is scoot your bottom out a little bit; it gives you a little more mechanical advantage. Again, push off when you need it, and up- that would be one- make sure you get all the way up, squeeze those butt cheeks together so we get those glute max maxed out and working well. Again, if you have a walker, I would suggest keeping it in front of you even if you don't think you need it because you just might, once you start getting fatigued or tired by the 9th or 10th rep.

Brad: Again, one hand, two hands, or if you feel pretty strong and you want more of a challenge, hands up or across your chest.

Brad: Some people may want to have a hand on something; just don't grab the walker when you sit down and tip it over. You've probably had that mentioned to you if you've been trained with a walker by a physical therapist.

Mike: Now, number two, a simple progression is that as Brad is standing up or on his way down, he's going to hold a spot halfway for three seconds; we call this isometric strengthening.

Brad: That's right, this one really works some good functional balance training and keeps your mind in tune with what you're doing. You don't wanna do this unless you're actually practicing it specifically. So when you get up about halfway, just see if you can hold it for 1,001, 1,002, 1,003, and then all the way up. And then going down, hold it halfway down, 1,001, 1,002, 1,003, and then back down. They're harder than the first ones, and they also, again, challenge your balance and your control, really keeping you in tune with your balance and your body.

Mike: Now if you're holding it in both directions, you may only have to do this for like five reps. If you're just holding it on the way up or down, maybe do 10 reps of it total.

Brad: If it doesn't work for you and you feel like that's very unstable and unsafe, just skip it, come back to it once you get stronger.

Mike: The next tip for number three to make it more challenging would be, instead of having a wide base of support, feet wide apart, you're going to bring your legs in together, making it challenge your balance more.

Brad: That's right, and this we don't recommend except for when you're training or strengthening, and you have something in front of you because your balance is really going to change here, so it's working strength, specifically with balance. Again, this is not the way you're going to do it on a regular basis; always keep the feet out wide, but you can try it, right? Put the walker in front of me; I can hold it and check your balance, nice and tall, back down. So you take your time with these; there's no race, be focused on what you're doing, and get 5 to 10 of those.

Mike: Variation number four is standing up fast or at your normal pace, but when you sit back down, you're going to go slow and count to seven, and your butt should not hit the chair until seven.

Brad: There you go. So this is actually eccentric strengthening, which has been studied, and what are the advantages of that? I'll go through it as you're talking.

Mike: You get some good muscle strengthening without having to work as hard. So what you do is just sit down slowly, and it helps develop and strengthen those legs; that's much harder to control it like that, in comparison to just falling down. I'm not getting nearly as much muscle activation if I'm just going up and down really quick.

Brad: There you go, and you can see once I get down, you can stand up as fast as you'd like, but don't go real fast; do controlled speed up, and then 1,001, 1,002, 1,003, hang on if you need, 4, 5, 6 and 7. If you haven't done it before, you think, "What is this doing?" Believe me, it's going to help with control, and it gives you a good habit for the future because we've worked with a lot of people who have a habit of plopping into their chair as they get older, and their legs get weak. It's not a safe way to do it; it can cause problems with your back, so next one.

Mike: The last progression is to not use your hands at all.

Brad: Yeah, so this is for people who feel very confident, you're not using a walker, and you just wanna have more of a challenge, and again, you know, no hands here. I like this one, but make sure you've got good posture. If you feel like you have to rock forward and do this one, you're not ready for it. You have to be at a point where you feel very confident coming up and going down, and then you're just getting that good workout. Put your hands up, is a little harder. It's going to make your balance more challenging; it's a good way to go if you are at this level. Don't progress to it again unless you can easily get up and down comfortably, with no loss of balance while you're doing a regular sit-to-stand.

Mike: So that's the progression of 1 through 5. Start with 1. If you can get all the way through 5 on your first try, and this seems easy, there's another video link on the screen with more advanced exercises you can try at home as well.

Brad: That's right, "Seniors: Get Stronger Legs In 2 Weeks, Guaranteed!" It's got some really nice options to get stronger in two weeks.

Mike: Thank you for the explanation.

Brad: Well, they'll have to watch it to see what's going on. So anyways, enjoy the day, have a great time, and we can fix anything except for...

Mike: A broken heart.

Brad: A broken heart, but we are working on that, and Bob and I worked on it for years. We didn't get very far, but you'll see what Mike can do.

Mike: Now, I'm helping. I could draw a picture of a heart; does that help?

Brad: Yeah, that'll help.

Mike: There you go.

Brad: Take care.

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