The Any-Chair Anywhere Squat
SqueezeItIn.com Girls
SqueezeItIn.com fan Kari P. from Sioux City, Iowa suggested this very “squeeze-it-in-able” exercise. We love it so much we wanted to share it with everyone. All you need is a chair!
Stand with a chair behind you as if you were about to sit down. Your feet should be shoulder width apart with feet turned out in a plie.
Start to sit down, but just before your rear end hits the seat stand back up. As Kari says, you should”feel that burn.”
Continue for 2 sets of 12 and then give your rear end a rest! Make sure to engage your abs throughout this exercise.
Variations: On the last repetition of your set do 12 small pulses up and down. This exercise can be done anywhere you are about to take a seat, which means every couch, recliner, bench, and chair is an opportunity to SqueezeItIn!
Thanks Kari P.! Now leave us a comment and let us know how you SqueezeItIn.
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This is an excellent website I found after reading the Washington Post article about it. We’ve needed something like this for a long time. Thanks to you who took the time and work to put it on the web.
I’m 64, and years ago, while quitting smoking. I wanted to increase my metabolism so I wouldn’t gain as much weight afterward, as so many do gain. So I set my wristwatch timer to go off every 15 minutes. The simplest and most effective maximum muscular exercise I could do at home or in office was to hold the back of a chair or a countertop and do 10 full squats, working my largest muscles, the quads. Made me breathe more heavily and pulse increase and soon I didn’t need to hold onto anything and was doing more than 15 every fifteen minutes. I can really get the heart and lungs animated. It worked as I expected at keeping my metabolism up all during the day for weight loss and has for others who are quitting smoking, after I suggested it to them.
I still do many bodyweight squats daily, at odd times and while watching TV. And other exercises including those shown here. Your countertop pushups are something I had not tried before. But just did. Excellent!
As I type this, I am standing with my keyboard elevated to waist height on a narrow drop-leaf table and my monitor centered just below eye level on top of a milk crate. It seemed obvious that sitting while computing was not making me feel better or live longer. Standing while computing allows me to do squats and one-leg exercises. And arm ones while reading onscreen.
One other thing that may help someone is that I used two milk jugs or bleach jugs with water, to do arm and shoulder exercises similar to the soup can ones. By increasing the water in the jugs a little every few days or weekly, one can build up strength quickly without buying dumbbells or kettlebells, though I like those also when at the gym. But using water allows small increment increases, which makes progress easier, while dumbbells increase by a full pound as you go up in size. Once the completely filled jugs became too easy to work with, I added sand to some bleach jugs and gradually increased the amounts, as with the water. (Much heavier and tougher to do than water, I should add.)
I still cycle and go to the gym regularly and have bought weights and benches and balancing devices for home use, but these minutes at home or office where a super busy person can balance or go up and down or do the other things shown on this great website can keep and help restore health and function in our sedentary world. We all have to start somewhere, and I hope that many who try these home and office exercises will find as I did with the squats and milk jugs, that the obvious benefits after a little while, move people toward a lifelong exercise practice outdoors as well as into a gym. Exercise and muscular development make us feel good, healthy, extend lifespan, avoid injuries, and boost our self-esteem. And “much much more” as ads say… but 100% true in this instance and well-documented by scientific research.
Hope this helps someone.
James Richardson
[...] with legs shoulder width apart. Squat down as if you were going to sit in a chair. Keep all the weight in your heels and make sure your knees do not extend beyond your toes. [...]
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