Revitalize Your Arm Strength After 60: 4 Chair Exercises That Outperform Dumbbells

To begin these straightforward exercises, all you’ll need is a robust chair.

Arm strength plays a crucial role in many beloved activities, whether it’s swinging a golf club, engaging in pickleball, baking, tending to a garden, or creating art. As the years pass, maintaining arm strength becomes vital due to the natural decline in muscle mass and strength. Insights from Terry Tateossian, the Founder and Certified Lifestyle Medicine Coach at THOR – The House of Rose, who specializes in women’s health and weight management for those over 40, shed light on effective strategies to tackle this issue.

Exercise remains the most effective method for enhancing arm strength. Today, we bring you four chair-based exercises that promise to rejuvenate arm strength more effectively than traditional dumbbells for those over 60. Let’s dive right in!

“A chair provides stability, which enhances muscle activation,” explains Tateossian. “When the body isn’t preoccupied with maintaining balance, the nervous system can allocate more resources to the muscles you’re working on. Using a chair reduces the need for balance, allowing your arms to focus on the task. This might seem counterintuitive since many people believe standing exercises or machines are superior.”

“Using a chair is more stable, and that allows for better muscle recruitment. When the body has to spend energy keeping itself upright and balanced, less of the nervous system’s bandwidth is available for the working muscle,” explains Tateossian. “When we use a chair, that removes the balance demand and that allows the arms to do more of the actual work. This is counterintuitive for most people because they assume standing exercises are better or machines are better.”

Below are four chair exercises to add to your arm-day workouts.

Seated Tricep Dips

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“These are great because the triceps make up roughly 2/3 of the upper arm’s total volume, and they’re the muscle most adults over 60 have undertrained in general. Restoring tricep strength is what brings back the appearance and function of the back of the arm, the area most women in this age category want to improve,” Tateossian shares.

1. Begin sitting at the edge of a sturdy chair.
2. Place your hands on the edge of the seat and lift your tailbone off the chair.
3. Walk your feet away until your knees, hips, and torso form 90-degree angles.
4. Activate your core and keep your shoulders relaxed as you bend your elbows and lower your body just below the seat.
5. Press back up until your arms are straight, engaging your triceps as you do so.
6. Perform 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps, sticking with a tempo 2010 and completing 60 seconds of rest. A 2010 tempo means pulling the band toward your torso in one second and returning to the starting position in two seconds, without pausing at either end of the movement

Incline Pushups With Hands on Chair Sides

“Incline pushups are much more accessible than a floor pushup or a military pushup, but it still provides sufficient load for the chest, shoulders, and triceps in their full functional pattern,” Tateossian tells us. “The chair elevation means you can train pushup strength every other day without the wrist and shoulder strain a floor push-up can create.”

1. Place your hands on the sides of a sturdy chair.
2. Walk your legs back so you’re at a straight incline from your head to your heels.
3. Keep your legs together and rise onto the balls of your feet. Engage your core and keep your gaze forward.
4. Bend your elbows to lower your body until your chest lines up with your elbows.
5. Return to straight arms.
6. Perform 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 10 reps, sticking with a tempo 2010 and completing 60 seconds of rest.

Seated Rows

“Rows work the ‘pulling’ muscles of the upper back, the lats, the posterior deltoids, and biceps, which hold the body upright,” Tateossian explains. “Strengthening this entire chain is the single most effective thing you can do for better posture at any age to create a body that looks strong and capable.”

1. Sit tall in a sturdy chair with your feet flat on the ground.
2. Securely loop a resistance band around your feet.
3. Hold the ends of the band in each hand.
4. Brace your core and maintain a tall chest.
5. Pull the band toward your torso, driving your elbows back close to the sides of your body.
6. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and pause briefly.
7. Return to the start position with control.
8. Perform 3 to 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps, sticking with a tempo of 2010 and completing 60 seconds of rest.

Seated Wall Press

“This is a great isometric variation of the plank as it works the upper body muscles without the joints moving. It’s one of the most underrated tools for arm strength as the isometric contractions build strength with almost zero joint stress. This means they can be done daily and the strength gains transfer directly to functional tasks like pushing open a heavy door or lifting a grandchild,” Tateossain says.

1. Sit tall in a sturdy chair with your feet flat on the floor, hip-distance apart.
2. Position yourself close to a wall so you’re comfortably able to reach it.
3. Bend your elbows to about 90 degrees and place your hands flat against the wall at chest level.
4. Press your palms firmly into the surface as if you’re trying to push away from it.
5. Perform 5 to 8 rounds of 10 seconds, or as many as possible.