Enjoy a straightforward chair workout right from your home.

Enhancing your endurance is crucial for maintaining overall well-being. Stamina allows you to engage in everyday activities and pursue your favorite pastimes actively. By improving endurance, you can bolster both your mental and physical health while fortifying your heart and lungs. Catch the drift?

“As we grow older, our muscular and cardiovascular endurance naturally diminishes due to factors such as the loss of muscle fibers, stiffening of arteries, less efficient heart function, and reduced oxygen usage, all leading to diminished stamina. However, staying active can dramatically slow down these changes, helping to retain much of our functional abilities,” shares Eric North, known as The Happiness Warrior—a wellness speaker, coach, and advocate who is reshaping the narrative around aging with purpose, strength, and emotional resilience. “Significant changes include muscle wasting—especially in fast-twitch fibers—a lower maximum heart rate, and more rigid blood vessels, which affect the heart’s capability to pump and distribute oxygen, although the body adapts to maintain function.”

Better endurance is frequently linked to improved long-term health outcomes since it enhances mitochondrial performance, cardiovascular health, and vital metabolic indicators. These advantages not only help you feel more invigorated but also lower the risk of chronic illnesses such as stroke, diabetes, and heart disease.

Endurance is often associated with better long-term health because it improves mitochondrial function, cardiovascular wellness, and key metabolic markers. These benefits help you feel more energized and decrease your risk of chronic conditions like stroke, diabetes, and heart disease.

“While strength is vital for preventing muscle loss (sarcopenia), endurance directly supports the heart, lungs, and cellular energy systems, offering broader systemic benefits for aging well,” North tells us.

To help you determine where your fitness level stands, we learned a four-minute chair workout to try after 60. If you can finish it, you’re doing great—in fact, it indicates your endurance is top-notch.

Why Chair Workouts Work

“There are a lot of gimmicky exercise programs out there trying to convince you that you need fancy equipment or complicated workouts. The truth is, one of the most effective tools you can use is something you already have: a simple chair,” explains Erin Richardson, Corporate Director of Aging & Functional Ability program at Sun Health. “Research shows that adults over the age of 65 who can perform repeated, controlled, chair-based strength exercise can improve lower-extremity strength and tend to experience better health outcomes and greater independence.”

One of the best ways to utilize a chair is by simply standing up from it. The sit-to-stand exercise is a functional movement you perform daily to remain independent with age.

“Another reason chair exercises work so well is safety. They reduce fall risk and account for mobility challenges, allowing the focus to stay on building strength and control,” Richardson says. “Chair-based programs can be an excellent starting point or a safe training tool. Think about safety, control, and progression, rather than worrying about where the exercise is performed.”

Sit-to-Stand

“Focus on controlled movement—no plopping down. You may use the armrests if needed, with the long-term goal of standing without using your arms. This exercise builds quadriceps strength needed for everyday tasks like getting out of a chair or off the toilet,” Richardson explains.

1. Begin seated at the front of a sturdy chair with your feet placed on the floor under your knees.
2. Lean forward slightly.
3. Try to stand up without using your knees, hands, or additional support.
4. Use control to slowly sit back down.
5. See how many sit-to-stands you’re able to complete in 30 seconds.
6. Rest briefly
7. Repeat for 3 to 4 rounds.

Seated Weight Shifts

“This exercise improves trunk control needed for daily activities like dressing or putting on socks,” Richardson points out.

1. Begin seated, holding a light weight in one hand.
2. Reach as far as you’re comfortably able to to the side, forward, and then across your body while leaning into the movement.
3. Return to the center each time.
4. Switch sides.
5. Perform 5 to 10 reaches in each direction, on each side.

Seated Marches

“This strengthens the hip flexors needed for weight shifting and initiating walking,” Richardson says.

1. Begin seated with your feet placed hip-width apart on the floor.
2. Lift your left knee up to hip height.
3. Lower.
4. Then, lift your right knee up to hip level.
5. Lower.
6. Maintain solid posture—trying not to lean back for support—as you continue to “march.”
7. Perform 3 to 5 sets of 10 to 20 marches on each leg.
8. For an extra challenge, incorporate ankle weights.

Seated Twist With Resistance

“This movement mimics real-world daily tasks like reaching into a cupboard,” Richardson points out.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

1. Begin seated.
2. Hold a resistance band at your hip with one hand and hold onto the band with the other.
3. Rotate your torso away from the anchored hand while reaching up.
4. Switch sides after completing all reps on one side.
5. Perform 3 to 5 sets of 10 to 15 reps on each side.

“The great thing about these exercises is that they can all be made easier or more challenging, and many can eventually progress to standing. As always, focus on safety: keep your feet flat on the floor, sit tall with good posture, and keep your shoulders relaxed and away from your ears,” Richardson tells us.