4 Exercises to Help You More Easily Get Up From a Chair to Standing

Placing a book on a high shelf, bending over to pick something up, getting up from a chair — there are a few daily motions that can feel a lot more challenging as we age.

When you have trouble getting out of a chair, it's a sign that you may need to give your mobility and strength training some extra attention, Melissa Garcia, DPT, CSCS, a Washington-based physical therapist says. Over the long term, some simple exercises can help improve your balance and stability, reducing your risk of injury and falls.

For those who need a little extra help getting up from the toilet or couch, quad, glute and hamstring strength is a top priority, she says. To help make your daily movement a little easier, she recommends you do these exercises every other day (or every two days if you notice your muscles are especially sore afterward).

Glute bridges are a top exercise Garcia recommends for people having trouble getting up from a chair. This move strengthens your glutes and hamstrings (major muscles used when standing up), and your two main hip extensors.

"[Hip extension is the] action that allows our bodies to comfortably stand up straight," she says. And the glute bridge allows you to practice this motion in a lying down position, offering a little. more support and control.

If you struggle with the glute bridge or getting onto the floor, perform the standing fire hydrant instead. Like the glute bridge, this exercise also strengthens the glutes and hip extension muscles used to sit and stand, according to certifed senior fitness trainer Julie Wilcoxson, CPT.

Straight leg raises help strengthen your hip flexors (the muscles running across the front of your hips). But these also target your core and help strengthen your quads (the muscles across the front of your legs). Leg raises even build muscle endurance (so you don't get tired as quickly) and control while keeping you in a comfortable, lying-down position.

"Notice that once your quad starts to fatigue, your knee will start to bend," Garcia says. "If this happens, take a break until you feel ready to try another repetition."

Can't get on the floor for the straight-leg raise? Give the assisted forward banded lunge a try. "The forward lunge engages the glutes, hamstrings and quadriceps, which help strengthen the legs," Wilcoxson says. "This will build the strength necessary to go from a seated to a standing position."

Your glutes are the biggest muscles in your lower body. But when these muscles are weak, they can cause your back to take over when you're doing day-to-day activities like getting up from a chair or picking something up off the ground.

Garcia likes this exercise because it targets the hard-to-reach muscles in your side glutes. Plus, the side-lying position helps you really isolate the muscles, so you're not using other parts of your lower body to help complete the exercise.

Don't want to get on the floor? The seated hip abductor is a more accessible exercise for targeting the gluteus medius, "which aids in balance and stability when transitioning from a seated to a standing position," Wilcoxson says.

"This is essentially the mini version of getting out of a chair," Garcia says. Many people struggle to get up out of a chair because they have trouble keeping their balance. But the mini squat exercise practices that motion, while still offering a little extra help with balance.

The wall sit tends to be equally accessible as the supported mini squat, but Wilcoxson notes that this can be a great move for days when you don't have a chair on-hand for the mini squat.

Plus, having to press your back and shoulder blades against the wall can help you build better posture for transitioning from seated to standing, Wilcoxson says.