You might want to sit down for this… No, we’re not about to tell you that JNCO jeans and frosted tips are back in style. We just think it’s nice to take a seat every now and again. And it’s especially nice while you’re strength training! Seriously, chasing the pump while parked on your keister may seem like a half-arsed (here come the bun-puns, people!) excuse for not working hard. But au contraire — get on your derrière —because there are tons of benefits to seated strength workouts! Let’s talk about some of them. 

Better Form, Here We Come

When it comes to strength training, form comes first. When we increasingly lift heavier weight and add on more and more reps, we begin to feel the effects of muscle exhaustion, which can result in our form suffering. This not only hurts our gains, but it can also lead to some serious injury. The beauty of seated strength workouts is that we’ve got the support all around us, meaning we can focus on the specific exercise at hand versus having to split our focus on all the peripheral work of stabilizing ourselves to keep us on our feet. 

Mobility Issues, Schmobility Schmissues

As many of us reach our golden years, it gets tougher and tougher to perform at the same level that we’re used to. And then there are some who are either currently in a wheelchair or are physically unable to stand for long periods of time, who simply cannot  perform standing workouts. This is the beauty of chair workouts… They make it possible for anyone with lower-body mobility issues to get the same hardcore sweat session as anyone else! 

Protect Your Spine, All the Time

As anyone with lower back issues can tell you… Ouch! Yeah, slipped disks and creaky spines are no fun and they are easily exacerbated by weight lifting of any kind. Our backs are the most generous parts of our body and anytime other parts get a little weak, they swoop in to help. And repeatedly compensating for weaker muscle groups can result in injury. But guess what? This can be prevented. Sit your booty down on a supportive bench or chair to get the support you need to strengthen and tone, without pulling something you really don’t want to pull. 

Joint Pain, Go Away

Similar to back issues, joints are another sensitive area of the body that tend to just get worse over the years. The reality is… once your hips, knees, and ankles are busted, there’s not much you can do about it, other than throw some kind of new metallic alloy in there (but let’s not go full android until we have to, eh?). But all you jangly jointed people have to do to get in a great workout is sit down, pick up some weights, and get lifting.

Built to Sit, Sit to Build

Did you know that a bunch of workouts are actually more effective when done sitting down? That’s right! Many strength-training maneuvers are actually much harder to do correctly while standing, either because of awkward angles or the tendency for people to use incorrect muscles to help them on those last reps. Cable rows, bicep curls, chest presses, overhead dumbbell presses, and overhead tricep extensions are all way easier and much more effective when seated. 

Well, if all that’s not enough to sit your butt down and pump it up, we don’t know what will! And if you wanna get started, we’ve got just the thing: two hot-off-the-press, newly released classes! Check out our Seated Strength Workout and Strength Training Chair Workout — these nonstop upper-body explosions will get you toning in no time, all from the comfort of those cheeks of yours! Like what you see? Pick up a 7-Day Free Trial with Studio SWEAT onDemand. We’ve got an endless collection of streaming fitness classes that you can do from the comfort of anywhere, with workouts for any skill level, any body type, and any schedule. Sign up and find out why we were recently named ‘Best Fitness App for Variety’!