Have you ever considered doing leg exercises while sitting at your desk, either at school or at work? As the world continues to change, more and more people find themselves leading a very sedentary lifestyle. A huge portion of the population spends most of their days sitting down – during the day you may be working at your desk all day and later in the evening you end up on your couch surfing through Netflix trying to find something to watch. Such a lifestyle is very dangerous as it leads to a slew of health problems including obesity, heart diseases and high blood pressure, certain cancers, type 2 diabetes and much more. If your schedule does not allow you time to hit the gym, you can try to counter the effects of a sedentary lifestyle by doing some simple leg exercises while sitting.
If you are curious on how to exercise those legs while seated, read on for some important tips and exercise example to try!
Spending your days sitting down for hours and hours means you are leading a sedentary lifestyle, which increases your risk of chronic illnesses as well as obesity. The lower body has more muscle than the upper body and thus doing lower body exercises may help prevent these issues.
Chronic illnesses, unfortunately, are not the only risk brought on by sitting for too long. Spending all day seated is also really bad for your legs.
Some leg/lower body issues that you may experience include:
This condition occurs when your vein walls and valves become weak or damaged. It can also occur when the veins themselves are enlarged, dilated, and overfilled with blood (3). While the condition isn’t serious or even life threatening, it often causes insecurities in people with them. Doing exercises for leg circulation while sitting will go a long way to ensure that you don’t end up with varicose veins.
When you are always seated, you end up not using these muscles and overtime they weaken and waste away. When this happens, you will end up having problems when walking and lose your balance which increases your risk of injury from falls or strains when exercising.
Sitting for too long, not moving around very much – possibly due to hospitalization, and varicose veins are among the causes of this condition (2). If left untreated, the blood clot can cut off blood supply to other parts of the body leading to a pulmonary embolism.
Clearly, not moving your legs for extended periods of time will cause more issues than we are aware of. To reduce the risk of these issues, be sure to always do some leg circulation and leg strengthening exercises while sitting down.
Read More: The Beginner’s Guide To Chair Exercises For Legs
If you are looking to learn how to tone legs while sitting, here are some easy leg exercises to do while seated. These workouts can be done by anyone, regardless of age or gym experience.
If you cannot lift both knees at the same time, alternate the legs and lift one at a time.
Ps. To make this exercise more challenging, place something heavy, e.g. large books or files on your knees.
When it comes to easy leg exercise while sitting, this is probably the easiest of them all.
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If you don’t regularly work out, 3 to 5 exercises are enough for you. Make sure to do 3 sets of your chosen exercises with 8 to 12 reps per set. If you want more leg exercises, make sure to walk around more – either during the day (walk around the office/class or climb some stairs), walk to or from work, etc.
If you work out, either at an intermediate or advanced level, do 5 or more exercises – make sure not to overdo it especially if you are planning on doing some leg day exercises later in the day.
Leg exercise while sitting is a great way to get some simple exercise throughout the day while seated at your desk. Not only do they help tone your lower body muscles, but they also help increase circulation in the lower extremities, preventing blood clots and varicose veins. Try them today for improved health and leg strength!
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