How To Tone Your Abdomen With 5 Simple Exercises With A Chair

Although these exercises are ideal for toning the abdomen, it is essential to combine them with a suitable low-fat diet in order to obtain the desired results.

Physical exercise is one of the habits that you should include in your daily routine when you want to tone your abdomen. Although diet also plays a major role, some activities allow you to strengthen and tone your muscles to slim your figure.

Often the problem is that not everyone has enough time to commute to the gym, or they limit their training because they think they need additional tools. However, there are many methods of working your abdomen at home, even using everyday items like a chair.

Keys to tone the abdomen

Before listing the exercises, it is necessary to stop at something that we mentioned earlier: to tone the abdomen, it is necessary to reduce the levels of body fat, and diet is essential in this regard. According to a study published by the journal BMJ , reducing the consumption of fat in food produces significant weight loss at the health level.

Also, cardio exercise can be combined with the work we will describe to achieve better results. This kind of aerobic exercise, along with a diet with good protein content, improves body composition, according to a study published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.  

Ultimately, another recommendation has to do with strength training, which helps increase muscle mass and thus stimulate metabolism. As research published in the Journal of Obesity indicates , this is because muscle demands more energy than body fat, so you will expend more calories even when you are resting.

How to tone the abdomen using a chair

Taking into account the previous factors, now you can proceed to perform these 5 exercises with which you can tone the abdomen:

1. Elevation of knees to chest

This simple activity focuses on the work of the abdominal muscles and, incidentally, works the lower back. By including it in your training routine, you can tone your belly and slim your waist.

• Sit in a chair, without supporting your back on the backrest.
• Get into an upright position, with your hands on your hips and your legs together.
• Next, bring your knees to your chest, as high as you can.
• Hold for 2-3 seconds and return to the starting position.
• Perform 15 reps and complete 3 sets.

2. Crunches touching the floor

Floor-touching abs are an easy, alternative way to tone your lower belly. These are done as follows:

• Sit up straight on a chair, without leaning your back.
• Extend your arms to the sides, at shoulder height.
• Turn your upper body to the right, leaning forward so that the fingers of the hand touch the ball of the opposite foot.

• Hold the pose for 3 seconds and return to the starting position.
• Repeat the movement to the opposite side, until completing 12 repetitions on each side.
• Do 3 or 4 sets per routine.

3. Knees to the elbow

As with previous work, when you practice this simple exercise you are not only strengthening your abs, but you are also exercising your entire midsection.

• Sit in the chair, with your back straight, but without supporting it on the back.
• Put your hands behind your neck and lift your knee toward your chest.
• Bring your elbow on the opposite side towards the knee you are raising, as if you want the two to meet.

• Focus the effort on the abdomen and return to the starting position.
• Do 3 or 4 sets of 15 repetitions each.

4. Diagonal knee raises

Another different way to do abdominal exercises in the chair is to vary the elevation of the knees and perform it diagonally. In this case, we must change the position of the hips so that the weight is supported on only one side of the buttocks.

• Sit on the edge of the chair, leaning on one side of your hips, with your back straight and your arms at your sides.
• Bring your knees up to your chest and lower them gently.
• Repeat the movement until you feel the pressure in the lateral abdominal area — 12 or 15 repetitions on each side. Perform 4 sets.

5. Vertical scissors

To finish the abdominal routine with the help of the chair, you can do the vertical scissors exercise, which helps you tone and reduce the area of ​​the lower abs and obliques.

• Sit on the edge of a backless chair and lean your body back slightly.
• Support yourself with your hands on the chair, then raise your legs until they are parallel to the floor.
• From this position, alternately raise and lower your legs, as if imitating the movement of the scissors.
• Perform 12 repetitions on each side until you complete 4 series.

To tone the abdomen, perseverance and discipline

If you want to show off a more toned abdomen and don’t have time to do more intensive routines, put these simple exercises into practice with the help of a chair and be consistent to get results. Of course, remember that to notice the changes it is important to maintain a good diet, since this helps to prevent fat from accumulating in the area.

Finally, if you can supplement with some cardio 1 or 2 times a week, the results will be much better for sure. Likewise, it is also advisable to train other parts of the body, especially the larger muscle groups. You can do it at home and with your body weight… there are no excuses!