Four moves to try if standing up is getting more difficult

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As we get older, the act of standing up from a sitting or lying down position becomes more difficult.

“Standing requires both leg strength and power,” says Rachel Prusynski, an assistant professor of physical therapy at the University of Washington and a spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association. “Everyone gets weaker as we age because our muscles start to lose mass, especially the large muscles in our legs that we use to stand.”

Getting up also requires balance, coordination, flexibility and aerobic capacity, which can decline over the years.

All of this can increase the difficulty of many daily activities, including getting out of bed or up from the couch. If you’re having trouble, consider the steps below.

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Get up with less effort

These strategies can help you stand, and some may help you better perform strengthening exercises.

• Opt for firm seats. They’re easier to get out of than those that are cushier. To firm up a soft seat, an easy fix is to place something like a piece of plywood underneath the cushions.
• Raise your chair. With a higher seat, you won’t have to rise as far to stand. If you don’t have an adjustable-height chair or a supportive bar-stool-style chair, you can buy furniture risers. These hard plastic items attach to the legs of chairs, sofas and beds to raise them. You might also want a raised toilet seat.
• Position yourself right. Before standing up, slide to the edge of your seat. Place your feet flat on the floor and slightly behind your knees, shoulder-width apart. Then lean your torso forward to help propel you up to standing. Lying down? Roll onto your side and use your arms to push up to a seated position.
• Use assistive devices if needed. A regular cane or walker can tip or slip if you use it to help you stand. Devices called couch canes and bed canes shouldn’t. Similar tools, often called safety rails, can help you get up from a toilet. Chair assists, which are cushion-like items you can place on a seat, use hydraulics or springs to boost you up.
• Know when to talk to your doctor. If difficulty standing interferes with everyday tasks or activities you enjoy, or you fall while you’re trying to stand or sit, tell your doctor. Do the same if you see no improvement after doing the sit-and-stand exercises described below regularly for a few weeks. Your doctor can determine whether you’re dealing with a condition such as arthritis or neuropathy. In some cases, a physician may prescribe physical therapy to help you improve your ability to stand up.

Four moves to try

For standing, you use your back and abdominal muscles and those that run from your calves and thighs up to your glutes.

To strengthen them, “there’s nothing better than just getting out of a chair,” says Neil Alexander, a professor of geriatric and palliative medicine at the University of Michigan. So practice sitting down in and getting up from a chair six to eight times at least two to three times a day. You should see improvement in a few weeks.

The following can help you even more.

• Stand up without using chair armrests. If you feel unstable, lightly touch the armrests with your fingertips.
• Pause on your way up. Each time you’re ready to stand, stop briefly midway. This uses your muscles instead of momentum to get up.
• Lower yourself slowly. “Sit down gently like a hen onto a nest full of eggs,” Prusynski says. This also engages your muscles.
• Swap seats. Stand up from lower and softer surfaces, which requires more strength.

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