Social media feeds full of photographs of health fashions twisted into poses requiring excessive energy, flexibility, and steadiness could go away you considering, “Yoga is just not for me.”
Nadine Kelly, MD, founding father of Yogi MD, needs to vary your thoughts.
“We have a tendency to consider yoga as an athletic endeavor that must be performed on a mat,” Kelly says. “Yoga observe is about rather more than the bodily [poses]; the observe contains expertise like respiratory, regulating your feelings, and practising self-care.”
Chair yoga, a delicate type of yoga that’s performed whereas seated or utilizing a chair for steadiness, makes the observe extra accessible. In chair yoga, it’s doable to maneuver into poses like cat/cow, warrior, solar salutations and ahead folds, all whereas seated.
Kelly believes the Arthur Ashe quote, “Begin the place you might be, use what you’ve got, do what you may,” is ideal for chair yoga.
“You’re there to work and to problem your self, however it’s about … realizing what’s best for you,” she says. “I consider yoga poses as adaptable to a pupil’s physique and never the opposite manner round.”
Whether or not yoga is finished in a chair or on the mat, the observe nonetheless focuses on the identical core ideas: focusing in your breath, being attentive to your ideas, and staying within the second.
Analysis exhibits yoga is linked to decreased ranges of stress, nervousness, and melancholy, lowered ldl cholesterol and blood stress, improved power, higher sleep high quality, much less ache, and decreased physique mass index. Matt Minard PT, DPT, bodily therapist with Atrium Well being in Charlotte, NC, believes these advantages lengthen to chair yoga.
Chair yoga can also be a great, secure exercise for newbies.
“It’s an effective way to work your core, discover the totally different vary of movement of the joints and prioritize motion,” Minard says. “While you’re sitting down or utilizing a chair for steadiness, the protection issue goes manner up.”
Though chair yoga is usually promoted as a observe for many who could battle with a mat observe, anybody can profit from the sort of mild train.
Kelly says chair yoga is especially well-suited to individuals who use wheelchairs and people rehabilitating after surgical procedures, residing with persistent diseases, or coping with steadiness points that make it arduous to get down onto a yoga mat. It’s additionally excellent for a fast exercise through the workday or whereas touring.
“It’s not concerning the final result. It’s not about hanging the proper pose,” Kelly says. “Whether or not yoga is taught on the mat or in a chair, it’s all about being wholesome.”
Chair yoga can also be splendid for newbies who is perhaps intimidated by a standard mat observe as a result of it provides a secure technique to study the poses, Minard provides.
You’ll find chair yoga lessons at neighborhood facilities, health amenities, and yoga studios. There are additionally plenty of on-line choices. On this video, Kelly gives detailed directions for a brief chair yoga observe that’s appropriate for all ranges.
To observe at residence, use a sturdy chair (an workplace chair on wheels or overstuffed armchair usually are not applicable for chair yoga). Minard suggests a chair that naturally positions your hips barely increased than your knees and permits you to put each toes flat on the ground.
“In case your toes aren’t flat on the bottom, your weight is all in your backbone and if the chair is simply too low and your knees are above your hips, there may be extra impingement in your hips,” Minard says. “You need to have the ability to do gradual, managed actions with out placing further stress in your again or hips.”
Be sure the chair is on a steady floor like carpet or a yoga mat to maintain it from slipping. It’s also possible to place the again of the chair towards a wall for further stability, Minard provides.
Yoga props like blocks, straps, and resistance bands which are widespread in mat practices aren’t required for chair yoga — until you need an additional problem.
“Chair yoga is an efficient place to begin to make use of muscle tissue you haven’t used shortly with out the potential dangers of overloading [your muscles and joints] or falling,” Minard says. “If the resistance out of your physique weight isn’t sufficient of a problem, you may add mild hand weights, ankle weights or resistance bands to your chair yoga observe.”
