Chair Yoga: Getting Fit Without Getting Up

Usually people will always tell you to get off that couch or chair and get some exercise…but not for this type of yoga! Not formally a yoga but exercises adapted from Hatha Yoga asanas or poses, chair yoga is fast become widespread as a fitness routine aimed at people unable to participate in the traditional forms of yoga due to age or disabilities.

Chair yoga practices a number of yoga poses using a chair as a prop or for seating, in the case of the seated poses. The chair is primarily used to eliminate the difficulty of sitting on or getting up off the floor. This gentle form of yoga is a good way for people with physical limitations like arthritis, multiple sclerosis, carpal tunnel syndrome and hypertension as well as older persons unable to bend and perform complex maneuvers, to derive the many heath benefits of yoga with the practice of this simple yoga.

Unlike other more traditional types of yoga like- Ashtanga Yoga, Hatha Yoga and Iyengar Yoga, chair yoga is not spiritual but purely aimed at the physical and fitness aspects of yoga. It includes postures, exercises, breathing and ways of relaxation with the help of a chair. Apart from just sitting on the chair the chair is sometimes used as a prop to support other parts of the body for certain poses, in this way students with flexibility issues too can use a chair to modify poses until they improve their flexibility gradually.

Instructor Lakshmi Voelker-Binder, benefactor of chair yoga in an interview in 2005 described how she started the concept of chair yoga in the late 1980′s. One of her students developed rheumatoid arthritis at which was so severe that she had difficulty dressing herself or opening a car door — much less doing form poses on her hands and knees. Lakshmi was inspired to devise a modified form of yoga for her student and many like her so came up with teaching yoga poses with the help of a chair.  Over the years it has helped numerous people suffering from health and physical related issues to ease back into health and make gradual improvements in their fitness through the practice of yoga.

Today you will find chair yoga classes on offer all over the United States at senior fitness centers, retirement facilities, adult daycare centers and physical rehabilitation units. So don’t let age or flexibility stop you from practicing this advantageous form of exercise. Take up chair yoga and you’ll be reaping from it’s benefits even in your ripe old age!

*Photo credits: photos by myyogaonline, kahala, GWSA on flickr

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