Social media feeds stuffed with pictures of health fashions twisted into poses requiring excessive power, flexibility, and stability could depart you considering, “Yoga shouldn’t be 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 executed on a mat,” Kelly says. “Yoga observe is about rather more than the bodily [poses]; the observe consists of expertise like respiration, regulating your feelings, and training self-care.”
Chair yoga, a delicate type of yoga that’s executed whereas seated or utilizing a chair for stability, makes the observe extra accessible. In chair yoga, it’s potential 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 gotten, do what you possibly can,” is ideal for chair yoga.
“You’re there to work and to problem your self, but it surely’s about … figuring out what’s best for you,” she says. “I consider yoga poses as adaptable to a pupil’s physique and never the opposite means round.”
Whether or not yoga is completed in a chair or on the mat, the observe nonetheless focuses on the identical core rules: focusing in your breath, being attentive to your ideas, and staying within the second.
Analysis exhibits yoga is linked to decreased ranges of stress, anxiousness, and melancholy, lowered ldl cholesterol and blood strain, improved vitality, higher sleep high quality, much less ache, and diminished physique mass index. Matt Minard PT, DPT, bodily therapist with Atrium Well being in Charlotte, NC, believes these advantages prolong to chair yoga.
Chair yoga can be a superb, secure exercise for novices.
“It’s an effective way to work your core, discover the totally different vary of movement of the joints and prioritize motion,” Minard says. “Whenever you’re sitting down or utilizing a chair for stability, the security issue goes means up.”
Though chair yoga is usually promoted as a observe for many who could battle with a mat observe, anybody can profit from such a light train.
Kelly says chair yoga is especially well-suited to individuals who use wheelchairs and people rehabilitating after surgical procedures, residing with persistent sicknesses, or coping with stability points that make it exhausting to get down onto a yoga mat. It’s additionally excellent for a fast exercise throughout the workday or whereas touring.
“It’s not concerning the consequence. It’s not about putting 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 be superb for novices who is likely to be intimidated by a standard mat observe as a result of it gives a secure technique to study the poses, Minard provides.
You will discover chair yoga lessons at neighborhood facilities, health services, and yoga studios. There are additionally loads 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 house, use a sturdy chair (an workplace chair on wheels or overstuffed armchair will not be applicable for chair yoga). Minard suggests a chair that naturally positions your hips barely larger 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 certain the chair is on a secure floor like carpet or a yoga mat to maintain it from slipping. You too can place the again of the chair in opposition to a wall for further stability, Minard provides.
Yoga props like blocks, straps, and resistance bands which are frequent in mat practices aren’t required for chair yoga — until you need an additional problem.
“Chair yoga is an efficient start line 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 possibly can add gentle hand weights, ankle weights or resistance bands to your chair yoga observe.”
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