By Texsk
Not all yoga needs to be practiced on a mat! Whether or not you are injured, lack mobility or are simply caught in your seat, there could also be instances you aren’t keen or in a position to follow yoga in its most conventional sense — on a mat, in varied postures that contain standing or mendacity down.
That is the place chair yoga is available in. "Chair yoga is just conventional mat poses, or asanas, tailored to a chair," says Lakshmi Voelker, creator of the Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga DVDs and audio CDs. "This fashion, one can obtain the entire well being advantages of yoga — muscle mass, bone mass, steadiness, vanity, and confidence — with out having to get down on the mat."
Chair yoga doesn’t comply with one particular college of yoga; quite, it borrows and modifies postures from all totally different branches. You may follow yoga in any sort of chair, says Voelker, though you’ll have greatest outcomes in case you discover one that’s stable and durable, with a straight again. Give it a attempt with the next sequence, courtesy of Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga.
Contents
- Sitting Mountain (Tadasana)
- Full Sitting Mountain (Urdhva Hastasana)
- Flat Again (Uttanasana)
- Lunge (Mandalasana)
- Plank (Chaturanga Dandasana)
- Eight Level (Ashtanga Namaskara)
- Cobra (Bhujangasana)
- Downward Going through Canine (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
- Cat / Cow
- Twist
Sitting Mountain (Tadasana)
Sit close to the entrance fringe of chair along with your ft parallel, hip width aside, along with your hips, knees, and ankles at proper angles. Press the soles of your ft down into the ground. Anchor your sit bones on the chair, and carry your head towards the ceiling to elongate your neck and backbone. Interact your interior thighs and belly muscle tissue whereas rolling your shoulders up, again, after which enjoyable down. Raise your sternum and preserve your chin parallel to the ground. Carry your palms collectively at your coronary heart, touching your thumbs to your sternum.
Full Sitting Mountain (Urdhva Hastasana)
From Sitting Mountain Pose, inhale as you attain your arms overhead about shoulder-width aside, with palms dealing with one another. Loosen up your shoulders and lengthen your neck and backbone. Arch your again barely whilst you proceed to gaze ahead and attain towards the solar.
Flat Again (Uttanasana)
From Full Sitting Mountain Pose, exhale as you lean ahead from the hips, holding a straight, lengthy neck and backbone. Attain your fingers towards your knees, shins, or the ground. You probably have hypertension, preserve your arms close to your knees and preserve your head barely lifted.
Lunge (Mandalasana)
Place your fingers in your knees. Inhale as you carry your sternum and draw your shoulders again, lengthening your backbone and increasing your chest. Slide your proper foot again about six inches, resting it on its ball. Raise your chin barely and gaze ahead.
Plank (Chaturanga Dandasana)
From Lunge pose, slide your left foot again about six inches in order that it’s in step with your proper foot. Press the balls of each ft down onto the ground and have interaction your thigh and belly muscle tissue. Raise your sternum and lengthen your arms straight out in entrance of your chest, flexing your fingers on the wrists. Exhale as you hinge ahead out of your hips, and press your fingers in opposition to an imaginary wall in entrance of you.
Eight Level (Ashtanga Namaskara)
From Plank pose, inhale as you bend your elbows and convey the backs of your fingers to the entrance of your shoulders, holding your arms near your sides. Keep on the balls of your ft and jut your chin ahead, imagining that you’re reducing your chin, palms, chest, knees, and toes into the imaginary wall in entrance of you. Exhale on this place.
Cobra (Bhujangasana)
From Eight Level pose, stretch your arms midway out in entrance of you. Carry your forearms, nonetheless bent on the elbows, in opposition to the imaginary wall in entrance of you. Inhale as you think about pushing in opposition to the wall, and sweep your chest and chin up, arching your shoulders again barely and gazing upward.
Downward Going through Canine (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
Lengthen your legs, one by one, out in entrance of you and parallel to one another. Flex your ft on the ankles, if it is comfy. Attain your arms upward, holding them beside your ears, whilst you carry and lengthen your torso. Flex your fingers on the wrists. Hinge ahead barely on the hips, and press your fingers and toes in opposition to the imaginary wall in entrance of you, participating your thigh and belly muscle tissue. Exhale as you stare upon your toes, creating the letter V along with your physique. Maintain for a couple of breaths, and return to Sitting Mountain Pose.
Cat / Cow
From Sitting Mountain Pose, along with your palms face down in your knees, exhale whilst you start to curve your backbone backward, tucking your chin towards your chest (Cat Pose). Then inhale whilst you carry the sternum and arch your backbone, reaching your shoulders barely again and your head towards the sky (Cow Pose). Repeat this Cat and Cow sequence a number of instances.
Twist
From Sitting Mountain Pose, exhale whilst you place your left hand in your proper knee and twist to the appropriate. Inhale again to heart, then repeat the twist on the opposite facet. For a deeper stretch, maintain all sides for 4 breaths, lengthening your backbone on every inhale and deepening your twist on every exhale.
