Let’s start about chair yoga routines… As the world is moving towards a tremendous change in terms of health and hygiene, Yoga has gained huge importance in the daily life of people. Yoga has shown a significant improvement towards overall health when practiced regularly. It has various forms of exercise and can be modified for every person of varying abilities. Chair Yoga is one unique feature. Chair yoga is a special form of yoga using a chair as a supporting tool. You can do this yoga sitting on the chair or taking the support of a chair. It acts very beneficially if you have limited mobility or if you want to practice yoga while at the workplace or any such place.
Who can do chair yoga ?
Chair yoga can be practiced by everyone. Mainly chair yoga can be carried out by the people who need support, who have just gone through any surgery or with some accident,old-age people who cannot move much, etc. But people with neurological disorders or obese are major people who practice chair yoga in day to day life. Bringing chair yoga in daily routine helps an individual in many ways.
Chair Yoga routines:
For doing chair yoga an individual doesn’t need to buy a specialized chair for performing the asanas. Chair yoga can be performed while sitting on the normal chair. In-chair yoga, many of the basic body movements remain the same as forwarding bend, twist, hip stretch, etc only it is done while sitting on the chair.
These are some basic and easy chair yoga asanas that anyone can perform:
1. Cat-Cow Stretch:
For performing this asana, one has to sit on the chair while keeping the spine long and feet on the floor. And then calmly place your hand on your thighs. During inhalation, the cow position is performed in this position the blades of the shoulder are rolled or rotated at the backside. And during exhalation the cat position is performed, bring the chin down towards the chest and head comes forward.
2. UrdhvaHastasana:
For performing this position or asana of yoga, an individual should maintain a good posture and should raise the hands straight.
3. Uttanasana:
When the exhalation will be carried out an individual should bend over the legs, and the hands should be a touch on the floor and the head should hang heavy. And during inhalation, the hands should be brought again to the head. And repeat this procedure of inhalation and exhalation.
4. Garudasana:
For this chair yoga asana, an individual needs to make the eagle pose by keeping the right thigh on the left thigh. And cross the left arm of the hand over the right arm of the hand. And then you need to bend the elbows and can bring to the palms of the hand. Hold for 2-3 seconds.
5. Utthita Parsvakonasana:
After you lean forward, stay folded. Bring your left fingertips to the ground on the outside of your left leg. If it’s difficult for you to bring the left hand on the ground, use a block over the ground or bring it to your left knee and twist from there. You are to open your chest twisting right and looking at the ceiling. Stay in the same position for a few seconds; bring the right arm down on a breath out. Repeat it with your right arm down and left arm up.
6. Matsyendrasana:
For performing this asana one should sit sideways on the chair, on the left side. In this asana, an individual should twist the torso towards the opposite side of which they are sitting. This will give a movement for the spinal cord. During the torso twist, one should lengthen the spinal cord and inhale and exhale.
7. Virabhadrasana-1:
In this chair yoga asana, an individual should keep right leg at the side of the chair and bringing the left leg swinging behind it. You should keep the torso of the body facing the right leg and raise your arms straight while you inhale and do hold for 2-3 breaths.
8. Virabhadrasana- II:
For performing this asana, open the arms and the right arm will come forward and the left arm will be moving backward. You should draw the left hip to the backward.
9. Reverse Warrior:
For performing this asana, bring the left arm to the left leg. Lift the right arm straight to the ceiling of the wall while hold for 2-3 breaths. One should bring both the legs in the front before doing all the three warriors’positions on the left side.
10. Chair Savasana:
This chair yoga asana is always done in the last. Sit calmly just closing your eyes for few minutes. And hand should be on the laps. This will help your body absorb all the good effects you have done in the asanas or poses.
Do precautions to be needed in performing Chair Yoga Routines?
We all know the fact that chair yoga is basically for old age people or the people facing difficulties. For this reason, individuals should be aware that their body has some limitations due to which they can’t stretch more. One should take care that they shouldn’t do yoga asanas or movements that are beyond their disabilities. If the body isn’t supporting any movements then the modifications should be done in the yoga asanas.
An individual who is practicing yoga should wear comfortable clothes to avoid overheating, etc. For an individual with disabilities, should start with warm-up exercises and then should make a slow progression in performing the asanas.
Why you should include yoga in the daily routine?
1. Doing yoga in daily routine one can feel good
For the people suffering from depression, anxiety yoga can be considered as the best medicine one can have without any side effects. Yoga helps to conquer a lot of fluctuations in the subconscious mind. Yoga is a precious gift from our ancestors.
2. Increases Flexibility
Everybody has heard about how fast the flexibility of individuals increases by practicing yoga on daily basis. There are numerous asanas that are practiced by so many people to attain flexibility.
3. Improves the strength of the body
Yoga isn’t only about flexibility and stretching the human body. But it also improves the body posture and strength of the body. And maintaining a good physical strength of the body has so many benefits like for the immune system, posture, etc but it also helps in maintaining proper metabolism of the body.
4. Immune system
As we all are aware that any kind of physical exercise helps the body to boost the immune system. Yoga asanas include many-body activities such as bending, twisting, etc. by doing such activities the human body spends more time than usual with parasympathetic nerves than sympathetic nerves which cause stress and the immune system degrades.
5. Healthy Brain
When yoga is brought to daily practice it can help to keep the brain healthy and keep the mind calm. Many twisting asanas involve the crossing of the limbs. The Nadi Shodhan asana is basically for the brain and is fantastic in calming the mind.
6. Clear the toxins of the body
We can expect that yoga asanas can help the human body to clear the number of toxins from the body. Excessive breathing and asanas help to detox the body at a quicker level.
7. Anti-inflammatory Properties
If the stress level is decreased, proper blood circulation is happening in the body then it can help some neurotransmitters to decrease the inflammation. Some Pranayama exercises that help to increase the breath capacity may help in enhancing the anti-inflammatory property.
8. Knowing yourself
Yoga asanas like pranayama teach an individual to mainly focus on knowing their body activities. These asanas can help to turn and grow awareness about an individual’s physical and mental health. As we have to live with this human body lifetime, so it’s important that we should take some important majors to know the body.
9. Creating compassion
Meditation is also a part of yoga that helps to create compassion and awareness about others. As our actions, as well as words, have an impact on the surrounding world. Practicing love and kindness can create a lot of differences in the actions that are daily performed.
10. Teaches to accept the things whatever comes to the table
We all have positive and negative changes in our lives. Yoga teaches an individual to accept whatever comes in their way.
Chair yoga routines – Conclusion
As this chair yoga is a very new form to many of us, it is suitable for students who are confined to a desk at work or are unable to participate in a traditional yoga class because of many reasons such as aging, injury, or any kind of disability. Chair yoga deepens flexibility, enhances your range of motion, and strengthens the core and personal body awareness. Chair yoga classes can be made available at senior fitness centers, retirement facilities, and adult day to daycares. Chair yoga has proved to be significantly beneficial for people suffering from health issues such as hypertension, anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome, arthritis, and many more.
Thank You for reading our article about chair yoga routines.